dr. dolphi
wertenbaker, m.d.
Primary Teacher & Mentor
Influences
Dolphi’s gentle guidance, gems of wisdom, inner radiance, and ability to truly see the person in front of her with clarity, compassion, and insight have guided and developed my personal practice as well as my experiential understanding of yoga and yoga therapy. She has lighted my path through deep grief and abiding joy. I am deeply grateful for all that I have received and continue to receive through our studies together.
Dolphi Wertenbaker M.D., is a yoga therapist and physician living in New York City. She is a graduate of Columbia University and Cornell University Medical College. She is a certified Yoga Teacher Trainer in the tradition of T. Krishnamacharya. Dr. Wertenbaker was a long-time personal student of Mr. T.K.V. Desikachar and has been teaching yoga since 1985, with an emphasis on individual therapeutic work. She was a co-founder of Viniyoga America in 1986, and is a co-founder of Yoga as Therapy North American (YATNA).
Caprina is a teacher of the heart. A gifted energy healer with a deep ability to witness, mirror, and be cosmically present, Caprina teaches Sanskrit chanting and vedānta philosophy in the way it was taught to her – as a spiritual practice of devotion, passed from teacher to student through study together over many years. Studying with Caprina has allowed me to experience Sanskrit as a poetic, metaphorical, and spiritual language, and as a powerful tool for healing and connection. Caprina’s wisdom, insight, and intuition have helped me to develop a daily relationship with the Divine, to listen deeply to guidance from within, and to explore and understand my life and experiences in the context of my purpose and my path.
Caprina Brown is a healer and teacher who has studied and practiced the art and science of healing and awakening both personally and professionally for more than two decades. She spent 19 years immersed in the Sivananda yoga tradition of Rishikesh, India, living among and assisting yogis and spiritual teachers, studying and being taught in the ancient tradition of transmission from teacher to student. She teaches Vedic and Sanskrit Chant and Grammar, Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy, Meditation, and Goddess Traditions in the ways that she learned them—as spiritual practice, not just a scholarly study, and as a study and practice that is never finished.
Chase Bossart
Yoga Therapy as taught by Śri Krishnamacharya and Mr. T.K.V. Desikachar
Chase’s depth and breadth of knowledge about the philosophy, teachings, practice, and application of yoga and yoga therapy has a simplicity, elegance, and depth that I had long been craving in my yoga explorations and education. His lectures are filled with laughter, lived experience, and direct insight; he has a gift for bringing ancient texts and teachings to life in a way that is bright and clear and eminently useful. I am grateful to Chase for his vision and purpose; for his commitment to the integrity of the teachings he shares; and for all of the work that he has done, personally and professionally, to make it possible for me to learn this profound system of holistic healing.
Chase Bossart was a longtime private student of Mr. T.K.V. Desikachar and has spent more than four years in Chennai studying yoga. An exceptionally clear communicator with extensive experience in the therapeutic application of yoga, Chase travels frequently to present workshops and trainings on a wide range of yoga and yoga therapy topics. Chase also regularly develops yoga interventions for scientific research and is Co-Director and faculty at Yoga as Therapy North America (YATNA), a yoga therapist training organization. He formerly served as the Director of Therapy and Education at the Healing Yoga Foundation in San Francisco for 6+ years. He is the founder and director of the Yoga Well Institute.
After many years of reading about and trying to figure out Ayurveda on my own, Elizabeth shifted my entire understanding of healing, diet, and lifestyle from our very first class. Rather than intricate lists of foods, habits, and tastes to memorize, favor, or avoid, Elizabeth gave me a deep, holistic understanding of the relationship between my body/mind/spirit and the world around me, offering the deeper “why” that had eluded me for so long, and helping me to come into balance little by little over time for lasting change and a completely new experience of health. Elizabeth has been my Ayurvedic teacher, practitioner, and guide; and an empowering, joyful force for wellness and balance in my being and my life.
Elizabeth Cunningham Bossart, M.A., holds Masters of Arts degrees in Ayurveda and Education and is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner. Elizabeth graduated from the Mt. Madonna Institute (MMI) of Ayurveda where she is now an Instructor in MMI’s Ayurveda Diploma program. Elizabeth also teaches classes on Ayurveda in the Bay Area and workshops around North America. Her primary mentor is Dr. Sarita Shrestha with other influential teachers including Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. R.H. Singh and Dr. John Douillard. Elizabeth is a member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) and her clinical practice is based in San Francisco. She’s also trained in the yoga tradition of Sri T. Krishnamacharya and Mr. TKV Desikachar via the Healing Yoga Foundation in San Francisco’s 500 Hour Yoga Teaching Training program. She is the founder of Sukha Wellness Āyurvedic Medicine.
Additional influences on my study and practice of yoga include …
The music of Ragani
The audio lectures of Swami Veda Bharati, and of Ram Dass
Reading and study of the Chaadi Path, the Mahabharata, and Patañjali’s Yogasutra
And my experiences at the Sivananda Ashram Paradise Island Yoga Retreat, where, since 2014, I have spent a total of 65 days on solo retreat, immersed in yogic disciplines and spiritual study.
The Healing Yoga of T. Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar
My practice of yoga therapy is in the tradition of T. Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar, and was taught to me through an intensive four-year course of training, study, and practice with two of Mr. Desikachar’s longtime personal students, Chase Bossart and Dr. Dolphi Wertenbaker, M.D.
Thank you to my teachers’ teachers! To them, I owe a great debt of gratitude.
T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) was one of the most influential masters of yoga in modern times. A yogi, healer, Ayurvedic doctor, Vedic scholar, researcher and expert in Indian schools of thought, Krishnamacharya worked tirelessly to revive yoga in the early 20th century and was the teacher of some of the most influential yogis in the west including B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi and his son, T.K.V. Desikachar. The fact that yoga has become an inherent part of the everyday lives of millions of people across the world is due in no small measure to his pioneering efforts. By developing and adapting yoga practices, he was able to make health, mental clarity and spiritual growth a little more accessible for modern people from all walks of life.
Mr. T.K.V. Desikachar
Son and student of T. Krishnamacharya, Mr. T.K.V. Desikachar (1938-2016) spent nearly thirty years of his adult life studying (and living) with his father. This long, live-in internship, combined with 45 years of teaching experience, made Mr. Desikachar one of the most respected Yoga teachers of modern times. Mr. Desikachar worked tirelessly to promote the healing power of yoga and was a recognized expert in the therapeutic application of yoga.