The teachings and practices of yoga are inspiring a deep transformation of human consciousness at the somatic, psychological and spiritual levels. Join us for this comprehensive adventure into the texts, traditions and practices of the yoga tradition.
Yoga Philosophy encompasses a range of texts and traditions, from the Vedas to the Yoga Sūtras, from Vedanta to Haṭha and Tantra. These texts and traditions teach and transmit a range of subtle contemplative practices that support and extend beyond the postural Yoga that is so popular today.
As yoga becomes increasingly popular in our globalized world, the need to immerse ourselves in the foundational teachings of yoga becomes fundamental to protecting the integrity of its most transformative practices. Our “Yoga Philosophy: Texts, Traditions & Practices” 300-Hour Online Training and Certification is an innovative program that is the first of its kind. True to Embodied Philosophy’s commitment to the synergy of knowledge and experience, we have curated a program that brings together a faculty of scholar-practitioners from both devotional and academic contexts.
This program recognizes that yogic contemplative practice is limited without the supportive framework of knowledge, and knowledge without the motor of practice is flat and disembodied. The program’s curriculum aims to balance a rigorous understanding of yoga philosophy with an embodied engagement of yoga’s subtle practices, including meditation, pranayama, chanting, creative contemplation and inquiry.
Over three trimesters, you will learn from some of the most respected teachers of yoga philosophy today, including renowned scholars and devotional leaders. You will receive guidance from faculty as you embark on a research project that will help you develop specialized knowledge of a topic of your choice. You will join us for a winter virtual retreat and a summer virtual immersion to deepen your knowledge and to connect personally with fellow students and faculty.
Our program curriculum is designed to cultivate three core areas of competency that are necessary for a comprehensive and embodied understanding of the yoga philosophical tradition.
In Foundations Courses, you will discover the history, philosophy and fundamental concepts of the various yoga philosophy traditions.
In Text Courses, you will carefully read and explore the sacred texts of the yoga canon with faculty who have devoted their lives to deep study and practice.
In our Practice Courses, trainees will discover the many subtle practices of yoga that extend beyond the modern postural yoga paradigm.
Intro to Yoga Philosophy
Intro to Sanskrit
Intro to Vedas
Yoga History 1
Samkhya
Yoga Sutras
Bhagavad Gita
Meditation
Vedanta
Upanishads
Yoga History 2
Foundations: Goddess Traditions & Early Tantra
Text: Bhakti Poetry
Practice: Deity Yoga & Devotion
Tantra
Energy Body
Yoga History 3: What is modern yoga?
Contemporary Ethical Debates
Yoga & Contemplative Science
At the beginning of the winter trimester, we will come together “virtually” (via zoom) for a weekend of talks, discussion and practice.
You will be guided by faculty on the initial proposal and first draft of a final project focused on a topic of your choosing.
The training experience culminates with a 5 day virtual immersion August 19 – 23, 2020.
Yoga philosophy is first and foremost an embodied philosophy. It is not a philosophy of the intellect alone, but one that structures and grounds yogic practice. It aims to decondition the mind in a way that inspires a fuller experience of one’s true nature – an experience that might be considered divine.
People are often drawn to yoga as a fitness program or as a means to reduce stress. In the modern world, these are important facets of yoga that can inspire and uplift an individual’s life. This program offers the next step for those who have glimpsed the transformative insight that a physical practice can offer. It is designed to connect motivated practitioners to the rich history and tradition of yoga and the variety of goals that yogis have pursued over time, from practical health benefits to spiritual enlightenment.
Yoga philosophy is what is needed in the modern yoga community today – particularly in modern industrialized societies, where an emphasis on the physical has eroded our connection to more subtle, esoteric teachings and practices. Every yoga teacher and practitioner should be studying the texts and traditions of yoga, not simply because it honors where yoga came from, but because it enriches and expands the domain of yogic experience.
The program begins in September 2019 and lasts until June 2020, with a culminating summer retreat in August of 2020.
