Yoga therapy involves the application of yoga techniques and yoga practices to address specific physical, mental and emotional conditions and life situations. For example, the yoga therapy training in the UZIT program will involve implementing in-bed yoga postures and movements, restorative poses, breath awareness and meditation to address common patient symptoms of pain, anxiety, nausea, insomnia and constipation (PANIC).

The International Association of Yoga Therapists defines yoga therapy as the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and wellbeing through the application of the philosophy and practice of yoga.

Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee are the Directors of the Yoga Therapy component of the UZIT program. They will provide the core of the yoga therapy instruction.

Rodney Yee has been curious about the mind and body for as long as he can remember. Upon taking his first yoga class in 1980, he knew it would be a lifelong passion. Now that his mind and body are going through midlife, he is much more curious about the spirit. His spirit is fed by his wife, Colleen Saidman and his four children. Teaching is still a main vehicle for Rodney to understand union. He has created dozens of DVDs through Gaiam and two books, “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body” and “Moving Toward Balance,” both written with Nina Zolotow. Rodney is also co-founder, with Colleen , of the Gaiam Yoga Club.

In 1994, after enduring back surgery, Colleen Saidman Yee’s commitment to yoga practice deepened. Upon graduating from Jivamukti’s Teacher Training program in 1998, Colleen began her career as a yoga instructor. Her passion for working in health care started at a geriatric center while still an adolescent. Certified in Shiatsu, Colleen traveled throughout Europe and Asia studying complementary medicine and spiritual healing. She has lived in Calcutta, India working with Mother Theresa at the Home of the Destitute and Dying. Currently, Colleen serves as a co-chair of the Urban Zen Foundation’s Wellbeing Initiative, dedicated to bringing yoga, essential oil therapy, Reiki, nutrition and contemplative care to hospitals. Colleen has been featured in both “The New York Times” and “New York Magazine,” on a cover of “Yoga Journal” and has been featured in several best-selling yoga DVDs. Colleen is the owner and Director of Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor, N.Y. She also leads national and international retreats and teacher trainings, many with her husband Rodney Yee.

Other instructors have been invited to participate in the program and include, Richard Freeman, Mary Taylor, and Richard Rosen.

There are two categories for applications. The first includes allied healthcare professionals who are licensed and/or credentialed. The second category includes applicants who come from the yoga community.

Allied Healthcare Professionals requirements–

- A minimum of five years of personal yoga practice
- During the course of the UZIT program, you may be asked to attend additional yoga classes to refine your restorative and yoga skills.

Yoga Community Member requirements –
- Documentation of completion in a 200-hour teacher training program.
- A minimum of two years yoga teaching experience
- A minimum of five years of personal yoga practice

Essential Oil therapy is the inhalation and topical application of essential oils. Pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils are extracted from many parts of the aromatic plants including the flower, leaf, resin, bark, root, twig, seed, berry and rind. Often referred to as “nature’s living energy,” essential oils not only determine the plant’s aroma, but are vital for the plant to grow, live, evolve and adapt to its environment. Essential oils also help defend plants from insects, environmental conditions and disease. Today, research has shown that when used aromatically, topically and internally, essential oils can calm, energize, balance, purify and rejuvenate the mind and body.

It is in the last 30 years that Western medicine started recognizing this ancient healing art as an alternative and complementary therapy to traditional treatment regimens. According to the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, in the US, essential oil therapy is more than a $1 billion industry with interest that is widespread and expanding. In fact, there are a number of mainstream medical doctors who practice essential oil therapy in Europe and most health insurance companies cover reimbursement for treatments.

The Urban Zen Integrative Therapy program and Young Living Essential Oils require 50 hours of integrative essential oil therapy training. Offering very basic levels of instruction, this curriculum will allow you to safely and effectively use essential oils to enhance your quality of life, to support the quality of patient care-giving practices and to incorporate the use of essential oils in your home. UZIT levels of instruction will include:

• - The history of the ancient healing art of essential oil therapy
• - A broad introduction to essential oils as it pertains to the PANIC model of self-care and care-giving
• - A hands-on approach to essential oil application
• - Basic training for integrating essential oil therapy in hospitals and healthcare settings
• - How to use essential oil therapy to support the integration of UZIT modalities of healing including yoga therapy, Reiki and nutrition as well as therapeutic touch and palliative care

Tracy Griffiths.Director of Essential Oil Therapy, passionately shares her knowledge for natural healing principles to students all over the world. Tracy utilizes and weaves her training in the martial arts and polarity therapy offering a diverse, integrative and practical approach to the field of energy medicine. Tracy co-founded and directs the Life Energy Institute, an integrative educational center for proper use of essential oils in conjunction with other therapies such as Polarity Therapy, Cranial Sacral Unwinding and Somatic Trauma Resolution. She is greatly devoted to sharing her knowledge with others for the purpose of personal deepening and connection to their own inner wisdom.

