YOGA CHIKITSA (THERAPY) FOUNDATIONS COURSE 70 HOURS

Offering a view of traditional yoga chikitsa (yoga as therapy) as a holistic method of assisting people through phases of being unwell, dealing with injury, illness and disease of body and mind. This is a profound method of teaching and guiding others with significant differences in methods of practice from the more general approaches to yoga practice. This training offers various levels of adaptation incorporating skill sets unique to traditional yoga chikitsa. Shantarasa specializes in this form of practice and orientation. This Training will suit those with 350 or 500 hours of teacher training. In some cases a 200 hour plus additional professional development will be sufficient.

This training will add a whole new range of skills for teachers with a real call to meet the peoples individual needs and capacities. Yoga Chikitsa is the traditional practice of yoga as therapy. Yoga Chikitsa therapists are highly trained to assist an individual to find a pathway to the cause of physical conditions and disturbances at the level of mind. It requires a very different kind of therapeutic orientation that is not focused on symptoms but rather the whole person. Such a way of working will reduce symptoms without all focus being on them as the person grows more skillful within themselves.

This course of foundational training will introduce the methods to meet an individual, gain an understanding of their needs, and design a practice and focus that serves their healing. The course will explore the full range of methods yoga utilises to restore wholeness, restore access to vital energy and improved self awareness.

A Stand Alone Course for those with 350 hours of Yoga Teacher Training or as an extension to the Shantarasa 300-hour /500-hour YTT courses

Commences June 27, 2026 course scheduled over 4 weekend intensives

Content themes include:

  • Guiding principles

  • Holistic focus – (non-symptomatic focus) how to move past symptoms orientation

  • Tools used in yoga as therapy / A focus on chikitsa methods of practice

  • Accessible beneficial practice when injury/recovery, illness, and disease is present

  • Teaching adapted practices with healing in focus

  • A view of pathologies from Allopathic, Ayurvedic and Yogic perspectives

  • Working collaboratively with health professionals/ referrals

  • Asana and Pranayama as Chikitsa/therapy

  • Yoga Nidra, Mantra and Meditation as Chikitsa/therapy

  • Self-study (Svādhyāya) and karma Yoga as Chikitsa/therapy

  • Tapas as a counterbalance when conditions seem fixed/ service as practice when karma obstructs healing

  • Practices to assist mind health - reclaiming the power of the mind

  • An understanding of mental health from allopathic, ayurvedic and yogic perspectives

  • Ethics and scope of practice / role play and case studies

  • The sadhana of a therapist/ self care, self observation and inquiry, skill development, personal practice