YogaZama™’s one-of-a-kind yoga teacher training curriculum is the result of years of research and practice by yogis and mental health practitioners and researchers. YogaZama's 200 RYT/ PTY merges Eastern philosophies with Western brain science, offering a path to true mental health and human optimization that's accessible to everyone.

The YogaZama™ curriculum integrates

Additionally, we offer advanced electives covering everything from polyvagal theory to the intersection of yoga and social justice. YogaZama's YTT equips you with the skills needed to level-up the human experience naturally, through our own bodies.

Our programs are designed to change your life and the lives of those around you. 

How does yoga influence your nervous system?

Contrary to common perception, yoga is not about touching your toes or looking impressive on Instagram.

Yoga is an ancient practice that taps into the primal mind/body connection in a uniquely effective and LIFE CHANGING way.

This groundbreaking Psychotherapeutic Yoga training designed by The LISPY School harnesses the science behind the natural connection between brain and body, producing a uniquely effective approach to optimal health and performance.

So… why psychotherapeutic yoga? 

Psychotherapeutic Yoga is the unique combination of traditional yoga, and the ancient wisdom that grounds it, and evidence-based neuroscience and psychology.

This innovative combination teaches the truth behind the mind-body connection and how to influence it to work in your favor.

YogaZama is for YOU if you work with people who 

✓ are struggling with the extraordinary pressures of modern-day living 

✓ are living with brain fog, fatigue, insomnia and chronic anxiety

✓ struggle with stress, anxiety and/or burnout

✓ are looking for answers — searching for ways to optimize their mental and physical health  

✓ are looking for real solutions that provide lasting peace and vitality

✓ have “tried yoga” but never realized the deep benefits of science-based yoga practice in their own life 

✓ are interested in tapping into ancient truths to find answers to today’s problems

✓ want to master science-based tools to manage their nervous systems for peak performance

✓ are ready to add new, innovative tools to their toolbox to help them heal and to transform their mental health

✓ are ready to change their life

The LISPY School is perfect for

✓ Yoga teachers & studio owners who want to up-level their practice and gain a significant, competitive edge through our science-based curriculum, while leveraging our ongoing professional support

✓ Licensed and pre-licensed health professionals interested in moving beyond talk therapy and towards understanding the brain-body connection to support lasting growth for their clients

✓ Health and Fitness Coaches who want to master crucial brain-science interventions to help their clients achieve higher-level change

✓ Business coaches looking to move beyond coaching techniques and utilizes deeper tools of neuroscience to truly upend client resistance and open doors for optimal performance

✓ ANYONE looking to optimize mental health, growth, and performance

OUR STORY

A decade ago, a stuck client, a gifted yoga instructor, and a willingness to take a clinical risk led to a fresh, exciting concept – psychotherapeutic yoga.

Eventually, the concept led to a curriculum, which we’ve been building and perfecting ever since.

Our YogaZama™ training at The LISPY School is the fruition of many, many years of research and practice.

In creating the YogaZama™ RYT/PYT curriculum, we have achieved our goal to offer an exceptional science-based program designed for everyone – yogis, yoga teachers, studio owners, mental health clinicians, and anyone else looking to optimize their performance and up-level their life (and the lives of their clients!).

Ali N. Haji

LPC, PATP, RYT-200, PYC-200

Ali is the owner and co-founder of YogaZama Studio in Dallas. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin & Northwestern University’s Family Institute, Ali is a licensed professional counselor and psychotherapeutic yoga practitioner specializing in holistic and complex trauma recovery, psychedelic-assisted therapies, and spiritual identity integration. In addition to seeing clients in therapy, Ali is an instructor at YogaZama, bringing a blend of creative, dynamic sequencing, strength work, and heart-centered grounding to each of his classes

A former TV and film producer working for HBO and Martin Scorsese, Ali is a firm believer in allowing ourselves to grow into the person that we authentically are and sees yoga as the perfect vehicle for doing so. Having lived everywhere from Canada to the Ivory Coast and with his ancestral lineage coming from India and East Africa, Ali values the philosophy of yoga and feels strongly about bringing together the worlds of eastern and western healing, honoring the roots of the practice and shifting the tide of teaching away from appropriation.

Ali is a member of the Northwestern University Counseling Program Advisory Committee and a member of the Dallas Resource Center’s Young Professional Advisory Council. He is a graduate of the Integrative Psychiatry Institute and a clinical member of Lifeologie Counseling in Dallas. When not in the studio, you can find Ali cooking overly-elaborate meals for his husband Scott and basset hound, Louis.

It is LISPY and YogaZama's deep conviction that there is no yoga without social justice.  Yoga, at its root, seeks harmony with the universe and with self.  It is an impossibility, then, to pursue a yogic life without a commitment to social justice.  All humans are equal. Therefore, all humans are welcome on the LISPY mat.  

LISPY’s commitment to social justice involves being intentionally inclusive in all that we do. As is represented in our core values, it is our commitment that the benefits of psychotherapeutic yoga be available to everyone.

In the spirit of inclusivity, LISPY cultivates corporate partnerships in order to provide tuition relief to yogis who represent and serve marginalized communities.  Please click below to inquire about scholarship opportunities or corporate sponsorship.