Minneapolis Yoga Conference

Accessibility, Asana, and the Subtle Body

Matthew Sanford

Asana is accessible to every one, but physical bodies and their abilities vary greatly. The good news is that the experience of the subtle body is universal. The issue is one of access: does the yoga teacher know how to help students gain access to the subtle body in ways that are relevant to the performance of asana. This knowledge begins with the teachers’ awareness of the subtle body in their own practices. This intensive explores ways for yoga practitioners to enhance their own experience of the subtle body. Special attention is given to insights that do not solely emphasize breath, such as alignment, precision, the role of gravity, an inward sense of direction, and realizing the ‘space’ between the muscles and the bone. Throughout the day, participants explore the seemingly paradoxical meaning of the ancient yogic adage: prana follows consciousness more than it follows breath. The goal of this workshop is help create the foundation for how the experience of the subtle body makes asana accessible to everybody while also deepening each participants personal practice. Lecture, discussion, and asana. Some asana experience is recommended. Please bring a yoga mat, a blanket, a block and a belt.

Soul Family-The Power of Yoga Friendships

Marni Sclaroff & Mindy Bez

In the Buddhist Tradition, Sangha, or spiritual community, is one of the central pillars of support for the practice. Our friends become our mirrors, our support, and they become our teachers. In our spiritual friendships, we learn how to hold a space for each other to be vulnerable, to trust, and to wake up. In this workshop, we will explore the beauty of relationships that are dedicated to supporting your highest self. This workshop includes asana, meditation, group discussion, journaling, and enjoying our time together.

EMYoga Manifestation

Lauren Walker

How do you create what you want in your life? Do you really know what you really want? Finally learn the Secret behind the Secret. In this 4-hour workshop and practice you will dive deep to learn how to energetically empower your desires. You’ll learn a physical practice to help strengthen your ‘manifestation muscles’, and you’ll end the practice with a short yoga nidra, or guided meditation, to further help plant the seed of your desire into your subconscious. This experience will leave you exhilarated and focused, bringing you into a state of fluid co-creating power.

Deep Roots Intensive for People of Color

James Orione

What would liberation look like without the constraints of oppressive systems? What desires could you manifest in this state of freedom? What would it mean for yourself and your community to love to your deepest roots? How can you move from a place of survival to a place of abundance? How might you connect the way you live with your desires? Deep Roots Intensive for People of Color will explore these questions in relation to your yoga practice. Through dialogue in small and large groups, asana, pranayama, mediation, guided relaxations and somatics we will explore our blocks or habits (samskaras) and cultivate ways to work with them. Deep roots intensive is a safe space for people of color that promotes empowerment, healing and connection.

“Do you already know that your existence--who and how you are--is in and of itself a contribution to the people and place around you? Not after or because you do some particular thing, but simply the miracle of your life. And that the people around you, and the place(s), have contributions as well? Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in?" - Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

Yoga of Nine Emotions-Rasa Sadhana

Indu Arora

(This intensive is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) As per the ancient Tantric tradition and Vedas - The Sanskrit word Rasa means “the essence of emotion” and ultimately “bliss”. The practice of developing emotional stability and equilibrium is called Rasa Sadhana. It offers us an alternative healing path and can be combined with any lineage, culture or tradition. We shall explore the 9 emotions of peace, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, love, joy, wonder and courage one by one focusing practices to strengthen the agreeable ones and learning healing practices for the less desirable ones through meditation, discussions, practice of asanas, pranayama, mantras, mudras, kriyas and much more. Let us immerse in this journey as pursuit of lasting happiness and everlasting peace. This workshop is a combination of discussions and practice. Contents: Emotions, elements, internal organs and taste. What is Rasa Sadhana. How to combine Rasa Sadhana in every day life and Yoga.

Creative Sequencing for Professional Yoga Instructors

Rhiannon Kirby

This workshop has been designed to help the new to seasoned, yoga teacher or yoga professional sequence for their private or public classes. Learn how to fine tune class sequencing, re-inspire class sequencing, create smart, anatomically sound, thoughtful, focused plans for your students. In this workshop we will create mini sequences that can help support you, the teacher, in very specific in the moment situations. We will workshop through single class plans, peak pose inspired classes, the benefit of sequencing in 2 week increments to see real growth in your student(s) and the dissection of class arch's to make sure you are utilizing your class time in an efficient and influential way. Please bring a notebook and be prepared to move.

