Orientation to the Conference

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

Learn the ins and outs to get the most out of the conference. You do not want to miss this orientation to the conference.

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Introduction to Neuroscience

Andrew McGonigle, MBBS

An exploration of the basic anatomy and physiology of the nervous system applied to yoga. 

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How to Read a Scientific Abstract

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD, Eddie Stern, MS and

Marshall Hagins, PhD

To truly understand what science is saying about yoga, you have to go to the source - the actual scientific paper. In this session, you will be introduced to a simple and practical approach to evaluating scientific abstracts. We will also compare the actual findings to how they have been portrayed in the popular press

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The Truth about Yoga Therapy

Ann Swanson, MS

Join this short practice followed by an honest conversation about yoga therapy—what it is, what it isn’t, if it’s worth it, and what actually happens after certification. We’ll explore common FAQs, including financial realities and creative paths to impact relevant to yoga therapists and teachers alike. This isn't a sales pitch—it’s a reality check rooted in dharma, ideal for those seeking clarity without disillusionment. Come with questions!

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The Science of Breath Retention: From Physiology to Cellular Adaptation

Heather Mason, MS

This talk explores how breath retention influences physiological processes across multiple scales, from respiratory and cardiovascular function to cellular and genetic adaptation. Drawing on emerging research in hypoxic and hypercapnic stress, it examines how controlled breath retention activates adaptive mechanisms relevant to human resilience and wellbeing. A brief experiential practice will accompany the scientific discussion.

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The Essence of Yoga

Andrew Jones

What is the true essence of yoga.

How has it been updated for today’s world.

Does yoga and science co-exist?

And how can an ancient philosophy become part of our everyday lives. And help us be the best we can be and remove pain and suffering.

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Discussion Group

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

During the discussion group, we will reflect on the presentations, share key takeaways, and discuss insights from the yoga sessions.

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My Personal Journey With Migraine: When Yoga Helped, When It Didn’t, and What I Learned

Josephine Lau

Yoga is often framed as universally calming, yet for people with migraine, certain practices can trigger or worsen symptoms. Drawing on lived experience, advocacy, and neuroscience-informed yoga, this talk explores how a sensitised nervous system responds to breath, movement, and sensory input across both acute symptom management and long-term preventative practice. Attendees will gain practical, migraine-informed insights for adapting yoga to support nervous system safety and balance over time.

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Yoga and Migraine: Science for Relief

Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD

This talk will first review the diagnostic and management principles of migraine. Second, the data supporting yoga as a standalone and as an adjunctive migraine preventive treatment will be discussed.

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Yoga Workshop: Migraines: A Haṭha Yoga Preventative

Christopher Key Chapple, PhD

Yoga postures (āsana) and breath management exercises (prāṇāyāma) bring balance, above and below, side to side. By opening the energetic channels (nāḍīs), a restorative ballast can be created to stave off episodic headache. This presentation will include personal narrative, text references, and participation in practice.

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Yoga Workshop: Breathing, Postures, Meditation, and Mindset for Migraine

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

This class will be tailored for days where you can tolerate more movement, and includes a complete yoga practice of postrures, breathing, meditation, relaxation, and philosophy, similar to the yoga used in research studies for migraine.

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"Vagus Nerves,” Reflexes, and Inflammation

Kevin Tracey, MD

Much is said about yoga and the vagus nerve, and there is a lot of new science about the vagus nerve and inflammation.

Here we dive into the highlights to separate the facts from the hype.

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From Reactivity to Relief: Integrating CBT, Mindfulness, Compassion, and Yoga for Migraine Care

Esther Estey, PhD

This session explores an integrative approach to migraine and chronic headache disorders that combines CBT-Headache strategies with mindfulness, compassion practices, and yoga. Participants will learn how these approaches work together to address both the physical experience of pain and the psychological and physiological processes that can amplify it. Practical, evidence-informed techniques—including brief breath, movement, and compassion-based practices—will be introduced to support regulation and relief for individuals living with headache conditions.

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Yoga Therapy and Mindfulness for Chronic Pain

Raquel Chinchetru, PhD

This lecture explores the role of yoga therapy and mindfulness in the management of chronic pain. It presents findings from a systematic review of psychological therapies aimed at reducing opioid use, conducted as part of the speaker’s Professional Doctorate research. In addition to the research overview, the session explore the role of yoga-based techniques for the eyes and visual relaxation. These practices aim to relieve eye strain, promote relaxation of the nervous system, and illustrate how accessible yoga techniques can complement psychological and integrative approaches to chronic pain management.

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Q&A Session

Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD, Adriane Dellorco & Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

Join us for a live Q&A session with Olivia Begasse de Dhaem, MD, Adriane Dellorco and Jonathan Rosenthal, MD.