No. Some courses are live, while others have been pre-recorded. You will receive a full calendar of live sessions and a suggested timeline for when to engage with the pre-recorded content.
No. While we encourage your presence at live sessions so you can interact with the teacher, you are also welcome to watch the sessions on your own time according to your own schedule.
Unfortunately, no. Yoga Alliance requires that 270 of the 300 hours of its 300 hour designation be completed in the physical presence of a teacher. Because this program is entirely online, it is not eligible for RYT 500 Status. These hours are, however, redeemable as Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Credits (non-contact hours), because Embodied Philosophy is a YACEP, a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider.
The primary homework will be to read and to practice your Sanskrit. You will also be required to complete a reflection assignment each trimester and a short quiz following each course. Your biggest piece of homework is the final project.
Yes. Select faculty will guide you on the initial proposal and first draft of your final project.
In the yoga studio world, you will not find a program as thorough and rigorous as this one. In the academic world, you will not find a program as dedicated to the laboratory of personal practice.
This is also unique about the program:
You do not have to attend the summer virtual immersion to complete the training, however to receive your certificate and to make the most out of your experience, the summer virtual immersion is required. If you are not able to attend the live virtual immersion, you may complete it the following year.
Yes, cases will be considered individually based on category and number of courses taken. Approved credits will be transferred to the program.
This training would be of quality whether you are a Yoga Practitioner, Yoga Teacher, Meditator, Healer, Therapist, Psychologist, Wisdom Seeker, Contemplative Facilitator, Meditation Teacher, Educator, Massage Therapist or Body Worker, Complementary & Alternative Medicine Professional, Clergy & Religious Leader, Wellness Professional, or a Citizen of Planet Earth Interested in an Awakened World.
This training prepares students to be able to give talks and workshops on yoga philosophy, but it will not prepare a student to teach the physical postures (known as asana). For this kind of training, you should complete a 200 Hour Teacher Training registered with Yoga Alliance at the RYT 200 Level.
Christopher Key Chapple is the Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His research interests focus on the renouncer religious traditions of India: Yoga, Jainism, and Buddhism. He has published several books on these topics with SUNY Press, including Karma and Creativity (1986), Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (1993), Reconciling Yogas (2003), and Yoga and the Luminous: Patanjali’s Spiritual Path to Freedom (2008).
He has also edited and co-authored several books on religion and ecology, including Ecological Prospects: Religious, Scientific, and Aesthetic Perspectives, Hinduism and Ecology, Jainism and Ecology, Yoga and Ecology, and In Praise of Mother Earth: The Prthivi Sukta of the Atharva Veda. His most recent books are Poet of Eternal Return and Sacred Thread.
Chris serves as academic advisor for the International Summer School of Jain Studies and on the advisory boards for the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), and the Jaina Studies Centre (SOAS, University of London). In 2002 he established the first of several certificate programs in the study of Yoga at LMU’s Center for Religion and Spirituality and founded LMU’s Master of Arts in Yoga Studies in the fall of 2013.
Edwin Bryant received his Ph.D in Indic languages and Cultures from Columbia University. He taught Hinduism at Harvard University for three years, and is presently the professor of Hinduism at Rutgers University where he teaches courses on Hindu philosophy and religion. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, published six books and authored a number of articles on Vedic history, yoga, and the Krishna tradition. In addition to his academic work for the scholarly community, Edwin’s Penguin World Classics translation of the Srimad Bhagavata Purana, the traditional source for the story of Krishna’s incarnation, is both for Indology specialists as well as students and those interested in Hinduism from the general reading public and the yoga community.
Jacob Kyle (Co-Director), MSc, MA, is a yoga asana teacher, writer, philosophy educator and the Founder/Director of Embodied Philosophy, an online educational platform for Eastern philosophies and contemplative practices. Kyle holds two Masters Degrees in Philosophy: an MSc in Political Philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA in the History of Philosophy from the New School for Social Research. He was initiated into Neelakhanta Meditation and has since then been enrolled in Blue Throat Yoga programs under the tutelage of esteemed Kashmir Shaivism scholar Paul Muller-Ortega, studying the texts and practices of the Trika Kula lineage of Kashmir Shaivism. In 2019, he commenced the SadaShivacharya meditation teacher training process with Blue Throat Yoga. To augment his yoga asana teaching practice, Kyle has completed over seven hundred hours of training and workshops with many master teachers.