Energy Medicine Yoga: The Basics

Lauren Walker

Learn what Energy Medicine Yoga (EMYoga) is, how it works, why it works and how you can include it into your daily practice to transform your life. These simple EMYoga practices will help you strengthen your immune system, increase your intuition, increase your energy levels, your healing ability, your contentment and joy. This practice is simple, transformational and fits in with any style of yoga you already use. Be prepared to change your ideas of yoga and healing!

Presence Time: How to wake up as a ROARRIOR

Leo Rising

LeoRising is an auric field amplifier, cosmic diviner & mystic yoga teacher who specializes in the gift of Presence. He will teach you a 4 part harmony sadhana to get your body energized, breath embodied, intentions actualized, and overall posture attuned to the true force of your authentic voice, spirit, and mind so that you can lead a day fully lived aware of syncronciities fulheartedly sought & found. Some sadhanas are basic, so are absolute MAGICK!

Ayurvedic Nutrition + Yogic Diet

Indu Arora

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) The modern definition of diet has become limited to vegan, raw, organic, vegetarian, non-vegetarian, paleo, keto, macrobiotic, gluten free etc. What is the understanding of food in Ayurveda and what did Yogis eat? Are they are the same thing or is there a significant difference between what Yoga understands as food and what Ayurveda understands as nutrition for the sake of a healthy body and healthy mind. Does the food really need to be isolated and seen from a micro lens? Can it be simplistic yet healthy? Do we have to cook food as per every person’s Dosha at home? Let us discuss the role and principles of food as therapy in Yoga and Ayurveda. Bring in your appetite!

Deepen your Connection: Exploration through your Senses

Faith Hunter & Kristi Taylor

Faith Hunter and Kristi Taylor join together and invite you to nestle in for a 4.5 hour intensive for women. Along the inner journey you will taste sweetness of chocolate, inhale the delicateness of essential oils, absorb sound vibrations through healing music, affirm your intentions through mantra, feel the power of radiant energy through mudras and touch. Together we will explore the depths of your senses through sound healing, breath, meditation, mudras, mantra, journaling, movement and partner work. By creating deep human connection you will magnify your connection to self. Please bring your yoga mat, journal, pen and an open heart. All levels are welcome.

Intelligent Touch and Presence in Adjustments and Partnered Work

Nathan Paulus

Touch is both a fundamental and a complex way that we interact with the world and share energy with each other. In yoga practice it can be used as a way to build intelligence or to be present with someone, but more often than not the motivations are mixed. In this workshop we will discuss ethics and look at the questions of “Why am I touching this person / giving an adjustment? Where am I in this moment emotionally / physically inside myself? What am I trying to do?” Then, to explore and learn more, we will focus on techniques for improving CONNECTION. First and foremost, connection within ourselves, then with other people. We will use a variety of personal and partner exercises to work with connecting, deep listening, responsiveness, self-responsibility and intention. The practices we work on are can become tools for self-refinement in all aspects of your daily living.

Exploration of Sound and Resonance

Calley Bliss

Resonance - in a literal sense - is the act of vibratory motion within a physical encasement. In our culture, we commonly talk about resonance as an intuitive sense of alignment: What resonates with you? On a sensory and spiritual level we use our intuitive sense of resonance for decision-making. On an intellectual level we understand that sound frequencies carry a vibration, which travels through space and is affected by physical surroundings (acoustics), creating varying effects on auditory resonance. Listening to music and tonal frequencies, singing, and playing instruments can catalyze physiological responses which have an effect on our emotional, mental, as well as physical selves. In this workshop, we will explore the crossover of sound, body, and breath as observers and participants. Pulling concepts from western sound science, music, and yoga philosophy, please come ready to listen deeply, and play with experiential practice using the chamber of the body as a vessel for resonant sound, and intuitive movement. We will connect the dots between the spirit of vibration, and the importance of vessel to create powerful, audible resonance.

