People with or recovering from cancer can benefit from dedicated post-cancer care yoga, to help them regain confidence in their bodies, writes Sylvia Thompson
THE FIRST steps to setting up a network of yoga teachers who can create supportive yoga practice for people with or recovering from cancer were taken this weekend.
Nurse, yoga teacher and complementary therapist Connie Walsh, together with oncology nurse specialist Rosaleen O'Flaherty, and chartered physiotherapist and certified lymphoedema therapist Siobhan O'Reilly held a weekend workshop for yoga teachers keen to understand better how yoga can be adapted for cancer survivors.
"Cancer patients can be consumed by their treatment, their hospital visits and the change in identity that having cancer has brought.
"Yoga can help them explore the positive aspects of their lives that they still have," says Walsh, who gives yoga classes at Lios Aoibheann, the cancer support centre at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.
"People who come to my classes at Lios Aoibheann may have had very active lives before getting cancer and now need some form of gentle exercise. Others who come are fearful of their bodies and yoga helps them deal with that. People are amazed at how they can move and release tension in their bodies," she says.
Walsh is keen to point out that you don't have to be able to lie on yoga mats to do yoga and participants can sit or lie supported with cushions or even sit on chairs during classes.
"The important thing is to create movement and see how the breathing can support movement," says Walsh, who adds that people with cancer shouldn't stay in yoga postures but simply move into them and out of them again.
Rosaleen O'Flaherty says that her role as an oncology nurse specialist at St Vincent's Hospital is to help support cancer patients through the transition between the hospital and home.
"Cancer patients can lose confidence in their bodies with the diagnosis of cancer and the layers of trauma caused by surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The idea is for them to be able to go back into their communities and find yoga teachers who know about the medical aspects of cancer and side effects of treatment."
Walsh says that yoga practice can specifically help with problems such as muscle pain, bone weakness, neuropathy (tingling of the fingers and toes), lymph oedema, insomnia, anxiety and cancer-related fatigue.
O'Reilly, who spoke at the workshop about the medical aspects of cancer, is also a cancer survivor.
"I had breast cancer 12 years ago and with that I have a higher risk of getting osteoporosis. I know that yoga helps me maintain good posture and bone strength. It also helps keep my rib cage mobile and a normal curve on my spine," she says.
"It's important that people with cancer know that it's good to move - under supervision at first," says O'Reilly.
"And it's important for yoga teachers to ask the patients what exercises the physiotherapist has given them and what their doctor and nurse specialists are telling them. That's the value of integrated care."
Making reference to the current Department of Health strategy for centres of excellence for cancer treatment, O'Reilly adds: "We also need to keep in mind the need for community-based services for post-cancer care."
The evidence base for yoga in cancer care is still small, although some studies are currently in train.
One pilot study of yoga for women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy found that yoga significantly increased their physical function (ie, range of movement). "The patients in the study also experienced less fatigue and had improved mental health," explains O'Flaherty.
Following on from the workshop, Walsh hopes that more yoga teachers will want to become better informed about yoga in cancer care.
"I see it as the beginning of a movement of cancer-conscious yoga teachers in Ireland. And, to be part of this network, yoga teachers must have their yoga training validated by the Yoga Federation of Ireland," she says.
"There are more and more cancer survivors in the community and we need to look at ways to meet their needs," she adds.
• For more information about the fledgling network of cancer-conscious yoga teachers in Ireland, e-mail Connie Walsh on cancerconsciousyoga@gmail.com
For more details, see also the website of the Yoga Federation of Ireland on www.yfi.ie