How to choose a yoga teacher training that is right FOR YOU
By Hilary Anne Brown
Hilary is the creative director of Yoga Moves Training Programs in the Netherlands.
Choosing a Yoga Teacher Training is an exciting and important process. You are choosing the direction and foundation that will set you up for a whole new career or life direction.
The foundation of your Teacher Training will set the tone and direction for everything to come. Besides it being a fundamental decision it is also quite a costly decision. Not only the money you will spend on the training, but also the extra books, study materials, and more importantly, your precious time! All the more reason to put some effort into the decision-making process.
What could go wrong choosing your teacher training?
Plenty. Let me help you think this through
Choosing a training from your head versus choosing from the heart
We all have concepts about our abilities and about ourselves. Sometimes we are blind and cannot know what we do not know. This is also true when it comes to others, we give them trust before we know if they are trustable. (If we didn’t we could hardly function in the world!).
When it comes to investing in something big like a teacher training? My advice: do your research. You need to make sure the training you are about to attend is right for you at this time in your life!
Tip: be honest about what you can digest right now
Wanting something badly and being ready to digest and learn things are totally different things. Two things to think about:
Will this course give you the tools you need to be successful?
Do you have the proper experience, level, cognition and communication skills to be successful in this course?
Do: experience and investigate
As a potential student make sure you know what you are getting into! Practice with the teachers and experience the type and levels of classes you are about to explore. Do you aspire to be able to teach like them?
Have you found the style of yoga that you like? Do you practice a different style than the teacher training offers? Why? Why would you spend time learning something different than what you practice? Perhaps you really want to teach meditation! Or you really want to teach children. Do you like hot yoga? Or do you want to teach elderly people? Those would be different programs right?
Bottom line: choose the right program for you. Focus on the one that will take you where you want to go!
Don’t let the yoga honeymoon fool you
You are enjoying going to class. You love your yoga community. It feels so great to be a part of the yoga world. You fall in “love” (or like!) with your yoga teacher. And she (or he) is offering teacher training. You think YES! This is it! Falling in love with your teacher is like falling in love with anyone. The honeymoon inevitably will be over and you will be left with the total picture of that person and their approach to yoga and life.
Do a reality check
Even if your heart guided you towards a training you think you will love. Make sure you are choosing your training based on the facts. What is right for you and for the direction you want to move into? Take time to define this for yourself. Ask the studio providing the training good questions. Understand that a teacher program is not the same as going to class.
Make sure you trust the people you plan to work with. Will they be there when you are down? Are they accessible? Can you call them up and have a chat? Teachers that are inaccessible will not be able to coach and support you to go forward. Fall in love but make it real and tangible!
Our approach
My team and myself have been training teachers since 2001. We have also been students of yoga and in teacher trainings of many sorts for a lot longer than that (and continue to be a student always). Our approach in training at Yoga Moves is to give a strong foundation of both alignment and vinyasa or breathing and flow principles and to give you the theoretical base so you can make good and informed decisions for teaching and modifying the practice for the rest of your life. Over many years I have trained and supported teachers who are now owning studios, traveling the world teaching retreats, and others who enjoy teaching as a hobby. All of that starts from making a decision of taking their first or next Teacher Training.
Are you ready for your next move in your teaching? Learn more about Teacher Trainings at Yoga Moves. Choose the training that is right for you.