by Michael de Manincor

 

What a year!!! So much has happened….

 

2018 has been another big year for everyone at The Yoga Institute, and our Director, Michael de Manincor. As the river of yoga continues to flow, nourishing the lives of many people, we see familiar river-scapes and new pathways, finding its way into unchartered waters. Here are a few of the many highlights for us throughout 2018, many of them as first offerings throughout this year. In fact, most of them are new, apart from our well-established Teacher Training course.    

Course Graduations

• Yoga Teacher Training: recent celebrations for almost 50 graduates from our Diploma level (500 hr) Teacher Training course. We have now been offering teacher training for almost 20 years, and our focus always remains on the quality, depth, and transformative experience, to keep the river flowing.
• Wagga Wagga: in partnership with Divine Wellbeing, we also completed our first teacher training course in Regional NSW.
• Yoga Therapy Training: our first group of students have now completed our newly registered Graduate Yoga Therapy Training course.
• Heart of Yoga Courses: extraordinary in-depth experiences of personal growth and transformation. Another newly developed course in 2018.

Retreats and Holidays

• Graduate Reunion Retreat: our first ever reunion retreat for graduates of The Yoga Institute, returning to Govinda Valley. More to come next year…
• Heart of Yoga Retreat: held at the Quest for Life property in the beautiful Southern Highlands.
• Savour Italy: a mindful experience “savouring” the charms and experiences that only Italy can offer.
• Heart of Africa: another mindful travel experience, in the wildlife parks of Africa.

 

Professional achievements and university connections of our Director, Michael de Manincor

• New Academic Appointment: Following the success of his PhD, Michael has recently been appointed as the first ever Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Mind-Body Integrative Medicine at the new Westmead premises of NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University.
• Michael is also the lead in development of yoga and other mind-body therapies at the newly established Western Sydney Integrative Health (WSIH) centre – the first of its kind University research-based Integrative Medicine centre in Australia. This opens the door for the emerging field of yoga in integrative medicine.
• Michael has also been invited to join an international work-group with the World Health Organisation (WHO), for establishing benchmark standards for yoga teacher and yoga therapy training.

 

Conference presentations

• Psychiatry Conference – New Zealand: Michael’s presentation of research in yoga and mental health at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) annual congress in New Zealand – 2nd year in a row!
• Yoga Australia Conference – Keynote presentation by Michael
• SYTAR – Yoga Therapy conference: Virginia, USA

 

Commemoration

• Celebrating Desikachar – Michael was an invited guest at a commemoration of the 80th birthday of TKV Desikachar, with many of the world’s leading yoga teachers, at Kripalu, USA. An unforgettable experience!

Looking forward to a another year of connecting the dots of our work and our hearts ❤