Ep 19. Jivana Heyman - What is Accessible Yoga

Jivana Heyman (he/him), C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses & Practices for Every Body (Shambhala, 2019), Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion (Shambhala, 2021), and The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body (2024).

Jivana’s work focuses on creating equity and access, starting with his AIDS activism in the 1990’s as a member of ACT UP. He also worked as a reporter for AIDS Treatment News, focusing on alternative treatments for AIDS. 

Jivana started practicing yoga as a child with his grandmother, and then again in 1991 with Kazuko Onodera. He studied with Swami Satchidananda and became certified as a teacher through Integral Yoga in 1995, and as an Integral Yoga Minister in 2001. Jivana also lead their teacher training programs for over twenty years. 

Once he became a teacher, Jivana immediately started sharing yoga with people with HIV/AIDS and other disabilities. In an effort to encourage his students with disabilities to become yoga teachers, he created the Accessible Yoga 200-hour Training in 2013, coining the phrase, “Accessible Yoga,” which is now used widely in the yoga community.

During this time, he also trained other yoga teachers to make their classes accessible. In 2014 he launched the 38-hour Accessible Yoga Training, which he still offers today through the Accessible Yoga School, cofounded with Amber Karnes. The Accessible Yoga School is an online portal focusing on equity and accessibility in yoga.