200 Hour Yoga Therapy Teacher's Training

Yoga Therapy is the adaptation of Yogic Practices such as Postures, Breathing Techniques, Cleansing Techniques, Ayurveda, Meditation and Relaxation Techniques and Yoga Nidra Sessions tailored to individuals with health challenges.
Yoga therapists prescribe specific regimens to suit individual needs. 

The 200 Hour Abhijna Yoga Therapy Teacher Training Program provides yoga teachers the skills and knowledge necessary to work intelligently with students who are living with health challenges, chronic illness or injury as well as aging populations.

Learn to deepen your approach as a yoga teacher and practitioner, build up your confidence, expand your range of private as well as group classes and increase the tailored-made  types of classes you can offer.  Give your teaching your own signature and approach.  Be Creative!  The training offers a great wealth of knowledge in gentler and restorative styles of yoga that can be incorporated into more active classes.

​Our institution works to train students to become structured and knowledgable teachers.  The student therefore is expected to study, practice, teach and perform all given assignments, including karma yoga.

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​The Yoga Therapy components of our 200-Hour Teacher Training on Yoga Therapy follows Abhijna School of Yoga and Meditation Standards and is not derived from our status as an RYS® nor RYTs® with Yoga Alliance Registry.
​Our main sources are based on Ayurvedic principles and therapeutic benefits of yoga derived from different schools of yoga.


The Yoga Therapy Teacher Training Program gives yoga teachers the skills to work intelligently with students who are living with chronic illness or injury as well as aging populations. Knowing how to work with these groups will deepen your confidence as a teacher, expand the range of private clients you can work with, and increase the types of classes you can offer. The training also offers a great education in the gentler styles of yoga that can be incorporated into more active classes.

Our institution works to train students to become structured and knowledgable teachers.  The student therefore is expected to study, teach and perform all given assignments, including karma yoga .  

For course fees, visit the fee structure page or email us at therapy@yogakerala.net.

The Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training
covers the following aspects (To view the table of contents of full syllabus, click here or go to curriculum)

 200 Hour Yoga Therapy Teacher Training Syllabus

1.    Study of Health and Disease according to Ayurveda:
In this subject, we cover the basic principles of Ayurveda, the view of health and disease according to this ancient wisdom of india.  

The student is introduced to the Dosha Concept and its humors (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) and the five element theory.   There is an understanding on how disease manifests on each body type and the student is introduced to changes in lifesytle, diet, yoga asanas and pranyamas which will help prevent/diminish the manifestation of disease.  

This is an important foundation for the yogic management of common diseases.

Ayurveda is also used as a basis to build up any particular type of yoga asana sequencing so that the client can be brought to a state of balance.
2.    Asana Methodology
Asana Methodology comprises the understanding of Yoga Asanas or Postures, understanding the "Core Principles of Asana Practice" as well as giving the student the fundamentals for Sequencing & Drawing Postures.  There is a deep understanding of asanas (yogic postures) and their therapeutic effects.

We encourage the future Yoga Therapist to understand the ir patient/student and we provide a Health Assessment Foundation so that the teacher can easily tap into the patient's requirements and limitations.

At the end of the training, the yoga therapist should be capable of teaching a therapeutic yoga class on both series as well as being able to sequence for diseases in all fieds of yoga (asana, pranayama, meditation, cleansing techniques, mudras and bandhas) when necessary.
3.  Mudras or hand gestures
Throughout the training we work every day on a particular mudra.  This will help us connect with our inner most essence and start to feel the delicate networks that run through our hands.

We will use mudras as a tool to help heal physical and emotional problems.  

We mainly use the textbook  "Mudras: Yoga in Your Hands" from Gertrud Hirschi".  This which is provided with your training package.  
4. the yogic diet
The student is introduced to a Sattvic and Yogic Diet.  Also to understand the relationship between food and our emotions. Everything that we eat is food for our body/mind system. Food is the source and creator of prana (life force) that maitains our physical, mental, emotional, vital and subtle bodies and brings us vitality and health.   The types of foods we choose to eat will reflect the level of our consciousness. The discipline of yoga suggests a pure vegetarian diet, which facilitates the development of sattva. Sattva is a quality of love, awareness, connection, and peace with all sentient beings.   The student are also given the guidelines for ayurvedic diet according to each body type or dosha.
5. yoga philosophy
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 Indian sūtras (aphorisms) that constitute the foundational text of Rāja yoga. The sutras spell out how the mind works and how is it possible to use the mind to attain liberation.  It is a roadmap of human consciousness.  It expresses the truth of human condition:  how we know what we know, why we suffer, and how can we discover the way out of suffering.  

