Becoming a Yoga Therapist
Becoming a Yoga Therapist
There's a fine difference between a Yoga Teacher and a Yoga Therapist. Yoga Teachers focus on the principles; Yoga Therapists focus on the individual.
Modern Yoga vs. Yoga Therapy
Mainstream yoga classes typically offer group classes, with asana as the primary focus. Students learn alignment, flowing, and build strength as they navigate through a class. Yoga is widely seen as another form of exercise, with some teachers including meditation, chanting, or mindfulness practices.
Pranayama and meditation are rarely the sole foci in a yoga class. While a group yoga class can be beneficial and does open the door for more spiritual or mental yoga practice, they may not serve those wanting to incorporate mindfulness to a greater degree. The sheer physical nature of these classes overlooks the individual, especially students with special needs, injuries, or diseases.
Modern Yoga classes tend to be one-way; students are guided as a group, with minimal adjustments to accommodate the individual. Yoga Therapy is a partnership with open, two-way communication between Yoga Therapist and the student.
Yoga Therapy is a way to use all aspects of Yoga to support general health and provide therapeutic benefits for specific challenges in the body and mind. Yoga Therapists formally collect information about a client's health to create assessments and then a support plan. Holistic life choices become the focus instead of exercise and movement.
A Yoga Therapy Session
Any Yoga Therapy session begins with open communications and information gathering. From there, the Yoga Therapist can help a client develop goals and provide techniques for managing their wellness.
With many diseases and conditions, comfortable daily functioning is a challenge. Mental health conditions and physical conditions can be addressed when a health care professional has suggested yoga. Yoga therapists work with their clients to support balance, improve general health, and perhaps improve the quality of life.
Yoga therapy is more than simply pairing asana with evidence-based yoga for ailments (in fact this can be reductionist). It's appropriate for sessions to include dialog, assists when requested, guided meditations, and even homework.
It's not unusual for a therapeutic session to include multiple aspects of Yoga. Targeted asana allows movement to support certain health conditions, both physical and mental. Pranayama helps to focus the mind, while meditation creates relaxation and peace. Sounds, Ayurvedic scents, guided meditations, and yoga nidra may also complete a session.
With a plan targeted to a client's needs and situation, the client can use the therapeutic techniques away from a session. These techniques not only help provide holistic wellbeing, but they also serve to empower and uplift the client. As progress continues, the student gains confidence, and independence returns.
A Yoga Therapist often partners with other healing professionals. It's not unusual to pair Yoga Therapy with western medicine, Reiki therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture, and other health care disciplines. Health care providers who have recommended yoga may provide guidance or information for the client to share with the yoga therapist.
Becoming a Yoga Therapist
The journey of any Yoga guide begins with becoming a Yoga Teacher. A commitment of 200 hours of study into the basics of Yoga is required to earn registration with Yoga Alliance, earning the designation of Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200).
It's possible to continue your yoga education with advanced yoga teacher training courses. For example, Therapeutic Yoga Essentials addresses how to make yoga accessible for different populations, such as beginners and older populations. The use of props is studied to allow asana for all bodies. Another advanced yoga teacher training course is the Principles of Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga, which teaches how Ayurveda opens the door to a better understanding of a person's state, and how seasonal changes interact with the those doshas.
The path to becoming a certified Yoga Therapist is a comprehensive, 800-hour program and culminates with testing, typically with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Their system of IAYT-accredited schools guarantees that your studies will prepare you for certification and a successful career serving others.
Check out Prema Yoga Institute for Online Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to check out Prema Yoga Institute, which is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Explained
Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Explained
The complexity of modern living, paired with injuries and aging, often yields a body out of balance. We strive for the "work-life" balance, but often glaze over spiritual health and mental well-being.
Clever marketing has a way of tricking us into quick and false fixes, but what about ancient practices, like Yoga and Ayurveda? These two sacred traditions blend together in Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy, placing health and balance at the forefront by modifying yoga and mindfulness practices for the individual. Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy includes time-honored traditions of self-care.
Yoga Today
The accessibility and popularity of modern Yoga bring this ancient practice into everyday life. The corner studio yoga represents the broad strokes of a complex tradition to accommodate the community at large. Spirituality and mental wellness may become secondary to the physical asana.
Missing from some yoga studios is the individual attention and instruction for the uniqueness of each human body and mind. Everyone's imbalances vary! So much about our lives - health, stress, occupation, mindfulness, and lifestyle – may not be addressed in a general Yoga class.
As Yoga has spread across the world and into modern times, the intertwining relationship between Yoga and Ayurveda drifted apart. Ayurvedic Yoga Teaching and Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy bring them back together, which aims to address the whole person.
The Basics of Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy
Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy blends traditional Yoga teachings with Ayurvedic principles of health and healing. The history of Ayurveda and Yoga is rooted in the ancient Vedas, the Hindu scripture guiding philosophy, hymns, and rituals.
The individual is the center of the practice. The uniqueness of each soul's Ayurvedic characteristics will guide appropriate holistic yoga and mindfulness techniques.
These characteristics begin with the five elements making up the universe - space (ākash), water (jala), earth (prithvi), fire (teja), and air (vayu). In each human, those elements combine in different quantities to create the three doshas.
The doshas of vata, kapha, and pitta determine our Ayurvedic constitution. Our doshas guide the best practices for self-care. A more natural balance occurs with yoga practices that support specific doshas. Doshas are such an essential driving force in a person that the same ailment in different souls yields differing wellness plans.
