“After September 11, 2001, I felt deeply moved to bring inner work, nonviolence and the spirituality of yoga to a wider public,” Professor Christopher Chapple explained when asked about the genesis of the yoga certification programs at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles. Permission was granted from the university to launch the yoga philosophy certificate program, sparking the creation of other yoga-related classes, programs and certificates. Dr. Chapple’s inspiration is one of many; a number of universities in Southern California and beyond offer pioneering yoga programs in academic settings.
University settings that offer yoga, even offering graduate-level degrees, are scattered across the country. For example, in Northern California, Sonoma State offers a graduate program in yoga. In Northern California, programs such as Sonoma State offer graduate programs. In Southern California, universities open their doors to a variety of students looking for the opportunity to deepen their training. The LMU programs include a certificate option in Vinyasa Krama Yoga taught by Srivasta Ramaswami along with an expanded 200-hour teacher training program in this discipline, registered with Yoga Alliance. Certificate programs in yoga philosophy and yoga and ecology provide an opportunity for yoga teachers and lifelong students to delve into an in-depth study of Sanskrit through intensive and semester-long explorations of yoga texts and traditions. Professor Chapple notes that these classes offer participants an experience both practical and intellectual by interacting with professors and each other in an academic environment.
Yoga Therapy Rx, developed by Larry Payne, PhD, is also hosted at LMU. The program he directs teaches students (themselves yoga instructors with at least 200 hours of prior training) to work as yoga therapists in concert with other healthcare modalities, learning necessary tools to communicate across medical fields. Level one of the course focuses on the musculoskeletal system, Dr. Payne’s specialty. This is taught with associate director and chiropractor Dr. Rick Morris. Level two brings in the other systems of the body as related to the practice of yoga therapy, outlined in Dr. Payne’s book Yoga Therapy Rx co-written with medical doctor Richard Usatine.
Another university that issues certification for yoga teacher training can be found in the Inland Empire. The University of California’s Riverside Extension office features a full-fledged, professional-level Iyengar yoga teacher certification program. It is the first program of its kind in the UC system to offer a yoga curriculum developed in consultation with Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar himself and visited by his daughter Geeta.
The three-part program includes a specialized study program, the fundamentals of yoga, and two certificate programs in yoga theory and practice, and yoga teacher training. Students wishing to pass the teacher-in-training assessment exam at the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States take this course as preparation.
Students comment on their appreciation of the program’s availability in Riverside, where requirements include continual practice of asana (posture) and pranayama (breathing techniques), combining application and theory. Instructors including Deb Murray bring years of experience to their teaching.
At approximately the same time that LMU initiated their yoga philosophy programs, the University of California, Irvine, began a yoga and Buddhism studies program through the school’s extension office. Current offerings in the program have shifted to wellness and health studies, with upcoming classes in yoga philosophy, meditation, Ayurveda, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and neuroplasticity.
According to Continuing Education Director Kirwan Rockefeller, PhD, the UC-Irvine program was begun “to support people in deepening their yoga and contemplative practice, or to aid yoga teachers in assimilating philosophical underpinnings to a practice.” Dr. Rockefeller notes that many of the courses UC-Irvine scheduled are now being offered by teacher training institutes, “We feel good that we were having a good effect on the profession of yoga training.”
Lori Denman is a regular contributor to LA YOGA and a freelance journalist who can be found regularly in the surf or at the yoga studio. Snowfish351@aol.com
