Combining over 15 years of experience teaching yoga and 21 years of yoga practice, Master Baptiste Instructor, ELIZABETH HUNTSMAN and Chakra Specialist, TERILEIGH SCHMIDT have distilled their studies to this program of concrete, skill specific yoga exercises. With fewer than 25 participants, you will receive constant and personalized feedback on your teaching. The skills you will acquire from this retreat will help you to communicate your passion for yoga so effectively to your students that your class sizes will grow, you will be asked to teach more classes, and you will expand your impact on students. You will develop an ability to COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY through a number of concrete speaking and language based exercises designed to eliminate dreaded habits of yoga teachers such as "yoga teacher's voice" and overcueing. By gaining an ENERGETIC AWARENESS, you will learn how to connect the dots between the physical experience on the yoga mat to the spiritual impact on students lives by teaching to specific benefits and results of yoga, both physiologically and energetically. During hands-on assisting practice mixed with anatomy & structural integration lessons, you develop a solid ability to adjust and ASSIST WITH CONFIDENCE while teaching a class. Throughout the weekend, Elizabeth and TeriLeigh are accessible and available for lots of personal questions and to cover topics that weigh on the minds of all yoga teachers, including how to teach to all levels, why to establish healthy boundaries with your students, the ins and outs of certification and registration, and how to effectively market yourself as a teacher. Whether you are new or seasoned, and teacher or a student, you will leave this week feeling confident and inspired.
Typical Daily Schedule
7am - Meditation, Breakfast, Walk
8am - Morning Lecture/Discussion
10am - Yoga Practice
1pm - Lunch & Afternoon Excursion
3pm - Practice Teaching Exercises
6pm - Dinner
8pm - Evening Lecture & /Discussion
Sample Meals
veggie burgers on quinoa salad with special 'Bonnie's' tahini sauce
pumpkin sage soup, homemade bread, & fresh veggie salad
zuccini & eggplant vegetarian lasagna
COACHING TOPICS
Communicate Clearly
Words are the tools we use to communicate a powerful yogic experience. As a teacher, your voice must be clear and resonant; your words must be precise and inspiring. Students will learn how the vibration of language can change the expression of the body. This week you will uncover a voice which moves the body as you hone language to move the spirit. Concrete exercises and drills are designed to: unleash the power of your voice, avoid overused phrases,vary tone and inflection, eliminate the breathy "yoga teacher voice", provide appropriate silence and space, and much more. As you teach, you will receive live and in action feedback from Elizabeth & TeriLeigh and your peers to help you clarify your expression and discover and break your own blah-blah habits.
Energetic Awareness
One of the best ways to get students to come back to your class time and again is to educate them on the specific benefits and results of their efforts. TeriLeigh's unique ability to see and read the energetic field of the human body has developed a wealth of information about both the spiritual and physical benefits of yoga practice. Through lectures and discussions based on TeriLeigh's lifelong study of energetic anatomy you will learn to see your students and their practice in its full potential, as both physical and spiritual. During participation in rituals and asana practice, you will develop your own energetic awareness and learn how to incorporate your sense into your practice and teaching. In practice teaching, TeriLeigh will guide you through exercises to develop your ability to sense and teach to energetic and physical benefits of yoga. You will receive live and immediate feedback on your ability to address the energetic aspects of yoga in your teaching.
Assist with Confidence
Hands-on assists can powerfully bridge the gap between words and experience. Elizabeth has spent years studying anatomy and structural integration of yoga poses in the human body. Through an interactive yoga practice melded with modeling and practicing of adjustments, Elizabeth will lead you through the physical anatomy of the body and offer specific examples of common structural issues and alignment imbalances that can be addressed with a simple hands-on assist. Understanding basic anatomy and physiology will let you see the essence of a pose in each student. Through assessment of specific issues in all types of bodies, you will learn to diagnose, approach, adjust, and exit a student's asana practice to give them optimal success in a pose and increase independence. By combining energetic awareness acquired through your work with TeriLeigh and with hands-on techniques you will receive from Elizabeth, you will develop a confidence in assisting students of all levels that will transform your impact on their bodies and their practices.
Other Topics may include:
Sequencing a Class in an appropriate architecture to address specific body part or yoga pose type.
Marketing Yourself as a Teacher to build your classes or get hired.
Demystifying the Business of Yoga such as Certification, Registration, Insurance, & Yoga Alliance
Teaching to Multiple Levels in One Class
Reading the Energy of the room on a particular day
Testimonials & Anecdotes
"I have come a long way since the GET SKILLS GET INSPIRED retreat. I started leading a teacher training at my studio, recommitted to my own teaching, and have doubled my class sizes!" ~Kat Farrell, OmVibe Yoga Studio owner
One newer teacher came to the retreat leading a small brand new class of 4-5 students at a pilates studio. After attending GET SKILLS GET INSPIRED, her class size almost tripled, and she added three more classes to her schedule.
A teacher struggling to find a job teaching after relocating from the east coast to the Midwest was offered a job shortly after the GET SKILLS GET INSPIRED. She now teaches two classes a week and plays a key role in building the yoga community in her new hometown.
A participant with no teaching experience and who was questioning her ability to become a teacher at all developed a sense of power and voice in her personal life and has since began teaching to her friends and family.
Your Instructors
Elizabeth Huntsman, one of only seven Master Baptiste Teachers, studied directly with Baron Baptiste for nine years, served as lead assistant at over 20 Baptiste bootcamps, and was one of the most popular teachers at the Baptiste studios in the greater Boston area. Elizabeth has been teaching yoga since 2000, and been practicing since 1995. Her yoga studies are supported by the classical traditions of BKS Iyengar, TVK Desikichar, and Patthabi Jois and are enhanced by specific study in anatomy and structural integration. Elizabeth splits her time teaching regularly at Treetop Yoga Studio in Gloucester, MA and EmPower Yoga Studio in Beverly, MA, leading weekend workshops, teacher assistant trainings, and teacher coaching seminars at studios around the country.
TeriLeigh Schmidt, chakra specialist and spiritual teacher, has had the unique ability of seeing and reading the energetic chakra and aura system of the human body. When TeriLeigh started practicing yoga in 1999, she discovered that yoga practice enhances the movement of energy through the body and thus increases physical functioning. She has been teaching yoga since 2004, and leads a class unique to any other as she educates students on the spiritual and energetic benefits of yoga as it impacts the physical being. TeriLeigh now leads yoga classes, workshops, teacher trainings, and offers studio consulting (both business and spiritual in nature) at yoga studios and spiritual centers around the country. She offers private consultations in the form of one-on-one yoga instruction, chakra readings, and shamanic divinations both at yoga studios and long distance via teleconference. TeriLeigh also posts live audio yoga classes to an iTunes podcast and on her website regularly.
