Robin Monro Awards: Recognising exceptional contributions to the field of yoga therapy
The Robin Monro Awards recognise individuals whose work has made an exceptional and sustained contribution to the field of yoga therapy. The awards honour those who are actively shaping the profession through clinical practice, education, research, accessibility, and integration into healthcare and wider systems of support, recognising depth, integrity, and long term service to the field.Named in honour of Dr Robin Monro (1932 to 2024), one of the forefathers of modern yoga therapy, the awards reflect the values that defined his life and work. Originally trained as a molecular biologist and a member of the prestigious Watson and Crick research team, Dr Monro began his career in biomedical science. Living with lifelong asthma, he experienced first-hand the transformative impact of therapeutic yoga on his own health. Rather than keeping that discovery personal, he redirected his scientific training towards advancing yoga as a therapeutic discipline, committed to ensuring that others could benefit as he had.
Robin Monro: Laying the Groundwork for Yoga Therapy as a Profession
Among the earliest figures in the West to explore yoga through a biomedical and clinical lens, Dr Monro helped establish yoga therapy as a credible therapeutic discipline, combining scientific rigour with deep respect for embodied and contemplative practice. In 1983, he founded the Yoga Biomedical Trust and established one of the first yoga therapy training programmes in the United Kingdom. At a time when yoga was rarely considered within scientific or clinical contexts, he worked steadily to bridge biomedical rigour and embodied practice. His intellectual seriousness, humility, and long-term commitment laid the foundations for yoga therapy as a profession in the UK.
Dr Monro’s early support and mentorship of Heather Mason played a formative role in the emergence of The Minded Institute, and he continued to teach, advise, and support its development over many years. Following his passing, his family entrusted The Minded Institute with the stewardship of the Yoga Biomedical Trust’s legacy, a responsibility held with profound respect and care. The Robin Monro Awards continue this legacy, recognising those whose work advances yoga therapy with the same rigour, integrity, and commitment to service that defined his approach.
The inaugural recipients represent the breadth and maturity of contemporary yoga therapy practice. Together, they reflect the ongoing evolution of contemporary yoga therapy through thoughtful, responsible practice.
Liz Oppedijk
Accessible Chair Yoga Specialist, Researcher, and Educator
Liz Oppedijk’s work centres on ensuring that yoga is genuinely accessible to older adults, individuals living with multiple long-term conditions, and residents in care settings. She developed structured Chair Yoga methodologies and assessment tools that allow therapists to meet individuals safely and respectfully where they are, and co-authored Get Fit Where You Sit.
Her published research on chair yoga in care home settings demonstrates measurable improvements in mood, anxiety, and social engagement, including for residents living with dementia. She is now developing programmes to widen chair yoga teacher training to care staff to deliver yoga sustainably within care environments, with the aim of establishing chair yoga therapy as standard practice in care homes nationally.
At the heart of her contribution is a commitment to dignity and inclusion. By widening the circle of who yoga is for, her work restores agency, confidence, and embodied connection to communities often overlooked. Her contribution represents accessibility grounded in evidence, compassion, and practical implementation.
Dr Sonali Sudarshi
General Practitioner Integrating Yoga Therapy into Primary Care
Dr Sonali Sudarshi is recognised for designing and establishing what is believed to be the first structured NHS referral pathway in the UK, connecting general practice to a coordinated network of yoga therapists for one-to-one yoga therapy. As a GP working within primary care, she initiated the model, secured agreement across her GP network, and embedded the pathway into routine patient care, enabling GPs to identify and refer patients who may benefit from yoga therapy directly to The Minded Institute.
Patients referred by their GP who wish to proceed complete a structured intake process before being matched with trainee yoga therapists in the final stage of their professional qualification. Each client undertakes six individually tailored sessions delivered under supervision, during which therapist and patient co-craft therapeutic plans that address the physical, psychological, emotional and personal dimensions of their experience.
Alongside the therapeutic work, participants complete pre and post-Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales and additional self-evaluation measures within a confidential framework. To date, over 77 per cent of participants have demonstrated meaningful positive change in wellbeing scores, with patients ranging in age from 19 to 86 and presenting across a broad range of physical and mental health conditions. Participant feedback additionally describes shifts in confidence, self-regulation, and resilience.
As a supervised pilot supported by a collective of committed yoga therapists, the pathway generates the kind of structured NHS outcome data that has historically been absent for yoga therapy. By creating a measurable bridge between primary care and a coordinated network of yoga therapists, Dr Sonali has contributed a practical, scalable model with the potential to be replicated across the UK.
Elaine Collins
Co Director, Integrative Yoga Psychotherapy
Elaine’s contribution to the field lies in advancing professional education and expanding the scope of integrated therapeutic practice. After training as a yoga therapist, she became deeply committed to embedding evidence-based yoga therapy within healthcare and community contexts, working across trauma-informed settings, NHS pain services, and mental health charities.
Recognising the absence of a coherent pathway that fully integrated somatic practice within psychotherapy, she co-created Integrative Yoga Psychotherapy with Heather Mason, the world’s first psychotherapy diploma specifically designed for yoga therapists. This established a new field of therapeutic practice that unites the worlds of psychotherapy and yoga therapy, enabling practitioners to become dually qualified and work with both talking therapy approaches and embodied somatic practices within a single, coherent therapeutic framework. Graduates can address trauma, chronic pain, mood disorders, and complex mental health presentations by moving fluidly between verbal exploration and body-based intervention.
Through curriculum development, supervision leadership, and specifically with the co-creation of IYP, she has shaped a generation of practitioners trained to integrate talking therapy and yoga therapy, capable of addressing both psychological and physical health concerns as interconnected aspects of wellbeing. Her work represents the establishment of a new integrated therapeutic field and a significant advancement in how mental and physical health can be addressed together in clinical practice.
Carrying Robin Monro’s legacy forward
The Robin Monro Awards will be conferred annually, honouring individuals whose work is shaping the field of yoga therapy with depth, integrity, and long-term impact. This year marks the inaugural awards.Going forward, recipients will be selected through a process of public nomination, opening the awards to the international yoga therapy community (anyone whose work represents an exceptional contribution to the field, wherever that work is taking place).The awards will recognise the pioneers whose contributions help define and advance the evolving landscape of yoga therapy.
We will open nominations for the next Robin Monro Awards in June 2026. To be the first to hear when nominations open and to receive updates about future awards, we invite you to sign up to our newsletter.