For the last decade, we've had the privilege of developing teachers who are seen as the most competent of teachers in their markets, and have evolved a program over the course of that time that is equaled by none: there is a difference between training someone to be a teacher, and training someone to be an instructor. To be a teacher of Yoga is to be an example of the process of personal transformation, and a carrier of the ancient wisdom of self-inquiry, compassion and devotion: we train teachers.

Circle Yoga Shala was envisioned for the purposes of furthering the evolution of our program by providing a unique opportunity to immerse in the tradition of Yoga.  We use all aspects of the shala which translates as school as an integral part of revealing the profundity of the five techniques of Hatha Yoga.

We're excited to finally unveil our 500 hour program that is in addition to our 200 hour certification.  

Side note:  Our 500 hr. curriculum is currently undergoing the standard review process by the yoga alliance for recognition at that level.  After a decade of delivering the highest quality of programs and being in excellent standing with the alliance we are not foreseeing any delays in acceptance, therefore we have set the dates and are proceeding as planned.

Our programs are designed to give aspiring students the necessary knowledge, experience, and technical tools to teach a yoga practice that meets the multifaceted demands of today's practitioners.

They are theoretically coherent with modern methods of education, exercise physiology, and psychology, and at the same time rooted historically in the contemplative wisdom traditions that have been passed down through the ages. As such, it cultivates a practice that addresses the human being in her entirety. By cultivating the foundational capacity for self-enquiry, meditation, and study, teachers trained by us learn to solve problems on their own, and to assist the student's efforts in the life long endeavor that serious Yoga practice is.

THE METHOD AND ITS ORIGIN

 

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Our training is linked to a lineage that traces its roots back to one of the fathers of modern Hatha Yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.

Much of the technical curriculum is derived from the work of Godfrey Devereux. Mr. Devereux teaches something called the Dynamic Yoga Method. The Dynamic Yoga Method is not to be understood as a new "style" of Hatha yoga. It is essentially a way to organize and experience the actions one takes within practice, a basic set of principles that can be taught to students in the beginning of their training to give them a way to gain autonomy in their investigation of Yoga.

200 HOUR LEVEL

Within the realm of technique, trainees are taught to organize the many possible actions that the body can take within the rubric of three main areas: expanding actions (broadening actions), extending actions (lengthening actions), and spiraling actions (the basic medial and lateral rotations of the major joints).

Within the realm of orientation, or how to relate to any particular technique, students are taught that Yoga is practiced as a triune system of dedication to practice, self – inquiry, and surrender. Both the technical training and the orientation are delivered to students via the five basic techniques common in all forms of Hatha Yoga.

These are:

  • Asana: Stillness – practice at the level of body to inquire into the tendency to live mechanically in our movements, and to free the somatic structure from restriction caused by that mechanicalness and/or trauma, so that action in the world can become free from generating tension and be released into spontaneity.
  • Pranayama: Breath – – the surrender of action to the direction of breathing, and the eventual freeing of the breath cycle into its own spontaneous rhythm.
  • Bandha: Integration – the integration and unification of the various levels of the human in the core of the body. Bandha is the technique that transforms perception so that attention is surrendered into the experience of an always-already present, non-dual awareness. Mula, Uddiyana, and Jalandhara, pada and hasta bandhas are common techniques taught.
  • Vinyasa: Rhythm – the art of learning, arranging actions, and moving in concert with the breath in an elegant, sequential fashion, and of surrendering attention into this movement as feeling-awareness and intelligence.
  • Drushti: Uncommon Presence – contextualizing the vagrant tendencies of everyday attention and their accompanying perceptions so that they are surrendered into the impersonal space of pure awareness, where they arise and pass away without resistance or attachment. Drushti is taught as an orientation toward self study and reflection, and also as an actual structural adaptation (positioning the eyes in various places) in the posture practice, and/or the Pranayama practice, and/or the seated meditation practice.

The teacher training directed by this learning method requires only a willingness to orient one's self toward the classical practices in a way that inquires into the self and its relationships with the totality of being. Such willingness means cultivating a spirit of openness to existence and ALL of its continuously arising conditions; or, as Godfreydev says: yoga is an ongoing invitation (to both teacher and student) to surrender.

The training program is structured around several key elements:

  • Technical training: in asana, meditation, and pranayama.
  • Teaching skills: how to language and teach actions rather than guiding a class via practicing together; sequencing classes based on a deep understanding of the techniques and postures as actions rather than forms; hands-on adjustments, holding the space, and adapting to the needs of students spontaneously.
  • History and philosophy: The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, the Baghavad Gita, and the Gospels.
  • Anatomy and physiology: Joint mechanics, the reflexes, and the respiratory system as applied to the actions of practice.
  • The psychology of teaching: The training curriculum takes advantage of adult learning methods and places tremendous focus on character development. Yoga is a transformational practice and as such requires teachers who can anticipate situations in which boundary or ethical issues may arise. Other topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Pregnancy and other special populations.

Each teacher training attendee for the 200 hour program receives a beautifully produced 200+ page manual containing illustrations and professionally photographed Asanas.

 

500 HOUR LEVEL

This training is designed to advance any teacher’s skills by engaging her in a deep and considered dialogue between the two great converging streams of Ancient Eastern physical, psychological, and contemplative traditions, and the modern Western perspectives on the body and mind in light of evolutionary theory, evolutionary psychology, neuro-anatomy and neuro-physiology. By viewing the human being from the light of these two systems with equal vigor, aspiring teachers are encouraged to experience the complex relationship between the rational mind, human creativity and inspiration, the heart, and consciousness. This experience in turn generates a keen awareness of how each system is limited in certain ways, and what those limitations say to someone whose vocation is to assist others in spiritual transformation. This dialogue unfolds as an investigation into five main areas:

  • Technical training in advanced asana.
  • Introduction to Yoga as therapy: placing Hatha Yoga and the aims it harbors for health and transformation within the context of Ayurveda: asana, pranayama and meditation in relation to the doshas.
  • Spiritual training – ancient and Modern psychology:  the human mind/spirit viewed through Darwinian evolutionary theory, neuro-physiology, and the ancient models of the Chakras, Koshas, and the Enneagram.
  • Advanced training in teaching itself: A systematic study of identifying differences in learning styles in students, strategies for planning workshops and intensives, and developing a refined teaching dialogue by creating and sustaining themes and layers of meaning in classes.
  • The development of personal understanding, and tools for inquiry: strategies for reading and studying sacred texts as meditations, and the engagement of Gurdjieff oriented techniques like sensing vs. thinking about, seeing and recognizing, conscious labor, observing the machine vs. trying to awaken it directly. 

This program is available to those who have completed an initial 200-hour training in yoga. 

If you are an RYT and want to participate in a module for continuing education purposes and/or out of interest in the subject matter offered, you are welcome to participate without enrolling in the overall program.

If you have any questions about Circle Yoga Shala's teacher training program, please contact Matthew Krepps: krepps.matt@gmail.com, or Holly Krepps: kreppsholly@gmail.com. A land line number also available is: 870-861-5175.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Training recognized by the National Yoga Alliance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUR FACULTY

  • Matthew Krepps, Director and Founder
  • Robin Buck, Director, Jane's House, St. Charles, MO
  • Holly Krepps
  • Louanne Lawson
  • Jennifer Phillips
  • Rob Office