Who Is This For?

• Newly qualified teachers looking for the next-level of training

• Teachers looking to integrate an embodied somatic approach into their classes

• Burnt-out or near-burnout teachers needing nourishment and clarity

• Non-teaching teachers seeking to rebuild confidence or reconnect with their practice

• Movement Professionals and educators interested in embodiment, somatics and self-development

• Counsellors and other Therapist who want to dive deep into somatic movement experiences.

What You'll Gain

• Embodied tools to support every student’s journey

• Greater freedom and confidence in your own practice

• Ability to adapt and transform your classes to suit all bodies and minds

• A new teaching paradigm rooted in autonomy, compassion and deep listening

• 500-hour Yoga Teacher Certification

What This Is Not

• Fancy Instagram yoga

• One-size-fits-all sequencing

• A guru-led doctrine

• About ticking boxes — this is a lived experience

Breath & Respiratory System

As yoga teachers you know a lot about how to get oxygen into the body, But that is only the start - the magic happens at the cellular level.

Deepen your ability to use the breath as a remote control for the nervous system.

Fluid Body & Cardiovascular System

Did you know the heart is not a pump?

Discover how your body has just one fluid that transforms and serves many different functions.

Organ Body & Digestive System

Your digestive tract can be seen as the outside inside you (we are just walking doughnuts)

In Asana, we can access a soft, powerful strength from the ‘soft spine’ or digestive tract. (It is similar to hydrostatic pressure)

Nervous System

Often, our stiffness is a consequence of our nervous system rather than our physicality. Under Anaesthetic, we become very flexible. Explore how to work with, rather than fight what is natural and present.

Bones, Ligaments & The Skeletal System

Your bones are fluid-filled, living tissue, more like a raw egg than the dense, dead bone we are all used to seeing.

Muscles & Somatics

You have one muscle – We are an integrated body. The separation of the muscles we traditionally see is a result of dissection choices.

The magic is in the melt; we first need to release the tension before we can build true, balanced strength.

Fascia

Did you know that your fascia has up to 10 times more sensory nerves than your muscles.

It is our fascia that both integrates and differentiates parts of our body.

Endocrine System

Woman are not little men – discover how so much of what we take for granted is not relevant to women – like cold plunges – we get the same hormone stimulation at about 15 degrees. Let the men go for the -1 degrees.

Foundations & Integration

We begin with the foundations, calling on traditional yoga, directly from T. K. V. Desikachar, along with traditional alignment and breath centred movement, delivered by Amy Matthews & Leslie Karminoff. We then dive deep into the embodied principles.

Throughout the entire course we will be integrating what you learn with the other theories and research but even more importantly into your body, your classes.

Deep Dive into Embodied Somatic Yoga

We explore and integrate a number of different schools of thought and practice, to arrive at a coherent, science based approach, which has proven effects. Some key influences throughout the training include:

• A variety of Current Scientific Research from Med Pub

• Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Embodied Movement

• Thomas Hanna’s Somatics

• Gill Hedley’s Integral Anatomy

• Richard Millers iRest

• Developmental Movements

• Yoga Therapy

• T. K. V. Desikachar

Feeding our Whole Selves and Our Community

• We initially feed your head, then your body and finally your community and the world

• Beginning with our selves, and our personal practice, in time move from personal practice to teaching practice.

It may sound simple, however it is not as simple as it sounds. Initially, the language can be chunky, and time, patience and practice is needed. For that reason this phase is interwoven through the full last 5 months. Ensuring you have lots of practice and support as you transition to an embodied approach within your classes.

How will I learn?

In person days

We meet monthly and this is where integrate our learning, where we practise it with each other and look at the anatomy with all of our cool toys.

Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews

Learn from these leading authors through their online material. They look at alignment, anatomy, breath and lots of traditional theories.

Laura’s Pre recorded material

This is where you will meet new concepts. This allows you to listen and rewind. We then integrate these new concepts on out monthly Saturdays.

Detailed training manual

For those who like to have lots of notes - have no fear, there are detailed training manuals.

Practice ideas

Each module has integrated lots of practice opportunities to support you embody and integrate the learning. You can then adapt them for use in your own classes.