Emotional Balance with EMYOGA

Alyson Iannicelli

Unprocessed emotions are believed to be the #1 cause of dis-ease in the body. Our emotions rapidly change moment to moment and in a fast-paced life, your emotional well-being can often be ignored or put on hold. There’s never an “easy” time to process suppressed emotions, but with EMYoga, it can feel easy. In this session, learn how to find your emotional center through the ebbs and flows of your daily life with a simple EMYoga routine that you can do on, or off, your mat. Discover your primary element, according to the Five Element energy system, and how to work with this system through EMYoga to help release and reset stuck emotions to create harmony within.

Anatomy, Asana and Adjustments

Tanya Boigenzahn

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) Join Tanya in this experiential, engaging mini-breakdown of the psoas muscle from a Yoga Therapy perspective. Learn ways it fails to function properly in backhanding and forward bending, as well as how it interacts with other muscles like the adductors, transverse abdominals, diaphragm, and pelvic floor for our base of stability. Learn how the psoas is used in certain asanas and other yogic practices to support both stability as well as flexibility, and is used as a bridge between the ground and the rest of the body. We’ll lean into the art of how to really “see” students to help take your practice and teaching to a new level of intuitive awareness. Students will explore cueing suggestions and hands-on adjustments to help promote consciousness and awareness in your students’ bodies to honor the psoas. The more yogic tools at your disposal, the more flexibility you'll have in adapting to the unique circumstances and predilections of each of your students. This is an interactive workshop, and is for yoga teachers and yoga therapists who seek more wisdom in the classroom and/or in private sessions, especially in relation to understanding the psoas. Come prepared for discussion, asana lab, and practice teaching to apply what you are learning.

Expand Your Teaching with Techniques and Tools for Privates Sessions

Molly McManus & Ann Maxwell

Learn simple techniques from SomaYoga Methodology to help serve your students in private sessions. Learn the use of several therapeutic props to reduce student's pain and discomfort and enhance your students proproception, interoception and wellbeing.

Deepen your Connection: Exploration through your Senses cont'd

Faith Hunter & Kristi Taylor

Faith Hunter and Kristi Taylor join together and invite you to nestle in for a 4.5 hour intensive for women. Along the inner journey you will taste sweetness of chocolate, inhale the delicateness of essential oils, absorb sound vibrations through healing music, affirm your intentions through mantra, feel the power of radiant energy through mudras and touch. Together we will explore the depths of your senses through sound healing, breath, meditation, mudras, mantra, journaling, movement and partner work. By creating deep human connection you will magnify your connection to self. Please bring your yoga mat, journal, pen and an open heart. All levels are welcome.

Awakening Kundalini

Nicole Nardone

Kundalini is the primal, raw evolutionary force. It is rising in the world, in the earth, and in our bodies. As this force rises, it transforms everything it touches. It heals. It reveals. It purifies, clarifies and enlivens. Its ultimate purpose is evolution, awakening and union with all that is. This largely untapped internal resource is being called forth in all of us at this time in our world. The kundalini is a powerful force that when awakened, can amplify our healing, transformation, creativity and so much more. The yogis describe the kundalini as a dormant or semi-dormant energy resting at the base of the spine. It contains your potential, the seeds of your fullest life and truest self. It is a great primal power that can fuel your spiritual growth, your work, your health, and all aspects of your life. In this class, we’ll dive into practices to awaken the kundalini force within our own bodies in a safe and gentle way. Using the technology of Kundalini yoga, meditation, mantra, and more, we cultivate a balanced nervous system and glandular system. This allows for an activation and movement of the kundalini energy through the body that is integrated and complete. The creative pulse of life that moves through all things, moves also through you. Let it rise through the spine, lighting the rainbow as it goes, crowning you as one with all that is.

Yoga & Racial Justice: Deeper Dive

James Orione

The deeper dive is a continuation of Yoga and Racial justice. This workshop builds on concept of spiritual bypassing and explores how implicit bias and microaggressions impedes the oneness, community building, and connections we seek.

We will work through these topics by becoming present and embodied through asana, pranayama, and meditation. After our practice we will dive deeper in large and small group conversations, self-study, and action steps that we can integrate into our lives and practice.

