Healing Yoga for Cancer Certification Training

Coming to 8 Limbs Yoga in Seattle, WA
Spring 2021

Training Curriculum:

50 HOURS (Live Zoom calls and online training)

This 50-hour training with Cheryl Fenner Brown is a yoga therapy course designed for yoga teachers and health care practitioners wishing to help cancer patients and survivors use the ancient practices of yoga to build wellness. In this training you will learn:

About cancer biology, how and why cancer happens, and the link between stress, inflammation, and immunity.
About traditional Western medical, complementary, and alternative cancer treatments and how side-effects impact patient’s well-being.
The theory and practice of yoga protocols for the management of cancer treatment side-effects (pain, insomnia, lymphedema, digestive distress, cognitive fog, anxiety, depression, neuropathy, and cancer-related fatigue).
How to adapt common practices for patients in active treatment, what is safe and what should be avoided.
Somatic movement therapies that enhance lymphatic flow to boost functional and physical well-being.
The practical application of adaptive, chair, and restorative asana for patients in treatment and beyond.
How cancer impacts the subtle body including the koshas, the vayus, and the chakras.
About the powerful practice of mudra and how it helps manage both the physical and emotional side-effects of cancer.
Safe pranayama practices for cooling the body and promoting awareness and calm.
The brain science behind how Yoga Nidra promotes healing at the deepest levels.
The art of writing your own customized Yoga Nidra meditations.
How to guide students through intention setting and transforming intentions into personal Sanskrit mantras.
The power of sound practices, bija mantras, and japa mala meditation.
How to adapt the yoga for cancer protocols for individual sessions and group yoga classes.
To build confidence around how to support emotional processing when it arises in your students and clients and how to protect your boundaries while working with this population.
How to effectively teach and assist cancer patients with practice creating case study protocols.

Module 1: Principles of Yoga Therapy for Cancer

5 HOURS (Live Zoom calls)
This introductory session covers the biology of cancer as well as and how traditional, complementary, and alternative treatments impact patient’s health. Learn how stress impacts the immune system and how yoga can help. How to adapt common practices for patients in active treatment, what is safe and what should be avoided. Explore the basic yoga protocol used in the Healing Yoga for Cancer Survivorship research study including asana, mudra, pranayama, guided relaxation, and sound.

Module 2: Cancer & Asana

10 HOURS (Live Zoom calls)
Pre-requisite: Module 1
Learn how to adapt common asanas for both cancer patients and survivors. Take a deep dive into restorative and chair yoga, as well as somatic movement therapies that boost immunity. Learn specific protocols that reduce cancer treatment side-effects such as lymphedema, pain, insomnia, anxiety, depression, digestive distress, neuropathy, and cancer-related fatigue. Practice customizing asana protocols with group case studies.

Module 3: The Power of Breath & SOund

10 HOURS (Live Zoom calls)
Pre-requisite: Module 1
A review of yoga philosophy and the difference between Samkhya and Vedanta views. Learn how cancer impacts the different aspects of the subtle body including the koshas, doshas, vayus, and chakras. The science behind pranayama and how to guide patients through practices during treatment and beyond. Specific pranayama protocols to manage anxiety, depression, pain, insomnia, lymphedema, neuropathy, cancer-related fatigue, cognitive fog, and digestive distress. The power of using intention and sound practices (chanting, bija mantra, and japa mala) to enhance meditative states. Learn how to guide clients in creating personalized Sanskrit mantras. Practice customizing breath, sound, and intention protocols with group case studies.

Module 4: Mudras for Healing

10 HOURS (Live Zoom calls)
Pre-requisites: Module 1 & Module 3
Learn the powerful art of mudras and how they elicit positive changes in the physical, emotional, mental and wisdom bodies. Learn how to create your own personalized mudras. Specific mudra protocols to promote immune health, and manage anxiety, depression, pain, insomnia, lymphedema, neuropathy, cancer-related fatigue, and digestive distress. How to combine mudra with asana, pranayama, chanting, and meditation to promote deeper awareness and healing. Practice customizing mudra protocols with group case studies. Practice customizing mudra protocols with group case study work.