Katy Jane sical yoga) from the University of California (Santa Barbara). An American Institute of Indian Studies scholar for Hindi and Bengali, she was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship for her master’s degree research in West Bengal and Bangladesh on the indigenous and Sanskritic cults of the goddess Kālī. During her two-year tenure in Calcutta, she was sponsored by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture for Vedic Sanskrit studies and Vedānta. There she immersed herself in traditional adhyāyanam with her Vedic Sanskrit paṇḍita and a rigorous daily Vedic study. For her doctoral research on “enlightenment” within Vedic, classical yoga and Śrī Vidyā traditions (and embodied in place), she was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship. During her research year, she completed a full circumambulation of the Narmada River, interviewing her dissertation subjects along the way—countless pilgrims, bābās, sādhus and sādhvīs and yogins. In writing her dissertation, she discovered a more popular and less strictly academic voice. As a result, after serving as an assistant professor of world religions and Sanskrit at California Polytechnical University, Simpson College, the University of Colorado (Boulder) and Naropa University, she left academia to apply her knowledge of the Vedas, classical Yoga, Sanskrit and Śrī Vidyā to the yoga community. She teaches her signature course, Sanskrit for Yogis, (and in-depth courses on Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras, the Bhagavad Gītā, the principle Upaniṣads, Vedic chanting, among others) in many 200hr and 500hr yoga teacher training curriculums worldwide. She’s the author of Awakening with Sanskrit, Feeling the Shakti of Sanskrit, and Sanskrit for Yogis: An Introduction to Nāda, the Yoga of Sacred Sound. Presently, she serves as the director of yoga studies at the Dunagiri Retreat in Uttarakhand, India where she resides with her fiancé, teaches online Sanskrit classes and maintains a busy jyotisha (Vedic Astrology) consultancy. Learn more at drkatyjane.com.
Kavitha Chinnaiyan is a cardiologist, award-winning author of Shakti Rising (New Harbinger, 2017) and The Heart of Wellness (Llewellyn 2018), teacher and Tantrika, initiated in the goddess path of Sri Vidya and nondual Shaiva Tantra. She blends her medical expertise with her knowledge of Yoga, Tantra, and the Direct Path in her teachings and courses. Her workshops, courses and writings on meditation, Yoga, Tantra, Ayurveda and non-duality strive to bring these time-honored traditions to modern living in practical ways. Her workshops, upcoming talks, past interviews and online programs can be found on kavithamd.com.
Laura Amazzone, M.A. is a teacher, writer, intuitive healer, and initiated yogini in the Shakta Tantra and Sri Vidya traditions of India and Nepal. Her book, “Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power” explores how Durga and Her myriad expressions in ancient myth and contemporary ritual are a living, transformative power that is completely relevant to our daily lives—and a much-needed guide in these shifting times. Laura has published numerous articles within the fields of Hinduism, Tantra and Women’s Spirituality in many different encyclopedias, anthologies, journals, and online publications. She is currently writing a book on Durga’s collective form, the Astha Matrikas, and is also working on a collaborative book project on the Indus Sarasvati Culture with authors Vicki Noble and Miriam Robbins Dexter. Laura teaches online seminars and ritual classes offering authentic and undiluted lineage-based teachings, rituals and spiritual practices from Shakta and Shri Vidya lineages as well as over two decades of scholarship on Goddess, Her collective forms (8 Matrikas, 9 Durgas, 10 Mahavidyas, Lunar Nityas, Dakinis and Yoginis,) and the Shakta Tantra tradition. Laura leads pilgrimages to the sacred temples and shrines within the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal where she has focused much of her work. Laura’s scholarly research has been deeply enhanced and complemented through her spiritual studies and personal sadhana under the tutelage of Shri Vidya lineage holder and Master Yogini adept Uma-Parvathi Natha of Odiyana Pitham. For more on Laura’s work and offerings, visit LauraAmazzone.com.
