INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF YOGA THERAPY – No. 20 (2010) 15 The Yoga Tradition Perspective Looking Back, Looking Forward Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/ijyt/article-pdf/20/1/6/2388387/ijyt_20_1_t2726841j3733763.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Eleanor Criswell, PhD President, International Association of Yoga Therapists I have been on the IAYT board for five years, and I am Yoga knowledge and experiences in their other classes. The currently serving as president for a one-year term. Twenty students learned skills they could use in every aspect of their years ago, I was teaching a course called Psychology of Yoga lives, and many students reported to me that Yoga contin- (PSY 352) at Sonoma State University. I created the course ued to be important in their lives many years after. Some of in 1969 when I was first hired by the psychology depart- them even went on to careers in Yoga teaching. ment. When I arrived on campus, the chair of the depart- About fourteen years ago, Joseph LePage, the founder of ment asked me, “If you could teach anything you wanted, Integrative Yoga Therapy, became a master’s student in the what would you like to teach?” “The psychology of Yoga,” psychology department at Sonoma State University. As part I replied. “Okay. Do it,” he said. And I did. Since then, I of his work there, he proposed a master’s program in Yoga have taught Yoga psychology to thousands of students; at and mind-body health. We accepted his proposal. I was chair one point, there were 300 students in the course. of the department at that time, and I agreed to serve as com- The Psychology of Yoga class was structured using mittee chair for the 16 students who were then accepted into Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. It the Sonoma State University Special Sessions Psychology included yamas, niyamas, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, Master’s Program emphasizing Yoga and mind-body health. concentration, meditation, and unification. Research from There were 500 applicants for the program. These were won- psychology, psychophysiology, and anatomy/kinesiology was derful students who used LePage’s Integrative Yoga Therapy woven in to support the philosophy and practices of Yoga. training program as the core of their studies. It was the first Information was taught in an experiential manner, and stu- master’s program of its kind. It was not possible to continue dents were encouraged to develop a personal Yoga practice. the program at Sonoma State University for various reasons. We had films and guest lecturers, including visiting gurus, I look forward to the development of university-based pro- such as Swami Vishnudevananda and Yogi Bajan. Swami grams at all levels in the future. This will be a natural process Satchitananda, Ram Das, and Swami Muktananda spoke on as Yoga becomes more established in Western society. campus and students from the class attended. Many gurus During my time on the IAYT board, I have experienced visited the San Francisco Bay Area over the years because of the association growing in membership, coming together at the large population interested in Eastern traditions. its conferences for several years, increasing communication Information about the student outcomes from the class between the Yoga traditions, encouraging the comprehen- were informally gathered from their personal Yoga journals, sive training of Yoga therapists, and fostering research in the comments during classroom discussions, and comments to psychological and medical applications of Yoga as it sup- me privately during class or during office hours. During the ports the practice of Yoga therapy. The journal has grown semester, students reported greater physical flexibility, more into a very solid, peer-reviewed publication. This field is at a relaxation, decreased anxiety, better sleep and health, greater wonderful point in its development. concentration, better mood, and other benefits. Other pro- What I see changing most is the coming together of fessors reported to me how the students were using their the membership to facilitate the growth of the field. It is an 16 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF YOGA THERAPY – No. 20 (2010) exponential growth. We are all working on this together. I We need to continue to look at how we effectively train appreciate the way members from different Yoga lineages Yoga therapists in the different traditions. I would like to see honor the contributions of the different traditions. It is more Yoga and Yoga therapy graduate programs with an ap- working with, and learning from, other non-yogic disci- preciation for the vast content that is contained in the Yoga plines in a very responsible fashion. It wants to work coop- tradition. As we bring Yoga and Yoga therapy into university eratively with other healing traditions. It wants to become settings, it becomes possible to include the vast resources of a respected healing modality without losing the essence of the university experience. Yoga in the process. At this point, Yoga and Yoga programs are enjoying Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/ijyt/article-pdf/20/1/6/2388387/ijyt_20_1_t2726841j3733763.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 What I see in the future is the continued growth of considerable publicity. Later on, after the great current the field. As it grows, it will confront regulatory agencies media interest flags, we will need to continue to educate the and forces within society. I would like to see IAYT and the public as to the benefits of Yoga and Yoga therapy. Yoga and member schools develop education and practice standards Yoga therapy research will help with that, but the findings for the field. This is a very complex issue, in part because need to be communicated widely. Yogis are also teaching IAYT is an international organization. We are part of a their healthcare professionals about the positive changes in global movement, and at the same time, local issues need psychology and physiology brought about by Yoga practice. to be considered. Our current standards committee has two For example, when a patient comes in having healed at a representatives from outside the United States, and I would more rapid rate than might be expected, the healthcare pro- like to see increased communication between nations about fessional wants to know how that happened. Those obser- their Yoga programs and findings. Standards need to be vations change the attitudes and recommendations of the broadly conceived so that the essence of the different ap- health professional or healthcare system. proaches to Yoga therapy are included and appreciated. Humanity needs so much healing at this time. Yoga can I would also like to see continued growth in Yoga and play a big role in fostering that healing. Yoga ethical princi- Yoga therapy research. We need continued exploration of ples need to inform everything that we do, individually and the claims and findings of Yoga, and we need studies that are as an organization. It will take all of us working together. specifically devoted to understanding the dynamics of Yoga What better way to do it than in the light of Yoga? therapy. We need outcome studies. We need to look at what supports and improves the Yoga therapy process. Direct correspondence to [email protected]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF YOGA THERAPY – No. 20 (2010) 13 The Yoga Tradition Perspective Down the Road: Yoga Therapy in the Future Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/ijyt/article-pdf/20/1/6/2388387/ijyt_20_1_t2726841j3733763.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, PT IAYT Advisory Council; President, California Yoga Teachers Association One of my favorite quotes states: Planning is absolutely We also need to be willing to work with all other health necessary and completely impossible. Clearly, planning or professionals in ways that simultaneously show our compe­ predicting the future of such a new American profession tence in our own field and our respect for what they do. as Yoga therapy is a difficult task. But it is made easier by Moving toward collegiality with other healthcare practi­ thinking of this prediction in a new way. tioners will support better outcomes for our clients. Instead of guessing what might happen in the future, One translation of the firstsutra of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras another approach is to become clear about our intentions. is “now Yoga is shared.” The paradox of Yoga is that its value What do we, as a profession and community, want to create increases as we give it away. When we share with others what in the next twenty years of Yoga therapy? we have learned, especially with newer teachers, there is more The first goal is to continue educating ourselves about joy and health in the world. We need to establish and nurture how to apply Yoga techniques in a therapeutic manner. We a system for passing on what we have learned. have just begun to integrate what we have learned from Partly we do this through this journal and through our own teachers with direct connections to the source of Yoga. There books. But more than that, we need to support and encourage is much more to understand and to learn. We need both the younger teachers as they gain experience first in teaching, and traditional teachings of India as well as the modern teach­ then as they mature, in learning to apply Yoga techniques in a ings of science. So much is being learned about the plasticity therapeutic manner. I like to consistently find ways to include of the brain, for example, that we can use in our work with newer teachers as assistants in trainings and workshops so we clients. We need to remain open to all the different tech­ can grow together as a community of learners.