The Mentor Sessions

The historical teachings of yoga have incredible lessons for our modern world. Understanding and unpacking the ancient teachings is a lifelong process, and those of us lucky enough to practice, study and teach yoga must investigate how these teachings can shape our worldview. The bottom line is that the teachings of yoga point towards care of the collective as a path to enlightenment. The liberati...

Deb Flashenberg (she/her) is the founder and director of the Prenatal Yoga Center which she founded in NYC in 2002.  Along with being a prenatal yoga teacher, she is also a labor support doula, Lamaze childbirth educator, mother of two and self proclaimed "birth and anatomy geek". After the challenging birth of her first child, Deb became incredibly interested in pelvic health and has since earned...

I know that questioning whether the practices of yoga have a political aspect to them is a popular conversation, even controversy. But from my reading and study of the yogic and Buddhist teachings, there is no way to see dharma as separate from the world we live in, and with the world we live in being so full of injustice, that makes the teachings inherently political.  If the intention of the tea...

I imagine by now you've probably heard that over 65% of COVID misinformation is spread by just 12 people , and those 12 people are almost all from the wellness community.  As yoga teachers we may loosely (or closely) identify with the wider wellness community and so addressing these issues is important! What you may not know is that several of those people also have the same publisher-- Hay House...

In teaching yoga and asana we end up working with bodies quite a lot. Many, if not most, of our students will likely  be dealing with some kind of discomfort, whether it be the aches and pains of modern living, or full-blown, diagnosed injuries.  As yoga teachers it is entirely out of our scope to diagnose or treat pain or injuries. Full stop.  I do, however, think we should be educated and though...

I'm excited to share this quick bonus + important announcement episode with you. In the episode, I share the updated description of the podcast, why I'm releasing one episode per month starting now, and how important reviews are. (And did I mention a really important announcement?!) Each & every review counts! Thank you so much! If you'd like to submit a review on your computer from a web browser:...

Today is our 100th episode and to celebrate we have two very special guests! Joining us on the podcast are two nationally renowned professors who are experts in online learning and teacher education, and... they also happen to be my parents! As I hope comes through on The Mentor Sessions podcast, I am very interested in studying the craft of teaching yoga, as its own practice . I love asking quest...

In The Mentor Sessions Sangha we have been having a robust conversation about online yoga class library memberships. These are very popular now, and can be a great way to diversify your teaching income and support your students.  They also require a decent amount of work to set up, there are an endless number of ways to organize the process and the pricing for these offerings are all over the map....

When you think of teaching a trauma-informed yoga class, what comes to mind? Do you think of teaching a special class for a specific population, like veterans recovering from PTSD or survivors of abuse in a shelter? Those are populations that certainly benefit from a very well trained and thoughtfully trauma-conscious teacher (and specialty class!), but the truth is every single human has experien...

As you are well aware, we are living through a devastating public health crisis and masks and vaccines are our most important wellness tools right now (BY FAR). We know from our spiritual study that we are all interconnected, and none of us are truly well unless we are all well. I know this is a divisive topic in the yoga world and that makes it even more important that we talk about it. My guest...

The "BEST" way to teach twisting movements!  What kind of rules have you been taught about the safest way to twist? What do you teach your students about the best way to rotate through the spine? Today we are taking a deep dive into these questions and I couldn't be more excited! Your fellow teacher and podcast listener Madison Houck joins us today to unpack this conversation, as it was inspired b...

Kearsten Lyon (she/her) is the founder and owner of an extended health care clinic called Total Movement Therapy based in Toronto, ON and sees clients virtually all over the world. Kearsten has been working and teaching within the Pilates and Rehabilitation Therapy industry since 2011.  She utilizes a unique blend of Pilates, The Oov, Franklin Method, Movement for Trauma, traditional strength and...

