What does the future hold for therapeutic yoga? What do healthcare experts expect from therapeutic yoga? What can yoga teachers do to develop effective practices to support traditional medicine?

These are some of the questions that will be explored at the first Montreal International Symposium on Therapeutic Yoga (MISTY), October 29 – 30, 2011. As yoga becomes an increasingly important alternative health practice, this is the first time in Canada the medical and yoga community will converge with a purpose.

The event will be co-chaired by Dr. Loren Fisher and Montreal’s own Dr. Madan Bali, and the faculty includes leaders in the field such as Ray Long, Leeann Carey, Neil Pearson, Antonio Sausys and Jill Dunkley. Montrealers Carina Raisman and Patrick Salibi will represent new voices and views in the growing discipline of therapeutic yoga.

In 16 thematic sessions and four keynote presentations, the topics to be covered include anxiety, stress and depression; yoga for seniors, cancer survivors and those with persistent health concerns; the technical aspects of teaching therapeutic yoga; supporting traditional medicine; yoga for chronic pain; and how yoga can help spinal issues, knees and hips, and osteoporosis.

The vision for the event is to integrate therapeutic yoga with modern medicine as a partner in health, for the physical and mental body. By sharing experiences and research to better support people with special needs, the event can help foster inter-connectedness between traditional and alternative medicine, practice settings (hospitals and health institutions) and practitioners.

Expected attendees include yoga teachers, students, doctors, physiotherapists, osteopaths, as well as educators, policy makers, professors, research scientists and all others interested in health.

Registration is still open, but spaces are filling up. To register, visit the MISTY website. MISTY is proudly organized by H-OM Yoga Events. I’m excited to be featuring faculty interviews and profiles in the upcoming weeks on it’s all yoga, baby.