This post is a part of a series introducing the presenters of our 2019 yoga conference, (March 22-24, 2019) sharing more about them, our own perspective and intentions for their involvement, and how their unique offerings contribute to the larger conference experience.
As a student of yoga, I often find myself both intrigued by, and skeptical of, the way in which people in the yoga community talk about healing. Intrigued, because I have felt first hand some of the healing powers of yoga, and intuitively, many of the teachings make sense to me.
Skeptical though, because sometimes people make claims that aren’t backed up by science, which haven’t been or can’t be replicated in clinical trials, and communicated with a tone that often seems to suggest yoga and diet can cure every disease.
So I was thrilled when Indu Arora, who designed the entire yoga therapy track and worked with us to invite presenters for the track, invited in Dr. Avanti Kumar Singh.
The more I read about Dr. Singh on her website, and the more videos I watch of her speaking, the more excited I became about her presenting at the conference.
It is vital, in my opinion, that we understand both the possibilities, and limitations, of different healing approaches. What’s exciting about Dr. Singh, from what I’ve learned so far, is that she’s not teaching an “either / or” approach. Instead, it’s an integrative approach. Taking the best of what she’s learned from her medical training, and what she’s learned about yoga, meditation, lifestyle and diet, she advocates for a wholistic healing approach.
Dr. Singh now works at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago where she “provides faculty with an opportunity to explore the theoretical principles, clinical practices, and evidence related to complementary and integrative therapies.”
We are very fortunate to have someone with the depth of knowledge Dr. Singh brings. At the conference she’ll be teaching two workshops - one as a part of the Yoga Therapy track and both of them centered around healing, and in particular, the power that lies within each of us to bring healing to ourselves.
Professional Bio
Avanti Kumar-Singh is a physician who, after medical training in emergency medicine, began a journey to find her joy again- and to help people truly heal. Realizing that you can “quit your job but you can’t quit your calling”, Avanti set out to discover what really makes people healthy and what predisposes them to illness. She is now on a mission to evolve the conversation and to create a movement in which medical professionals reclaim the “art” of medicine and become heart-centered, healing catalysts that practice true medicine and support self-healing in their patients.
Over the 20 years of her training, study and research, Avanti has shared her expertise with Fortune 500 companies, elite undergraduate and graduate institutions and at prestigious industry and medical conferences. She has also been featured in the Huffington Post and was a member of upwave.com’s review board—Turner media’s former health and wellness entertainment brand. Avanti is currently the co-lead facilitator of the Faculty Scholars Program in Integrative Healthcare at the OSHER Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
You can learn even more about the workshops Avanti will be teaching at the 2019 Tula Software Minneapolis Yoga Conference, along with dozens of other presenters bringing hundreds of workshop hours, at https://tulasoftware.com/myc2019. Join us at The Most Comprehensive Yoga Conference in the Nation, March 22-24, 2019.