Yoga Chikitsa (Therapy) Foundations Course
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, or simply working through their own obstacles to deepening yoga practice and path. Yoga Chikitsa also works at the level of mind offering very effective means to firstly clearing and calming the overly stressed and congested mind and then awakening the mind to its source of power and potential. This is a profound method of teaching and guiding others with significant differences in methods of practice and orientation to the more general approaches to yoga practice.
This is a unique training as a meaningful foundation to this subject. Teachers often find themselves ill-equipped to meet the very specific needs of individuals in a general class context. Through this foundations training students will learn various methods and 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 200 or more hours of teacher training.
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, with methods to design a practice and focus that serves their healing. The course will explore a range of methods yoga utilises to restore wholeness, restore access to vital energy and improved self awareness.
Sadhana brings her extensive 5 decades of training in Yoga Chikitsa (Yoga as Therapy) to this training. Her knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and methods of yoga to restore health and recovery is exceptional. The focus will attend to the holistic nature of the individual and meet the needs of body, heart, mind, spiritual development while imparting ways to cultivate a lifestyle balance which is unique for each of us. She teaches adapted forms of asana, breath, pranayama, bandhas, mudras, yoga nidra, meditation, contemplation practices, self reflection - an extensive reach into yogic philosophy and psychology as it applies to our recovery of whole being and wellbeing. Her partner Keval Pezet will also bring a wealth of meaningful and practical yoga psychological and philosophical relevant to healing and becoming whole.
A Stand Alone Course for those with 200 or more hours of accumulated Yoga Teacher Training
Course Dates
Commences November 21st 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
The inclusion of Ayurvedic chikitsa
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 yoga instructor/ self care, self observation and inquiry, skill development, personal practice
Download a training guide for more information.