Marcy Braverman Goldstein, Ph.D. received doctoral training at University of California, Santa Barbara and in India, and has taught at UNC Charlotte, Davidson College, and The Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte. As founder of Sanskrit Revolution, Marcy teaches Sanskrit, history, yogic speech, and philosophy at studios and festivals nationally. Drawing from her academic background and 25 years of practicing yoga, she creates classes that illuminate the language and culture of yoga, deepen people’s knowledge, and inspire personal growth.
Neil Dalal is Associate Professor of South Asian Philosophy and Religious Thought at the University of Alberta, where he teaches in both the Philosophy Department and Religious Studies Program. He received his PhD in Asian Cultures and Languages from the University of Texas at Austin where he specialized in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy, and an MA in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dalal’s interests explore philosophy of mind, contemplative psychologies, and meditation practices found in classical South Asian Yoga systems. He grounds this research in classical Sanskrit texts and commentaries as well as their living traditions. Dalal’s current research focuses on the intersections of contemplative practices, textual study, and embodiment in Advaita Vedānta. He is the co-director of Gurukulam (The Orchard/Sony Pictures), a sensory-ethnographic study of a contemporary Advaita Vedānta community, co-editor of Asian Perspectives on Animal Ethics (Routledge Press), and has published articles in venues such as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Indian Philosophy, and Journal of Hindu Studies. Dalal is also a teacher within the traditional lineage of Śaṅkarācārya’s Advaita Vedānta. He spent several years living a monastic lifestyle in India while studying under the direct guidance of the renowned Advaita Vedāntin, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who gave him permission to teach in 2002.
Ramesh Bjonnes was born in Norway and lived for nearly three years in India and Nepal learning directly from the masters of Tantric yoga. Bjonnes is co-founder of the Prama Institute, a holistic retreat center outside Asheville, NC. He has practiced traditional Tantric yoga for over 40 years and has written extensively on Tantra, yoga, culture and sustainability, and his articles have appeared in books and numerous magazines and newspapers in Europe and the US. He is the author of three books on yoga; Sacred Body, Sacred Spirit: A Personal Guide to the Wisdom of Yoga and Tantra; Tantra: The Yoga of Love and Awakening and A Brief History of Yoga. Ramesh teaches meditation from the Yoga Sutras and the history of yoga to various yoga teacher trainings. He lives and teaches with his wife Radhika in an ecovillage in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
Stephanie Corigliano (Co-Director) is the managing editor for Tarka at Embodied Philosophy and adjunct professor in the Religious Studies department at Gwynedd Mercy University. Her 2015 Phd in Comparative Theology from Boston College focused on the use of the Yogasūtras within the Modern Yoga teaching tradition of T. Krishnamacharya and engaged the work of Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J. to highlight the potential interdependence of devotion and detachment in spiritual practice. She recently published the chapter, “The Making and Unmaking of the Self: Patañjali’s Yogasūtra and the Experience of Trauma,” for the volume Thinking with the Yogasūtra of Patañjali: Translation, Interpretation, edited by Ana Funes-Maderey and Christopher Key Chapple. Stephanie is an authorized teacher of Ashtanga Yoga in the tradition of K. Pattabhi Jois and a daily practitioner since 1999. Mother of two active boys, she also maintains a 28 acre homestead in Northern California where she keeps bees and grows a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Tias Little’s unique and skillful approach enables students to find greater depth of understanding and awareness in their practice, both on and off the mat. His approach to the practice is inter-disciplinary, passionate, intelligent, innovative and full of insight. Tias synthesizes years of study in classical yoga, Sanskrit, Buddhist studies, anatomy, massage and trauma healing. Tias began studying the work of B.K.S Iyengar in 1984 and lived in Mysore, India in 1989 studying Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Pattabhi Jois. Thus his teaching brings together precision of alignment, anatomical detail and a profound meditative experience.