Yoga is about oneness and how we relate and connect to it. The deeper dive explores the concept of svadhyaya (self study) to explore or discover bias and prejudice we hold that is subconscious. When we are not ready or prepared to face these parts of ourselves we have a tendency to meet them with avoidance. Coming to practice yoga and walking out of the door feeling bliss but not really digging into social issues that impact your community and society as a whole.

Yoga and race are connected for many different reasons but one that stands out is truth. The conversation reveals truth(Satya). This truth could present itself in many different ways. I am a person who has experienced/continues to experience racism in my daily life how does this impact me as a yoga practitioner? I am a yoga practitioner who has had limited/no opportunities to discuss race or racial justice where do I start? I am a yoga practitioner and I want to take action. Regardless of where you are on this journey digging deeper in a safe space and viewing this through a yogic lens can be beneficial to all.

Clinical Components in Therapeutic Assessment

Avanti Kumar Singh, MD

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) While the biomedical model is excellent for acute, crisis-based intervention, it is less effective for chronic conditions and disease prevention. Through a lens of “yoga as medicine”, using the models of yoga therapy and Ayurveda integrated with the biomedical model is a powerful approach to help people heal and for prevention of disease. In this compelling and interactive workshop, Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh draws upon her 20+ years of experience in Western medicine and traditional healing systems to discuss how to effectively use the models and tools of yoga and Ayurveda in therapeutic assessment. Combining patient case-studies with research, she provides a framework for yoga teachers and therapists who want to expand their knowledge to improve the health of their students and clients.

Yoga for Equanimity

Ben Vincent

Change is the nature of the world we live in, yet it is the nature of humans to seek that which last. All too often, we allow our inner state to be determined by change in the world around us- the season, politics, other people, etc. To find lasting peace, yogis know that cultivating a calm steady mind. Through lecture and practice, this workshop will explore experientially the yogic understanding of the mind, and how to practice and live in a way that brings peace

ELEVATE: Vinyasa from Surviving to Thriving

Nick Bez

Regardless of your background or baggage, yoga is one of the oldest and most beneficial practices for elevating you from the experience of surviving to that of thriving, and yoga instigators Nick Bez and DJ Omaur Bliss are no strangers to the process. From their travels and teaching they know that it takes more than one-liners and platitudes to pull back the curtain on presence and the power and possibility that come with it, so they have fused their passion for yoga philosophies and vinyasa worthy beats to create a full body and being exploration of elevating oneself. You will be provided an opportunity to explore how you do what you do, how to make stronger that which supports you, and how to short-circuit that which does not. Please note that you may leave this session feeling awesome, smiling at strangers, and looking to hug someone.

The Art of Letting Go: Exploring Vairagya (detachment)

Carly Brown

Dive deep into exploring one of Yoga’s central concepts and one of our hardest things to do: Letting Go. We will look at how to let go on a physical level, using tools like yoga postures, breath work and meditation as well as letting go from a mental/emotional level using the liberating teachings of Vairagya from hatha yoga. We will learn that letting go is not a stand-alone practice but truly a beautiful balance of releasing what creates suffering and moving towards what brings us peace. The goal of this workshop is to provide you with a deeper understanding of detachment so that you can apply these practices in day-to-day life and save yourself from unnecessary worry, pain and suffering. Learning The Art of Letting Go will empower you to navigate in your world with peace and contentment.

An Introduction to Trauma, PTSD, and Yoga

Matthew Sanford

Trauma and post-traumatic stress lie on a continuum. Everyone experiences it in one form or another. Luckily for most of us, it does not profoundly impact the quality of our lives and rise up to the level of a disorder. This two-hour workshop explores the effect that trauma has on the mind-body relationship and how yoga – and in particular asana – might help to remedy such effects. Often trauma survivors experience a sense of mind-body disconnection, a sense of inward receding, a loss of expansion, and a profound loss of grounding, balance, and rhythm. This workshop explores the practical and experiential effects that trauma has on the mind-body relationship and thus how yoga might aid in the process of healing. This session is intended for everyone, not just people wanting to teach people living with PTSD. Lecture and asana.

