Online 300 Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training

Retreat Highlights

• Applied Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Structural Yoga Therapeutics
• - Utilize experiential anatomy techniques to deepen your knowledge of the human form
• - Explore bio-mechanically safe and healthy ways of moving
• - Understand how to address common musculoskeletal issues in the body, work with an injured student, and offer guidance to prevent yoga injuries
• - Learn to modify and apply yoga asana and movements to create health and safety in the group class setting as well as in a therapeutic context.
• The Therapeutic Application of Yoga
• - Understand the yoga practices and philosophy as it applies to health and wellness for the whole person
• - Study the principles of Ayurveda including doshas, gunas, vayus, lifestyle modification, diet, elements, diet considerations and how to apply appropriate yoga practices to bring balance to the individual.
• - Learn to facilitate individual private yoga sessions, including session structure and client intake.
• - Working with Trauma, Anxiety and Depression
• Deep Rest and Rejuvenation- Guiding Yoga Nidra and the Restorative Practices
• - Learn to write your own and guide others in deep relaxation and yoga nidra techniques to unlock stuck mental patterns, release stress at its root, and create an environment for healing to occur.
• - Explore the use of props, language, breath awareness, body scans, sankalpas (intentions), delivery, voice quality, rotation of consciousness, pairs of opposites and timing for guiding restorative yoga and Yoga Nidra.
• Fundamentals of Asana - Beyond the Basics
• - Explore asana through progressive step-by-step sequencing offered through the lens of anatomy and biomechanics.
• - Poses in all categories will be explored: standing twists and binds, balancing on hands or feet, hip openers and forward bends, backbends, core, supine, prone and variations of inversions.
• - Understand how to make level 2 poses accessible in an all levels / multi-level class, become proficient in teaching with integrity, alignment, and safety as the priority, and refine your ability to see and verbally assist common misalignments.
• - Learn to assess the outer form, the foundation, the movement of energy, and the facial expressions as a window into the manomayakosha (layer of the mind and the emotions) and select an appropriate assist that will help their students find a greater sense of ease and joy in their pose.
• The Alchemy of Yoga - Instructing for Positive Transformation and Change
• - Increase crease your efficacy in offering a yoga experience that invites your students into a space of positive personal evolution. Part of this process will begin by infusing your home practice with tapas and intention, guidance will be provided. Students will have a chance to practice teach as well as give and receive feedback to others.
• Additionally, expect to explore:
• - A multi-dimensional approach to sequencing
• - Crafting and delivering effective themes
• - Power of language
• - Developing your authentic voice in the seat of the teacher
• - Principles of demonstration
• - Adapting yoga for ALL bodies
• Meditation, Philosophy and Self Study
• - Learn to access the ancient wisdom of yoga and apply its liberating techniques to your daily life.
• - Be empowered to fulfill your potential, cultivate clarity of vision, transcend self-imposed limitations, and access your true nature.
• - Read, digest, discuss and reflect on key concepts in the Bhagavad Gita, Hatha Yoga Texts, and Non-Dual Tantric Philosophies.
• - Learn to offer life-changing concepts of yoga philosophy in a way that is meaningful and readily received by the students in your classes.
• - Deepen your experience of meditation and explore techniques that help you open into your natural state of freedom, fullness and love.
• Pranayama Level 2
• - Along with level one pranayamas, trainees will explore both the practice and teaching strategies for kumbhaka (breath retention), psychic pranayama, the effect of mudra (gestures) on the breath and ways to increase awareness in the prana vayus. Trainees will explore a variety of breath assessments to use with individual clients. Trainees will study the heating and cooling qualities of various counting and retention breath patterns and learn to change and adjust techniques to meet the needs of the individual.
• Current Research
• - We unite the findings from NEW evidence-based research with the ancient wisdom of yoga. Get educated on the true benefits of yoga. Make a real impact in your community and offer classes that help improve health for a lifetime of wellbeing. -- Stand out as an informed instructor and help your clients motivate to improve their wellbeing.
• Business of Yoga
• - From your big vision to the tiny details, we will impart the inspiration and essential skills to bring your yoga vision from dream to reality. In this course you will gain invaluable tools, insights, and strategies to specialize in your yoga career, helping you to establish yourself as a compassionate leader and knowledgable expert.

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Liz

Peggy

Samantha

Alison

Sundari

Liz Heffernan, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist

Liz Heffernan, MA, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT is a gifted international yoga teacher, a certified Yoga Therapist and long-term practitioner. She combines her in-depth knowledge of anatomy and bio-mechanically safe alignment principles with insights and practical wisdom gained from over 26 years of yoga teaching & immersive study. She is the Founder and Director of Soma Yoga Institute, a world-wide yoga teacher training school that embraces a therapeutically-oriented, heart-centered approach. These programs, heralded by many as truly inspirational, combine modern day biomechanics and research driven science with ancient teachings and serve to teach adaptive Yoga for all BODIES as a practice for vibrant health, self-transformation and personal empowerment. Liz's dynamic teaching style is influenced by many, many wonderful yoga teachers. These include Ashtanga Yoga’s Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, Tim Miller, Nancy Gilgoff and Bhavani Maki; Anusara Yoga’s Desiree Rumbaugh, Jenny Otto, Noah Maze, and Jim & Ruthie Bernaert; Integrative Yoga Therapy’s Joseph Le Page; and yoga philosophers Ram Das, Douglas Brooks, and Carlos Pomeda. Liz is known is for her ability to bridge the gap between the ancient perspectives of yoga and contemporary daily life. In her work as a yoga therapist, Liz specializes in helping seniors age gracefully and is highly skilled in adapting practices to meet the complex health challenges associated with aging. In collaborative partnership with Yoga 4 Brain Health she has co-founded the Memory Maintenance Yoga Teacher Training program that certifies Yoga teachers to help their communities delay the onset of memory loss related diseases through Yoga. Liz also serves as a faculty-mentor for the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy supporting professionals on their journey to become yoga therapists. Liz believes that the path of Yoga brings greater ease, not just to the individual, but to all beings everywhere, and ultimately uplifts planetary consciousness one conscious breath at a time.