Tias is a licensed massage therapist and his somatic studies include in-depth training in cranial-sacral therapy. His practice and teaching are influenced by the work of Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais and Thomas Hanna. Tias is a long-time student of the meditative arts and Buddhist studies beginning with Vipassana and continuing in Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. His teaching style is unique in being able to weave together poetic metaphor with clear instruction filled with compassion and humor.
Tias earned a Master’s degree in Eastern Philosophy from St. John’s College Santa Fe in 1998. Tias is the author of three books, The Thread of Breath, Meditations on a Dewdrop and Yoga of the Subtle Body.
Zoë Slatoff has a Master’s Degree in Asian Languages and Culture from Columbia University. She is the author of “Yogāvatāraṇam: The Translation of Yoga,” a Sanskrit textbook for yoga students, which uses extracts from classical yoga texts to integrate traditional and academic methods of learning the language.
She is now working on a PhD in South Asian Studies at Lancaster University, centering on a translation of the Aparokṣānubhūti, a text attributed to Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, which by integrating Yoga and Advaita Vedānta, teaches how āsana practice can actually help one transcend the attachment to bodily form and provide a vehicle for recognition of the Self.
Zoë has been practicing and teaching yoga for over 20 years. She teaches daily Mysore classes at her yoga shala in New York, Ashtanga Yoga Upper West Side.
Books
Students are responsible for purchasing required texts and other materials. You will receive a reading list after you enroll and a lit of other recommended materials.
We are offering the following scholarships:
– Two (2) Merit-based Scholarships (50%) – applicants that have accomplished something extraordinary in the field of therapy.
– Two (2) Need-based Scholarships (100%) – applicants that show genuine financial need and to whom the program would be valuable.
– Two (2) Non-federal Work-Study Positions (100%) – applicants receive a full scholarship in exchange for 130 hours of work with Embodied Philosophy throughout the duration of the program (administrative/ proofreading test or video editing).
To apply please send your CV and a short essay (500-750 words) stating the scholarship that you are applying for and explaining why you would be a good candidate for the particular scholarship to jesse@embodiedphilosophy.com by August 15th, 2020.
MindBody Therapy is a holistic approach to healing the psychological, spiritual, and physical. It encompasses a wide range of methodologies – from holistic, humanistic, and somatic psychology to contemplative and eastern healing practices. It also draws from a number of traditions that span thousands of years, from the earliest Vedic practices of ancient India to present day scientific research.
This holistic certification program recognizes that our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect our biological functioning. Just as what we eat, our posture, the way we move, even our relationships with other people and the environment can impact our mental state. This is to say that every aspect of our life is in connection with one another. The intention of MindBody therapy is to support the processes of healing and transformation while working with every aspect of an individual- psychologically, psychically, spiritually, energetically, socially, and environmentally. In MindBody therapy a practitioner recognizes the interwoven connection between these aspects of an individual and works in an integrative capacity to enhance vitality and well-being.
Modalities taught within this program aim to identify a client’s strengths and increase their resilience and personal resources for healing and sustained wellness. Classes will draw on: Somatic / Embodied Psychology, Contemplative Therapy, Mindfulness, Transpersonal / Eastern Psychology, Internal Family System (parts work), Somatic Experiencing (Trauma Therapy), Somatic Stress Release, Humanistic and Strength Based Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Social Activism, Focusing Technique, MindBody Medicine, Body-Mind Centering, The Realization Processes and more.
You will be guided through the rich history of MindBody research and theory that offers both a context and map to facilitate sessions from a holistic, integrative, and evidence-based perspective.
To facilitate the change we wish to see in the world, we must first embody the wisdom we aspire to share. This program emphasizes, through its curriculum, self-practice, self-awareness, and personal growth so that you become an instrument to sense, feel, and guide deep therapeutic processes.
