SEMINAR SERIES - TEACHING TOPICS
with Abbie Galvin

Wednesdays August 4th, August 11th, August 18th, August 25th (2-4pm EST)
Price: $100 full program ($30 per session)

All hours bankable toward your Katonah Yoga® Certification.

Teaching yoga is a different endeavor than doing yoga. Teaching is an art all its own. A teacher has to "hold" the room, with a certain psychic connection to each student in their realm; an intuitive alertness which keeps students curious and attentive, making everyone feel safe and planting seeds for insight and change beyond the mat. Join us for a series of sessions where will explore teaching topics that inform what it takes to be a powerful and inspired teacher.

WEEK 1 - SEQUENCING (Wednesday August 4th)
In this session we will explore how to sequence classes using theory, the cycles of the seasons and a progressive arch that offers students a full embodied experience. Sequencing a yoga class is just like organizing anything with a beginning middle and end. We as teachers are leading our students through an event that is essentially a physical embodiment of a spiritual experience. We use asanas that transport them from personal habit to more facility and we use theory, so that as the class progresses, each student can use universal principles to reference their personal issues. Warrior poses address ones structure and stamina, twists and backbends address organs, shoulder stands and plows address our chemistry and hormones. A class should include all three as a "progressive" experience, providing an explicit, as well as more internal endeavor.

WEEK 2 - HOW TO INTEGRATE THEORY (Wednesday August 11th)
In this session we will explore how to integrate the Katonah Theory into your current teaching practice and how to address “resistance” from students who are unfamiliar with it. What we hear most from teachers who want to use the Katonah material in tandem with what they already know is their concern with how it will be received. If you understand and can articulate theoretical material, that which is universal, everyone can "relate." If you start from how a body, every body, is measured, you can teach anyone anything, because then you'll have universal references to start with, to play with, to build on. If you give students a reason to bend their knees, they'll gladly try it, as we all want something that works well, feels good and makes sense.

WEEK 3 - WORKING WITH ANY(BODY) (Wednesday August 18th)
In this session we will explore how to work with any(body) that walks into the room, young or old, tight or loose, injured or virile. Everyone who comes to class has something by which they are challenged. Whether it’s a pose they think they can't do, or an injury they’ve suffered, or an emotion they are haunted by, each person in the room brings with them what is happening for them outside the room. The physical practice by its nature and with your assistance, awareness and sensibilities, will help them alter, shift and inform their particular challenge. It behooves us as teachers to have lots of tools in our toolbox to address some of these conundrums. Learning how to "plug" someone in, calm down a nervous system, physically adjust well, rotate a crooked shoulder, move a damaged hip; can change someone's mental or emotional experience through their physiology.

WEEK 4 - FINDING YOURSELF AS A TEACHER (Wednesday August 25th)
In this session you will be challenged to tell your story, to us. Our final and most important task as teachers, is using ourselves as people in order to be effective leaders and inspirers of others. Students are putting themselves in your "hands" for a short but intense moment in their lives, a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly. How can we make good contact, tell a good story, engage their imaginations and encourage progress? We start with ourselves, we start with techniques for developing our own self-awareness and maturity; our stories, what we want, why we are truly doing this work and how we can do it all better.

Join Abbie Galvin LIVE on zoom for a series of 4 sessions. Sign up for the full program of 4 sessions or drop in session by session. You will receive a zoom link via email one hour before the start of each session. Recordings available upon request. Email info@thestudio.yoga after the session to request.