The vayus, or body's forces, also influence the holistic yoga plan. The five vayus describe how prana, the life force, moves within. Apana vayu describes downward and outward movement in our bodies, samāna vayu describes what we ingest, and prana vayu describes inward motions. Udana vayu governs upward movement within our bodies, and vyana vayu draws everything from the outside towards the middle.
A unique and complete wellness plan can take shape when uncovering an individual's doshas and examining the body's forces. Doshas pair with appropriate nourishment, movement, breathing, and even sounds and smells.
Integrating Ayurveda
The Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist will work with a client once their health care provider has cleared them for yoga and mindfulness practices. Because Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy addresses a person's specific characteristics and allows for targeted Yoga practices, health is supported from all angles. Balance begins to restore.
The path to becoming an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist requires dedication to complete a two-year certification. However, yoga teachers can study to teach Ayurvedic Yoga first – which modifies the practice according to the season, the time of day, and the time of life and intentions of a client. This preliminary certification for Ayurvedic Yoga Teachers can take about 100 hours of study.
Ultimately, an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist will assist clients with new techniques and lifestyle suggestions to help them function at a higher and healthier level. It begins with addressing the individual as a complete being, and the Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist does just that.
Interested in Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Training?
If this article has piqued your interest in Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Training, we’d love to invite you to Prema Yoga Institute’s 100-hour Ayurvedic Yoga Training.
The Ayurvedic Yoga Training is now available online and teaches how to:
· Use Ayurveda to apply the techniques of yoga in a precise and empowering way.
· How to cultivate a healthy Ayurveda self-care routine
· Teach seasonally for better care of your students
· Refine sequencing for all levels of classes
· Refine your yoga practice and teaching for private clients to specifically improve mind/body imbalances
· And more (click here for details)
Additionally, The Ayurvedic Yoga Training counts 100 hours towards the PYI IAYT-accredited 850-hour Yoga Therapy Certification Program (additional prerequisites apply) and 100 hours towards the Pure Yoga 300 Yoga Certification.
Visit Prema Yoga Institute to learn more about our training, which is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022!
PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Social Distancing - Take Advantage of At-Home Time to Advance Your Yoga Teaching Training Online
Social Distancing - Take Advantage of At-Home Time to Advance Your Yoga Teaching Training Online
Social distancing, working from home, and spending more time virtually on screen have brought many new challenges to navigate. However, with remote learning technology on the rise, more opportunities to engage in advanced yoga teacher training online have opened up!
Not only do these Advanced Yoga Teacher Training online courses allow you to learn from the comfort of your own home, but they are also accredited and can be used to advance your yoga teaching training certifications while you wait for things to get back to normal.
Here are a few ways to take advantage of remote learning to advance your career as a yoga teacher.
Continue your education and enroll in advanced yoga teacher training online
In case you were wondering – yes, you can take advanced yoga teacher training online!
If you are an RYT200 and have been putting off advanced yoga teacher training, now is the time to enroll. Especially when you consider that you can use advanced training online to pursue anything from RYT300, RYT500, and IAYT-Certified Yoga Therapist programs. Not to mention, the remote learning technology has greatly improved in the past year!
Click here to read our recent guide on how to maximize the power of new technology to setup the perfect online learning environment.
Take advantage of the affordability of online learning
Online advanced yoga teacher trainings are often more affordable than in-person classes, and there is no expensive travel or commuting time to factor into your budget.
When technology is your classroom, you can also learn from anyone, anywhere in the world; your favorite mentors and your dream schools are all within reach. If you long to study a lineage that isn't available locally, it's now possible to do so.
Take this time to dive deeper into yoga philosophies and more
Use this time to dive deeper into your yoga knowledge with a formal online program and investigate further the long history and philosophical elements of yoga. You can go beyond asana, back in time to the Vedic origins of this powerful practice.
Options for training can slide right into your schedule. Concentrate on single topics for continuing education hours or pursue your RYT300 or RYT500. Further specialized training, like becoming an Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist, is also an option!
Enjoy a flexible schedule and more self-paced learning options
Online models of advanced yoga teacher trainings give you the flexibility to study in your time frame. While some classes will be live online, most are also available for review at your leisure. For visual and auditory learners, this is a beautiful perk of at-home training.
For more interpersonal learning styles, online advanced yoga teacher trainings still allow for relationship development between mentors and students, often at more convenient times! For solitary learners, there's nothing more uniquely suited than online education.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of pursuing advanced yoga teacher training online is the opportunity to study within your current lifestyle. Outings, assignments, and practice sessions happen when you can fully dedicate yourself to them. In some ways, this also encourages you to practice more self-love!
The new way of teaching
Becoming a student again provides humility and experience towards becoming a better yoga teacher. In today's virtual existence, mastering communication and intent over the internet via screens is part art, part technology, and part practice.
Your guidance and leadership techniques will sharpen when you are on the receiving end of instruction, and your future students will thank you.
As a yoga teacher, you can learn how what you like (or don’t like) about online learning and use that knowledge to setup your own online courses as well.
Be mindful of your time and take advantage of remote learning for advanced yoga teacher training
Our new home-centric lifestyle has undoubtedly taken some getting used to, but it has also opened the door to new possibilities like continuing your yoga teacher training online.
Digging deeper into your own needs and curiosities about yoga is a wise investment of time.
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to check out Prema Yoga Institute, which is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022.
Prema Yoga Institute is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.