From Studio to Clinical Setting: What You Actually Learn in Yoga in Healthcare Training
Most yoga teachers who want to work in healthcare face the same challenge: they know yoga deeply but not the clinical world — its language, standards, patient populations, or how to apply what they know in ways that earn medical professionals' trust.
PYI's 100-hour Yoga in Healthcare training is designed to close that gap with specific, applied skills taught by faculty who work at the intersection of yoga and medicine every day. Here is what you actually learn.
“🎓 World-Class Faculty
Dr. Loren Fishman, MD — Medical Director at Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Columbia University faculty, world-recognized pioneer in yoga for orthopedic conditions. Dr. Chris Walling, PsyD, MBA, C-IAYT — licensed clinical psychologist, board-certified psychoanalyst, Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Karen Nourizadeh, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500 — modern mindfulness, meditation, and Yoga Nidra. Plus specialist classes with PYI yoga therapists and international teachers.”
Yoga Nidra: The Practice That Changes Everything
Yoga Nidra — a guided, systematic relaxation practice that brings practitioners into the threshold between waking and sleep — is one of the most clinically powerful tools in the yoga tradition. Research demonstrates significant reductions in anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptom severity following consistent Yoga Nidra practice. The VA has funded studies specifically on Yoga Nidra for veteran PTSD.
You leave PYI's training knowing not just how to practice Yoga Nidra but how to teach it, when to use it, and how to explain its evidence base to a referring physician.
Breathwork and Heart Rate Variability
Dr. Chris Walling covers the neuroscience of breath and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) — a key biomarker of autonomic nervous system health — and teaches specific breathwork protocols for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and stress management. Understanding HRV gives yoga teachers clinical language that healthcare providers recognize and respect.
Condition-Specific Yoga Applications
Dr. Fishman's modules cover shoulder health, hip health and piriformis syndrome, and back pain with evidence-based postures and modifications. Dr. Walling's clinical psychology modules address PTSD and trauma, anxiety and depression, chronic pain, burnout, stress management, and fertility challenges.
Motivational Coaching: The Skill Most Yoga Teachers Are Missing
Dr. Walling's module on motivational coaching teaches the psychological techniques for overcoming patient resistance — helping people who are skeptical, fearful, or deconditioned find their way into a consistent self-care practice. This skill set has almost no presence in standard yoga teacher training, and it is one of the most immediately valuable things a yoga professional working with patients can develop.
What You Earn
🏅 What You Earn
• 100 hours toward your Yoga Alliance 300-Hour Certificate (RYT 500 track) • 100 hours toward PYI's IAYT-Accredited Yoga Therapist Certification (additional prerequisites apply) • Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Credits (CEs) Course dates: October 2 – November 14, 2026. Live online with optional in-person NYC session.
“→ Explore the Full Yoga in Healthcare Curriculum
100 hours. World-class faculty. Evidence-based clinical skills. Counts toward your Yoga Alliance 300-Hour Certificate and PYI’s IAYT-Accredited Yoga Therapist Certification. October 2 – November 14, 2026, live online. Learn more at Prema Yoga Institute.”