What does the program include?

10-Hour Certification Course:  Theory + Practice + Instruction

More details: We offer a specialized online Yoga for Mental Health Certification for yoga instructors who have completed their 200-Hour training and health professionals interested in bringing awareness to mental health in their profession.  This is also a great fit for individuals simply interested in expanding their knowledge of how yoga impacts the body and how it helps with trauma and areas of mental health. 

Who should apply:  This certification course is for participants who have completed their yoga teacher training,  those who are currently pursuing their YTT certification, or individuals with a professional degree and wanting to enhance their skills to help clients. This training can be done independent of your 200-Hours YTT or our instructors can join a traditional teacher training to allow participants to specialize in Yoga for Mental Health once they graduate.  Contact us for more information.

Not trained in yoga?  That's okay!  This is the perfect course for you. It discussed basic yoga elements, models and philosophies and relates them to mental health approaches.

Curriculum Outline

Our certification includes the following classes and focus areas: 

Certification Program Curriculum:
Each course includes a discussion on the theory and research, putting the theory into practice by moving through a yoga practice, and adding instruction and cues to demonstrate how teachers can integrate it into their classes.

Yoga Philosophy: Tools to Support Mental Health 

• • 8 Limbs of Yoga 

  • 4 Noble Truths

  • Kosha Model

  • Nervous System & Polyvagal Theory

  • Ayervedic Yoga & Doshas

1. A Teacher's Approach: Friend or Foe to Mental Health. Helping others starts with being mindful of ourselves. S.C.A.R.F. Model by David Rock related to Attachment Theory.  Understanding our social connectedness that can cause a threat response in the body. Learning your triggers can help you be a better teacher. A study of how different approaches can help or hinder different areas of mental health.

2. Adaptive Yoga: Key to Mental Health.  The importance of helping students be mindful of their needs and demonstrating ways to adapt poses, movements, breath work, and positioning to fit their needs. As teachers and professionals, it's important to provide an environment to allow adjustments and giving cues to encourage mindfulness. 

3. Trauma-Informed Yoga. What are the elements of trauma and how can we as teachers and educators provide tools to help in the healing process.  Trauma Healing: "Reflect, Digest, Integrate" by Thomas Huble. 

4. The Breath: A Healing Tool. How does pranayama impact the body, heart and mind? Learning the different breathing exercises and styles that can help with trauma and areas of mental health. 

5. Meditation & Mental Health. Experience a variety of different meditation styles and how they can help lift a person from depression, expand mindfulness, calm the heart and mind, and bring peace to an anxious mind. 

6. Mental Health: Impact on the Body. Our body responds to trauma, depression, anxiety, etc - and understanding the elements of yoga that help specific areas of the body when dealing with mental health.  Learning more about Sympathetic (SNS) and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems (PNS) and how they respond to mental health. Identifying poses, breath work, meditation and areas of focus in yoga that helps regulate our SNS and/or PNS. 

Practicum Section: All participants will need to read articles and books related to the topics discussed and write a one-page thought paper on what they read.  We will provide a resource list. Participants are also required to attend a certain amount of yoga classes outside of the course to observe the different topics we discuss in class.