Chelsea Jackson Roberts – Inclusivity Training for Yoga

Chelsea Jackson Roberts – Inclusivity Training for Yoga

Check it out: Chelsea Jackson Roberts – Inclusivity Training for Yoga

You’ll finish this six-week online workshop, hosted by education expert and yoga teacher Chelsea Jackson Roberts, PhD, with the skills and tools you need as a teacher to make compassionate and inclusive language choices (instead of singling out men for having tight hips, for example), offer alternative versions of poses (instead of presenting one version as better than others), give appropriate assists (instead of unknowingly triggering someone with a hands-on “adjustment”), reach out to neighboring communities, and expand and diversify your student body. This is a must-have credential for yoga teachers—but it’s also valuable for any student seeking more diversity and acceptance in yoga.

Even yoga teachers with the best intentions sometimes inadvertently say things that might harm their students, either physically or mentally. It happens to us all, and more often than not, it is simply because we haven’t been trained how to teach to different and diverse populations. This course is geared toward yoga teachers who want to create an inclusive and compassionate practice environment, where students of all shapes, sizes, races, genders, and abilities feel welcome and supported.

Join Chelsea Jackson Roberts, PhD, a yoga teacher and educator based in Atlanta who has extensive experience bringing yoga to new populations, as she offers practices, teaches cueing and languaging workshops, facilitates role playing, helps you reflect on your intentions, provides critical self-care techniques, and interviews experts in the field, including Seane Corn, Teo Drake, Dianne Bondy, and Tyrone Beverly. (BONUS: An exclusive workshop with Anna Guest-Jelley, author of Curvy Yoga.) Learn effective ways to care for diverse students, as well as yourself!

This unique tool kit includes:

• Languaging and cueing to make every class you teach speak to all students
• Role-playing exercises that reveal whether you unknowingly alienate students
• Reviews of common mistakes most teachers make
• Yogic practices that make everyone and every body feel included, no matter their background and ability
• Opportunities for deep reflection on your hidden biases, intentions as a teacher, and actions in front of a class
• Stories and lessons from experts in the field
• Tips for reaching out to new audiences
• A suite of self-care tools to enhance your life on and off the mat

This thoughtful, comprehensive, and unique sensitivity training will help you stand out as a teacher who actively makes all students feel welcome, adept, and at home at the yoga studio.

Each week you will get:

• An introduction to an important theme related to inclusivity
• Guiding questions that invite you to reflect on your own yoga practice, teaching experiences, and daily experiences in the world
• An accessible yoga practice—asana sequence, meditation, or yoga nidra—to help you better understand and embody that week’s theme
• An interview with an expert on the week’s theme (weeks 1-4)
• Homework, journaling, and projects that will reinforce what you have learned

Course Outline:

Week 1 (Purpose)

Guiding question: What calls you to be a more inclusive, compassionate, and aware yoga teacher?

Practices: A 45-minute asana practice for grounding in your purpose; a 5-minute meditative healing breath

Interview: Seane Corn, internationally renowned yoga teacher, social activist, and founder of Off the Mat, Into the World

Week 2 (Language)

Guiding question: How do I teach yoga in a way that creates the least amount of harm?

Practices: A 30-minute asana workshop that demonstrates mindful language; a 10-minute mindfulness meditation

Interview: Teo Drake, spiritual activist, educator, and children’s yoga teacher who helps spiritual spaces become more welcoming and inclusive of queer and transgender people

Week 3 (The Body)

Guiding question: How do I teach yoga in a way that all bodies feel seen and cared for?

Practices: A 30-minute asana workshop that breaks down poses for bigger bodies from guest teacher Anna Guest-Jelley; a 10-minute open heart meditation

Interview: Dianne Bondy, yoga teacher, social justice activist, a spokesperson for diversity in yoga and yoga for larger bodies, and member of the leadership team of the Yoga and Body Image Coalition

Week 4 (New Populations)

Guiding question: How do I reach new populations in a way that is mindful and inclusive?

Practices: A 30-minute asana sequence that demonstrates how to respectfully get to know your students better; a 10-minute chakra-balancing meditation

Interview: Tyrone Beverly, a yoga teacher and the founder of Im’Unique, a yoga program designed to be inclusive and expansive that pairs asana with a post-class conversation program called Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers

Week 5 (Self-Care)

Guiding question: Why is self-care essential for yoga teachers?

Practices: an abhyanga (self-massage) lesson; a 30-minute yoga nidra

Week 6 (Community)

Guiding question: How do we cultivate community through yoga?

Practices: A 30-minute asana flow that embodies all you’ve learned; a 10-minute visualization