The Seat of the Teacher: Holding Space for Your Students

Gain the skills and knowledge to support your students’ healing journey through compassionate and informed yoga instruction.

We invite you to join us for an inspiring weekend designed to enrich your skills and deepen your understanding of your role as a yoga teacher. While it’s easy to get caught up in playlists and creative sequencing, being a compassionate facilitator who knows how to hold the space for their students is crucial, now more than ever.

We’ll begin our time together by exploring the concept of meeting our students right where they are. To do so, we must acknowledge and understand trauma, how it impacts the nervous system, its prevalence in the world around us, and how it may commonly manifest itself in yoga spaces. With that deeper level of understanding, we’ll explore how the practices of Yoga can naturally address trauma, and how you as a teacher can be better prepared to support your students along their path.

We’ll also explore the language choices we make, and how impactful they can be on our students and those around us. From carefully considered cuing to the music quietly playing in the background, everything we do sets the tone and creates the container for our students to either feel welcome or wary in our presence. Special attention will be paid to the language of Yoga Nidra, ensuring it supports a calming and inclusive environment.

Furthermore, we will explore the crucial topic of power dynamics in yoga spaces. Understanding the inherent power you hold as a teacher and questioning if your language inadvertently asserts dominance is essential for creating a compassionate environment. We’ll reflect on the use of physical adjustments and the motivation behind them, as we explore the purpose of postures in our modern world.

Additionally we will discuss what it truly means to “hold the space,” including the importance of non-attachment to outcomes and maintaining neutrality as a teacher.

Our hope is that you’ll leave feeling refreshed, inspired, and better equipped to support your students as they navigate their personal path with the practices of yoga.