Join the Yoga Service Council for its first Yoga Service Certification Training to learn appropriate skills for teaching in diverse communities and service settings.

LFY founder Jennifer Cohen Harper will be on faculty for this training, along with Pamela Stokes Eggleston, Jacoby Ballard, Amina Naru, Mark Lilly, Marlysa Sullivan, Susanna Barkataki and Danielle Rousseau. Scholarships Available. 

Yoga teachers and yoga trainers may be accustomed to sharing yoga in private, gym, and studio settings, but many feel unprepared to offer yoga in schools, shelters, hospitals, refugee service centers, and other social service environments. To address the need for yoga teachers and trainers to receive proper training in yoga service, and to ensure that high-quality yoga is available to diverse communities in service settings, the Yoga Service Council offers its first Yoga Service Teacher Certification (YSTC) program this year.

This 80-hour program includes a 60-hour, week-long training intensive on the Omega campus, followed by 20 hours of optional, interactive virtual learning. The intensive portion of the training at Omega includes a daylong self-care retreat, as active wellness is essential to our cocreation of a healthy learning experience.

The YSTC program addresses the specifics of appropriate yoga service and trauma-informed yoga, as well as studying the physical, sexual, mental, emotional, historical, and cultural traumas and their effects on the lives of those dealing with poverty, homelessness, dysfunction, addiction, and incarceration. Key topic areas of study also include specialized yoga techniques, teaching methodology, anatomy to specifically work with individuals who have experienced trauma via the physical and energetic bodies, and a practicum spent observing another teacher lead a yoga service class. We also examine yoga philosophy and ethics, aspects of trauma and cultural sensitivity and diversity, and disparities based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and sexual identification, culture, and socioeconomics.