Embody Love: A Transformational Program for ALL Women

Tiffany Denny

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) “Our feelings about our body can either liberate us into purposeful action or block us from the privilege of contributing to the world around us.” - Dr. Melody Moore, Founder of Embody Love Movement™ This is a workshop based in the curriculum of Embody Love Movement™ about uncovering our own truth around the ways we are affected by and contribute to a culture and media that values looks over actions and sales over well-being. How often do you hear or see body shaming, stories of “not-enoughness,” criticism, and comparison from your friends, daughters, teachers, the media, or maybe even yourself? If you notice these issues coming up more than you’d like, this is an opportunity to learn where it comes from and how to disrupt these patterns in favor of acceptance, forgiveness, kindness, and love. Embody Love Movement™ is a social profit organization founded in 2011, with a mission is to empower girls and women to celebrate their inner beauty, commit to kindness, and contribute to meaningful change in the world. We accomplish that mission through transformational, experiential programs like this workshop. I am currently the Executive Director of Embody Love Movement, and love sharing this work that has been a game-changer in my own life. I hope you will join me!

Live Your Authentic Vibrant Life!

Ann Blackburn w/Dan Blackburn

Join Ann & Dan Blackburn as they guide you through an exploration of your passions, and life purpose. Use your courage, curiosity, and creativity on this journey to realize your superpowers, become aware of limiting beliefs that get in your way and create new powerful practices for living your Authentic Vibrant Life! You will also get clear about your true priorities in life to find YOUR balance and create a plan with support structures for continued success. Bring a list of 25 things that you would like to experience in your lifetime. event:

Self Healing with Ayurveda: The Medicine is inside you

Avanti Kumar Singh, MD

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) Healing is widely thought to be something that happens after going to the doctor and taking a pill or having a test, procedure or surgery. This is based on the belief that “following the doctor’s orders” is the best way to get rid of a cough, control diabetes, or to shrink a tumor. In this compelling and interactive workshop, Dr. Avanti Kumar-Singh shows that "healing is an inside job"... that the medicine we need to heal is already within each of us. Integrating real-life examples with knowledge from her 20+ year journey to train in and experience a variety of healing traditions and modalities, she shares simple, actionable steps to help unleash your innate healing power using Ayurveda. In this workshop, Avanti shows you: How Ayurveda supports vibrant health and the 5 self-healing strategies you can begin to implement immediately. Why it’s important to focus on adding positive habits that encourage health...rather than on eliminating habits that cause illness. How to use your symptoms and the Counter-Balance Solution™ to move toward health. Why you are not what you eat. 5 healing spices you probably already have in your spice “medicine” box and creative ways to use them.

Yoga and Your Guts

Tiffany Denny

More and more, we hear about the role gut health plays in our overall wellbeing. This workshop will include some lecture on the “how” and “why” behind centering a practice around our guts, from immune function, to stress relief, to improved digestion and elimination, to pelvic floor function, to hip and low back health. Woven through this information will be practices you can take home and tailor to your own needs!

Chakra Awakening: Body and Soul

Faith Hunter

Designed to ignite the physical body, stimulate the mental realm, and awaken the soul, Faith will guide you through a transformational experience honoring the natural flow of energy based on the Chakras. Chakras are energy centers that serve as pathways to awaken and rebalance the body, mind and soul. When these areas are blocked, we are unable to move and function effortlessly in life. Within the workshop, you will feel rooted, strengthen and nourished through a series of yoga movements, breathing techniques, kyriyas, mudras, mantras, and personal intentions.