Module 5: Online Yoga Nidra Training

10 HOURS (Online training)
Yoga Nidra is a style of guided meditation that leads practitioners through a first-person experience of their body, breath, emotions, and imagination in a completely non-judgmental and compassionate way. Anyone can learn to write and teach from their own Yoga Nidra meditations with this 10-hour online Yoga Nidra Training chock full of video lectures, audio practices, written homework exercises and 7 hours of bonus content that will stoke your creative writing fires. By the end of the course, you will have written your very own Yoga Nidra meditation and have the tools and understanding to write more scripts.

online yoga nidra training

Module 6: Working with Patients Practicum

5 HOURS (Live Zoom calls)
Pre-requisites: Modules 1-4
Learn how to incorporate subtle practices into your teaching and private client work. How cancer affects the subtle body, including the impact it has on the koshas and chakras. A deep dive into mudra (hand gestures), pranayama (breathing), mantra (chanting and sound), sankalpa (intention), and yoga nidra (guided relaxation). Learn how these practices strengthen the immune system and counteract treatment side-effects improve emotional and spiritual quality of life. Build confidence around how to support emotional processing when it arises in your students and how to protect yourself while working with this population.

What Teachers Have to Say

As a teacher, I have studied under Cheryl and I can't recommend her highly enough. I wish we'd had someone like Cheryl in our lives when my husband was in treatment for cancer, she is so knowledgeable and compassionate. If you are in treatment, recovery or have any kind of limitation and think you can't do yoga, she is the teacher for you! - Tiffany Cole Candiotti, Apex, NC, 2020.

Cheryl is a teacher's teacher as well as for new students. Her knowledge and experience in working with cancer patients is presented with such expertise and I might add warmth, I felt so much gratitude. Her work leaves you with a wealth of practices presented in a organized and thoughtful manner. I have taken other nationally well known courses but preferred Cheryl's philosophy more. I have worked with a few private students who had developed breast cancer during the course of our time together I used many of the techniques, practices,and philosophies I have learned thru Cheryl's work. She is a gem with the energy of a lioness. - Lynne Dreyer, Arlington, VA, 2020

12 hours with Cheryl is almost equivalent to a 200 teacher training, with Cheryl wearing all the hats! She is endlessly knowledgeable and experienced with all of the information she is presenting. She is an engaging, credible, professional and fun presenter/person. Her talents are endless! This course was thorough, brimming with information and the handouts were extremely comprehensive. Thank you Cheryl!!! - Sallie Moran, Walnut Creek, CA, 2018

The Subtle Practices weekend was full of valuable information, all of which I was able to immediately incorporate into my classes and with private students. This training definitely up-leveled my understanding and offerings as a teacher. - Tiffany C, Raleigh, 2018

I completed a weekend of training for yoga teachers with Cheryl. I've been teaching yoga for many years but one is never too old to learn. Cheryl is an exceptional teacher. She has changed some of the ways I teach. Regardless of which class a student takes, anyone would benefit from her instruction. -Alan Ennis, Durham, NC, 2020

The Course Cancer & Physical Practices as written and presented by Cheryl offers current viable, mindful and caring approach to instructors helping cancer patients. Cheryl’s educational course offers an understanding for the anatomy of cancer, how to boost the immune system, how to approach inflammation in the body with research protocol, stress reducing techniques and much, much more. As a cancer survivor and yoga instructor I learned exponentially... and now having a deeper understanding and appreciation for the dynamics of mindfully helping students and practitioners benefiting in the resultant joys of such practice applications for all. Thank you, kindly! - Brett Mehringer., Walnut Creek, CA, 2019

I truly appreciated your course and you personally as a trainer. You “know your stuff!” My students loved learning new poses and the tidbits I sprinkled through the class, as I find science based teaching effective and so did they! - Dawn Rudluff, Walnut Creek, CA 2019

We are so fortunate to have Cheryl’s deep wisdom and many years of experience offered as a practical course to be shared. I received so much out of this training- practices and information I share directly with the students at the Cancer Support Community in Santa Rosa. They’ve responded with so much positive feedback about how the yoga is helping them cope with their illness. This is my second training and I look forward to what Cheryl and PYC will offer in the future. - Sarah Jenness, Walnut Creek, CA, 2017