Evolving Together – Master Classes and Professional Development Sessions for Yoga Teachers is back for another year!

These monthly in-depth sessions will nurture your practice, support you in learning best practices for guiding yoga and connect you with other yogis who share your passion.

Each session will address how to safely maximize movement, stability and agility through traditional Yoga asana practices. The traditions will be intelligently refined through functional anatomy and somatic practices. Plus, the practices of pranayama, contemporary breathwork and meditation with be explored. Each session will start with a 90 minute master class for yoga teachers. Then the class will be followed by a 90 minute session on the monthly theme and discussion time to address the path of developing into being a full spectrum yoga teacher.

The nine monthly session dates for 2019/2020 are:

Session One – The Somatics of Spinal Movement – Saturday November 30th – 2:30 to 5:30 pm

Saturday, December 14th – 8:30 am to 2:30 pm – Discovering Our Ground of Being – Daylong Urban Retreat – Complete Practice to Move Inwards and Rest in our Authenticity (Special Full Day Session of Asana, Pranayama, Diad Exercises and Mindfulness Meditation)

Saturday, December 21st – Discovering the Inner Trampoline – Yoga Therapeutics for the lower back and pelvic floor health

Saturday, January 25th – Rock Solid Foundations – Progressive stages of symmetrical and asymmetrical standing postures and backbends for postural integrity

Saturday, February 29th – The Art of Communication – The foundations of skillful teaching is how we use our speech, presence and pacing.  We will dive deep into how we can be more mindful in our classroom to aid deeper levels of settling, absorbing and embodying yoga principles.  The Asana practice on this date will be the progressive stages of inversions. Great practices for our immune system and lymphatic health.

Saturday, March 28th – Inter-Being – Understanding the Intelligence of the Kosha System to cultivate body awareness, breath, intuition and one’s ground of being.  Asana practice will be twists and backbends.

Saturday, April 25th – Resting in Interdependence – Understanding the progressive stages of Subtle Anatomy and how it is the foundations of Yoga Therapy. Advanced Yoga practice in Restorative and Yoga Nidra.

Saturday, May 30th – Accessing Wholeness – The progressive stages of breath work, pranayama and Yoga Nidra Asana practice will be short and sweet vigorous practice and then deep time in restorative sequences.

Saturday, June 20th –  The Yoga Toolbox – Learn how to link somatic movement material and Yoga asana in creative sequencing to respect your students’ capacities and needs. 

Fee is $50 (includes all taxes) for one session or take advantage of a reduced fee rate of $395 (taxes included) if you pay for all nine sessions together. 

A summary of what to expect and receive from these sessions.:

Teaching Yoga is much more than a set of techniques. It is the ability to create safe space in our classrooms for students to stabilize, move inwards and grow in their capacity to sense what their needs are. These skills take a life time to nurture and embody. We, as yoga teachers, experience immediately that Yoga’s methods are diverse and who we will serve through these teachings is also diverse. Because of this, it can be confusing and at times contradictory, what to teach, when to teach it and to whom. These circles are to dispel this confusion. Over nine sessions over ten months, the group practice and support will give you the knowledge of how to apply the new tools, refine techniques you already possess and embody being a yoga teacher who holds sacred space for others to embody compassion and skill.

As a Yoga teacher, you also need to be nurtured and supported so your journey. Last year, everyone in the group shared how important these monthly meetings were to practice together with friends, unpack teaching, learn new levels of practice and hear each others insights. So important to understand becoming a teacher of depth takes community and time. These monthly circles give everyone the time and space to understand the complex, rewarding, and at times, difficult journey of being a teacher of awareness.

These Teachers’ Circles are about giving you the resources to:
~ take care of yourself,
~ meet and learn with your peers,
~ learn to create classes which support the internal Yoga journey,
~ promote compassionate action,
~ understand skillful functional anatomy techniques,
~ embody the best of mindfulness and Yoga philosophy
~ refine your skills of teaching.
In community, your Yoga intelligence will grow so it can serve your students and address their specific needs.

Last year’s group connected and evolved deeply. As the monthly sessions met, the sharing, insights and resources increased. I hope many of you can join this year’s journey.

The subjects we covered last year were:
1. Back care basics for scoliosis
2. Teaching individuals with herniated disc conditions
3. Teaching Beginner Pranayama – when, to whom and how of the beginning progressive stages
4. Teaching the Tantric concepts – how they can be part of an asana class for deeper self understanding
5. Life and Work-teaching Balance so as yoga teachers we can still grow and progress in our practices
6. Bringing the Classical Yoga Principles of Patanjali Yoga Sutras into class
7. Anatomical understanding of the pelvic floor for structural integrity in Yoga Postures
8. The progressive stages of Backbends
9. Guiding with somatic language to help students connect to the felt sense of their body/mind
10. The 5 Key Principles of Self Awareness and Self Regulation – How they are integral to the Yoga Classroom.