Lois Ramondetta MD, 500 RYT, CIAYT has been a practicing gynecologic oncologist and surgeon in one of the world’s best cancer centers for over 27 years. She has spent her life finding ways to balance what is known as truth in the academic world with what she also knows is true in the body, mind, and spirit. She took her first yoga course in an academic setting while at Emory University in the mid 1980s where she majored in Biology and Religion. She continued to search for ways to reconcile the unmeasurable awe of life and death with what she studied in medical school, residency, and fellowship. One way that she has worked to achieve this was by researching how people and practitioners cope with the existential threats and joys of the illness, death, and birth. In 2008, she co published a book, titled The Light Within, with a patient and yogi, Dr Deb Sills exploring the sanctity of the doctor patient relationship. Around this time, she began working with trainees to reflect on their own spiritual stress as it related to caring for cancer patients. To celebrate her 50th birthday, she took an immersive 200 hr yoga teacher training course (Baptiste Inspired) and immediately followed with a 300hr training. She began teaching employees at her cancer hospital while continuing her 3 year training as a yoga therapist with SVYASA Houston and receiving her certification in 2022 (CIAYT). Since completing this training, she has also taught a weekly class for cancer patients and works to integrate yoga teachings and practices into the care plans of her patients. She values the power of the person to prevent disease through stress reduction, healthy diet, movement, and lifestyle behavior and she designs and runs clinical trials to investigate these connections.

 In her words “my yoga practice centers and grounds me. The more I learn, the more my family, community, patients, and I benefit. My ability to manage difficult scenarios in clinic, in the operating room, and at home is strengthened through my self-study, meditation, pranayama practice, and especially through my physical yoga practice. The importance of yoga in my life is “priceless”. I am energized when I can help others see a twinkle of their own inner light and to find peace and also thrive as powerful, vulnerable, genuine and unique beings”