The Principles and Practice of Yoga for Children and Adolescents

The Principles and Practice of Yoga for Children and Adolescents consists of contributions by expert scientists who have conducted and published research on yoga in children and adolescents for a variety of conditions and populations in peer-reviewed biomedical journals. Each chapter describes the rationale for yoga in the population or condition studied, reviews relevant related research literature, describes their body of research studies and its contribution, and concludes with a discussion on the state of the field. To inform readers on the intricacies of the practical application of yoga, each chapter concludes with a description of the yoga intervention used, the development process that led them to that treatment protocol, and the practical/clinical reasons for choices of the specific practices.

Catherine Cook-Cottone, Ph.D. is a Professor and Researcher at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), Licensed Psychologist, and Registered Yoga Teacher. She specializes in embodied self-regulation (i.e., yoga, mindfulness, and self-care) and psychosocial disorders (e.g., eating disorders and trauma). In this work, Catherine creates and researches trauma-informed mindfulness and yoga curricula delivered and studied in North America, East and Central Africa, Middle East, and Eastern Asia. She is founder and president of Yogis in Service, a not-for- profit that trains yoga teachers and creates access to trauma-informed yoga where there is no access, receiving the American Psychological Association's presidential citation for service for this work. She is co-author of the Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS) and Co-Editor in Chief of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. Catherine has written eight books and over 75 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Her books include, "Mindfulness and yoga for self-regulation: A primer for mental health professionals," and "Mindfulness and yoga in schools: a guide for teachers and practitioners."

Shirley Telles has a degree in conventional medicine (MBBS) and a MPhil and PhD in Neurophysiology. Both MPhil and PhD theses were on the effects of yoga practice. Dr. Telles received a Fulbright fellowship in 1998 and in 2001 an award from the Templeton Foundation for creative ideas in neurobiology. In 2007 she received an Indian Council of Medical Research Center for Advanced Research to study meditation's effects through autonomic variables, evoked and event related potentials, polysomnography and fMRI. Dr Telles has been the director of Patanjali Research Foundation, Haridwar, India; www.patanjaliresearchfoundation.com since 2007. Dr. Telles has over 198 research papers cited in bibliographic databases and authored 7 books. She is an enthusiastic practitioner of yoga.

Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD has been fully engaged in basic and clinical research on the efficacy of yoga and meditation practices in improving physical and psychological health since 2001. He has practiced a yoga lifestyle since 1972 and is a certified instructor in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. He is the Director of Yoga Research for the Yoga Alliance and the Kundalini Research Institute, Research Associate at the Benson Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, Research Affiliate of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He has conducted clinical research trials evaluating yoga interventions for insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic stress, and anxiety disorders and in both public school and occupational settings. Dr. Khalsa works with the International Association of Yoga Therapists to promote research on yoga and yoga therapy as the chair of the scientific program committee for the annual Symposium on Yoga Research and as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy. He is medical editor of the Harvard Medical School Special Report An Introduction to Yoga and chief editor of the medical textbook The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care.