Teach Yoga for Cancer Course
Heal the Whole Person
Learn to share yoga safely and compassionately with anyone affected by cancer
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Book before 15th February 2025 for your £35 discount
Teach Yoga for Cancer Course
TRAINING DATES:
Course dates: 22-23 March and 10 - 11 May 2025
Course times: 9 - 5pm
Complete the full 40 hour training within three months of live sessions ending.
LOCATION:
Zoom
PRICE:
Early bird until 15th Feb £415 | £450 40 hour accredited Teacher Training Course | Bursaries for Cancer Care Workers
40 hour Teacher Training Course from £375. Charitable organisations, ask us about bursaries - £100 towards course fees
Instalment plans are available to suit your budget. Email info@yogabynature.org to ask about payment plans
Teach Yoga for Cancer Course
Yoga for Cancer Teacher Training with Morven
Hi, I’m Morven—a YAP-accredited Senior Yoga Teacher, YAP TrainerPro, and breast cancer survivor. With over three decades of teaching experience across the globe, I’ve dedicated my career to blending my two passions: yoga and education. Since 2016, I’ve certified numerous teachers and supported hundreds of people affected by cancer through yoga.
Free Resource: Get your Teach Yoga for Cancer e-book.
Many wonder, “How different can Yoga for Cancer really be from regular yoga?” The answer lies in understanding the complex physical, emotional, and psychological realities of cancer. This knowledge transforms your teaching—helping you move beyond simply avoiding harm to truly supporting those living with cancer to thrive.
What You'll Learn
This training provides a whole-person approach to teaching yoga for cancer. You’ll gain the confidence and skills to:
Welcome students affected by cancer into your classes without feeling overwhelmed
Offer effective, compassionate one-on-one sessions
Design group courses specifically for people living with cancer
Understand the nuances of cancer treatment and recovery, teaching from a place of empathy and knowledge
Is This Course for You?
This course is ideal if you are:
A yoga teacher wanting to support those living with cancer
A yoga student or professional in a related field (nursing, hospice care, physiotherapy, psychotherapy)
Someone who believes in yoga’s capacity to heal and improve wellbeing
Course Details
Our accredited Yoga for Cancer Teacher Training offers in-depth insights into working with individuals facing cancer and other life-limiting illnesses. You'll gain a deep understanding of cancer’s impact on the body, mind, and spirit, while learning therapeutic yoga practices that nurture the whole person—physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Want a taste before committing to the full course? Try the self-paced 5-hour Foundations Yoga for Cancer course and earn a CPD certificate.
What’s Included?
Your training includes a comprehensive manual covering:
A tried and tested flexible six-week Yoga for Cancer course outline, adaptable to various care settings
Ready-to-use transcripts for Yoga Nidras and meditations
A Mindfulness for Health module focused on pain management and mental health
Restorative Yoga practices
Sample therapeutic sequences for symptom relief and side-effect management
Other course features include:
Lifetime access to Morven's self-paced Simple and Safe Yoga and Mindfulness for Pain course online
A 1:1 coaching call with Morven within 12 months of your course end date
A training group WhatsApp where you can share resources and support each other
A Teach Yoga for Cancer course graduate Facebook group, which serves as a forum for community support in the field of teaching yoga in a cancer care setting
My Approach
This course is built on the Healing the Whole Person approach I developed during my time at Penny Brohn Cancer Care UK. It integrates advanced training in Mindfulness for Health (Breathworks Foundation) with years of practical experience, offering you a holistic framework to help your students live well despite the challenges of cancer.
Ready to start your journey? Join me and make a real difference in the lives of those coping with cancer.
If you’re not ready to commit to the full course, explore the 5-hour introductory Teach Yoga for Cancer course and receive a CPD certificate.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
You will learn to:
👉 create unique, holistic yoga for cancer programmes for one to one work
👉 integrate people with cancer into your regular classes
👉 design courses for groups and individuals on the cancer journey
👉 apply Mindfulness concepts and techniques to your yoga teaching
👉 compassionately hold space for those who are potentially in physical, emotional, mental and spiritual difficulty
👉 mindfully teach from a place of compassion and active listening
DESCRIPTION
This Yoga for Cancer teacher training course covers the cancer journey throughout diagnosis, treatment (or not), recovery, remission and what comes next. We will also explore working with people at end of life. The loved ones and support persons of those with a diagnosis are considered in this course, as they are coping with cancer too.
Each day, Morven will teach a class from her Healing the Whole Person six -week Yoga for Cancer course and we will have a group Q&A afterwards where we will unpack the class content. You will be able to see how each practice is chosen to nurture every person, and how to adapt for your own group. This will assist you in your process for designing your own yoga for cancer classes.
The course includes practical application of asana and sequencing, mindfulness and mindful movement, restorative yoga, yoga nidra, breathwork and meditation. Participants are encouraged to explore their own responses to life-threatening illness including their own preconceptions and fears.
There will be plenty of space for Q&A, discussion and practice, enabling participants to be grounded in their own unique process.
You will receive a comprensive course manual written by Morven Hamilton. It is both an accompaniment to the course and an ongoing support for your reference.
