Understanding Yoga Research

Dr Steffany Moonaz is a research scientist with over 20 years of experience researching yoga and other integrative health practices. She has been teaching research literacy and evidence-informed practice to yoga professionals in higher education and in private training programs for many years, helped develop the Master of Science in Yoga Therapy at Maryland University of Integrative Health, and created their Research Department. She now serves as Research Director at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. Dr Moonaz also has a private practice as a yoga therapist and health coach. 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.