Yoga as Medicine Workshops with Timothy McCall, MD
September 28 – October 2
11:00 am – 5 pm
The Yoga as Medicine workshops are designed to immerse you in the science and practice of yoga therapy. Yoga therapy is the use of yoga and its vast toolbox to help treat and prevent a wide range of health conditions. It is holistic, considering every aspect of the mind, body and spirit; it is integrative, seeking to work harmoniously with both conventional and complementary and alternative medical systems; and it is informed by the ancient teachings of yoga as well as by modern scientific knowledge and research.
The Yoga as Medicine workshops explore yoga therapy through hands-on training, with the majority of the time spent actually doing yoga therapy in a small group setting, under the supervision of Timothy and his assistants. After providing a general introduction to yoga and yoga therapy, including such questions such as: how to evaluate the student, how to structure a yoga therapy session and choose practices to help move them in the right direction, Timothy conducts a sample yoga therapy session on one of the attendees in front of the group.
This is something of an “annotated” session, in that Timothy often explains what he’s doing and why he’s doing it along the way. The format of evaluating the individual in depth and providing a multi-facted yogic plan—which might include such yogic tools as asana, pranayama, meditation, yoga nidra, dietary and lifestyle advice, as well as a prescription for moving forward—provides the template we’ll follow when we break into small groups to do our yoga therapy work.
In Yoga as Medicine, the evaluation of each student involves consideration of four major areas:
- Structural
- Energetic
- Psychological/Emotional
- Spiritual
First we’ll evaluate structure, including such issues as postural habits, and muscular weakness and/or holding. Next, we evaluate the student energetically focusing on Ayurvedic balance, as well as the Prana Vayus (it’s okay if you have little or no prior knowledge of these). After that, we assess the student’s psychological and emotional state, with particular attention paid to the balance of the Autonomic Nervous System, the quality of the breath, as well as the Gunas (rajas, tamas and sattva).
Again, no prior knowledge is assumed. Finally, we evaluate spiritual issues, such as whether the student has an understanding of their life purpose, a connection to something larger than themselves, as well as the discipline and faith to brings their desires into reality. Not all students, of course, will want to address all four areas, but the teacher/therapist will want to consider them in formulating a plan.
While Timothy will give several lectures during the week, the bulk of the teaching comes during group work, as well as in more in-depth analysis of selected cases. Thus, most of the learning comes directly out of whatever cases we see, and since that’s different every time, it’s never the same workshop twice. In the past, YAM workshops have attracted a wide variety of health care professionals, including physicians, physical and occupational therapists, nurses and psychotherapists. Serious yoga students and teachers of different lineages are also part of the regular mix, as are people seeking yoga therapy for a wide variety of conditions including back pain, arthritis, cancer, heart problems, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety and depression. The wide variety of attendees deepens the experience in both the group work and case discussions, as there’s always a lively exchange, and we all learn from each other.
Ultimately, in order to be an effective yoga therapist, you need to walk the path of yoga. Thus, in addition to learning how to do yoga therapy on others, we’ll also each focus on our own journey over the course the workshop, leaving with a personalized plan of action for moving toward health, healing and personal transformation.
Fee: $400
Instructor:
Timothy McCall, M.D. is a board-certified internist, the Medical Editor of Yoga Journal and the author of two books, Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing and Examining Your Doctor: A Patient’s Guide to Avoiding Harmful Medical Care. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Public Citizen’s Health Letter, The Nation, American Health, Redbook (where he was a contributing editor), The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Los Angeles Times. His column appeared monthly in the newsletter Bottom Line Health from 1995 to 2003. From 1996-2001 his medical commentaries were featured on the public radio program Marketplace. He writes feature articles for Yoga Journal and columns for the magazine’s online newsletter for teachers, My Yoga Mentor (free subscription available online through Yoga Journal).
Timothy has studied yoga since 1995 with Patricia Walden, a teacher of classical Iyengar yoga. More recently, he has been working with Donald Moyer and Rod Stryker. In addition, Timothy travels regularly to India to research yoga, yoga therapy and Ayurveda, and to study with a traditional Ayurvedic Vaidhya (doctor) in Kerala and a Tantric master in Bangalore. In 2004-2005, he spent a year as scholar-in-residence at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA.
Timothy is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he also attended medical school. After completing his residency in primary care internal medicine, he practiced for more than 10 years in the Boston area before devoting himself full time to writing and research. His main focus since the year 2000 has been investigating the therapeutic aspects of yoga, as well as the scientific explanations of yoga’s effects. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, and gives lectures, seminars, and yoga workshops around the U.S. and internationally.