“They were so grateful to be moving”
Camilla holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance from the Dance Academy in the Netherlands. She works as a dancer at various venues and is currently training to become a yoga therapist at The Yoga Therapy Institute.
Camilla was hired to teach adapted yoga via a physiotherapist friend who works at Reade, a large healthcare organisation in the Netherlands specialising in rheumatology and rehabilitation.
Their mission is to improve patients’ quality of life within the limitations imposed by illness, conditions, or injuries — whether temporary or chronic.
With over 800 employees, the Reade team is dedicated to helping individuals regain their lives as fully as possible following an injury, accident, diagnosis, or other challenges. It’s a forward-thinking organisation committed to empowering everyone who interacts with them through connection, expertise, and creativity.
Once a week, Camilla offers adapted yoga classes to a group of 10-15 outpatients living with the limitations of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. As a gentle and respectful student, she is nearing the start of her case study work after two years of training.
When I asked Camilla to describe in one sentence her work at Reade, she quickly said: “A fun challenge”.
Her classes involve lots of human interaction, with nice chatting as the students gradually join the class, which is made of equal males and females from 40 to 70 year-olds, and an occasional person in their 30’s.
The physical abilities of the group are affected by inflammation and pain in the joints, and Camilla is aware that they might be other health issues involved, such as heart disease.
One of biggest challenges was a student who showed quite severe symptoms of neurological issues due to a stroke. It was clear that more individualised attention was needed for this student’s situation, and she shared with me how she wished she could create a separate group for more severe cases like his.
Camilla’s sessions include slow standing movements, movements on the chair, and a final short, lying down relaxation. Camilla’s background as a dancer makes her the ideal teacher to do these kind of soft practices, supported by her knowledge of Yoga Therapy for the joints and degenerative disease.
What started as volunteer work has now become paid hours, and she hopes to do more work like this, perhaps setting up her own business. We discussed how, with the right proposal, the Netherlands generally has good protocols in place to obtain financial support for community work such as this.
“The only thing is”, she said, “I lack the props in the exercise room to be able to support all the students in class. The budget is low and perhaps there is not enough awareness of the need of props such as thick mats, cushions, bolsters and soft bricks for students with rheuma and neurological symptoms”.
There is still a long way, but examples like Camilla can only inspire us and others who work in rehabilitation to see the value of adapted yoga for patients whose lives are limited by pain.
“They are so grateful to be moving”, says Camilla, “and they also get the benefits of social interaction, for individuals whose illness makes them feel quite lonely and isolated”.
From my conversation with Camilla, I could tell she also received something special from it. She described her work at Reade with a smile, as she mentioned the feeling of meaningfulness and the warmth that these classes brought to her heart.
Yoga Therapy is indeed for everyone, and gradually, teachers like Camilla continue to support the work of other health professionals, making these collaborative relationships a reality from which everyone benefits.
Montserrat G. Mukherjee
The Yoga Therapy Institute has donate some props for Camilla’s working room at Reade. If you live in the area of Amsterdam and would like to donate one prop that can help support one student, please contact Camilla at camillabundel@outlook.com
Are you a yoga professional working in collaboration with health professionals? Montserrat would love to hear from you. Email her at montserrat@theyogatherapyinstitute.org
