200-Hour Certification Program

"Teaching yoga is one of the greatest services you can render, and it is one of the most honorable occupations you can have. To help someone relieve some of their suffering and see them rediscover the happiness and love in their life is one of the greatest possible rewards."
– John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga

We are excited to announce the 2010 Innerlight Yoga Teacher Training, a weekend-format program designed so yogis can weave what they are learning into their daily life and yoga practice over the course of 11 months.

Our training emphasizes the discovery and development of each teacher’s unique voice and teaching style, and provides a comprehensive foundation in asana alignment and anatomy, pranayama, meditation, yoga philosophy, teaching methodology, and professional ethics. The program includes progressive teaching practicums and ongoing personal mentoring, so Innerlight graduates have the knowledge and experience they need to begin teaching yoga with confidence.

Join our community of teachers-in-training and exceptional faculty, and immerse yourself in the deeply transformational practice that is yoga. Applications are currently being accepted.

Kim Chandler
Yanna Sahady
Directors, Innerlight Yoga Teacher Training

Program Overview

Innerlight Center for Yoga and Meditation is a Yoga Alliance–registered school. Our yoga teacher training program exceeds Yoga Alliance requirements for 200-hour certification.

The program’s underlying principle is that teaching yoga is about being in relationship with yourself, with your students, and with the larger community. Similarly, our curriculum addresses the different components of teaching yoga in relation to each other and to your life, so that your study of asana, pranayama, philosophy, and anatomy is an integrated experience.

Innerlight’s yoga teacher training includes a seva project or independent study in which you develop a level of expertise in an area of interest through research and practice, then teach a four-class segment to a specific population (e.g., children, the elderly, sailors, pregnant women), so you graduate from teacher training with a strong basic foundation as well as some expertise in an area of your choosing.

Our intention is to embody the yoga philosophy of awareness and to support you in your personal growth as both yoga practitioner and yoga teacher. Graduates consistently find that Innerlight training not only prepares them to teach yoga, but also is powerfully life changing.

For further information, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (401) 849-3200.

What Makes Innerlight Yoga Teacher Training Exceptional

A unique strength of our yoga teacher training is that it was developed and is led by co-directors – both experienced teachers and teacher trainers – with diverse strengths and perspectives. Our co-directors are joined by an expert faculty that offers an exceptionally multi-dimensional perspective on yogic practices and teaching.

Instead of presenting the different components of teaching yoga as separate pieces, we address them in relation to each other, so that your study of asana, pranayama, philosophy, anatomy, etc., is an intricately woven whole.

The curriculum integrates yoga philosophy into everyday life, requiring different contemplations and reflections on various philosophical underpinnings so that your yoga practice takes place on and off the mat.

Students tell us our way of integrating anatomy training with asana alignment is particularly helpful. For example, when we work with forward bending poses, we explore the joints, the muscle groups, and the anatomical elements most important to forward bending and how they relate to alignment. This brings the study of anatomy alive and makes it very relevant.

Our training includes a strong component of practice teaching from the start. Students begin practice teaching in five-minute increments, gradually building up to a full-length class.

We offer ongoing personalized mentoring for each student.

Many studios train teachers to be cookie-cutter versions of themselves, training in a specific style and sequence. In contrast, a hallmark of Innerlight training is that we provide a strong foundation in teaching methodology, yoga philosophy, asana alignment and anatomy, pranayama, meditation, and professional ethics; but we emphasize the discovery and development of each teacher’s unique voice and teaching style. Our graduates are prepared to teach in a wide variety of environments and to deepen their training in particular styles of yoga, such as Svaroopa, Anusara, Ashtanga, etc.

Curriculum

Our teaching style is experientially based. We learn by discussion, reading, demonstration, and other techniques, and then reinforce the lessons by applying what we have just learned. Each weekend builds on the knowledge and experience gained in the weekends before and in home practice and homework. Assignments between weekends deepen the experience and begin the process of life-long learning that is yoga.

