YCat Yoga Therapy, founded in 1990, is a three-level, professional certification training for health professionals and experienced Yoga teachers.

The training is designed to enable them to work safely with people facing:

• Cancer at any stage of illness
• Common chronic illnesses
• Aging
• End of life

Many YCat Yoga therapists are working in medical settings around the country, including outpatient clinics and infusion centers and inpatient units like bone marrow transplant units. Other YCat therapists become valuable team members in wellness centers, in Yoga studios, and in private practice.

The intensive ten-day YCat program provides 90 Yoga Alliance hours and includes some pre-program preparation and reading assignments. The program provides medical and scientific rationales for each aspect of the curriculum and is research and evidence-based. Simultaneously, it is also rich in Swami Satchidananda’s interpretation of the Yoga Sutras with respect to how the teachings of the Sutras can help you and your clients gain control of the mind and the senses when dealing with pain and suffering, illness and disease, life and death, and daily moment-to-moment challenges.

Topics include aspects of:

• Biology, physiology, and pathophysiology of cancer
• Common chronic illnesses
• Health-supporting adaptations in movement, breathing, imagery, relaxation, meditation, chanting, and other valuable Yoga practices
• Aging

Training Information

Certificates of training are awarded upon completion of all three levels to Yoga teachers who already hold a 200-hour Yoga teacher training certificate. Health professionals will receive certificates of attendance until they complete a 200-hour Yoga teacher training program. Contact sandralii@yahoo.com to learn more about YCat Levels 2 and 3.

Prerequisites

• Either a 200-hr Yoga teacher training certification…
• …or any licensed health professional (LHP) is welcome to attend all levels of the YCat training. LHPs will receive a certificate of attendance. To receive the training certification, LHPs will need to obtain a 200-hour Yoga training certificate.

Continuing Education

• Yoga Alliance (YA): Approximately 90 training hours
• Integral Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA) can provide you a CE certificate of your program’s total contact hours. For more information, email membership@iyta.org.

Testimonials

I can’t thank you enough for how your healing energies empowered me through surgeries. — Past Participant

Complementary therapies can make colorectal cancer, its symptoms, and its treatments and side effects more tolerable—and possibly even bolster the immune system for better recovery and healing. — Dr. Mark Pochapin, Director of the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center