About Second Nature
Yoga Therapy & Wellbeing for Life

Second Nature Wellbeing for Life is based in Bloomington Indiana, specializing in yoga therapy and supportive therapies for women with long-term health challenges. For twenty-five years, Second Nature has provided customized, in-home therapy for women of all ages in Bloomington, Indianapolis, and surrounding areas.

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Second Nature offers common-sense, sustainable alternatives to mainstream therapy, therapeutic rehabilitation, and chronic pain management. The therapies we provide may complement conventional therapies or be integrated into a client's current caregiving and support as an alternative resource and means of self-care for those who wish to have a mindful, active role in their overall health and wellbeing. Rather than symptom-centric, formulaic therapy, clients receive personalized therapy and a person-centric outlook on their health, recovery and healing.

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Compassion. Intention. Experience. These elements are fundamental to practitioners in any healing tradition. We hope to honor and respect our role as health practitioner, therapist, mentor and caregiver through these qualities. ​

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Yoga Therapy as Lifestyle Medicine

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The concept of yoga as a therapy is not knew; however, its currently expanding role in healthcare and as a lifestyle therapy—on a global scale—requires a bridge connecting the vast tradition of yoga with those who can benefit most but may be unaware of its scope and adaptability. We are grateful to have studied yoga therapy with Dr. Ganesh Mohan, a yoga therapist and medical doctor trained both in allopathic medicine and in Ayurveda. We are equally grateful for the ongoing mentoring from A.G. Mohan and Indra Mohan—long-time students of Krishnamacharya, and founders of the Svastha Yoga Therapy System, an international yoga therapy network emphasizing whole-person wellbeing and yoga as an individualized practice. The Sanskrit word Svastha describes a complete state of balance: being oneself or in one's natural state, and healthy in body and mind.

 

Yoga Therapy is centered on the individual ... You. Regardless of your perceived abilities or inabilities, we would like you to experience the subtle and sometimes dramatic effects of yoga, both in body and sense of wellbeing, by providing not only therapy but a means of self-care which will endure for a lifetime. Although helping others takes us into various settings—clinical, palliative, residential—the core of our yoga therapy is traditional Hatha yoga, grounded in simple yet foundational principles. The most important of these are that yoga is introspective and experienced differently by each person. Its gentle yet profound effect on the body and mind is something to be observed, felt, internalized, creating awareness at all levels.

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"Women have been yoga practitioners over the ages. But as we applaud their many achievements, we also owe it to them to ensure that Yoga which is meant to bestow us with health and well-being becomes a support in this journey and not a hindrance. Returning to the core, Yoga is not getting on the mat, but getting into the mind." __Indra Mohan

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Supporting Women 

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Compassion in health care is not a mere concept—it is an inherent facet of being a practitioner, and an integral part of healing. Simply liking and trusting one's physician / surgeon / health practitioner has been shown to have exponentially positive effects on recovery and long-term outcomes. This is not surprising: compassion goes hand-in-hand with attentiveness and empathy, two attributes which have been found to be lacking in current, mainstream health care, as well as in caregiving. 

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Second Nature Yoga Therapy™ provides one-on-one therapy with a C-IAYT yoga therapist who has experience with long-term health challenges and the complexities and ever-changing nuances of neurological conditions—and can adapt, change or modify each session, or as life circumstances and ability change over time. Using common sense and the broad scope of yoga therapy we approach long-term health challenges as a lifelong continuum—with an effort to improve, or sustain, quality of life.

 

Mentoring and Lifestyle Therapy support women through the physical and non-physical practices of yoga therapy as well as Ayurveda, emphasizing stability, self-reliance, and resilience during life-changes, health challenges, and the various roles a woman may take up during the course of a lifetime. Supporting, laughing, crying, and dying with clients for over twenty years has given us a profound appreciation for people's resilience despite the ever-changing state we live in as human beings. We are equally respectful of the potential inner depth, strength, and solidity of the human spirit.

 

Nutritional guidance and counseling for wholesome, healthful eating and lifestyle habits, informed nutrition choices in specific conditions such as Parkinson's, autism, and celiac disease, as well as support for disordered eating, may be integrated into Lifestyle Therapy and Comprehensive Therapy Programs. The relationship between food and physical and emotional wellbeing has been established by science, yet it is an age-old foundation of all traditions of medicine: Food is medicine!

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Companionship and receiving care and compassion are not age-related. Whether one is facing a cancer diagnosis, recovering from an illness such as COVID, or living for decades with multiple sclerosis, we all appreciate and seek the human touch which goes beyond clinical treatment. A person is a whole, not a sum of parts: Second Nature takes a whole-person outlook on healing and wellbeing, utilizing a therapeutic approach which addresses more than ill-health and encompasses the varied aspects of life and living. 

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Teaching & Outreach

 

As a yoga therapist and yoga therapy education provider, we endeavor to share what we have learned over time, and with experience. NeuroSupportive & NeuroPalliative Yoga Therapy™ Training is specialized, professional development training for C-IAYT yoga therapists, while educational yoga therapy workshops are offered to clinics, hospitals and integrative health centers with an interest in providing a more holistic approach to patient care.

 

Bringing awareness to the public, as well as healthcare providers, of the scope and potential of yoga therapy for self-care, healing, and recovery has been an ongoing effort. We are a contributor to Yoga Therapy Today, a publication of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), as well as providing content for YogaTherapy.Health. We appreciate opportunities to speak on the topic of yoga therapy as a respected, globally recognized therapy, emphasizing the need for a change in how current, mainstream healthcare perceives health, treatment, and care—shifting perspective from symptom-centric to person-centric. Through educating, speaking, and writing, we are committed to raising awareness of the need for compassion in healing and providing care which is person-centered. Visit this page ​to learn more about our outlook and perspectives on care and support, health and healing, as well as published articles and topics in yoga therapy.

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How Can We Help?

English, Spanish, French are spoken.

​We welcome your interest, questions, concerns.

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Contact Us

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