You will discover the diverse practices of MindBody Therapy and through demonstration and practice sessions, you will be supported towards the integration and application of these tools while working with a wide diversity of clients and groups.
Intro to MindBody Therapy
MindBody Assessment
MindBody Dialogue Skills
Non-Violent Communication – A Somatic Approach
MindBody Clinical Skills 1
Attachment Theory – An Embodied Approach
Embodied Leadership and Somatic Coaching
Power, Privilege, and Difference in the Clinical Relationship
Somatic Experiencing
Inner Child Work and Protectors: Parts Work (Internal Family Systems)
MindBody Clinical Skills 2
The Realization Process
MindBody Dialogue Skills
Ancestral Wisdom for Elemental Healing
Somatic Stress Release
Trauma Therapy: A body focused approach
MindBody Clinical Skills 3
MindBody Clinical Skills 4
MindBody Cultural Competency & Ethics
Contemplative/ Buddhist Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience: A Holistic Approach
Indigenous Healing, Spiritual Practice and Application
At the beginning of the winter trimester, we will come together January 17-19, 2020 “virtually” (via zoom) for a weekend of talks, discussion and practice.
You will be guided by faculty towards identifying and assessing skills and strengths derived from the program, as well as areas of learning that can be supported and further fostered.
The training experience culminates with a 5 day virtual immersion August 19-23, 2020.
There is an increasing interest and demand for practitioners applying mindfulness and integrative therapy. The profound changes that clients experience from MindBody therapy coupled with a supportive and humanistic approach makes it a highly sought after modality for addressing trauma and post-traumatic stress disorders, as well as in depression, anxiety, and attachment disorders.
The foundational philosophy of mindbody therapy- is that each person is intrinsically whole- and the role of the practitioner is to help the client clear the debris that is obstructing a person from living from that place of wholeness, ease, and flow.
The path of healing and transformation is as unique as each individual. This integrative threptic approach embraces the interconnection between the body, emotions, cognition, sense of self, relationships, and spirituality; and utilizes that perspective to meet the unique aspects of each client in order to help them achieve their wellness goals.
This innovative certification program is designed to introduce health professionals to a range of holistic, contemplative, cross-cultural, and spiritual healing practices. This highly experiential program encourages learning through virtual and in person community-development.
This program is a certification process that distills an educational methodology to integrate into a variety of modalities such as:
This is not a licenser program.
Recordings are available for all courses and the virtual winter retreat. You can watch them at your own pace. The summer virtual immersion does require some mandatory live participation in English.
Courses & Virtual Winter Retreat
No. While we encourage your presence at live sessions so you can interact with the teacher, you are also welcome to watch the sessions on your own time according to your own schedule.
Virtual Summer Immersion
This immersion is the culminating event of the online certification program. Students will have an opportunity to connect with core faculty to refine their clinical skills, as well as receive support and feedback on their practice sessions for competency. Competency is an opportunity for students to get direct feedback from faculty, identifying their strengths, as well as suggested areas for clinical growth.
The immersion is for those students who feel they are ready to complete the certification. Some students may wish to postpone the immersion if they feel they need more time to integrate the skills before competency.
Some mandatory attendance for competency is required. Some clinical skills classes will be recorded. More info will be provided.
This immersion is the culminating event of the online certification program. Students will have an opportunity to connect with core faculty to refine their clinical skills, as well as receive support and feedback on their practice sessions for competency. Competency is an opportunity for students to get direct feedback from faculty, identifying their strengths, as well as suggested areas for clinical growth.
The immersion is for those students who feel they are ready to complete the certification. Some students may wish to postpone the immersion, until the following summer, if they feel they need more time to integrate the skills before competency.
Some mandatory attendance for competency is required. Some clinical skills classes will be recorded. More info will be provided.
You can take the courses in your own time. If you do not attend the virtual summer immersion during the year you start and would like to receive your certificate, you may attend it the following summer.
Yes, it is intended that this will be a yearly program.
