Yoga Therapy course program- advise and opinion

Yoga Teacher Training
#1

Hi everybody,

I need your advise and opinion.

I was asked to give some workshops about the practice of yoga therapy to yoga teachers together with a physiotherapist who gives the theoretical part of anatomy, physiology and pathology.

I did six very intense years of Iyengar (I even started the TTC, but didn’t finished due to an injury; not that it’s an excuse, but it kind of redefined the reason why i practice yoga), at the end i did my TTC in Anusara yoga.

However, I wouldn’t like to limit these workshops just to one style, because I sincerely believe both styles and the teachings of Doug Keller and Donna Farhi are useful to the practice of yoga therapy.

My question is: if you were asked to teach in such workshops, and you are also aware that there are at least other 10 teachers coming from different styles and have complete different knowledge, principles of alignment and even level if you like. There are teachers there that have been teaching yoga for the last 20 years and others who teach just for 2.

What would you teach them?
What would you focus on?

I obviously can’t just teach alignment (because I’m not sure I have a lot of to add to the iyengar and anusara practitioners), and it would be boring just to teach for this or that injury do this and that asana (you’ve got plenty of books just describing asanas and their benefits to different pathologies and injuries).

So really my question is very personal to all of you, what you would personally like to learn in a yoga therapy workshop?
What would make it worth a while for you to go to this workshop?
What do you feel is not being emphasised strongly in the community of yoga and you personally feel that it is important to learn and teach our students?

And for the teachers among you, how would you focus these classes to such a huge variety of students who differ from each other in years of experience and styles of yoga?

I am still in the process of thinking of where I want to take it and contemplating of what would be best for the students.

I’m GRATEFUL for your time and your answer.

Thank you,

All the best,

Joy

#2

I believe this post begs the question “what is yoga therapy?” and that’s quite a topic. I’ll try to cover bits of that AND bits of what Joy directly asks.

[B]It is mindful[/B] to note there are teachers (or students!) coming to the workshop with varying levels and styles of practice. However I would not go so far as to presume that a “yoga teacher” with 10 years experience, knows what they are doing, especially when it comes to therapeutics. Our industry is one where 200 hours is considered a complete and sufficient amount of training AND one can wear the label of “yoga teacher” after a weekend. This is compounded by 200-hour trainings that are not very sound AND teachers who believe they are “done” after 200 hours, rather than just beginning.

[B]On the path of Yoga[/B] it is critical for us to understand the difference between a general asana practice, a restorative practice, and a therapeutic practice, as well as their respective residue in the human being. These three things are not synonyms. A general asana practice is lovely, wonderful, beneficial in so many ways. It, in and of itself, is not a therapeutic protocol for lower back pain, as example.

Just as stilling the mind is a prerequisite for meditation so too is an alignment-based asana practice required for therapeutics.

[B]Yoga is holistic rather than allopathic[/B]. That means we treat the entire body. As such the protocols would differ, albeit slightly, from person to person. Merely prescribing asana for this issue or that is not holistic therapy.

[B]Teaching teachers is different than teaching students[/B]. When I am teaching students I am teaching them the practice. When I am teaching teachers I am teaching them to teach. So my offering in a therapeutic workshop would be radically different. For students I would focus on something germane and specific - yoga for chronic neck pain, yoga to heal the lower back, yoga for healthy knees.

For teachers I would begin with a brief practice to see their OWN alignment in asana. If the group is a well aligned group in asana then I can move forward and not teach them alignment and thus really get into how we assess, plan, treat, and support our students using yoga as therapy. That would include meditation, applied philosophy, asana/pranayama, and lifestyle/nutrition. If the group had not alignment in asana then obviously that would set the curriculum back and I’d have to teach that first.

#3

Yoga therapy is that facet of the ancient science of Yoga that focuses on health and wellness at all levels of the person: physical, psychological, and spiritual. Yoga therapy focuses on the path of Yoga as a healing journey that brings balance to the body and mind through an experiential understanding of the primary intention of Yoga: awakening of Spirit, our essential nature.

-Integrative Yoga Therapy (U.S.A.)
Joseph LePage, M.A.