Dates:

3rd & 4th October

7th & 8th November

2026

9am - 5pm

(28 hours) Live Online

Mentored self-paced learning (12 hours)

Complete the full 40 hour training within three months of live sessions ending.

Course run and led by Morven Hamilton of Yoga by Nature.

Counts as 40 hours towards 300/500 hour certification with Shanticentre Training School

Cost £475

Early bird until 5th Sept £425

Deposit £70

Teach Yoga for Cancer Course

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

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.

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

  
  

Your Teacher

Learn to teach yoga for cancer with Morven Hamilton, Yoga Alliance Professionals 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.

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.If you are a yoga teacher who wants to help people coping with cancer to live better, a student of yoga or a professional in another field such as hospice work, nursing, physiotherapy, or psychotherapy, our Yoga for Cancer Teacher Training will give you a grounding in the diverse aspects of working with those on the cancer journey. This course is applicable to working with cancer and other life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

You will learn to:

- create unique, holistic yoga for cancer programmes for one-to-one sessions

- 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 comprehensive 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

  
  

Syllabus / Modules

Module 1 - The cancer journey

Anatomy and physiology of cancer

The most common types of cancer

Types of treatment and their effects

Lymphoedema - 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, diagnosis 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