The curriculum includes:

• Practice of more than 50 yoga asanas, including standing poses, one-legged poses, hip-opening poses, backbends, forward bends, twists, arm balances, and inversions
• Analysis of asanas, including principles of alignment (both Kripalu and Anusara influenced), benefits, precautions, contra-indications, and modifications, including pre-natal
• Restorative and partner yoga
• Pranayama practice and techniques
• Meditation practice and techniques
• Sanskrit chants
• Anatomy and physiology
• Yogic philosophy and psychology, including study of Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutras, yamas and niyamas, the Bhagavad Gita, the history of yoga, koshas, and chakras
• Teaching methodology, including relationship with yoga students, planning a yoga class, sequencing of poses, teacher demonstrations and assists, the use of language in a yoga class, creating context and larger meaning for students, and professional ethics
• Teaching practicum
• Personalized mentoring

Faculty

A unique strength of our yoga teacher training is that it is led by two co-directors, both experienced expert teachers with diverse strengths and perspectives. Kim Chandler has been teaching yoga since she established the first Innerlight School of Yoga in 1990, in Portland, Maine; she has always loved teaching beginners – whether brand new yoga students or brand new teachers. Yanna Sahady, an IT consultant in her “other life” and a dedicated student of Anusara yoga, has taught yoga in studios, homes, schools, barns, parks, businesses, and conventions; she is fascinated with anatomy – she loves it, loves to study it, loves to teach it.

Additional distinguished faculty present various elements of Innerlight yoga teacher training:

• Katherine Carbone, mudras; prenatal yoga
• Jane Maguire, who has been steeped in yoga during the entire 70+ years of her life, teaches history and philosophy intensives
• Priscilla Szneke, who has trained with Jack Kornfield, teaches a section on mindfulness yoga
• Sarah Mermin, a specialist on post-traumatic stress disorder and yoga, introduces the possibilities for creating space for catharsis in yoga class

Throughout the training, many Innerlight teachers offer sadhana classes so teachers-in-training can experience the wide variety of teaching styles available under the roof of Innerlight.

Homework between Sessions
The weekend format is designed so you can integrate the weekends’ learning into your daily life and to support you in developing a consistent yoga practice. Homework assignments deepen the experience and begin the process of life-long learning intrinsic to yoga.

Homework includes:

• Daily yoga practice of asana, pranayama, and meditation (at least 6 days a week for 60 minutes, including 2 classes or hours per week at Innerlight Center)
• Keeping a sadhana journal
• Practicing the yamas and niyamas
• Reading and writing assignments
• Experiential assignments
• Communication with fellow students and directors
• Observing other teachers’ classes
• Teaching yoga classes

Requirements for Certification

Certification is not guaranteed and is dependent upon completion of all requirements to the satisfaction of the directors of teacher training, including attendance at all training sessions, completion of all homework assignments and teaching practicums, and passing a written test on Sanskrit terms.


Prerequisites

• Dedicated yoga practice of at least 3 years (class or home practice, multiple times per week)
• Strong desire to learn more about yourself
• Sound health
• Recommendation from a yoga teacher
• Commitment to attend all teacher training sessions (with no exceptions)
• Commitment to daily practice during teacher training
• Commitment to do homework between weekend sessions

Note: Many people who participate in Innerlight teacher training are not advanced yoga students, but are mature and have a longing to deepen, both in their physical practice and also in yogic philosophy, and to share the yoga.

Cost

Tuition for the Innerlight teacher training is $2500 for early-bird registration by November 15, and $2600 afterward.

The tuition fee includes a non-refundable $50 application fee, and does not include reading materials, props, food, or lodging.

The full tuition fee must accompany your completed application. Payment may be made by check to Innerlight Center for Yoga, or by Visa or MasterCard. A full refund less a $50 application fee will be made if an application is not accepted for any reason.

Note: Class minimum is 10 and maximum is 20.


Refund Policy

Until November 15: 50% of tuition less $50 application fee
After course start: No refund is available


Secure payment may be made through PayPal, please click below to proceed.

Application forms - (Print out, fill out, mail-in.)

• Checklist
• Application

Kim Chandler
Yanna Sahady
Directors, Innerlight Yoga Teacher Training