Heartwood Yoga Teacher Training

Thank you for your interest in the Heartwood Yoga Teacher Training program.

This Training has evolved from the breadth of knowledge of Gayna Uransky, who has taught yoga for thirty-six years including sixteen years as the residential yoga instructor at Heartwood. Healing yourself is a large part of training to be a yoga teacher, and Heartwood’s environment safely invites using your own process as a learning tool. One of Gayna’s primary interests in yoga is encouraging you as a student to be more in touch with yourself, your body, to get truly present, to look within, to feel your breath, and to follow your flow.

Gayna brings many components to this teacher training: the wisdom of great yoga masters B.K.S. Iyengar, Gita Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois, all of whom Gayna has been blessed to study with in India; her hands-on experience as a yoga teacher of thirty-six years; and fellow teachers and contemporaries from the Northern California area to share their special gifts and interests. We feel that the Yoga Teacher Training that Gayna has put together is truly a gift for Heartwood and for you on your path as a yoga teacher.

Living and eating during your stay at Heartwood involves a compassionate relationship with the Earth. We support local organic farmers, and the seasonal produce on our menus reflects the earth's natural cycles. We have found that the higher nutrient content and life energy of fresh organic food maximizes the healing processes of the body and mind.

To enroll in the Heartwood Yoga Teacher Training, or if you have questions, please call the Heartwood Enrollment Team toll-free at 877-936-9663. A detailed schedule of classes and subjects for every day of the three weeks is also available by calling the toll-free number. We ask for a $500 deposit to reserve your space.

Learning Objectives

• To first and foremost develop a well-rounded personal practice. From a personal practice come the insights that allow us to be good yoga teachers.
• To develop an understanding of the concepts underlying the poses. This allows the teacher to develop interesting sequences, rather than the same sequences repeated over and over.
• To understand and be able to apply basic principles of anatomy and physiology in order to develop sequences of non-injurious poses for the good health of the students.
• To become familiar with some of the many philosophic texts that relate to the subject of yoga, its history and its evolution.
• To be introduced to various styles of yoga. There are many different styles, and each of us may resonate with a different approach.
• To learn about setting up a yoga studio; the place, liability insurance, costs, advertising, various ways of paying teachers.
• To learn many different ways of earning a living teaching yoga through: Yoga studios, at colleges and universities, in gyms and health clubs, in church basements, at spas and retreat centers, through intensives both in your area and in other locales.

Skills

As a graduate, you will be able to:

• Develop and teach a class that incorporates a well-rounded approach to a yoga practice.
• Encourage students to practice the poses in a healthy and non-injurious way.
• Do gentle, hands-on corrections to students’ poses, and understand the importance of asking students if they feel comfortable with hands-on adjustments, i.e., “safe.”
• Know when to encourage the use of props in poses to allow a student to do a pose that is difficult for them in a safe way.
• Understand the potential health benefits and life-changes available to the individual who practices: concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), breathing techniques (pranayama), poses (asana), a vegetarian diet (ahimsa), and cleansing techniques (kriyas).
• Understand that there is a great deal of responsibility to teaching yoga. Understand that there is a holistic way of life with many choices that we each make daily.

Instructional Methods

• Anatomy and physiology will be taught in lectures through the use of books, in-class visual aids, overhead projector transparencies, full-size skeleton, charts discussions, and testing.
• Philosophy will be taught through lectures, readings, discussion groups, and student presentations.
• Poses will be taught experientially, largely by doing, as well as by student discussion, observation, and student presentation.
• Other enrichment experiences will vary. Students will be introduced to chanting (kirtan), cleansing techniques (kriyas), videos on many subjects relating to yoga and yoga philosophy, as well as subjects that relate peripherally to a holistic lifestyle.

Equipment Used

• Yoga mats – note that students are required to bring their own!
• Belts
• Blocks
• Poles
• Blankets – students are asked to bring one firm blanket
• Skeleton – Full-Size
• Books
• Handouts
  

  Heartwood Yoga Teacher Training provides 200 hours of training and is sanctioned by the Yoga Alliance.