The clinical classes build cumulatively and the courses are structured in coordination with each other. This approach offers both breadth and depth.
Yes. You may attend the live sessions and communicate with faculty. Faculty will also be participating in the private Facebook groups where you can continue to communicate in between courses or if you weren’t able to attend the live session. In addition, they will be apart of the Q & A each trimester and the summer virtual immersion.
There will be monthly open office hours as a group to receive support from the program director. In addition, there will be group mentorship and Q&A meetings throughout the trimester. Administrative support will be available to answer your questions.
Dr. Scott Lyons, Program Director (DO, PhD, MS, MFA, CHT, BMCP/T, RSMT, SME, BMCP, IDME, SEP, CST, BFA, RYT-500) is a Clinical Psychologist, Osteopath, and MindBody Medicine practitioner who specializes in therapies for infants, youth, and adults. Additionally, Dr. Lyons holds a BFA in Theater/Psychology, and an MFA in Dance/Choreography.
Scott is the co-creator of Embodied Flow™ – a school of yoga and therapy, and developer of Somatic Stress Release™ – a process of restoring our biological adaptation system. Scott has had the privilege of teaching Embodied Flow™, Somatic Stress Release™, and Body-Mind Centering® workshops and trainings throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. He was an adjunct professor at New York University from 2007-2010 where he co-taught the Viewpoints Studio with Mary Overlie. As an artist, Scott’s work has been performed at BAM, Symphony Space, Dance New Amsterdam as well as theaters throughout the United States and Europe.
Foundational to Scott’s teaching is the principle that we can, through intention, expand our capacity to meet and be met. In this way, we can offer the profound gift to our self, others, and the environment of being heard, seen, and feeling felt at a cellular level. Learn more about Scott at www.drscottlyons.com.
Dr. Rae Johnson, Ph.D., RSMT, is a scholar/activist and registered somatic movement therapist who chairs the Somatic Studies in Depth Psychology doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The author of several books – including Elemental Movement, Knowing in our Bones, and Embodied Social Justice – Rae teaches and trains internationally on embodied activism, somatic research methods, and the poetic body.
Dr. Christine Caldwell, Ph.D., BC-DMT, LPC, NCC, ACS, is the founder of and professor emeritus in the Somatic Counseling Program at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, USA, where she taught coursework in somatic counseling theory and skills, clinical neuroscience, research, and diversity issues. Her work began forty years ago with studies in anthropology, dance therapy, bodywork and Gestalt therapy, and has developed into innovations in the field of body-centered psychotherapy. She calls her work the Moving Cycle. This system goes beyond the limitations of therapy and emphasizes lifelong personal and social evolution through trusting and following body states. The Moving Cycle spotlights natural play, early physical imprinting, bodily authority, and the transformational effect of fully sequenced movement processes. She has taught at the University of Maryland, George Washington University, Concordia, Seoul Women’s University, Southwestern College, Pacifica, and Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and trains, teaches and lectures internationally. She has published over 30 articles and chapters, and her books include Getting Our Bodies Back, Getting In Touch, The Body and Oppression, and Bodyfulness.
Dr. Albert Wong is the Director of Somatic Psychology at JFK University and and a leading clinician and educator in the field of somatics. A Marshall Scholar, he has longstanding interests in the intersection of somatics, psychotherapy, and scalable technology. He served as residential staff at the Esalen Institute for five years. He has been featured on PBS, in Time Magazine, and in the book The American Soul Rush. His work has been published in titles ranging from the scientific journal Biological Cybernetics to the book anthology Radical Spirit. He was educated at Princeton, Oxford, and the University of Tennessee and is the recipient of numerous national awards (Westinghouse Science Talent Scholarship, Goldwater Scholarship). He is the founder of the online somatic education platform, Somatopia and maintains a private counseling and consulting practice centered around somatic psychotherapy: www.dralbertwong.com
Dr. Maureen Gallagher is a Licensed Psychologist (NY, NJ), Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Faculty Member, Inner Relationship Focusing Trainer, Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor and a Relational Psychoanalyst. Her work and teaching are dedicated to the embodiment of psychotherapy and related healing disciplines, in which she integrates somatic awareness and the use of somatic intervention along with adult attachment work and a relational focus. She brings a broad range of experience and training to this endeavor, including Certifications in Somatic Experiencing, Inner Relationship Focusing, Relational Psychoanalysis, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Integral Somatic Psychology, SE Touch skills training and Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy. Her clinical work integrates focusing, somatic experiencing, relational psychoanalysis and experiential and process oriented models of attachment theory. She has maintained a private practice for over 20 years. She is the founder of Embodying Psychotherapy.