Peggy Profant, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, E-RYT 500

Peggy Profant, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500 is a certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapy, Anusara Yoga certified, and a lead teacher trainer for Soma Yoga Institute since 2016. Her approach blends the ancient wisdom of yoga with biomechanically sound alignment to help her students become more firmly anchored in their true, radiant self. As a teen she discovered Kripalu yoga and changed the course of her life in her formative teen years. In 1994 she met her teacher, BNS Iyengar in Mysore, India who taught her the traditional forms of Ashtanga yoga. In 2001 she became interested in a more therapeutic approach to help her heal from injuries. She found Anusara Yoga and delighted in it's style of weaving meaningful heart themes into therapeutically aligned sequences. Peggy pursued the rigorous path to become a Certified Anusara Teacher in 2004 and began to delve into more studies of the therapeutic aspects of yoga. Every class she teaches is an artistic expression with meaningful and uplifting heart themes partnered with skillful sequencing and therapeutic alignment. As a yoga practitioner and teacher for over 25 years, Peggy has always been intrigued by the aspects of mental well-being through yoga. In her studies to become a yoga therapist, she focused primarily on yoga psychology and the healing benefits of yoga for herself and her clients. Peggy is a thoughtful and encouraging mentor to many students and yoga teachers in her community and around the globe. It is her wish to empower her students, friends and colleagues to overcome obstacles to self love and allow each person to joyfully offer their gifts back to humanity. In addition to Yoga, traveling and being in nature with her family is where she finds her deepest joy and peace. Peggy founded and operated a premier yoga studio in Arcata, Om Shala Yoga, for 10 years, and co-founded World Family Yoga leading family retreats in Costa Rica. She has been leading workshops, retreats and Yoga Teacher Trainings since 2005.

Samantha Akers, CMT, E-RYT 500
 Certified Yoga Therapist - C-IAYT

Samantha Akers began practicing yoga in 2000, after being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia. She credits Restorative Yoga and meditation, to her healing. She began teaching yoga in 2002, receiving her first certification in Hatha and Kundalini with Karuna Yoga in Los Angeles. She went on to graduate from her 500-hour program in 2009. She became increasingly interested in the Therapeutic Style of Iyengar Yoga and studied Therapeutics with Judith Lasater, Leeann Carey, and Russ Pfeiffer. Samantha is also a massage therapist, specializing in combining mindfulness with bodywork, earning her certification from one of the only 1000 hour programs in Los Angeles, in 2009. She sees over 50 private students a month, mixing modalities of yoga, meditation, and bodywork. ​ She began studying meditation with Pema Chodron in 2000. Her current teachers are Shinzen Young and George Haas at Against the Stream in LA. She just completed an 11-month training in Developing Meaningful Relationships through Meditation with George, in 2014. In 2012, she opened TheraYoga Studio in Los Angeles, bringing the TheraYoga Method (TM) to the community.

Alison Scola, E-RYT 500, LMT ​Integrative Yoga Therapist - C-IAYT

It was the gift of chronic pain that brought Alison to her yoga practice in 1993. Through study & practice of all the limbs of Yoga, she found powerful tools to heal her body & mind. Inspired to help others, she trained at the acclaimed schools of White Lotus Foundation, Integrative Yoga Therapy, YogAlign at Kauai Yoga School, & Healing Hands School of Holistic Health. Alison is an IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist, E-RYT 500, Massage Therapist, & Reiki Master. Her perspective on yoga as a holistic healing science inspires her to teach awareness of the physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual elements in her classes & private sessions. She views yoga as a way of life that connects us with our innate inner wisdom, compassion and true identity as Love.

Sundari Lucey E-RYT 500, Certified Anusara YT, Certified Neuromuscular Massage Therapist LMT

Sundari’s allegiance to this powerful transformative practice is though her own inner teacher and infinite presence which guides the flow of energy into form creating conscious expression and experience. She began teaching yoga under the tutelage of Ramanand Patel in 1987 in Saratoga, CA after completing a 2-year program at The Iyengar Yoga Institute in SF. Sundari has had the privilege of studying with numerous renowned teachers in her early years of training as well as completing a 17-year circuit with Anusara Yoga where she traveled abroad and the US conducting Immersions and Teacher Trainings for certification to many extraordinary students. Together with Brown Earth ™ she developed a YouTube channel along with a DVD called “A dose of Yoga with Sundari.” In her yoga career Sundari owned and operated 3 yoga studios up until 2020 giving people from all walks of life a place to gather, share and study the art of Yoga. She specializes in advanced therapeutic health and the art of deep listening in yoga and meditation. Yoga experienced with Sundari connects you to the source of your own radiance, that vibration which reflects your own divinity. Her gift to this life-style of yoga is sensitivity, humor and expertise. With 40 years of study and practice of yoga, Sundari’s instruction is open-hearted and deeply informative holding the highest intention for each student to reveal their own inner light, presence and essential Self.

Details of this retreat