The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda, Book II, Sutra 33, states, "When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of. This is pratipaksa bhāvana."

I will ask the client to visualize her tight right hip transforming into a hip that is well. She is substituting her picture of illness (negative) with a picture of wellness (positive). I will teach this practice during our first session. The client will practice this nightly and we will review her experience at our meeting a week later.

The client is a 30-year-old female who has suffered from chronic tightness in her right hip for three years. It began after prolonged sitting while driving to her job. She has no other health conditions.

I planned to ask the client to visualize her tight right hip transforming it into a hip that is well, and then specifically to substitute her picture of illness (negative) with a picture of wellness (positive). I would teach the client this practice and then ask her to perform this practice nightly and we would review her experience at our next meeting a week later.

I used Hatha Yoga to incorporate JAPA movements for her tight hip, Raja Yoga to envision substituting a positive image of a healthy hip from the negative image of an unhealthy hip, and then asked her to repeat short phrases such as “May my hip be well” or whatever phrase she thought might help her to visualize bringing improvement to her hip. I concluded with Japa Yoga, asking her to incorporate short words of petition to the place wherever she finds her strength, that healing might come to her hip.

I asked the client how her week was going, and how her hip was doing specifically. I mentioned the process we were going to go through and then sat in a chair. She was very receptive to the visualization and followed instructions completely. We spent 25 minutes where I explained the method of visualization, sat in a solid chair, did centering breathing exercises, observing the breath, and then doing a 3-part breath. We then visualized her right hip in its current state, melting into a completely healthy hip, floating in a large body of water. We then stood and did gentle movements engaging her right hip with flexion/extension and abduction/adduction.

I asked the client to do this same visualization along with the asanas and breathing practices at home, the best time being when she was in a reflective and receiving mode. I asked her to observe how she felt at the beginning and ending of this exercise and to write down her observations so that we would discuss them at our second meeting.

I applied my extended plan with the client and felt confident from her reactions that our goal was achieved. The client found pratipaksa bhāvana very calming and said it helped her hip to feel less tight.

I did not need to adapt anything in my plan as the client was very receptive to the visualization and followed instructions completely. This was my first time instructing this visualization in addition to having to critique my work. I learned that I was comfortable in instructing this visualization with this particular client, but wonder how another less receptive client might have reacted to the exercise.

I would approach the same situation in the same way in the future and would hope that all clients would benefit from pratipaksa bhāvana.

The client found pratipaksa bhāvana very calming, she said it helped her hip to feel less tight, and she incorporated some ROM exercises on her own in addition to our practice,

I would not change anything to my plan, and look forward to working similarly with other clients.

I was pleasantly surprised everything worked out so well for the client.