By the simple act of placing hands above or on the body in a strategic manner, patients can experience a reduction in the symptoms of illness. Touching the patient is not required. Reiki treats the whole person, body, emotions, mind and spirit, creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feeling of peace security and wellbeing. During the UZIT program, you will be initiated in Reiki for Level One practice and will also be attuned.

Reiki Master, Lena Falth is the Director of Integrative Reiki
. Lena’s healing mission began with a near-death experience in 1995, which was followed by her Reiki training in the revered, traditional Mikao Usui-Hawayo Takata Lineage.Her background includes developing clinical research trial results of the University of Chicago into educational material and training doctors and hospital staff in new technology. Today Lena’s private healing practice serves many prominent figures in the arts and entertainment, politics and business fields. Her practice includes sacred training workshops to awaken the mind, body and soul connection in order to heal and improve the quality of our stressful lives. Having begun her 15-year Reiki practice in hospitals and hospices, Lena’s current mission is to educate and meet the needs of professional health care providers, nurses and community members with evidence based knowledge about the importance of Reiki energy therapy in integrative healthcare.

The nutrition curriculum is based on the principals of functional medicine, understanding how food fuels and assists in repairing the body. This material will focus on self-care in support of the PANIC model.

The contemplative care component is perhaps the most influential of the modalities, primarily for self-care, of the UZIT program. Mindfulness is a practice that influences our approach to life lived internally and deeply effects how we live our lives and communicate with others. Compassion, consciousness and the ability to “empty” ourselves of ego and preconceptions are essential in caring for others. The contemplative care component guides students towards a deeper understanding of meditative practice and its importance in caring for others while still maintaining care of the self. The Silent Retreat requirement is a practicum of the skills and philosophy taught in the yoga therapy and contemplative care modalities.

Roshi Joan Halifax is the Director of the Contemplative Care
 component. She is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, author and Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over thirty years and is Director of the Project on Being with Dying. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. Roshi Joan Halifax is a distinguished invited scholar to the Library of Congress and the only woman and Buddhist to be on the Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Foundation. She is Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. She is founder of the Ojai Foundation, was an Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard University, and has taught in many universities, monasteries, and medical centers around the world. Roshi Joan Halifax studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on engaged Buddhism.

There will be a series of evaluations that will be scheduled throughout the program. Certification will be awarded upon completion of evaluations in each modality as well as evaluation in the integration of all modalities.

Yoga Alliance is a nationally recognized organization that has created guidelines for yoga teachers and yoga schools to ensure that they attain certain acceptable standards. Teachers and schools can apply to Yoga Alliance; once they are accepted as meeting the standards, they will be listed in the Yoga Alliance registry. Since there currently is not a national “certification” organization for yoga teachers and yoga schools, this is the best option currently available for ensuring that teachers and schools meet the accepted standards and remain in good standing.

A limited number of scholarships will be available. If you are in need of a scholarship, please email UZIT2011@urbanzen.org to request a scholarship application.

Some of the things you can do to strengthen your application include the following: attend applicable Urban Zen Foundation events and trainings; study with UZIT faculty; attend trainings and workshops with other esteemed yoga teachers; review anatomy, physiology, and health and wellness topics; volunteer or work in a hospital or other healthcare setting, etc.

Students will be required to complete 100 hours of clinical rotations in a variety of the following hospital/medical environments. Please note that you may be required to attend volunteer orientation within a hospital clinical rotation setting and this might also require immunizations.

Students will be required to fulfill 15 hours of community service hours through participation in Urban Zen Foundation events and other community-sponsored events.

The possibilities are endless. This is a new field so it enables graduates to create employment and a career path best suited for them. Our graduates have incorporated these skills in their professional careers in private practice in dentistry, dialysis, cancer care, massage therapy and yoga instruction.