About

Schaff Yoga Therapy - For Musculoskeletal & Neurological Conditions

Schaff Yoga Therapy uses yoga to treat medical conditions that range from musculoskeletal to neurological, along with a range of other ailments. This work is conducted as a complementary form of treatment in conjunction with a patient's physician and other members of their medical team.

The differences between using yoga as therapeutic modality to address medical conditions rather than for overall wellbeing are significant.  Yoga postures and sequences are often done in an asymmetrical manner (only on one side), and are adapted to address a patient’s condition.  This often excludes a whole range of postures as they might actually aggravate rather than improve a condition.

Schaff Yoga Therapy's work has been recognized by doctors and nurses at Columbia University Medical Center, Rhode Island Hospital, Boston University School of Medicine, and at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center, the Massachusetts Nurses Certification Council, and the California Board of Registered Nursing have awarded nurses continuing education credits for successful completion of Schaff Yoga Therapy’s Adaptive Yoga Training. Schaff Yoga Therapy’s Warm Water and Chair Supported Yoga Programs have been endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation. Its Warm Water Yoga Teacher Training Program is registered with the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Terry Roth Schaff - IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist

As a certified yoga therapist, Terry Roth Schaff uses yoga postures and yoga sequences to help people with medical conditions manage pain, balance muscles, strengthen bones, increase mobility, range of motion and improve posture.

Prior to founding Schaff Yoga Therapy, Inc. Terry was director of medical yoga therapy at Manhattan Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (MPMR). Terry has adapted the yoga therapy practice that she developed at MPMR to treat patients with neurological and physical limitations on land and in a warm water pool.

In addition to working with patients she also trains yoga teachers and therapists, and medical professionals (including doctors, nurses and physical therapists) to use yoga as a therapeutic modality to treat specific diagnosed medical conditions. She is a leading teacher at Kripalu Center For Yoga and Meditation and at the Omega Institute. Her work has been featured in the medical journal, "Topics On Geriatric Rehabilitation" and in "Yoga Therapy Today." Her work is helping to lead the way to change the face of medicine.

Commitment To Community Yoga

From 2008 - 2012 Terry worked with the City of Hudson, the Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties, the Hudson Youth Center and the Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood to develop after-school and summer yoga programs for at-risk youth, families, pre-natal and post-natal welfare mothers and senior citizens. Her community yoga classes in Hudson, (taught from 2006 - 2015), brought together four generations of Hudson families.  Twenty-five percent of residents in the City of Hudson, New York live below the poverty line.

Terry has trained and led volunteers to collaboratively teach after-school yoga classes in Hudson and Catskill, New York.  Her, “Kids in the Kitchen-Yoga Buddies”, program, founded with chef, Carole Clark, led to Catholic Charities of Columbia and Greene Counties receiving a $500,000 Promise Challenge Planning grant from the US Department of Education to address the needs and plan educational opportunities for the greater Hudson community.

This work has been featured in numerous articles in the Hudson Register. These articles include Schaff Leading Yoga on the Beach at Oakdale, An Oasis of Peace – A Place for Young and Old, Yoga Center Marks 10 Years in City, and Young at Heart – Chair Yoga at Youth Center.