Choose your publication:

…I love this book, and I highly recommend it to my students, my yoga therapist colleagues, and anyone suffering from depression, anxiety, or both.
— Amy Weintraub, Founder of LifeForce Yoga and author of Yoga for Depression

The Yoga Effect! Liz Owen and Holly Lebowitz Rossi, the team that brought you Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back, is excited to announce our new book, published by Da Capo Lifelong / Hachette. The Yoga Effect: A Proven Program for Depression and Anxiety is an accessible, engaging, and evidence-based program to help you heal depression and anxiety through the practice of yoga. The book contains yoga poses and breath practices that were used in cutting-edge findings of NIH-funded research Owen coauthored with principal investigator Chris C. Streeter, MD and her team at the Boston University School of Medicine. The research is a major contribution toward proving the value of yoga as part of an integrative treatment plan, and the book is readable, inspiring, and ready to help you discover and travel a healing path.

With the goal of balanced emotional health, The Yoga Effect offers:

• A customizable prescription for maintaining centeredness, confidence, and balance

• Short, well-rounded practices that include breath work, visualizations, and clear explanations of how yoga contributes to physical, mental, and emotional wellness

• Straightforward, accessible yoga sequences, with black-and-white photos clearly illustrating the poses

• Differing levels of practice for readers’ varying physical abilities

Photography by Tracy Rodriguez Photography.

Please be sure to visit us on Facebook. There’s information about the book as well as postings about yoga, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more.

Order the book through these retailers below or look for it in any good bookstore:

How to Find Time to Breathe

- Jewish Boston, May 1, 2020

New Book Offers Pathways to Transform Mental and Emotional Health

- Harvard Divinity School, July 15, 2020

The UK and Poland: Two foreign editions of The Yoga Effect have been published

Praise for The Yoga Effect: A Proven Program for Depression and Anxiety

“The Yoga Effect offers an accessible and insightful program for anyone seeking help for easing depression or anxiety. Whether you’ve practiced yoga for thirty years or you are just getting ready to stand in your first Mountain Pose, this wonderful book will benefit you on your healing journey.”
—PATRICIA WALDEN, senior advanced Iyengar yoga teacher and author of The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health

“This evidence-based yoga program is easy to follow, with calming, empowering, and balancing imagery to accompany the accessible poses. Every practice invites a self-affirming attitude of courage. I love this book, and I highly recommend it to my students, my yoga therapist colleagues, and anyone suffering from depression, anxiety, or both.”
—AMY WEINTRAUB, founder of LifeForce Yoga and author of Yoga for Depression

“Readers will find an excellent review of the basics of yoga theory and practice as well as well-presented instructions on a wide range of specific yoga practices that are likely to improve mental health and well-being. The research described in The Yoga Effect has been a meaningful contribution to the field.”
—SAT BIR SINGH KHALSA, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Chief Editor, The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care 

“The Yoga Effect offers a window into how ancient practices affect our minds and moods. It is a fine example of the collaboration between yoga teachers and brain researchers exploring the use of yoga in mental health treatment.”
—PATRICIA GERBARG, MD, Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychiatry, New York Medical College and Co-Author of The Healing Power of the Breath

“In an inspirational collaboration, yoga teacher Liz Owen, writer Holly Rossi, and medical researcher Chris Streeter forge new ground for how yoga can be researched and validated within the western medical framework, without devaluing their personal experiences with yoga as a healing mechanism. By making our best efforts to combine the best of both worlds, like these authors, we have an opportunity to make some real progress.”
—DAVID EMERSON, Director, The Center for Trauma and Embodiment at JRI; Author, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga in Therapy; Co-Author Overcoming Trauma through Yoga

► Like The Yoga Effect on Facebook

<back to top>

According to statistics, lower back pain affects 80% of American’s at some point in their lives, and one out of every six experiences lower back pain within the last month. Recent clinical trials suggest that regular low impact exercise and activities, like yoga, can increase strength and endurance in your back and improve muscle function, and may be the most effective way to prevent, or recover from, lower back pain.

Liz Owen and Holly Lebowitz Rossi, the authors of a new book being published this August—Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back: A Practical Guide to Developing Strength and Relieving Pain (Shambhala Publ.)—have developed a plan to reduce lower back pain and injuries, while understanding the challenges people face to keep physically fit. “The lower back is the most neglected area of the contemporary American body. Ours is a culture of sitting for hours at a time, collapsing onto the couch at the end of a hard day, and accepting stress as both emotional and physical facts of daily life,” say the two Boston-based yoga practitioners. “Many of us work too hard, worry too much, and can barely find the time to visit our doctors. Is it any wonder that lower back pain is an epidemic in America?”.

Buy the book through one of the sellers below or any good bookstore;

Endorsements for Yoga for A Healthy Lower Back

“This is a clear, insightful program for lower back health, rooted in classical yoga and rich in Western and Eastern wisdom. The authors offer fresh and accessible yoga practices that are sure to inspire a lasting, healing recovery from pain in the lower back. I love this book!”
— Patricia Walden, author of The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Healthand renowned yoga teacher

“Uniquely practical and informative, this book will be of immediate value to anyone with a lower back. Owen & Lebowitz Rossi effortlessly integrate Western movement science with yogic wisdom, guiding the reader to overcome pain and disability, as well as cultivate mindfulness and resilience along the way. Highly recommended!”
— Chip Hartranft, PT, author, The Yoga-Sutra Of Patañjali: A New Translation With Commentary (Shambhala, 2003)

“This wise and practical book is full of helpful advice on relieving lower back pain. More than a cookbook approach, it offers a menu, showing how to choose — and when necessary modify — therapeutic yoga practices to fit your needs. Recommended for novices and seasoned practitioners alike.”
— Timothy McCall, M.D., Medical Editor, Yoga Journal, and author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing(Bantam)

REVIEWS

“With its mixture of practice and theory, Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back is helpful both for yoga students with back pain and teachers who work with them.” — Baxter Bell, MD in Yoga Journal, October 2013

Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back was mentioned in a roundup of new books on fresh approaches to health care published in the August 9, 2013 issue of Publishers Weekly.  

<back to top>