Birthlight: Yoga for Breast Health - A Holistic Approach

Why Breast Health Matters

Our breasts change throughout our lives, responding to hormonal shifts from puberty through to post menopause. They’re central to how we experience our bodies – physically, emotionally, and energetically. Yet yoga training and yoga classes rarely address them specifically!

Maintaining good tone in the muscles that support the breasts in the chest and the back is crucial for health promotion and day to day wellbeing. Good muscle tone can make a significant difference to how women inhabit their bodies. This can also make a difference post-surgery whether that involves mastectomy or breast reconstruction or not.

Many women experience common non-cancerous breast conditions through the life cycles that can affect comfort and wellbeing, particularly through the menstrual cycle and during perimenopause including:

• Cyclical breast tenderness and fibrocystic breast changes
• Benign lumps, cysts, and breast pain 
• Changes during/after breastfeeding

While these conditions require proper medical assessment, many women seek complementary approaches to help manage associated discomfort.

Read more about “Why Breast Health & Comfort Deserves a Place in Yoga”

Important Note About Breast Cancer

Current research-supported approaches for reducing breast cancer risk focus primarily on lifestyle factors like maintaining healthy weight, regular exercise, limiting alcohol, not smoking, and appropriate screening – especially for those with hereditary risk factors. This course does not claim to reduce cancer risk beyond these established factors.

Instead, we focus on comfort, awareness, and traditional practices that may support overall breast health, comfort and wellbeing.

Ayurvedic Perspective on Breast Health

In Ayurveda, breast tissue is considered a site of kapha dosha and is associated with the mammary channels (stanya vaha srotas). The health of breast tissue is connected to:

• Proper lymphatic flow (related to rasa dhatu or plasma tissue)
• Hormonal balance across the menstrual cycle and life stages
• The energy of the heart center and emotional wellbeing
• The quality and flow of bodily fluids and nourishment

This traditional understanding offers a complementary perspective to modern anatomy and physiology.

What you will explore:

• Breast anatomy and the key ‘muscles of yoga’ that can be activated in supporting breasts.
• How the menstrual cycle and perimenopause may affect breasts.
• Anatomy and Physiology of breasts in Ayurveda.
• Why and how spinal alignment and correct breathing matter.
• The relation between breasts, heart, and the lymphatic system. Breasts and Shakti are related.
• How to accommodate yoga asanas to breasts rather than breasts to asanas.

Practices taught will include:

• Two Self massage of breasts sequences (one short, one longer), with instructions about using oils suitable for the breast tissue.
• Self-care for lymphatic drainage.
• Yoga-based practices and Asana variations to promote breast health.
• Yoga sequences to ease sore breasts during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and the lactation period.
• Yoga sequences for breasts during the perimenopause and beyond.
• Breast-based self-nurture with yoga for all women, using mudras and visualisation.
• Gentle but effective stimulation of marma points to promote breast health.

Following this course you’ll be able to share simple self-massage and yoga practices that can bring about greater physical comfort, self-esteem, acceptance, and harmony from a holistic perspective.

Yoga therapists wishing to support women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer or who have undergone treatment will gain directly applicable knowledge and practices from this CPD, but further yoga therapy skills are required to help women individually through medical treatment.

Birthlight prioritises simple and effective body-based practice over and above technical information. Helping one woman at a time and facilitating the wellbeing of women in yoga classes in the community is yoga for life. This course is based on this value.

Françoise was originally personally motivated to develop yoga for breast health in her yoga practice and teaching after losing most of the women in her female lineage and several close friends to breast cancer.

Course Structure

12 contact hours live on Zoom:

Breakout rooms and Q&A sessions will facilitate learning and lively interaction. Accompanying the live zoom sessions, our online learning platform illustrates the course with visual materials, online study and includes a pre-course component sent to participants ahead of the course.

Who is this course for?

This short course is open to Yoga teachers, Yoga Therapists and other professionals working with women’s health and well-being. If you have already done Well Woman Yoga courses, you may want to update your skills and learning and use this as a CPD. You may also join the course for your own interest to learn about yoga for breast health.

Certification

On completion of this course you will receive a Yogacampus certificate of attendance as evidence of CPD hours. For Birthlight teaching members the course also provides 12 hours of Birthlight CPD.

If you would like more than a Certificate of Attendance you can complete the coursework to gain a Birthlight Certificate in teaching Yoga for Breast Health.

Coursework consists of a worksheet (10 questions) and two documented case-studies (either one group and one individual, or two individual case studies, face to face or online). Coursework can be completed within six months and will be carefully assessed with personalised feedback. This Short Course also counts as an Elective module of the Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Diploma.

For more information on the Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Diploma please contact Birthlight.

Meet the Teacher

Kirsteen Ruffell

Kirsteen Ruffell is the Co-ordinator for Birthlight’s land-based training courses and is one of our experienced Perinatal and Baby Yoga Tutors. She is a registered Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals, has been teaching yoga since 1998 and began tutoring in 2008. Kirsteen is passionate about nurturing students’ professional development on every training course and enhancing their ability to use new understanding creatively to best serve the students in their own classes.

Within the sphere of Perinatal Yoga, Kirsteen has developed a particular interest in Postnatal Yoga and has worked closely with Birthlight founder and pioneer, Dr Françoise Freedman, to develop specific practices for the postnatal year.  She continues to refine her practice and understanding through regular CPDs (Continuous Professional Development courses) and Birthlight Conferences. Her background is in Hatha Yoga (Sivananda) and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and she started teaching Birthlight Perinatal Yoga in 2002. She is also a trained Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist (Karuna Institute). 

Kirsteen is continually inspired by teaching Birthlight’s gentle and enjoyable yoga practices that work profoundly across languages and cultures to support women and babies around the world. She regularly leads Birthlight training courses in London, the Netherlands, China, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany.

Liese Van Dam

Liese originally trained as a hatha yoga teacher in India. Her journey with yoga started at a time when life didn’t give her a lot of satisfaction and she was looking for a way to bring spirituality into her life. Once discovered, she intensely practiced and taught all aspects of yoga – including pranayama, philosophy and chanting – for several years in various countries across the globe before settling back in her home country – The Netherlands.

By this time, she had experienced that yoga & ayurveda are two sides of the same coin and that practicing both alongside each other has a deep and powerful effect. In 2006 she officially commenced studying ayurveda and graduated in 2010 from the Academy of Ayurvedic Studies in Amsterdam, (now Delight Academy). At the same time she had met Françoise and trained as a Birthlight teacher for Perinatal, Postnatal, Baby Yoga and Well Woman Yoga.

With a passion for yoga, nutrition and women’s health; Liese teaches these subjects from an Ayurvedic viewpoint at Birthlight, Delight Academy, The Yoga Therapy Institute and various yoga teacher training courses. At Birthlight Liese co-teaches on several courses by adding the ayurvedic point of view on the course subject with the aim to further deepen the understanding of the Birthlight approach and practices.

Apart from teaching Liese works as an Ayurvedic Practitioner and has a clinic in Ede where she gives consultations and 1-to-1 yoga-sessions.

Liese’s motto is Ancient wisdom made practical for you!