Yogic Meditation for Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Well-Being

Ben Vincent

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) For thousands of years, meditation (dhyana) has been at the heart of Yoga. Even as Hatha Yoga (postures, breathwork, relaxation) has become very popular, yogic meditation has largely been forsaken. Amidst the rigors of modern life, Its timeless teachings and practices are as relevant as ever. Dhyana offers us a time-tested path for finding peace, resolving stress and suffering, and realizing the greater potentials of human life. Yogic meditation utilizes the body, energy, mind and heart to: Calm, clarify and illumine the mind. Support emotional equanimity and healing. Balance the nervous system and prana Empower will (icca), knowledge (jnana) and action (kriya) shakti. Awaken the heart as love, compassion and wisdom. This will shop will include seated meditation, moderate movement and breathwork, lecture and Q + A. You will: Learn traditional postures and breathing practices to prepare for meditation. Learn the process of yogic meditation, and its place in the yoga tradition. Experience essential techniques of yogic meditation: 1) Witness Consciousness 2) Mantra (sacred sound) 3) Kriya: (Active meditation using breathwork, mantra and visualization) Learn tools for starting, deepening and/or overcoming obstacles to mediation practice. Receive recordings of the meditations to support your home practice

EMYOGA: Stress Reset

Mollie Silver

Feel like you’re stuck in a rut? Would you like to release old patterns that are no longer serving you? Want to find more joy in your life? Our energy body has a system, Triple Warmer (TW), that is responsible for keeping us alive. Since this is its priority, Triple Warmer can steal energy from almost every other energy system in your body causing a pattern of stress. These patterns can show up as disease, pain, autoimmune illness, or other chronic imbalances that just won’t shift because TW has formed this energy habit. Learn to recognize and befriend this system, utilize EMYoga techniques to rebalance the fight or flight hormones, and repattern the stress response in the body. Learn to access and activate the pathways of joy, to move from stressed to blessed!

The Art of Conscious Creation

Kristi Taylor

This session is a grounded in a restorative practice, breath, guided visualization, inquiry, meditation, journal, mantra, with live music.

The Metamorphosis Get Down: Afro Beat Yoga

Leo Rising

Formally “the metamorphosis getdown” LeoRising loves a deeply sweaty and body empowering asana practice. This will be offered. But, more importantly he loves to remedy seriousness of his mood, mentality with groovy mantras & ecstatic DANCE! LeoRising would like to share some fundamental and accessible AfroBeat dance moves that he fit into a physical yoga practices as experienced in New York City. With every move comes a vibrant history of the technique that infused vital cultural & spiritual bonding.

EMYoga Wisdom: Aging gracefully

Lauren Walker

The goal is to die young, as old as you possibly can! As we age, things change in both our bodies and our minds. We have an opportunity, with EMYoga, to support some of the systems in the body that weaken most as we age. It’s not about reversing the clock. We celebrate every stage of life! It’s about supporting and strengthening vulnerable systems so we can maintain our strength, flexibility, suppleness and power; as well as increasing the wisdom of the body and the mind. You’ll leave this class feeling great!

Yoga for People Impacted by Substance and Behavioral Addictions

Nikki Myers

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) This session presents a framework for addiction relapse prevention that includes the cognitive approach of the 12-step program, the trauma healing approach of Somatic Experiencing and the body/mind based approaches offered by yoga therapy and mindfulness practices. Utilizing material from ancient texts, trauma research as well as information and data from modern neuroscience studies, we will explore how combining cognitive and somatic approaches supports changes in brain patterning. This integrated framework, presents a holistic addiction relapse prevention model that supports compassionate awareness, deep-rooted change and healing.

The Art of Making Time: Untying The Knots That Keep Us Bound

Carly Brown

Is life too busy? Is there no time for self-care? Waiting for that vacation so you can finally relax? ‘The Art of Making Time’ is designed to support you to make the transition from looking at life as an outer struggle of obligations, responsibilities and ‘racing the clock’ to greeting each day with gratitude and embracing life and all that comes your way. We will look at the ways we are validated to stay busy (and exhausted) and examine how our own/societal expectations & obligations keep us living in a constant state of catch up mode. This workshop goes to the depth of understanding Kama (binding desires) and how these desires (consciously or unconsciously) drive our behaviours. It will allow you to reflect upon the pillars in which you want to build your life around, bringing you more space, time and purpose in your life. Includes: asana, pranayama, meditation, soul prompting questions for journaling and group discussion.