Monthly study group

This is where you get to hash it out with other teachers. You will have an amazing support network from those in your group and you can discuss and share ideas.

Resource Library

You have access to a large library of asana tutorials and other resources, as well as lots of recommended reading and podcasts.

“I don’t have enough teaching experience”

When I initially did my 500hr it was all one course so I went straight from year 1 to year 2. In year 2 I was teaching while doing the second part of the training so if you have just finished your 200hr we can support you in all of those growing pains. Learning on the ground. Different people will be coming from different perspectives and different backgrounds, doing it now will support you in your teaching. Support while starting your journey as a teacher is fundamental to good habits and have support to overcome all the growing problems. There is no time like the present.

“What style of yoga is it?”

Embodied yoga can be incorporated into any style. Rather than being a ‘style’ in the traditional sense, it is an approach.

Some of the key ideas include - Giving agency back to the student - Inviting the student to inquire rather than tell them what is or ‘should be’ present - know that every body is unique in this moment, so not expecting a pose to have a set of instructions, or a look. as such,

Hence this approach does not force you to adopt a specific style. At our studio, we all teach from an embodied perspective, yet some teach vinyasa flow, others Restorative and others a more BMC inspired flow.

While this is an idea we can all get behind, our habit and our underlying unconscious patterns can be hard to break,

“I don’t know if embodied yoga is for me”

What does embodied yoga mean to you? There is definitely the potential to have a flow class, a class without form and that may not be how you want to teach or be of interest to you. However, even within the more traditional asana-based classes there is wonder to be found in embodied yoga. You can bring form from another way to your students and allow them access it through a different path. Even if you never use embodied yoga in your teaching, having it for yourself in your practise is beautiful as it gives us more avenues in and supports us not be so rigid in our thinking.

“I have too much teaching experience”

Excellent teachers stay excellent by utilising their body of experience to hone what they do. By not allowing themselves to become bored and lose their passion. 

If enhancing your teaching isn’t of interest to you then maybe this course isn’t for you. For me every time I learn something new for myself I get to share it with my students, every time I share it with my students I get to find a better way to do it the next time around. So for me this is a lifelong process

About the Lead Trainer - Laura Wynne

With decades of teaching experience, an academic background in psychology and a deep love of anatomy, philosophy and functional movement, Laura brings embodied yoga to life in a way that's accessible, deeply felt and powerfully transformative. She is fun, quirky, knowledgeable and inspiring.

• Yoga Therapy Ireland 500hr Certified Teacher

• Living Yoga Advanced Teacher Training 500hr

• Yoga Alliance Professional Senior Teacher

• Yoga Alliance E-RTY 500

• Yoga Alliance YACEP Continuing Education Provider

• Yoga Therapy Ireland Certified Yoga Therapist

• YTI & Yoga Alliance Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training

• iRest® Certified Teacher (level 3)

• Yoga Alliance Yin Yoga Teacher Training

• Yoga Therapy Ireland Chair Yoga Teacher Training

• BA (Hons) Psychology, MSc, BSc.

• London Business School, Mastering Digital Marketing

Laura started doing yoga about 35 years ago and has been teaching for over 15 years. She is the founder of Aruna Yoga Studio and Academy which she has been running for almost 10 years. She has been a trainer for over 30 years, and full time developing and delivering yoga and meditation teacher trainer for the last 6 years, including her flagship foundation 200hr training and a number of short courses for teachers. She has a background of maths and psychology which impact her science led approach.

Find out more about Laura in our brochure

She is joined by teachers Amy Matthews & Leslie Kaminoff, best-selling authors of Yoga Anatomy and global pioneers in embodied movement and functional anatomy.

Structure & Certification

• 17 months of guided support

• 14 Saturday Full-day In-Person Workshops (monthly except July, August & October)

• 1 Immersive Weekend Retreat (October)

• Fortnightly tutor group calls

• Over 50 hours of training content with hours of additional resource material

• Almost 100 hours of led practices

• Comprehensive notes and workbook

• 120+ hours of self-practice

• Certified by Aruna Yoga Academy and Yoga Alliance Professionals