Career in Yoga Therapy

Author: Jacky Rae

The Sister Sciences {reunited as skilled practitioners of Yoga and Ayurveda} find that by combining these practices on a professional level holds an incredibly powerful, therapeutic tool.  

The Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist (AYT) holds an amazing ability to understand the nature of the patient on a level much deeper than perhaps any other form of yoga as therapy.  Rather than using Yoga as Physical Therapy, an AYT applies Ayurvedic principles to the practice of yoga based on the Ayurvedic understanding of nature and the patient, the nature of imbalance, and the nature of the therapist to promote healing and achieve a harmonious balanced state of body and mind, with respect to individual consciousness.  

“The Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist has a competency to design, implement, demonstrate, instruct, and teach an individual a Yoga Therapy program to help the healing process based on the Ayurvedic prakriti / vikriti paradigm and the Ayurvedic definition of health.”

In recent years, the popularity of Yoga and Ayurveda have grown, and most recently, there is a high demand in professionals who are cross-trained on a professional level in each of these two complementary disciplines.  

In an effort to set high standards for the practicing AYT, the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) has set standards for the credentialing of AYT’s much as the International Association of Yoga Therapists has done for the Clinical Yoga Therapist (C-CYT).

The AYT is versed in Ayurvedic Medicine much at the level of the Ayurvedic Practitioner (AP) and is able to diagnosis and treat specific diseases using the Ayurvedic paradigm of disease management.  The AYT is also well versed in yoga as therapy and is able to successfully implement and manage yoga therapy protocols beyond the current “asana as physical therapy” model.

AYT students undergo a training that exceeds 1500 hours of education in both Ayurvedic and Yogic Philosophy are, in our opinion, leaders in the emerging field of Yoga as a therapy.

Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy is not new.  In fact, the science dates back to ancient times when Yoga Chitiksa (yoga therapy) was used with Ayurveda as the backdrop for yoga as therapy.  As this ancient science re-emerges, those with the AYT designation are at the front lines for an emerging new standard for yoga therapy, the Ayurvedic Yoga Therapist is the new generation of yoga professional.