Gail Parker, PhD, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, is a psychologist and a certified yoga therapist. She is a nationally and internationally renowned media personality, educator, author, and thought leader. Dr. Parker is the current president of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance (BYTA) and the author of Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma (2020). Her broad expertise in behavioral health and wellness includes forty years as a practicing psychotherapist. Dr. Parker is a lifelong practitioner of yoga and is well known for her pioneering efforts to blend psychology, yoga, and meditation as effective self-care strategies that can enhance emotional balance and contribute to the overall health and well-being of practitioners. She has a special interest in utilizing and teaching Restorative Yoga and meditation as self-care practices for managing ethnic and race based traumatic stress. She is a faculty member in the Beaumont School of Yoga Therapy in the department of Integrative Medicine and William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak Michigan, where she teaches mind/body strategies for reducing stress and healing emotional trauma to aspiring yoga therapists.
Dr. Parker was a faculty member in the groundbreaking Co-Curricular Yoga Therapy Program at Wayne State University School of Medicine, teaching Yoga Therapy to first- and second-year medical students as part of their academic curriculum. She was an adjunct faculty member in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, teaching “Effective Managerial Coaching and Counseling” to executives for ten years, where she was also an Executive Coach customizing and conducting leadership development programs through the Department of Executive Education.
Dr. Parker appears as a psychologist expert on local and nationally syndicated talk shows, including numerous appearances on the “Oprah Show”. She was featured a s a health and wellness expert on the benefits of yoga and meditation, in a nationally syndicated PBS health talk show series called “Feel Grand”, hosted by Emmy Award winning actress, Jane Seymour. She appears as a psychologist expert on the acclaimed, internationally syndicated medical lifestyle show “The Dr. Nandi Show”.
In 2006, Dr. Parker appeared in the inaugural edition and three subsequent editions of Who’s Who in Black Detroit, a Real Times Media Publication celebrating African American achievements. In 2011 she was honored by the Michigan Chronicle as a “Woman of Excellence” and is featured in volume one of Vital Signs, A Real Times Media tribute to African American achievements in the health care industry. She served on the Michigan Department of Civil Rights Race4Equity task force, whose mission is to combat health care disparities in Southeast Michigan. Dr. Parker has authored The Art and Skill of Restorative Yoga: A Self-Care Guide and Restorative Yoga for Resilience: A Practitioner’s and Teacher’s Guide. She is a contributing author in the book Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories for Yoga Renegades.
She is married and the mother of one son.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Gail Parker is the owner of Empowered by Yoga. She is a faculty member at Beaumont School of Yoga Therapy, William Beaumont Hospital. Ms. Parker receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Gail Parker is a member of the American Psychological Association; the Michigan Psychological Association; the Association of Black Psychologists; and International Association of Yoga Therapists.
