Starting point
A young woman came to me with several long-standing physical concerns:
·severe chronic lower-back and sacral pain;
·lumbar disc herniation and retrolisthesis of one lumbar vertebra;
·neck and shoulder pain;
·extremely painful menstruation.

The back pain could become intense enough to restrict movement significantly and at times keep her in bed.

Alongside the physical symptoms, there were also high levels of anxiety, disturbed sleep, strong patterns of control and ongoing difficulty with food and self-regulation.

But at our first meeting, the most important thing was not to push immediately into deeper psychosomatic work.

She did not yet trust that kind of process.

She wanted something concrete, physical and understandable that she could practise independently.

So that is where we started.

The first stage: working with the body
We created a simple individual yoga-therapy practice focused on reducing pain and unnecessary tension.

It included work with:
·abdominal and pelvic support;
·releasing excessive tension in the outer hips and gluteal area;
·gentle spinal movement;
·carefully adapted uddiyana work;
·the shoulder girdle and neck;
·breathing;
·general regulation and physical awareness.

The purpose was not to give her a generic back sequence, but to respond to the way her body was organising itself at that moment.

The physical work helped.

Not completely, but enough.

And something else changed at the same time: she began to trust the process more.

That made it possible to introduce another layer of work.

The second stage: from control to contact
I encouraged her to begin noticing emotions and the way they were expressed physically.

At first, this was not easy.

She was used to dealing with discomfort by controlling, enduring or trying to escape it.

Over the following weeks, she continued with the physical practices, listened again to the recording of our first consultation, and gradually began to recognise that the pain was not only a mechanical problem.

There were also patterns of self-pressure, anxiety, guilt, shame and a strong restriction around pleasure, ease and emotional expression.

By the time she came for the second session, she was ready to work differently.

The turning point
The second session became much more experiential.

Instead of analysing the problem, we worked through sound, movement and embodied expression.

The work included:
·voice and spontaneous sound;
·breath;
·intuitive rocking and movement;
·expressing anger, tension and inhibition through the body;
·working with guilt and shame;
·exploring the prohibition against pleasure and ease.

The aim was not catharsis for its own sake.

It was to allow what had been held, controlled or inhibited to become physically expressed and integrated.

During the session, the back pain disappeared.

Not gradually.

By the end of the session, it was no longer present.

What happened afterwards
The most important part for me was not what happened during one dramatic session, but what happened over time.

My client continued observing herself for many months afterwards.

Almost a year later, she wrote to me with an update.

Her back pain had resolved after that second session and had not returned in the same way.

Her menstrual pain changed more gradually.

Over approximately six months, the severe pain that had previously made her dread each cycle reduced until it was almost absent.

She wrote that before our work she used to count the days until menstruation with fear, kept strong painkillers at home and had even received emergency injections that sometimes failed to relieve the pain.

Later, she stopped checking the medicine cabinet.

Sometimes she barely noticed that her period had started.

What this case illustrates
This case is a good example of why I do not begin with the assumption that every physical symptom is psychological.

We began with the body.

The physical work mattered.

It reduced pain, increased trust and gave her something concrete she could use.

But it also became clear that physical exercises alone were not the whole answer.

Once there was enough resource and enough trust, we could work with the emotional and embodied patterns that were also part of the picture.

This is what integrative psychosomatic yoga therapy means to me.

Not choosing between body and psyche.

Not reducing pain to an emotion.

And not forcing deeper work before a person is ready.

We start where contact is possible, and let the process unfold from there.
The result was not simply less pain.

It was greater physical freedom, less fear, more trust in the body and more capacity to live without organising life around symptoms.

Less energy spent managing pain. More energy available for living.

