The Mentor Sessions

The differences between the way yoga is taught and practiced in India and the West are significant, and important for western yoga teachers to be aware of! Lucky for us, today on the podcast we have my friend Arundhati Baitmangalkar to break it down for us!  Arundhati (she/her) is an Indian immigrant yoga teacher, studio business owner, podcaster and Bollywood choreographer. Now living in Seattle,...

The human body is a beautiful and complex system, and people who teach movement always have more to learn! When the scientific concepts of motor control, proprioception and the science of learning itself are integrated into the way we teach movement, they can have significant impacts on mental health, chronic pain and the processing of trauma.  Learning about these topics can be overwhelming thoug...

My friend Susanna Barkataki has written a book called Embrace Yoga's Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice and it is excellent . It is inspiring, galvanizing, a rallying cry. In this episode we talk all about what it really means to embrace yoga's roots and how to integrate our values into our teaching and respect the tradition and culture that yoga comes from.  If you don't already...

If you're a yoga teacher who's had to teach while working with an injury, this podcast episode is for you! Or if you see the same injuries over and over again in your students, there are tons of nuggets of wisdom here for you too.  Monica Bright is a master yoga teacher in the areas of anatomy, self massage, injuries and recovery strategies. She is also currently teaching full time while recoverin...

I think many of us would agree that a strict, dogmatic focus on alignment in asana doesn't really serve our students, but the question you may be asking next is... what do I teach then? If I'm not telling students the right or wrong way to move their body, what am I teaching them? How do I communicate information about movement without taking away my students' agency? My friend Derek Cook is here...

I am so excited to announce that my virtual yoga studio Stillness + Movement is officially open! This episode will take a deep dive into how I ended up creating a virtual yoga studio (it was kind of accidental!), what is so different about the way we teach, and how I recommend teachers listening set up something similar much more cheaply than the custom registration platform I had built!  In this...

Creating and connecting with community has been one of my most important practices this year. I have a weekly Sunday night Zoom hang out with my best friends from college. I'm in a quarantine pod with my parents and have dinner with them most weeks. I have regular Slack and text chats with the Stillness + Movement teaching team. Checking in, venting, processing, uplifting, fantasizing and being to...

This is the fourth episode in the Where Do We Go From Here? series here on the podcast and in this episode my guests and I acknowledge some of the particular challenges American yoga teachers are facing in the midst of COVID-19 and our country's semi-shutdown. We talk about the future of brick and mortar yoga studios, the challenges of teaching online, the difference between performing and teachin...

It is now September of this unprecedented year, and there is so much that is unknown about our future and our world. When I asked my friends Jules Mitchell and Arundhati Baitmangalkar to join me for this conversation about what happens next, particularly in the yoga world, they both cautioned me that they didn't really have many answers to my questions. "That's okay!" I said. "It's not important t...

So much has changed in our world in the last several months, and the questions I keep asking myself are: If everything is going to change, what matters most? If we are never going back to the old way of doing things, what do I want to create in the new world? I'm so excited to host a series here on The Mentor Sessions called, Where Do We Go From Here?   where I get to ask leaders in our yoga world...

So much has changed in our world in the last several months, and the yoga world has been forced to pull in and take a pause. While many brick and mortar studios are closing and there are other related sad endings, I think we are also in a time ripe for positive and much needed change. If everything is going to change, what matters most? If we are never going back to the old way of doing things, wh...

I'm really grateful to bring you this interview with Jivana Heyman, the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, because his voice and leadership is SO needed right now. Jivana has specialized in teaching yoga to people with disabilities with an emphasis on community building and social engagement. Out of this work, the Accessible Yoga organization was created to support education, training and ad...

These are intense, unprecedented times. I know so much about your day to day life has changed in the last few weeks. As yoga teachers, our work has become quite challenging. But if you (and your students) have a computer and an internet connection, it is possible to stay connected with your students, continue to teach and continue to make money if your family depends on your yoga teaching income l...

