Inpatient feedback:

He said he felt like he could cry he felt so good from the release he's had from the class.

P: said he learnt how to connect and understood the connection of mind and body with the breaths today.

F: said he learned that he could work around his injuries and still do something to benefit himself.

L wants yoga every day on ward.

Yoga for Psychiatric Patients

From 2015-2021 we ran the Yoga for Wellbeing program delivering twice weekly yoga classes to patients at the Caritas Inpatient Unit at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and once weekly classes to outpatients at the O’Brien Centre, Sydney.  Caritas is a 27 bed unit providing short term inpatient treatment during an acute phase of mental illness.

In 2022 we delivered a program at the Brolga Child & Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit, Sydney.

Why yoga?

Recent studies have shown that yoga is an effective intervention for psychiatric patients across many areas including anxiety, depression, fear of falls, quality of life, and more. One study found that psychiatric patients participating in yoga showed a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms after their first yoga session, with 47% feeling less afraid and 76% feeling more relaxed (Bukar et al., 2019). The patients planned to use both yoga and meditation as coping skills after being discharged, and some of the patients who did not participate during their hospitalization still recognized both as ways for coping with their anxiety symptoms. Another study also showed that yoga, as well as coherent breathing, is linked to significant reductions of depressive symptoms in those with Major Depressive Disorder both on and off antidepressant medications (Streeter et al., 2017).

This series of videos highlight the impact and benefits of yoga at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Yoga at The Forensic Hospital

We delivered 36 weeks of yoga at The Forensic Hospital, Sydney starting in April 2016. We were the first external yoga service provider to work at this stand-alone high secure mental health facility. The Forensic Hospital provides specialist mental health care for mentally ill patients who have been in contact with the criminal just system and high risk civil patients.