Tips for Choosing a Yoga Teacher Traning
Jenna at Simply, Naturally, Homegrown sent me an email asking about tips for choosing a yoga teacher training. She writes:
I’m trying to find a yoga teacher training right now and am so overwhelmed by the process! I want to do a month long intensive and came across your experience when doing some research and was hoping you could shed some light on the whole process. I’m looking for a training that will offer me a great foundation since it is my first training but also love the spirituality and messages of Jivamukti. The Jivamukti teacher training is a little intimidating to me for a first training but if you have any advice on any programs that mix alignment with spirituality or any advice on the process in general I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks for the question, Jenna! I had a hard time as well deciding on a teacher training. I wanted a program that would enhance my own practice and allow me to study yoga in-depth, but that was also technical enough to give me a foundation for teaching yoga safely. I’m still not sure if teaching is right for me, but I learned a lot at the training that I use in my practice. And it was a lot of fun!
If you like the Jivamukti mix of alignment and spirituality, but for some reason (location, cost, experience, etc.) isn’t able to do their training, I would say select a program that is more technical than philosophical. If you learn a foundation of alignment, adjustments, sequencing, and anatomy you can add philosophy and other elements of Jivamukti from books and your own practice. I was really happy with the YogaWorks training, which focused on the practical aspects more than the philosophy. But this is highly individual, so my main advice would be to really think about what you want. Some questions to consider:
- What type of yoga do you practice? If you love the Jivamukti style, don’t sign up for an Ashtanga teacher training.
- What programs are available to you, depending on your location, schedule and budget?
- Who teaches the program? What are their credentials?
- Do you want to do a teacher training program to become a teacher or to deepen your own practice and knowledge? Or both?
Finally I would say don’t worry about not having enough experience to do a training. A 200-hour training is supposed to be a foundation to build upon, and you are there to learn!
Hi Heidi (and Jenna),
I cannot say enough good things about the 200 hour yoga teacher training at Pacific Yoga Teacher Training and Advanced studies (http://www.pacificyoga.com). Theresa Elliot and Kathryn Payne are experienced yoga teachers and practitioners who provide an alignment-based, technical program. I believe it has provided me with an exceptional foundation from which to build my yoga teaching. Details about the 200 hour program can be found here: http://www.pacificyoga.com/200hr_ttp.html. The next 200 hour program is starting soon. There’s an open house on Thursday, Jan 14th.
Take a hard look at the person(s) conducting the training. Are they someone you want to emulate? Are they yogis (ie; established in yoga and shining examples for others to follow)? A teacher can only bring you as far along on the path as they have been themselves.
I would not dismiss the philosophy aspect of Yoga…it’s very important..physical aspect is to help with Meditation..and alignment well it’s important but when doing yoga we are working with the astral body not the physical(though we do not know this when we begin)and the astral body knows no limitation…
do some research..if you like Jivamukti find out where and who where the first people that Sharon and David did there training with…
and don’t be intimidated, do the research and see what you connect with, when it’s right it will happen..Heidi give some really good advice..and it is the foundation that you will build upon.
om
Great tip about finding out where your teachers did their training!
I definitely didn’t mean to dismiss the philosophy aspect of yoga. I think it’s very important to learn about the foundation of the practice. But history and philosophy can be learned through reading and self-study, while the more practical details of asanas and teaching need to be part of the teacher training. So if you’re not able to attend the teacher training of your choice, find a good technical program that you can supplement with self-study.
Regarding the previous anonymous message “Take a hard look at the person(s) conducting the training…” I would suggest not to wait until you start the teacher training to evaluate the person(s) conducting the training, if you can sign-up for a yoga class with them.
I just narrowed down my options for teacher in training to a single one, and today I attended a yoga class taught by one of the teacher training instructors. It confirmed my decision that I will be investing my time and money in the right program for me.
Great article Heidi! and very timely too
Hi, in case it’s useful. I just wrote down some thoughts that I wish I had considered before starting my 200-hour teacher training.
http://blog.narasu.com/2010/02/10-things-to-think-about-when.html
Hope it’s useful. If you don’t mind, I’ll post your article too. I also had a hard time finding candid discussion on what to look for in a teacher training when I was signing up.
Good luck and congratulations on deciding to embark on teacher training. What an amazing experience it was.
narasu