About

Gail Parker, Ph.D., C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, is a faculty member in the Beaumont School of Yoga Therapy in the department of Integrative Medicine at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak Michigan, where she teaches mind/body strategies for reducing stress and healing emotional trauma to aspiring yoga therapists. Her broad expertise in behavioral health and wellness include forty years as a practicing psychologist.

Dr. Parker is a life long 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 nationally and internationally renowned media personality, educator, author, and thought leader.

Dr. Parker was a faculty member in the ground breaking 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 has appeared as a psychologist expert on local and nationally syndicated talk shows, including seven appearances on the “Oprah Show”. She was recently featured as 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.

In 2006 Dr. Parker appeared in the inaugural edition and three subsequent editions of “Who’ Who in Black Detroit”, a 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 serves 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 also authors a blog called Taking Yoga Off Your Mat©, offering tools for applying what you learn about yourself through the practice of yoga on your mat to enhance daily living off your mat.

She is married and the mother of one son.