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How Yoga Helps Migraine: Physiology to Implementation

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

Yoga can influence multiple systems that matter for migraine, including stress reactivity, sleep regulation, autonomic balance, inflammation, and brain plasticity, making yoga is a “multi-target” lifestyle intervention. This session translates the science into a practical model of migraine and a clear rationale for the implementing yoga as an adjunctive treatment. Expect to leave with next steps to help with migraine, for yourself or for others.

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American Yoga Council: A New Standard in Yoga Education

Andrew Tanner

The problems with Yoga credentialing are well known; AYC’s new standard is built on transparency, accountability, and lineage. In this session, learn how AYC is changing the game of yoga education and supporting yoga teachers and schools to up-level the quality of their programs and grow yoga in America and beyond. Presentation and Q+A w/AYC CEO Andrew Tanner

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Yoga Workshop: Bed Yoga for Migraine Attack Recovery

Adriane Dellorco

What does yoga look like when light, sound, and movement feel overwhelming? This session explores the lived reality of migraine and how to teach yoga in a way that reduces migraine symptoms rather than triggering them. We’ll close with a gentle 30-minute bed yoga practice designed to support recovery after a migraine attack.

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Yoga in the Classroom: From Pre-K to 5th Grade

Charlotte Multon

Yoga taught me that the mind can be transformed. Through practice, we can learn self-regulation, increase attention, develop empathy, and cultivate happiness, especially when guided by a great teacher. Yoga also led me to my career path: becoming a school teacher. What better place, and what better age, to learn these skills than in primary school?

As a classroom teacher, I was eager to bring yoga to my students. Yet I quickly discovered that integrating yoga into the classroom was far more challenging than I expected. I came to understand that “yoga” for children looks very different from “yoga” for adults. Teaching yoga to children has been one of my most humbling lessons because often, they are the ones who end up teaching you what yoga truly is.

In this presentation, I will share my journey with yoga and teaching, the lessons I’ve learned from bringing yoga into the classroom, and the questions and explorations that continue to guide my work today.

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Yoga Workshop: Talk Yoga™: Supporting Communication Development and Learning Readiness in Young Children Through Mindful Movement 

Kim Hughes and Amy Roberts from Talk Yoga

Talk Yoga™ is an integrative approach that blends yoga principles with communication enrichment to support communication and learning readiness in preschool and early elementary children. Grounded in neuroscience and self-regulation research, this model highlights how a calm, connected body and mind create the foundation for language development. In this session, participants will experience a brief Talk Yoga™ class and learn practical strategies that integrate movement, breath, and mindful awareness to foster regulation, confidence, and expressive communication in young learners.

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Yoga and ADHD: What the Evidence Actually Shows

Kristin Anderson, PhD

Yoga and ADHD: What the Evidence Actually Shows
This presentation reviews the emerging evidence for yoga as an adjunctive approach for children with ADHD, with attention to inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, emotional regulation, and family stress. Drawing from a 2024 systematic review of seven clinical trials and randomized studies, plus key individual trials, it will examine where the data are promising, where the evidence is still limited, and how yoga practices might be applied with greater precision in educational and clinical settings.

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Yoga-Mindfulness for Autistic Children: Promise, Problems, and Practical Implications

Tundi Loftus, PhD

This presentation examines the evidence for yoga and mindfulness-based interventions in reducing anxiety, improving social skills, and decreasing aggressive behaviours in children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Drawing on a systematic review of 23 studies, it explores what the research shows, where it falls short, and what this means for clinical and educational practice.

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Yoga in Schools: The Scientific Rationale and Research Evidence

Sat Bir Khalsa, PhD

Adolescents and children are undergoing a crisis in mental and physical health conditions. These are not being adequately addressed in a school system that is focused on academics but has little in the way of life and behavioral skills to maintain physical and mental health and wellness and prevent the onset of lifestyle and chronic diseases. Research is now demonstrating that yoga practices that include physical exercise, relaxation practices, breathwork and meditative techniques are capable of preventing and treating most physical and mental health conditions. A small but growing body of research is indicating that implementation of yoga in school settings is feasible and efficacious and therefore deserves to be implemented in the school curriculum.

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Creating Space to Breathe: Yoga for Neurodiversity and Childhood Trauma

Nóra Kerekes, PhD

How can breathing space support the developing brain?
This lecture explores the neurobiological impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and neurodevelopmental differences in school-aged youth, presenting findings from a decade-long integrative review on yoga-based interventions in educational and psychiatric settings. The outcomes include mental health, self-control capacity, executive functioning, academic skills, as well as self-esteem, resilience and quality of life. Drawing from neuroscience and clinical practice, the talk highlights how trauma-sensitive approaches to yoga, such as Trauma-Adapted Yoga (TAY), may support self-regulation, resilience, and quality of life in children and adolescents with diverse needs.

