Stage One: 200 Hours
Foundations of Yoga
Our 200-hour teacher training, where asana, pranayama, philosophy, anatomy, and the art of teaching become your own.
Dates and tuition will be announced.
SANCTUARY BY THE SEA
The Path of Yoga Therapy
A 1000-hour journey, from your first teacher training to the full education of a yoga therapist
For people who want to walk the whole way within one community, growing slowly and with good support into someone trusted to sit beside people who are ill, aging, or in pain.
How are you?
If you have found your way here, something in you is probably asking how far this path can go.
Yoga has been the thread I keep returning to since 1997. It carried me through sixteen years of recreation therapy in long-term care, through my years sitting with people as they were dying, and into the work I do now as a yoga therapist. For a long time I wished there were one place where a person could begin as a student and grow, with patience and real mentorship, into a yoga therapist who can work alongside a healthcare team.
So we are building it here. The Path of Yoga Therapy is a 1000-hour journey with Sanctuary by the Sea. You can walk all of it with us, or step onto it from wherever you are now. Some of the details are still settling, and I will tell you honestly as they do.
The path at a glance
Four stages, each with its own season and its own kind of growth.
The Year Between
Mentored Teaching Year
You teach, you tend your own practice, and you meet with a mentor as you go. Yoga therapy training asks for a year of teaching and a year of personal practice before it begins, and this is how we walk that year with you.
Stage Two: 300 Hours
Yoga Therapy in Healthcare
Twelve months of clinical foundations for nursing homes, hospitals, and veteran care centers. The founding cohort begins January 2027.
Stage Three: 500 Hours
Advanced Clinical Yoga Therapy
Deeper study of the major body systems, mental health, and the full art of assessment, held around a 150-hour Clinical Residency in which you lead yoga therapy sessions with a mentor beside you.
Planned to begin in 2028.
The 300 and the 1000, plainly
Two ways to study with us, and I want the difference to be clear before you choose.
The 300-Hour Foundations Training
Twelve months, 315 hours. Led by Jeanette Sealy, C-IAYT.
For healthcare professionals and experienced yoga teachers who want to bring yoga into the settings where they already work. It is a complete training on its own, with its own practicum and its own graduation.
Completing the 300 does not make you a certified yoga therapist, and it is not the C-IAYT credential.
The Path of Yoga Therapy
1000 hours across about four years.
The 200-hour foundation, a mentored teaching year, and then an 800-hour yoga therapy program made of the 300 and the 500 together, taught over at least two years. This is the full education of a yoga therapist, prepared to work one to one and with small groups as part of a healthcare team.
The 800-hour program is not yet accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. The accredited-program route to the C-IAYT credential requires graduating after a program is accredited, so accreditation would need to be in place before you graduate. I will tell you exactly where that stands before you enroll in the 500.
If you hope to walk the full path
A few things need to be in place before your first day of the 300:
- A 200-hour yoga teacher training, from us or from another school
- At least one year of teaching yoga
- At least one year of your own steady personal practice
The teaching and the practice can happen in the same year. These come from the educational standards for yoga therapy training, and they are the reason the mentored teaching year exists.
If you are a nurse, a therapist, or another healthcare professional who has not taught yoga, you are warmly welcome in the 300 as a complete training of its own. If you think you may want to continue afterward, talk with me before you apply so we can plan your path honestly together.
What we stand on
At Sanctuary by the Sea we share the roots of yoga and Sanatana Dharma with as much authenticity and reverence as we can bring to them, grateful for the lineage that has been handed to us. Our training rests in the teachings of Swami Sivananda, whose yoga of synthesis weaves selfless service, devotion, study, and meditation into one way of living.
The teachers who join this program bring their own lineages and their own lifetimes of practice. They carry great intelligence and devotion, and they live what they teach, offering their knowledge as selfless service. We are honored to welcome them, and we name each tradition with its source when we teach from it. All of it is held together by one simple commitment: we meet the person in front of us as a whole being, body, breath, mind, and spirit, and we offer yoga as care that walks alongside medicine. We are still learning how to carry these teachings well, and we hold that learning with humility.
Questions people ask me
Do I have to start at the beginning?
No. If you already hold a 200-hour training from another school, you can join us for the mentored teaching year, or begin the 300 directly if you already have a year of teaching and a year of personal practice behind you.
How long does the whole path take?
About four years from your first teacher training, at a pace that leaves room for the rest of your life. The 800-hour yoga therapy portion takes at least two years.
Will I be a certified yoga therapist at the end?
The C-IAYT credential comes from the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Its main route is graduating from an accredited program and taking its certification exam. IAYT also lists a portfolio review for people with significant education and experience. Our 800-hour program is not accredited yet. I will be open with you about where that stands at each stage, especially before you enroll in the 500.
How large are the groups?
We keep them small on purpose. Yoga therapy asks us to know each person, and that is only possible when we can truly see the people in front of us.
What does it cost?
Tuition for the 300 is listed on its page. Tuition for the 200, the mentored teaching year, and the 500 will be shared as each stage is finalized.
Walk with us
Join the list and I will write to you as each stage of the path takes shape. If the 300 is calling you now, applications for the January 2027 founding cohort are open.