THE YOGA FOR HEALTH FOUNDATION LEGACY LIVES ON

UPDATE 2 -    YHET TEACHER TRAINING COURSE

 We held our second course development meeting in early September to further develop the new course and made good progress.

It was agreed that Ellen Lee would be the Course Director, Shailesh Jobanputra the Deputy Course Director and Mary Milne (YHET trustee) the Course Administrator.  Ellen Lee runs the Bushey School of Yoga, which offers its own teacher training program, trained with Yoga for Health Foundation and is the Chair of the Independent Yoga Network.  Shailesh Jobanputra trained with the Yoga for Health Foundation and as a Sivananda yoga teacher. The other members of the course development group are Paul Blissett and June Skeggs (YHET trustees), John Grimes, Julia Nicoll and Joy and Ian Frame.   John is a YHET teacher member and qualified yoga therapist.  Julia, Joy and Ian were all involved with the courses that The Yoga for Health Foundation (YFHF) ran at Ickwell Bury.

The initial course will be for existing yoga teachers who wish to confidently and knowledgeably integrate people with various health problems into their class. Howard Kent, the founder of The Yoga for Health Foundation always said everyone needs remedial yoga to varying degrees.

Course topics were decided upon and the key principles that will permeate all topics identified.  The course will be very experiential and be brought up to date in terms of current learning best practice.

A list of tutors with a variety of backgrounds and experience was drawn up and some have already been contacted and agreed to become course tutors.  The others will be contacted before our next meeting in November. A tutor’s Code of Conduct will be drawn up and signed by all tutors.  There will also be an equivalent student’s Code of Conduct.

The course will be residential, probably 12 weekends running over a two year period.  We believe that the advantages of learning in a residential format greatly outweigh those of attending on a daily basis.  We have identified a venue and dates are currently being worked out.  The maximum number on the course is expected to be 16, at least for the first course.  An unusual feature of the course will be the participation of two tutors plus either the Course Director or Deputy Course Director throughout.

Costing of the course is quite advanced and we believe that the course price will be very competitive for what it offers.

The title for the course continues to provoke lively discussion with the pro’s and con’s of the words “remedial”, “therapeutic” and “therapy” amongst others being batted back and forth.  Some of you may remember Howard Kent, YFHF founder, getting very upset if anyone talked about yoga therapy!  Fortunately we have a clear vision of the course itself so this is not delaying our progress.

The next meeting of the course development group will take place in November 4th 2011.

PS: This meeting was extremely productive.  More details soon.

For more information about the trust go to our website

www.yoga-health-education.org.uk

The next planning meeting is on Friday January 27th    Watch this space for progress.

June Skeggs (acting chairperson)