The student is introduced to the elements of his mind, to the concept of discipline and disciple as well as Abhyasa (constant inner practice) and Vairagyam (desirelessness) as foundation to enter into the Ashtanga Yoga or steps to tame one's mind and  work towards Samadhi (Liberation). ​
6. case study
Throughout the training, the student should work on a case study.  Particularly someone who they know  such as family member, friend or co-worker who has a particular disease or group of diseases and research  on this disease, to apply apply what has been learned during the course in order to deliver the following:

  •  Proposed Yoga Therapy Sequence (In weeks of progress for minimum 1-2 months)
  • Proposed Pranayama Practices (also in weeks)
  • Proposed Mudras 
  • Proposed Bandhas (If applicable to the disease in study)
  • Proposed Meditation Practices
  • Proposed Yoga Nidra (Specially Visualization for the particular disease)
  • Proposed Lifestyle changes.

As final teaching practicum, the student should be able to deliver one 1 1/2 hour led class which composes of the elements seeing in class such as the allopatic as well as ayurvedic nature of the case study and its approach through yoga and ayurvedic practices.  ​
7. study of asanas
Two main styles of yoga therapy are taught:  Pawanamuktasana Series from Bihar School of Yoga and Iyengar Yoga Series, which include foundation postures for sequencing according to a disease as well as particular sequences given by Iyengar for particular diseases related to Cardiovascular, Inmune, Nervous, Digestive, Respiratory and Urogenital systems.  Along with study of asanas, the student is introduced to safe cleansing sequences as Laghoo Shankaprakshalana, TTK Solution, Trataka and Jala Neti.
8. relaxation techniques
Relaxing the body-mind system is of primary importance for the Yoga Therapist, as it allows the healing process to happen in the unconscious mind.  Several relaxation techniques are given such as Yoga Nidra, Chakra Breathing and Healing the Body Mind.  We suggest all students to purchase the book "Body-Mind" Balancing from Osho.
9.  Study of Pranayama (breathing exercises) & Bandhas
In-depth study of Pranayama or vital energy as a healing technique .   Practices as Full Yogic Breath, Bramhari, Nadhi Shodhana, Bhastrika, Kaphalabhati, Ujjayi, Sheetali and Sheetkari among others are introduced to the practitioner.  The study of Bandhas include Moola, Uddhyana, Jalandhara & Maha Bandha.
10. esoteric study of yoga
It includes the study of Nadis  (Ida, Pingala and Sushumna) and their function in our body/mind system;  the study of the concept of Koshas or subtle layers of the body (a human being is capable of experiencing five dimensions of existence and they range from gross to subtle);  the study of  five Pranas or five primary forces, known as pancha prana, which operate in the physical body at all times.  

These five pranas are identified as: prana, apana, samana, udana and vyana. These pranas represent the inherent quality of motion which energizes every action from secretion of the digestive juices to the movement of the hand. They flow through all the elements, organs and the mind.

Understanding the chakras and their relationship in the human body-mind system as well as the pranas and koshas.
11. yogic anatomy
Course includes a general study of the Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Digestive, Skeletal, Muscular, and Endocrine System according to Allopathic Medicine.

We teach psychic physiology of yoga.  The program does not contain any elements of functional anatomy or structural yoga therapy.  

The course includes the ayurvedic approach to health and disease and sees the body as a unity.  Daily reading assignments on the book yogic management of common diseases are an important part of the program.
12. YOGA NIDRA AND MEDITATION TECHNIQUES
Includes techniques for attentiveness such as Golden Light and Chakra Breathing, techniques to ease you out as Nadabramha and Group Sound Healing, techniques for breathing such as Bramhari, for quieting the mind as Body Mind Healing, and for awareness such as Kundalini Meditation.  Several Meditation techniques are practiced everyday under the guidance of the teacher. 

Learning how to structure and guide Yoga Nidra is also part of the program.