NOTE: We recorded this podcast episode months ago, and life was different back then. I decided to release this episode for y'all now anyway for three reasons: 1. I thought it might get your creative juices flowing if you find yourself teaching non-traditional yoga classes...2. Sam is being treated as an employee by some of the companies where she teaches and will still be paid, even if the company...

Today you're going to hear a live, unedited 1x1 mentoring session!  I love connecting with teachers in 1x1 mentoring sessions because I get to listen deeply to the challenges they are facing and together we troubleshoot solutions to their biggest teaching conundrums. While the questions we ponder might seem small, I have seen, again and again, how holding space for teachers to think critically abo...

Back pain is complex and many students end up in yoga classes because they heard it would be good for their "bad back" so I'm super excited to share the wisdom of my friend Jesal Parikh with you today.  Jesal has been teaching yoga since 2010, is the co-creator of the Yoga is Dead podcast and serves as a volunteer for World Spine Care Yoga Project. She has a strong background in anatomy, kinesiolo...

What do you think of when you hear the word "marketing"? Does it make you think of sleazy sales tactics? Or does it remind you of all the things you think you are supposed to be doing, like social media and email lists, and make you feel immediately overwhelmed?? Whichever camp you fall into, this episode has something for you! Y'all have been asking me to talk about marketing for yoga teachers fo...

Did you know that arthritis is not one single disease, but a category of over 100 medical conditions that is actually the leading cause of disability in the US?? Before talking to Dr. Steffany Moonaz (and reading her book) I didn't either!  Dr. Steffany Moonaz founded Yoga for Arthritis after 8 years at Johns Hopkins University where she studied the effects of yoga for people living with arthritis...

The term self care is ubiquitous in our world today and since yoga practice is an important part of self care for some people the topic comes up for us yoga teachers quite often! Also, it can be difficult to practice good self care as a yoga teacher running all over town trying to make ends meet, so I am really excited to introduce you to my friend Gracy today!  Gracy Obuchowicz is a Washington, D...

Teaching yoga one-on-one requires a totally different skill set than teaching group classes and these unique skills are left out of most teacher trainings so if you have lots of questions about teaching 1x1 lessons that makes sense. I've been a full time yoga teacher since 2005, teaching 15-25 private clients a week for most of the last 14+ years so I've got plenty of experience in this realm and...

I'm honored to call Cecily Milne a friend. She is thoughtful, smart and an amazing force for change in the yoga world.  As the creator of Yoga Detour, she is seen as a yoga "integrator", helping people bridge the gap between the yoga they already love and the other things, like strength and mobility, they're becoming increasingly curious about. You can find Cecily teaching digitally through Detour...

A large group of yoga teachers at YogaWorks in New York City is working together to create a labor union that would be the first of its kind. (!) This is what they have to say about it,  " We are Yoga and Mindful Fitness Educators. We're coming together to have a voice in our industry, raise industry standards and create a more equitable and sustainable profession for all. Our goal is for employee...

Dr. Garrett Neill, or Dr. Yogi Gare as he's known online, is a Chiropractor and a yoga teacher and I LOVE following his work on social media. He shares tons of helpful information for yoga teachers and holds the space for really interesting conversations for our community.  In his work with patients Dr. Garrett employs Chiropractic Manual Therapies, Soft Tissue Techniques and Corrective Exercises...

The shoulder is a notoriously complex and even injury prone joint, but we don't have to be afraid of it!  Today we have Diana Zotos, our resident Physical Therapist, joining us on The Mentor Sessions to dive into everything yoga teachers need to know about the shoulder!  Diana is the co-founder and co-director of Threes Physiyoga Method™ which is dedicated to teaching yoga teachers applied anatomy...

I absolutely love Kathryn Bruni-Young's smart approach to movement and well-rounded strength and I'm so excited to have her back on The Mentor Sessions to share her wisdom with us!  Kathryn Bruni-Young is an international teacher, a strength training enthusiast, teacher trainer and the host of the Mindful Strength Podcast. She produces an online studio from her country home in eastern Ontario, and...