Train as a Yoga Therapist. Specialize in Sound and Mantra Yoga Therapies

Sound Yoga Therapy Program Questions People Actually Ask:

What’s Heart of Sound’s relationship with IAYT?
Heart of Sound is an IAYT member school, Yoga Alliance-registered, and I’m a C-IAYT myself. What we don’t hold is IAYT program accreditation — the thing that lets a school certify yoga therapists. I started that process, but it’d take more paperwork than I frankly have time for! So when Prema Yoga came along and invited me for this collab, I said “yes!”

Prema Yoga Institute is accredited, and it’s their certification you’d earn. I teach the sound yoga therapy practicum inside it.

I’m spelling that out because “accredited” gets thrown around in the sound healing field like confetti, and a great deal of it turns out to be schools accrediting themselves through a body they invented.

What is IAYT accreditation, and why does it matter?
The International Association of Yoga Therapists accredits training programs and certifies individual therapists — that’s the C-IAYT after a name. It’s the closest thing the yoga field has to a professional standard anyone outside it recognises, and it’s what a hospital, a clinic or a referring practitioner will look for.

It’s also, frankly, the difference between being trusted with someone who is genuinely unwell and being the nice thing they do on a Sunday afternoon.

Is this a sound healing certification? A sound yoga therapy certification?
No. This is a yoga therapy certification with a sound yoga therapy track: a broad clinical yoga therapy training for people who already know they want sound and mantra in what they offer.

IAYT does not currently offer a specific designation for Sound Yoga Therapy; this is a term Anandra uses to distinguish Heart of Sound’s focus on a therapeutic approach to sound yoga, because although sound and mantra are fundamental to traditional yoga practice in India (and even today, in most āśrams chanting is the primary yoga practice people do daily), most people around the world think about yogāsana physical yoga postures when they hear the word “yoga.”

If it’s the deep dive into sound and mantra itself you’re hungry for, our own 500-hour training goes far deeper into ONLY that and costs less than the 800-hour Prema Yoga course. Both routes are laid side by side at the bottom of this page.

What if I don’t care about a yoga therapy certificate and just want to learn sound yoga therapies?
Then you probably want one of our other Heart of Sound courses.
Plenty of people arrive wondering if sound and mantra could improve their life with no interest whatsoever in credentials. They want the practices themselves, for their own life or for the people already around them.

Anandra and Heart of Sound offer a whole range for exactly that: mini masterclasses, 40-day mantra journeys, by-donation practices, chant retreats where you turn up and sing. Some of it is free, some starts at $7, pay what you can. Start anywhere. If you get to the end of one and find you want to go further, the 200-hour and 500-hour trainings (and the 800-hour Prema Yoga course collab) will still be here. No hurry, and no pressure — your next step is here.

Browse all Heart of Sound courses 

Do I need any prior sound training to apply for this Yoga Therapy Program training?
None. The program is open to experienced yoga teachers, and no shame whatsoever if you’ve never chanted a syllable, or if your prior yoga teacher trainings left you without a clue about critical Sanskrit anatomy (as most do).

You’ll be in good company, including with most of our own community when they started.

If you have trained with Heart of Sound, up to 75 of those hours transfer straight toward your certification and you receive an appropriate discount.

Do Heart of Sound Retreats count as hours for the Yoga Therapy Program?
No. The sound yoga practicum track that Anandra teaches within the Yoga Therapy Course is run entirely inside Prema Yoga’s course structure.

You’re welcome to come experience our chant retreats around the world, of course! They’d enrich your experience of the potential of individual and group sound therapy experiences.

Browse the retreat schedule and if you’re a student of Prema Yoga Institute, contact us for a discount to attend.

What does the Yoga Therapy Program cost, and when does it start?
Tuition, payment plans, module dates and the application form are all with Prema Yoga Institute, who run admissions and enrollment.