January 2015
Soukya International Holistic Healing Center
Our next visit was to Soukya International Holistic Healing Center where we met with the founder, Dr. Isaac Mathai. We shared a real connection with Dr. Mathai, perhaps because he began his journey as a Yoga teacher in England back in the 1980's. Dr. Mathai is considered one of the worlds leading authorities on holistic health and will be meeting with President Barak Obama to discuss implementing Integrative health care in the United States!
Dr. Mathai shared with us his vision of an integral approach to healing along with the unique way that Soukya integrates Yoga, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Acupuncture. Through his extensive experience in a range of complementary disciplines, he has been able to design an approach to wellness in which a team of doctors from each area meet to assess each patient's individual needs.
|
|
On the surface, Soukya's beautiful grounds and rooms remind us of many of the well known upscale healing centers. As we explore more deeply, we see that Soukya is quite unique. There is a commitment here to sustainability and to natural health, which is unique in the world. Almost all the food guests receive is produced right on Soukya's thirty-acre organic farm. Even the dairy products come from Soukya's own cows.
|
For us, one of the most astonishing parts of the visit was to see the Ayurvedic oils production center, where a whole range of Ayurvedic herbs (also grown at Soukya) are used to produce forty different types of oil that are used in treatments. In short, everything at Soukya is the purest and finest that can be produced in order to support the healing process optimally.
We continued on to visit the Naturopathy treatment area and to see the variety of methods and techniques of Hydrotherapy that are used, and to begin to understand a whole new world of healing possibilities through Naturopathy.
All of India's healing centers, great and small offer some sort of Yoga. In almost all cases, this is a group Yoga class with a set routine. Soukya is one of the very few that actually offers Yoga Therapy. These are individual sessions included within a patient's treatment plan in which various Yoga techniques have been designated for their specific needs.
|
All of India's healing centers, great and small offer some sort of Yoga. In almost all cases, this is a group Yoga class with a set routine. Soukya is one of the very few that actually offers Yoga Therapy. These are individual sessions included within a patient's treatment plan in which various Yoga techniques have been designated for their specific needs.
|
All of the Yoga instructors at Soukya are also Naturopathic Physicians and most have had advanced training in Yoga Therapy at S-VYASA. Given Soukya's resources you would expect them to have the best teachers available, but choosing the best also requires an in-depth understanding of Yoga, and Soukya is one the few upscale healing centers in the world whose founder and owner is actually a Yoga teacher! We found these Yoga professionals to be extremely competent and well informed.
Dr. Nagendra of S-VYASA and Dr. Mathai are both an essential part of Yoga Therapy's future since they serve on the government of India's committee for Integrative Medicine. In fact, Dr. Nagendra is the Chairman of the committee. With the new government in India headed by Narendra Modi, there is an increased emphasis on Integrative Medicine and a willingness to rethink existing models. The new model that they have recommended completely restructures the way we look at medicine. This new model points toward a future in which physicians are educated as integrative whole person healers. In this new approach to medicine, a variety of methods and techniques will be used depending on the needs of the individual. It may take several years to implement this new approach, but India will certainly be the first country to completely redefine the role of the physician in healthcare. This will obviously be important for all of us who work in Yoga Therapy.
~Joseph Le Page
Read about our visit to S-VYASA