Client’s own words
For a long time, friends had been recommending you to me as a yoga therapist and telling me to go to you for a daily practice that could help reduce my lower-back pain.
But during our work, already at the first session, you realised that I needed something different and recommended voice yoga and sound therapy as well.
You seemed to see straight through me.
During that very first session, you released the tension around my sacrum and the pain that had been restricting my movement and sometimes even keeping me in bed.
I could not believe that this was possible.
With results like that, I had always assumed I would need to do specific exercises regularly and follow a strict routine.
But with you, it felt like real magic. You have extraordinary hands and techniques.
You also gave me very important advice about women’s health, strength and love, and about how to breathe properly.
I am one of those people who would normally not take any of this seriously if I simply read about it somewhere.
But because I had been living with so much daily pain, I decided to trust someone whom my friends recommended so strongly, and you became a real treasure for me.
I am not exaggerating at all.
The pain I used to experience during the first days of my period is difficult to describe in words.
I would never have imagined that breathing practice could help with something like this.
I am endlessly grateful that you insisted on working with me in a different way and explained how I could make those days easier.
Every month I used to count down the days until my period with fear and practically climb the walls from pain. Even injections from emergency medical staff did not always help. At home, I always kept the strongest painkillers.
Now I do not.
I no longer check the medicine cabinet as the date approaches.
Sometimes I barely even notice that my period has started.

This did not happen immediately in the same way that the change in my back pain did.
It became gradually easier with each month.
Now a little more than six months have passed, and the pain is almost completely gone.

And now, whenever I hear friends describe similar problems, I immediately start insisting that they book a session with you.

Click to open original in Russian

Starting point
A 20-year-old woman came to work with me weighing approximately 36−39 kg at 163 cm, with very little appetite, digestive pain after eating, menstrual disturbances and very low physical energy.

Her relationship with food was unpredictable. For several days she might eat relatively well, but then appetite would disappear completely or eating would cause enough pain and bloating that she no longer wanted to eat at all. At times, even light physical activity felt difficult.
But the physical symptoms were only part of the picture.

She was highly intellectual and lived predominantly in her head, with very little contact with bodily sensations or emotions. She saw emotions largely as unnecessary and relied strongly on control and thinking rather than on embodied experience.

What we worked with
I did not approach the situation simply as a question of increasing calorie intake or making her eat more.

We began by rebuilding contact with the body and creating conditions in which nourishment, sensation and vitality could gradually become more available.

Our work included:

• gentle nutritional support adapted to her condition, preferences and ayurvedic constitution;
• yoga therapy practices aimed at supporting digestion and restoring physical capacity;
• grounding through the legs, pelvis and contact with physical sensation;
• developing interoception and the ability to notice bodily responses;
• exploring taste and pleasure, not only in food but in different kinds of lived experience;
• learning to recognise emotions through the way they appeared in the body.

All physical practice was adapted to her condition, with relevant medical information and contraindications taken into account.

The turning point
One deceptively simple task became particularly important: noticing emotions and observing how they appeared as sensations in the body.

At first this produced strong resistance, including anger towards me.

I did not see the anger as a problem to eliminate.

It was energy.
For someone who had spent a great deal of time disconnected from bodily and emotional experience, being able to feel anger, express dislike and remain in relationship while doing so was part of returning from shutdown into contact.

The therapeutic relationship was able to hold that moment without turning it into something that needed to be corrected.

From there, something began to change.

What changed
Over a little more than six months of working together, she gradually developed:

• greater sensitivity to her body;
• a clearer awareness of hunger, sensation and physical needs;
• more capacity to recognise and tolerate emotions;
• more freedom to experience dislike and preference rather than overriding them;
• greater reliance on bodily information rather than on thought and control alone;
• a more stable relationship with eating;
• increasing physical energy and capacity.

Her weight, which at one point during our work had dropped to 36 kg, subsequently began to increase.

After our work ended, she continued practising independently.

Today she no longer weighs herself regularly. In her own words, she does not want to return to unnecessary evaluation and comparison.

She describes her relationship with food and with her body now as loving.

She can wear clothes she once only dreamed of wearing, and describes herself as being at a healthier weight for her constitution.

What this case illustrates
For me, this case is a very clear example of why I work with the person rather than with a symptom in isolation.

The question was not only:
How do we make her eat more?

It was also:
What has made nourishment, sensation, emotion and contact with the body so difficult in the first place?

Yoga therapy, physiology, ayurveda and psychosomatic work became different ways of working with the same living person.

The goal was not simply weight gain.

It was to restore enough contact, resource and vitality for eating, feeling and living to become less governed by control and more available as lived experience.

Less energy spent fighting the body. More energy available for living.

Client’s own words
Thank you for all the work we did together. It had an enormous and deeply positive impact on me. My life has changed so much since then. It has become much easier, calmer and more comfortable. Somehow, life has become more melodic.