Social Workers
Mental Health & Pastoral Counselors
Yoga Therapists / Yoga Teachers
Movement Therapists
Coaches
Physicians (MD, DO, ND, DC & others) & Physician Assistants
Nurses & Nurse Practitioners
Emergency Medical Personnel
Meditation Teachers
Educators
Massage Therapists, Acupuncturists & Body Workers
Complementary & Alternative Medicine Professionals
Clergy & Religious Leaders
Other Wellness Professionals
Post-traumatic stress
Obsessive-compulsive issues
Mood swings
Addiction
Depression and Anxiety
Grief and Loss
Eating Disorders
Stress and Trauma
The program begins September 14, 2019 and ends August 23, 2020, with a culminating virtual summer immersion in August of 2020. Please see Course Dates & Descriptions Section.
Each trimester has 7 to 8 Courses with a total of 38 modules, 2 hours per module. This equates to about 6 to 8 hours of class per week.
In addition, you can participate in group faculty Q & A (1.5hrs per trimester), group open office hours and will have homework which consists of practice sessions, post course reflection & personal study (15 – 20 hrs per trimester).
A desire to dive into the field of body and mind therapy, whether it is for self-discovery or for the intention to apply these methods to your students, clients or yoruself.
You may register up until the day before the program. You will be sent an online student information form prior to the start of the program which will help us understand your background and assign you to the appropriate groups based on location and background.
We use Zoom for all live interactions – courses, virtual winter retreat, virtual summer immersion and meetings with faculty. You will also be able to interact live with faculty.
Within 24 hours of the live session, a recording will be available to watch if you weren’t able to attend live or would like to watch again. This applies to the courses, virtual winter retreat and portions of the virtual summer immersion. The video and audio recordings and slides will be available on your online learning dashboard. You can watch the video within the online platform or download to your computer.
Since most of the content is live, you will not be able to watch content before the live event. However, if you aren’t able to attend a course, you can always catch up in your own time afterwards.
If you have completed previous courses on MindBody Therapy topics through Embodied Philosophy, you may apply some of those previous credits toward this program. Cases will be considered individually based on category and number of courses taken. Approved credits will be transferred to the program. This will not reduce the program cost but may decrease your overall course load.
For more information, contact ara@embodiedphilosophy.com
The title of the certification is “Practitioner of MindBody Therapy“. Please note that the title of the word “Therapist” is often reserved for a licensed individual.
If you register and require CEs, we’ll contact you separately about additional requirements you will need to complete in order to receive CEs. Please note, an additional fee will be charged per course needing CE credits.
Books
Students are responsible for purchasing required texts and other materials. You will receive a reading list after you enroll and a lit of other recommended materials.
We are offering the following scholarships:
– Two (2) Merit-based Scholarships (50%) – applicants that have accomplished something extraordinary in the field of therapy.
– Two (2) Need-based Scholarships (100%) – applicants that show genuine financial need and to whom the program would be valuable.
– Two (2) Non-federal Work-Study Positions (100%) – applicants receive a full scholarship in exchange for 130 hours of work with Embodied Philosophy throughout the duration of the program (administrative/ proofreading test or video editing).
To apply please send your CV and a short essay (500-750 words) stating the scholarship that you are applying for and explaining why you would be a good candidate for the particular scholarship to jesse@embodiedphilosophy.com by September 1, 2020.