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Joseph LePage founder of Integrative Yoga Therapy.

Joseph grew up in suburban California and left to search for something more real. He first visited India in 1974. He was 20 years old and a student of anthropology in Kenya, East Africa. He dropped out of school for a year and set off to discover the world with a backpack and a few dollars. He began by hitch-hiking the length of Africa from Kenya to South Africa. After 8 months he sailed third-class from Kenya to Bombay, and on a “music club” evening on the deck of the ship he met a spiritual teacher from India. Joseph says that it was in India that he began to understand human suffering.

His next trip to India was in 1984 as a photojournalist. It was this journey that allowed him to see another India, as he had the opportunity to step into the lives of the rich and famous of the country. He walked in Indira Gandhi’s funeral procession. As he boarded a plane back home, he writes “Mother India has worked her magic of transformation again.” The journalist was left behind and something new was being created.

The following year he left journalism to begin his healing journey. One day he hiked into the Himalayas to see a hermetic Tibetan monk. In answer to Joseph’s question, “How can I overcome fear?” the monk answered with another question, “If you love other people and treat them with kindness and compassion, what would you ever have to be afraid of?“

During this trip Joseph volunteered as an English teacher for the Tibetan refugee community, and had the opportunity to have a one-hour private audience with the Dalai Lama. He was deeply impressed with the Dali Lama’s simplicity and humor, and also the depth and presence of clarity. The Dalai Lama took Joseph’s hand between his two hands with “simplicity and love like that of two small boys perfectly content in the moment that surrounds them.” Joseph continues, As we walked slowly and in silence, I felt a light and a prayer rising within my heard: “I offer my life for the benefit of others“. For the first time in his life, he realized that fear had been left behind.

As a yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition and a body-worker whose special focus was energy healing, Joseph founded Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT) in 1993. The IYT program developed out of Joseph’s studies of traditional healing arts in over one hundred countries, together with his master’s degree work in experiential education. Joseph has trained over 3000 yoga teachers and yoga therapists around the world, and is recognized as a creative and innovative teacher. He lives in South Brazil with his wife Lilian, also a yoga teacher, where they own and operate Enchanted Mountain Yoga Center.