Before I came to you, I even wrote in the intake questionnaire that I was very worried about being so underweight and about my digestive problems. My appetite and the quality of my eating varied enormously. For several days or weeks I could eat quite well, although I still did not gain weight. Then either my appetite would disappear or food would cause pain and bloating, which made me not want to eat at all. At the same time, I had very little strength and even light physical activity felt very difficult. On those days I lived on baby food purees and nutritional drinks.

Before working with you, I did not like the way I looked and really wanted to feel more feminine. At the same time, I could also be excessively selective with food. Because I was so thin, I could sometimes physically feel the activity of different organs through my body. It was distracting and very uncomfortable, especially when it was my intestines. Sometimes part of my abdomen would even visibly protrude.

Before we started working together, I weighed 39 kg at 163 cm. At one point during our work my weight even dropped to 36 kg, but strangely enough, that became a turning point and from there things began to move upwards.

I do not know what I weigh now because I simply do not want to weigh myself and disturb my mind with evaluations and comparisons that I no longer need.

But I now wear clothes I could only dream of wearing before. Finally, I no longer feel self-conscious about wearing them.

You can see immediately in the photos, both in my face and in my body, that I am at a healthier weight for my constitution. And I feel and know that this is only the beginning.

I am incredibly grateful for our work together. In a way, it helped guide me towards a path that feels more grateful, genuine and right for me at this point in my life.

I realised so much both during our work and afterwards. I am very happy that my life has changed in this direction.

And thanks to you, my relationships with both food and my body are now loving.

Click to open original in Russian

Starting point
A young, highly active businessman came to me with severe lower-back pain and a diagnosis of lumbar retrolisthesis that I had seen on his MRI at the time.

By the time he came to me, the problem was already affecting basic everyday function.

Walking was difficult. Sitting was difficult. Sleeping was difficult. He moved with a limp, and at times, in his own words, even his legs would give way.

He was not looking for philosophy.

He wanted to move again, sleep again and get out of pain.

So that is where we started.

The first stage: restoring function
We built a simple individual yoga-therapy programme that he could practise regularly on his own.

The work was aimed at reducing pain, restoring more comfortable movement and gradually rebuilding physical capacity rather than simply avoiding everything that hurt.

At the beginning, he practised every day.

The work was consistent and practical.

And within several weeks, the pain had resolved.

What happened next
The important part of this case is not only that the pain changed quickly.
It is what happened afterwards.

He did not remain dependent on daily therapeutic practice.

As his condition stabilised, he gradually reduced the frequency and later used the practice only occasionally for maintenance.

In a testimonial written years later, he reported that he had continued to feel well for approximately five to six years after our initial work.

He had returned to a highly active life and regular jogging.

He later went on to run long distances and marathons.

What this case illustrates
This case is a simple but important example of something central to my work:
the goal is not only pain reduction.

Pain relief matters.

But the larger goal is to restore enough function, confidence and physical capacity for life to become available again.

In this case, the work was not about endless symptom management.

It was about helping the body move from a state in which ordinary activities had become difficult to one in which the person could return to a demanding, active life.

And once that capacity was restored, the practice itself no longer needed to occupy the centre of his life.

That, to me, is an important measure of successful therapeutic work.

Less time organised around pain. More freedom to move. More of life available again.

Documentation note
At the time, I reviewed his MRI, which showed lumbar retrolisthesis. Because this case is many years old, I no longer have the original MRI images or report available, so I do not present it as a formal radiological case report. What is documented directly is the client’s own description of the severity of his symptoms, the fact that the pain resolved after several weeks of regular practice, and that he continued to feel well years later.

Client’s own words
Yulia, hi :)
I finally found the time to write to you.
I’m writing this for anyone who might be thinking about coming to you for help.
I came to Yulia with some pretty serious spinal problems. I’m not very good with all the medical terminology, but I can say that at times even my legs would give way.
After several weeks of following the programme, the pain was gone.
To be honest, at that time I practised every day. Now I practise only occasionally, just for maintenance.
And for the past five or six years, I’ve continued to feel well.
Yulia, you are a very good specialist, and you are also very easy and pleasant to talk to, which matters a lot too.

Click to open original in Russian