Selection of articles on yoga sequencing for the individual
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Last week I contributed an article to a series of articles on the topic of Yoga sequencing for the individual hosted by Kate over at You & the yoga mat. This was a month-long project that consisted of daily blog posts from different yoga teachers discussing their take on the art of teaching to the individual. Here is a selection of my favorite posts from this project.
Teaching People, Not Poses
Kellie Adkins
At most points in history, the student-teacher relationship took the form as an individualized apprenticeship. What the student needed, the teacher taught. Like Ayurveda, postures, breathing practices and meditation were offered according to a student’s constitution and unique abilities. The advent of modern yoga and the combination of the cultural preference for open, group classes, changed the fundamental dynamic of yoga education. Many would say for the better!
One challenge of contemporary yoga instruction, either in a group or a private setting, is the homogenization of teaching and the emphasis on ideal forms (posture practice) rather than the individual experience of the form. Read more >
How volunteering as an EMT prepared me
to teach private yoga
Samantha Harrison
“Until recently I thought the time I spent as an EMT was not applicable to my career as a yoga teacher then I started talking to my husband about how I teach 1×1 and I began to see how EMS actually made me a better yoga teacher! Who would have thought?!
The following steps are how I move through beginning my work with new clients and I relate each step to working as an EMT.” Read more >
Using Ayurveda & Yoga in Sequencing To The Individual [Doshas]
Jacky Rae Richards
“Ayurveda recognizes the uniqueness of each individual. Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy recognizes the subtle but profound differences in each individual’s yoga practice that are designed to create balance, harmony, and absolute well being.
As a yoga teacher, being able to utilize these subtle differences in group or individual classes is key to providing students with a unique personal Ayurvedic approach to their asana practice. When we simply lump our students together into one generalized practice, more often than we’d like to admit, we tend to fuel their imbalances, and cause more harm than good. ” Read more >
Yoga Private Investigator
Bernadette Birney
“I go on fairly regular rants about how ideally yoga should be taught one-on-one. Don’t get me wrong, I love my group classes. I think there’s benefit to being part of a community. Laying down mats, side by side, on a regular basis forges connections. Still, there’s no such thing as one size fits all yoga. Never has been; never will be.
So I love working privately! Teaching just one student affords the opportunity to custom tailor the practice to one set of individual needs. And after juggling entire classrooms full of conflicting circumstances, that’s pure luxury.” Read more >
Guiding principles for working together
Arianna Taboada
“I’ll be sharing three of my guiding principles around sequencing to the individual in the therapeutic context. These principles come from various fields, including mental health, yoga therapy, social work, and trauma-informed care.
Some of these things might be quite familiar to you and other might surprise you. These principles are rarely taught to yoga teachers in 200-hour trainings or even 500-hour training, but my perspective is that all of them are important in the individual yoga therapy setting.” Read more >
Sequencing For Every Mind (And Body)
Kaya Mindlin
“As a Yoga Therapist, I know very well that yoga is not one-size-fits all. We are diverse. The manifest universe creates endless detail, diversity, and complexity, in everything, including the body-mind. All of the variation and detail can easily overwhelm and confuse anyone attempting to apply yoga therapeutically and individually. Luckily, built in to the yoga tradition itself is the use of categories. All the detail and complexity can be enfolded and encoded into simple categories, and the result is more depth, more clarity and more resolve.”
“I will lay out FOUR categories of mind: the Cloudy Lake, the Geyser, the Whitewater Whirlpool and the Clear River.” Read more >
