Author | Educator | Innovator
Amelia BariliFall 2025 Course Offering
Embodying Safety: Integrating Yoga, Qigong and Polyvagal Theory
Instructors: Amelia Barili PhD & Stephen Porges PhD
Live-Online October 2 to December 11, 2025
Offered through the Polyvagal Institute, taught by Dr. Amelia Barili, this course integrates the wisdom healing traditions of Yoga and Qigong with Polyvagal Theory. Learn how to use your nervous system and your vital energy to promote good health and to achieve your highest human potential. You can take in the course material at your own pace within each module and meet every other week with Dr. Barili for LIVE Zoom group meetups. Scholarships and payment plans available. → APPLY HERE
Student Testimonials
EVERY OTHER SATURDAY
Free Virtual Workshops
Join Amelia every other Saturday on Zoom (2nd and 4th Saturday) for free virtual workshops on developing resilience and inner peace with Yoga and Qigong.
Join us at 10am PT for the English version. The Spanish workshop is currently paused.
To register simply sign up for the mailing list below. You will then receive an email with the Zoom link and more details.
About Amelia
Dr. Amelia Barili is faculty at the UCB Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and professor emerita from the University of California at Berkeley, where she received the Chancellor’s Award for Public Service in 2008. She teaches a systematic embodied approach for personal and community transformation that integrates recent discoveries from neuroscience with volunteering and contemplative practices from ancient wisdom traditions. Amelia has been teaching Yoga, Qigong and Meditation for over 40 years. She received her diploma in Yoga Therapy and Philosophy, in 1972, from Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute, India. She is an internationally respected yoga teacher and a disciple of Grandmaster Yang Mei Jun, the 27th inheritor of the Taoist Medical Qigong system. A pioneer at integrating both wisdom traditions and neuroscience, Amelia has brought contemplative practices to broad audiences and to academic environments. She teaches youth and older adults how to overcome stress and foster inter-connectedness.
The New Paradigms
Join Amelia for classes on Meditation, Self-Care, Healthy Relationships, and Building Nurturing Communities.
Cómo Volver a Dormir Cuando te Despiertas a la Noche: Efectiva Técnica Milenaria.
The Power of Your Nervous System for Healthy Relationships and Self-Healing. Dialog with Dr. Stephen Porges
This documentary narrates the story of how students from UC Berkeley and their professor, Amelia Barili, learn and serve while transforming lives in the Berkeley community.
Meditación y Auto-Aceptación. Técnicas Fáciles Para Aprender a Meditar
Teachings
Yoga, Qigong & Neuroscience
My teachings integrate the wisdom healing traditions of Classical Yoga and Qigong, with evidence about their benefits based on the most recent discoveries of Neuroscience. I teach ancient effective practices for developing your inner resources which you can easily integrate in your daily life. They will help you experience greater ease and well-being, cope with challenges and pain, improve your digestion and your sleep, have healthy relationships, and awaken a sense of inner guidance and peace. I teach my approach to healing and awakening in my free online workshops in English and Spanish every Saturday and on courses and retreats at the UC Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in Berkeley and Irvine, Mount Madonna Center, The Polyvagal Institute (upcoming) and other centers.
Older Adult Wellness & Education
I teach older adults how to live a healthier and happier life. In my courses I share the scientific evidence that confirm the benfits of mindfully working with our body and mind; and teach my students ancient techniques to let go of tension and open their minds and hearts to a sense of safety, healing and peace. These practices include self-inquiry, brief guided meditations, mindful breathing, release points and contemplative moves, volunteering and cultivating positive neuroplasticity. Learn more about my approach to older adult wellness and education in various pages of this website, such as “Workshops” and “Science and Spirituality” and my YouTube channel thenewparadigms.
Volunteering: Personal & Community Transformation
I assist my students to experience that personal and community transformation are intrinsically connected. A main innovation I brought to UC Berkeley is designing my courses for the undergraduates and the older adult students with a strong component of volunteering. My students volunteer one-on-one in serving those with less resources in our communities. They also volunteer abroad in NGOs in Latin America that serve the disadvantaged in their own communities in the fields of public health, education, women’s rights, immigration and environmental protection. At the UC Osher Lifelong Learning Institute I have been teaching since 2003 various iterations of “Everyone Helps One: Neuroplasticity in Action” and “Meditation, Volunteering and Positive Neuroplasticity”, all of which integrate personal and community transformation. You can find out more about these experiences in my blog “Can You Learn to Increase Your Sense of Well-being? Yes. With Practice and a Community“, my article on “Teaching Intercultural Citizenship through Intercultural Service Learning”, the documentary “Building Nurturing Communities; A Berkeley Story“, the blog on Students Volunteering Locally and Abroad and series of videos in my YouTube channel thenewparadigms.
UC Berkeley Awards
Amelia receives the UCB Chancellor’s Award for Public Service from Chancellor Birgeneau for her academic innovations in serving underrepresented communities.