Tantric Yoga Demystified

Tanya Boigenzahn

Ready to expand, grow and shine more brilliantly in a sustainable way? Tantra is an ancient worldview that supports experiencing life as a gift and seeing the Divine in everything. In this workshop, we explore questions such as: What is Tantra, and how is it different from Yoga? Why is Tantra so important in the 21st century? What does the role of sensuality and desire play in Tantra? How does Tantra complement Yoga, Ayurveda, and other forms of healing? Whether you are new to yoga or a seasoned practitioner, Tantric Yoga helps invest in your personal practice and accelerate your process to Self Mastery. Tantra also offers the perfect balance between intellectual and experiential learning, and aims to empower us to put our knowledge to work in the world around us - both on the mat and off. Come help learn the tools to help you grow brighter and be a source of light in the world! Come prepared for discussion then experiential practice. All levels welcome!

Developing a Self Practice

Rhiannon Kirby

Have you ever tried to do a self practice but your dog, kids, partner, lint under the couch have you distracted? You aren't alone. In this workshop, we will dive deep into shedding the road blocks to self practice. You will be given all the tools you need to start or grow a yoga practice at home, on the road, anywhere or anytime. Beginning or strengthening a self practice of yoga can be a great way to maintain and deepen your yoga practice while creating a self care routine. It can be whatever you want or need it to be, it can begin and end any time, it can be a length of your choice, it can support your mood, tune you into your physical needs and be a life long tool to connect you to you. Mindful approaches to create, anatomically safe, smart and accessible mini or full classes that support just where you are an ultimate goal for this workshop. Please bring a journal or notebook and be ready to move.

Shava Asana and Yoga Nidra as therapy

Indu Arora

(This workshop is part of the Yoga Therapy Track.) Learn about the 4 stages of Yoga Nidra and the role of Shavasana in gaining deeper understanding and enriching Yoga Nidra. Soak the benefits of giving your body and mind a 45 minutes Shavasana to ensure systematic, deep, precise and progressive state of relaxation and rejuvenation. Shavasana literally means the corpse position. The purpose of this position is to allow for deep rest, healing and rejuvenation of body and mind. It is not just a 5-minute relaxation. It is a precise, conscious and step-by-step approach that prepares the body and mind for higher states of awareness and Yoga Nidra as such. Bring an unscented eye pillow, prayer shawl (or blanket to cover the body), avoid wearing any strong perfumes or essential oils.

Going Beyond Asana in Your Teaching

Molly McManus & Ann Maxwell

Using the Maps and Models of Yoga to Enhance your Services.Yoga is so much more than Asana and being able to translate and use all of the many gifts of this tradition can greatly enhance your abilities and service as a yoga teacher or yoga therapist. Learn to use the Pancha Maya Kosha Model, 6 Pillars of Yoga and the Ashtanga Eight Fold Path in your teaching and private sessions.

Compassionate or Co- dependent: The Wisdom to Know the Difference

Nikki Myers

Compassion is the heart of sustainable service. Literally translated ‘suffering with’, compassion goes beyond feeling another’s suffering to actively mitigating it. Codependence has been defined as ‘the dis-ease of the lost self’. It becomes problematic when we consciously or subconsciously seek something outside as a way to sidestep looking inside. The line between the two can be fuzzy and confusing. When service or activism comes from codependence it becomes what Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa calls ‘Idiot Compassion’ or compassion with neurosis. Even though good intentions may be at its core, compassion steeped in codependence becomes unskillful and ultimately damaging.True compassion balances concern and wisdom.When we find ourselves trying to fix another person or needing to help for our own sense of identity – it’s codependence not compassion. Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield stresses that true compassion only comes through deep self-acceptance. This session explores codependence, compassion and self-acceptance.

The International Association of Yoga Therapists

IAYT supports research and education in yoga and serves as a professional organization for yoga teachers and yoga therapists worldwide. Our mission is to establish yoga as a recognized and respected therapy.

Founded in 1989, IAYT has consistently championed yoga as a healing art and science. Membership is open to yoga practitioners, yoga teachers, yoga therapists, health care practitioners who use yoga in their practice, and yoga researchers. School membership is open to schools with yoga therapy training programs.

As of late 2017, IAYT has over 5,600 individual members from over 50 countries, and over 185 member schools. There are also 28 IAYT accredited yoga therapy training programs, with over 21 under review.

Learn More