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Q&A

Kristin Anderson, PhD, Nóra Kerekes, PhD, Sat Bir Khalsa, PhD, and Charlotte Multon

Join us for a live Q&A session with Kristin Anderson, PhD, Nóra Kerekes, PhD, Sat Bir Khalsa, PhD, and Charlotte Multon

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Yoga: The First 1500 Years, 500 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E.

Christopher Key Chapple, PhD

This presentation includes an overview of the philosophy and textual history of Yoga, drawing from primary sources such as the Upanisads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutra, the Yogabindu, and the Yogavasistha.

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Adaptive Yoga for Neurodiverse Children

Renata Sumar Gaertner

Developed in 1972 after the birth of my sister, Roberta, the Sonia Sumar Method® is a therapeutic, individualized yoga approach that has evolved over 54 years of working with children with disabilities—including neurodiverse, developmental, and physical profiles. This presentation explores how attunement, sensory‑informed movement, and co‑regulation help each child feel safe, confident, and connected in their body.

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Yoga Workshop: Meeting Students Where They Are: Teaching Yoga Across Developmental Stages in Classrooms

Anne Desmond, Tanya Farmer, Bent on Learning

In school settings, how yoga is taught matters more than what is taught. This session demonstrates how development shapes the delivery of yoga from PreK through adolescence, highlighting how shifts in language, pacing, structure, and choice influence student engagement and participation. Participants will actively engage in short demonstrations and guided reflection, leaving with practical, classroom-ready strategies they can apply immediately.

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Q&A Session: Schools & Neurodiversity

Tundi Loftus, PhD, Renata Sumar Gaertner, Amy Roberts, Talk Yoga & Danielle Mathersul, PhD

Join us for a live Q&A session with Tundi Loftus, PhD, Renata Sumar Gaertner, Amy Roberts, Talk Yoga & Danielle Mathersul, PhD.

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The Role of Breathing in Regulating Metabolic Function

Abha Rajbhandari, PhD

One of the core aspects of yoga is conscious attention to breathing. From a biological perspective, breathing plays a critical role in regulating cellular and whole-body metabolism. This presentation will highlight emerging research demonstrating how alterations in breathing patterns influence metabolic regulation, with important implications for health and longevity.

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Yoga for Brain Health

Neha Gothe, PhD

The talk will discuss evidence for Hatha yoga in improving cognition and brain health among healthy and clinical populations. We will review how yoga programs are designed and implemented, how cognition and brain health is assessed, and the key takeaways from the studies in the literature.

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Life Is the Practice: An Introduction to Body Positive Yoga and its Impact on Brain Health

Donna Noble

Discover how yoga can be experienced as a body positive, accessible practice that supports self-acceptance and everyday wellbeing, besides helping our brain function at its best. Through gentle movement, breath and reflection, this session explores how feeling safe in the body can shape mindset and the way we meet life. The session will end with time for participant questions.

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Yoga Workshop: Yoga for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

Jenn Tarrant

Yoga for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) explores how gentle movement, breathwork, and mindfulness practices can support brain health, memory, and overall cognitive function. These practices may help regulate the nervous system, improve focus, and promote well-being for individuals experiencing early cognitive changes.

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Yoga Workshop: Yoga Sangraha

Eddie Stern, MS

This class is an accessible, grounding, and calming sequence of postures. The postures come from the larger Hatha Yoga tradition, but not from any one lineage. The sequences have been put together through experimentation and exploration of Hatha Yoga practices and texts, along with the scientific understanding of the self-regulation capacities we have in our autonomic nervous system, which can lead to states of inner calm and balance.

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Yoga, Mind-body Connections, Resilience and Brain Health

Helen Lavretsky, MD

This session explores the role of brain health and psychological resilience in aging, with a focus on whole-person well-being. We will examine the mechanisms through which yoga and mind-body therapies support brain health and resilience, including research findings on Kundalini yoga for cognitive decline in older adults and women 50+ with cerebrovascular risk factors. The presentation also shares results from the Soul Listening Meditation study, highlighting how art, nature, and contemplative practices influence the brain

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Q&A

Helen Lavretsky, MD, Abha Rajbhandari, PhD
Neha Gothe, PhD, Donna Noble & Jenn Tarrant

Join us for a live Q&A session with Helen Lavretsky, MD, Abha Rajbhandari, PhD, Neha Gothe, PhD, Donna Noble & Jenn Tarrant.

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Closing

Jonathan Rosenthal, MD

Join us as we close out the conference and celebrate the insights, connections, and inspiration we've gathered together.

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