I often feel like marketing is hard, and the things the "experts" tell us to do are slimy and also don't work. You feel me? That's why I'm so excited to have Mado Hesselink (she/they) on the show today! After teaching yoga for ten years, Mado met their fairy godmother business coach. She appeared in their life just long enough to plant the seeds that good business and good yoga can co-exist. Mado...

Teaching yoga to kids has the potential to be incredibly impactful for kids and their communities, but there are many challenges that arise when we try to take the deep and meaningful teachings of yoga and make them developmentally appropriate without losing the heart of the teachings!  Lucky for us, today we have Crystal McCreary on the podcast to talk about how to model and teach yogic practices...

Teaching yoga in 1x1 settings is such a wonderful way to inspire and support meaningful change in our student's lives. But the possibilities for what and how you could teach a private lesson are endless and as a teacher that can feel overwhelming! How do you decide what to focus on??  Teaching yoga one-on-one requires a different skill set than teaching group classes, and these unique skills are l...

As yoga teachers most of us are legally and financially out on our own; we are small business owners and independent contractors cobbling together enough work to make a living. There is much that needs to change about our systems, but today I want to start small and offer this free training on legal protections for yoga teachers and I'm so happy to introduce you to Cory Sterling (he/him) ! Cory is...

The yoga world has changed so much since I started teaching 16 years ago. Back then I didn't have a website, use social media or have any fancy tech equipment, and I didn't know many (any?) yoga teachers who did!  The need to be able to understand and use technology has changed a lot since 2005, and even more so in this last year...obviously. I'm so happy to have an episode for you today that has...

It has been just over one year since I shifted from teaching yoga full time in-person, to teaching full time online. It has been a huge change (obviously) in my approach to teaching and my day to day schedule. In this episode I share some updates with you about how it's going in general (well!) how my students are doing (so much beautiful growth and adaptation) and what my teaching plans look like...

Do you know Tori Lunden (she/her)? She is known as Bad At Yoga on social media and if you haven't come across her work yet I'm SO excited I get to introduce you to her today. If you do know Tori's work, you won't be surprised at all to know that I jumped at the chance to connect with her, (and we had a blast!) because there are many similarities in our work!  After two and half decades of spiritua...

Trauma-informed practice is a popular topic in the yoga world, and with good reason. Most people have experienced some kind of trauma and if yoga is to be a healing practice, as teachers and practitioners we must take into account what could make a practice unsafe or triggering for folks, including ourselves. But like so much of yoga in the west, trauma-informed conversations can often veer into t...

There are two things I'm really passionate about in my teaching: One is dismantling the notion of linear, hierarchical, universal progress, especially when it comes to movement. The other is teaching in a way that students feel 100% agency to make autonomous, empowered, educated decisions about their own movement practice.  These two concepts come together really beautifully when we unpack regress...

The Trans* Yoga Project is doing incredibly important work in the yoga and wellness spaces and I'm honored to introduce you to two of the founding members, River Redwood (they/them) and M Camellia (they/them). The Trans* Yoga Project creates and holds space for Trans* people to live wholly and thrive loudly by dismantling barriers to access in yoga and wellness spaces and by offering classes and w...

Pranayama is incredibly rich practice because breath is a powerful vehicle to explore our most intimate relationship, the one we have with ourselves. I'm really excited to introduce you to my friend Mirabelle, because studying and teaching the intricacies of pranayama is a great passion and expertise of hers! I was lucky enough to have a private pranayama lesson with her in the fall and it was a b...

The Connective is a virtual movement studio that is cooperatively owned and powered by teachers. They provide a sustainable livelihood for yoga and movement professionals and raise industry standards for quality, diversity, anti-racism, and accessibility. They offer students an online space to explore movement, build community, and discover new potential.  I am so excited to have two of the teache...

You don't need me to tell you that The Year of Our Lord 2020 was (and this is the official designation, I'm pretty sure) A Hot Steaming Pile of Garbage . So much of what made last year difficult is unchanged at the moment and so I wanted to record an episode that is a little different from what we usually do here at The Mentor Sessions.  Most of the episodes on this show are interviews with vision...