Yoga Therapy International’s Certified Yoga Therapist Program is now Internationally Accredited!
You haven’t heard much from me since February because I have been working on a big project! Yoga Therapy International‘s Certified Yoga Therapist (CYT) Program is now accredited with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)! It has been a rigorous process and was not easy to achieve, a living experience of tapas (Yoga Sutra-s II-1).
Last night, in Austin, Texas at the IAYT conference, Yoga Therapy International’s Certified Yoga Therapist Program was announced as one of the first 10 programs that the IAYT has ever accredited worldwide. Neil Pearson was with me to receive a certificate honouring this milestone in the field, and I was thrilled to have two of my CYT 1000 graduates from 2013, Randi Bradshaw and Penny Noble at the event to share in the celebration.
What does this mean to students? Accreditation means that students are training in a program that meets the internationally recognized standards for the emerging field of Yoga Therapy. Yoga Therapy International is one of a select number of IAYT Member Schools to receive this recognition to date. A panel of leading Yoga Therapists from around the world spent a year evaluating and assessing every aspect of our curriculum and supporting documents. Our program gives graduates 1000 hours of Yoga Therapy training over two years to ensure success in working both privately and in small groups with diverse populations from aging athletes to those with disabilities.
What makes Yoga Therapy International’s accredited program unique? After talking to many directors of Yoga Therapy schools over the past week, there are some features that seem to distinguish our program:
- Students from around the world will build deep meaningful relationships with their fellow trainees as well as with faculty in Canada and India, in small class sizes of no more than 12 students. This will also enhance integration and synthesis of knowledge over the two year, 1000-hour IAYT accredited training.
- Access to authentic Yoga Therapists from the Sri T. Krishnamacharya lineage, including my teachers in Chennai, India, will ensure that students develop a high degree of clarity about what they are teaching and why. This will also assure a high-integrity learning experience.
- International students will have access to an IAYT accredited program that is delivered in three-intensive terms of study over two years in both Vancouver and India. My 20 years of university teaching and administrative experience in International Education gives me great sensitivity to the needs of international students from diverse communities around the globe, including those for whom English is not their first language.
- Students will have two years to integrate their classroom knowledge by continuously engaging in 230 hours of hands-on practicum training both in Vancouver and at home. They will also be given the ability to choose from a variety of Specialist Mentors according to their particular interests in the field from Yoga Therapy for Cancer to Yoga Therapy for Disabilities.
- Guided by renowned Research Mentors, students will learn how to conduct their own research in order to contribute to the emerging field of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence in the emerging field of Yoga Therapy.
Gratitude
Thank you to everyone who believed I could develop this program, which I began building in 2009. I am especially grateful to my Yoga teachers in India, DV Sridhar, Radha Sridhar, and Viji Vasu who asked me in 2007 to create this program so that this healing art could spread to worldwide communities of practice, supported by our international network of teachers. I would also like to acknowledge the incredible work that the IAYT has done to bring these high standards into accepted practice. Much Gratitude to our parents and teachers for all they have given us out of deep connection to the Source of Love!