Ken Breniman, LCSW, Registered Yoga Therapist from Oakland, CA
When looking to further my yoga studies I was so blessed to have discovered Ananda Seva Mission's 500-Hour Yoga Therapy Teacher Training program. It was exactly what I needed to help me integrate my backgrounds in Clinical Social Work and Yoga Teaching. Since graduating, I have developed various workshops, including a Grief Workshop that utilizes the healing tools of yoga, and started seeing clients that use both talk therapy and yoga practices to cope with various life stressors. I feel so much more confident in my private practice because the training at Ananda Seva Mission really prepared me. I benefited greatly from living at the Mission while studying and my personal yoga practice has deepened as well. I highly recommend this training program especially for mental health professionals that want to incorporate yoga as a healing modality.
Kalpana Reddy, Registered Yoga Therapist, Founder: Wholistic Care at Alice Hyde Medical Center from New York, NY
I am deeply grateful for my training that allows me to be RYT500 and enables me to move forward in a deeper way on my Yoga path with excellent tools like IREST. My understanding of Personalities and treating the whole person is heightened from the Ayurvedic understanding I gained at Ananda Seva. I was and am grateful to both Maetreyi Ma and Deviika Ma for the way I have been valued and respected during the training...that was and is a great gift. I was treated not only as a student but as consciousness, true yogic treatment. I thank them with all my heart. Just like I have been able to promote Wholistic Care with past trainings, my hope is promoting Yoga Therapy care with this new training.
Jayan (Josh) Schumer, Co-Director: Jayadeva Yoga Schools from Amherst, MA
My time spent in the Ananda Seva Mission Yoga Therapy has been a wonderfully transformative experience. The presenters were all top notch experts in their respective fields of yoga specialization, and I know I will spend many years digesting, internalizing, and integrating what I have been taught. The small size of the group lent itself to a deepening of interpersonal connection that I have never before experienced in an ashram-environment. This allowed for an openness and a free flow of exchange of ideas that really helped me with processing the information. I would highly recommend the Ananda Seva Mission Yoga Therapy Program to any yoga therapist or teacher looking to expand their practice in a new direction.
Emily Galvin, Yoga Instructor at Peacebank from Redwood City, CA
Wow! What a vast amount of knowledge and grace offered on this amazing yogic journey. I arrived here with no expectations but many hopes and was overwhelmed by each and every presenters way of teaching, experience in their specialties, and openness to serve to their students and clients/friends. The presenters abilities and willingness to pass on their intellectual, body changing, heartfelt, life opening techniques has given me the confidence to step out and share this yogic adventure/path with all who are open to it. My head, my body, my heart is full and ready to serve. I am planning/hoping to continue my leaning with more than half the amazing teachers here ( I came here hoping to leave with one teacher to follow). I would and will recommend to many.
Marthe K. Murphy, Yoga Teacher, RMT, RYT 500 at Body of Life from Edmonton, Canada
Wow, what a journey! Such amazing teachers, the wisdom and strength of so many in their 50’s and 60’s helping us learn and grow. It’s so much information to take in, process, turn around and take into my personal life and my practice. My life is changing. I am changing. My clients are changing all of the better! Thanks to all at Ananda Seva for making this a great learning experience.
Marta Curti, Yoga Instructor and Whitehawk Birdwatching Guide from Los Angeles, CA
The quality of teachers was superb. I gained so much insight, from a variety of perspectives, and feel that I came out of this experience with so many valuable tools to help guide my clients through their path to healing.
Joyce Dvoren, Yoga Teacher, Reiki and Oneness Blessing, from Santa Monica, CA
Training leader Ananda Deva Ka Ma created a safe, loving container for our individual and group experiences. I was (and am) in awe of the unconditional love and giving. I particularly enjoyed the trainings by Shar Lee (structural yoga therapy) and Antonio Sausys (yoga for grief).
Ginger Krelle, Yoga Instructor at Deep Dog Yoga from Yorba Linda, CA
The yoga therapy program has given me the opportunity to deepen and explore many aspects of Yoga and develop an understanding toward its use as powerful and healing. This increases knowledge has helped me personally to manage my own disease and expand my yoga practice. I particularly enjoyed our sessions with Richard Miller on Yoga Nidra and its application in dealing with PTSD and other conditions where people are suffering. It was truly inspired and moved by his experiences and ideas.
Sally Miller Sando, Yoga Therapist, RN, MSN at The Well House from Indianapolis, IN
As our YT training comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on changing perspectives. Moving from meeting as strangers to leaving as a cohesive, supportive group, from yoga teachers to new yoga therapists, there has been a transformation. And this is just the beginning. I feel gratitude towards our teachers for sharing their knowledge with us. I feel grateful for their understanding of my insecurities and the permission and encouragement that has been offered. Their guidance has helped me to understand that we can use our bodies as our laboratory; that we are not expected to have all of the answers; that the process of healing is a journey that we make together with our clients and not a prescription that we hand to them; and finally that it is essentially an experiment that we enter into with great curiosity and a pure intention to do good in this world. I have gained much and given a little. I hope that this connection will continue to mature and that we continue to share as we grow into our new roles. Sarva mangalam!
Connie Fry, Yoga Instructor at Ayuh Yoga from San Francisco, CA
They weren’t kidding that it was very intensive. So much information was being required to be taken in that it will be a while for me to digest and put some of this knowledge into practice. I am excited to share with my first client new information to help them with their yoga therapy. All of the different teachers were wonderful. Encouraging us to continue with our training. Saraswati stands out in my mind the most. Holding to her personal practice in diet, sleep, and more. Wanting us to on and take the internship to better our knowledge and help future clients.