Yoga and Mindfulness have been shown to:
Improve the immune system
Help people to cope with the effects of treatment
Accelerate healing from surgery
Recover mobility more quickly following surgery
Improve body image
Help with sleep issues, depression, stress and anxiety following a diagnosis
Please note, our courses do not qualify you as a yoga therapist.
COURSE CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
Course Structure
28 hours live online. Recording available after course end
4 contact days, 9AM - 5PM on Zoom with the lead instructor Yoga Alliance Professionals accredited Senior Yoga Teacher Morven Hamilton
To complete 40 hours of Yoga for Cancer Teacher Training you will do an additional 12 hours of self-paced mentored study including reading course texts, completing practice teaching videos, assignment work and live feedback/mentoring sessions.
We’ll use props to recreate some of the physical movement restrictions that patients often suffer. Through this and other course elements, you’ll be encouraged in your own personal transformation towards an embodied understanding of the person with cancer.
Presentation (teacher to student and peer to peer)
Led practice
Discussion
Enactment
Peer to peer teaching practice
__________
Published research and articles on yoga, meditation mindfulness, complementary therapy and cancer:
Multicenter, Randomized Controlled Trial of Yoga for Sleep Quality Among Cancer Survivors
Yoga reduces inflammatory signalling
http://www.wcrf-uk.org/reserch/continuous_update_project.php
mindfulness and cancer 2013 perceived health benefits – breast cancer
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/regular-yoga-can-help-cancer-survivors/
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/09/108886/lifestyle-changes-may lengthen-telomeres-measure-cell-aging
https://www.asbestos.com/featured-stories/exercise-mesothelioma-care/
Syllabus / Modules
Module 1 - The cancer journey
Anatomy and physiology of cancer
The most common types of cancer
Types of treatment and their effects
Lymphodoema - what causes it and how it shows up in yoga class
How to work with PICC lines, chemo ports, colostomy and ileostomy bags
Osteoporosis and other bone conditions
Wider repercussions of cancer on the whole person – body, mind, spirit and relationships
How the trauma of investigation, diagnosus and treatment can change us and how it can be transformed.
Module 2 - Yoga as Medicine
The benefits of yoga and meditation for people with cancer and their loved ones
The effect of yoga on the entire immune system
Application of therapeutic asana for common effects of cancer in the body
Asana modifications for common limitations experienced on the cancer journey
Planning therapeutic treatment programmes for individuals
Restorative yoga - key poses, modifications for nervous system rebalance
Vagus nerve stimulation techniques
Pain management techniques
Pranayama, relaxation, mantra, visualisation adapted for cancer
Yoga Nidra as a therapeutic practice adapted for cancer patients
Module 3 - Ethics, compassion and the whole person
Exploring personal responses to disease and death
Boundaries, safety and trauma sensitivity
Working holistically with people with life threatening illness
Dealing with loss as a teacher and as a yoga community
Creating a safe environment - practicalities
Module 4 - Designing your course
Putting together a progressive programme – things to consider and what to include
Using themes – how to choose a theme and develop it in your Yoga for Cancer class/ course
Including people with cancer in your mainstream class
Module 5 - Mindfulness and yoga
Introduction to Mindfulness for Health
How to incorporate mindfulness into your yoga class
Accessible mindfulness techniques for overcoming pain and living well with illness
Mindful movement
Module 6 - Business
Choosing the right venue
Approaching organisations
Resources
Communicating with the press
Best practice for establishing trust and confidence in your business
Additional study to complete 40 hours of training
Read course texts (text list given on enrollment)
Lesson planning
25 minute teaching assessment (you will deliver this live or optionally video yourself teaching and send us the video for the group to watch)
1500 word case study: You will work with someone on the cancer journey and prepare a case study report of your work with them
PAYMENT & OFFERS
40 hour Teacher Training Course from £350 (cancer care workers) to £450. Check our early bird rates.
Instalment plans available to suit your budget. Email info@yogabynature.org to ask about payment plans
Charities - ask us about bursaries
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Thank you for your interest in the course!
Example daily schedule
08:00 - 09:30
09:30 - 10.00
10:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:30
12:30 - 13:30
13:30 - 15:30
15:30 - 16:45
16:45 - 17:00
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MORNING PRACTICE
CHECK-IN
YOGA TECHNIQUES & MINDFULNESS
ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
LUNCH
METHODOLOGY / LIFESTYLE / ETHICS
TECHNIQUE & PRACTICUM
CLOSING CIRCLE
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Postural Hatha yoga, relaxation and meditation.
A group check-in to set the intention for the day ahead.
Asana, pranayama, kriya, bhanda, mantra, mudra, meditation.
Anatomy in action & applied philosophy, lifestyle and ethics.
A chance to nourish, relax and refresh together.
Yoga on and off the mat, sequencing, postural applications.
Teaching & practice with peers in small groups.
Space to share and meditate
Are you ready to become your best you?
Reveal the most radiant, confident, skilful version of yourself, as well as
gaining a professional qualification.
Curious? Contact info@yogabynature.org to discuss your next steps
