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For those who are already 200-hour certified who want to concentrate their studies and refine their professional abilities. This program focuses on supporting others in their own well-being. You will hone your ability to professionally practice your passion and expertise. Registered with Yoga Alliance.
This program addresses the primary elements of effective yoga teaching, from developing a clear voice, guiding embodied mindfulness practices, working with unique and underserved populations, use of effective hands on assists, intelligent sequencing, and creating a classroom environment where transformation can happen.
This program takes an evidence-based approach to yoga, providing a supportive, rigorous, and inspirational environment to integrate what you are learning. It provides a non-dogmatic and well-rounded curriculum where you dive deeply into your unique applied investigation of this practice. Students also have the opportunity to study in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, or Bali as part of their educational experience.
You will study a variety of modalities, including flow, the science of Ayurveda, vinyasa, trauma-informed and alignment-based, yin, and restorative yoga. While in the program, you will develop an area of expertise to make a meaningful difference in your students’ lives.
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum begins your first core weekend once a month for 12 weekends. We accept rolling admissions! We understand that students have important commitments outside of the classroom. Should extenuating circumstances impact attendance, students are permitted to miss class. It is the responsibility of the student to pick up any missed learning material by coordinating with a cohort to take notes during class, or with the teacher for a recording. If you are unable to immediately begin the Core, we encourage you to begin your Electives in the meanwhile.
Seasonal Ayurvedic Cleanses
Explore how to best to take care of your unique body from the inside out and learn how to address the influences of the season in your yoga practice with seasonal cleanses integrating yoga, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and life changing self care practices. Attendance of each seasonal cleanse is required: Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. Duplicate attendance of the same seasonal cleanse will not be counted.
Elective Courses
The Elective Courses are intentionally developed to expose students to diverse practices, thereby supporting one’s individual interest and unique growth process. Students may choose what elective courses they wish to explore. Students can begin at any time, even before they begin the Core Curriculum. Duplicate attendance of the same Elective Course will not be counted.
Students may receive Elective Hours when attending Jennifer Prugh’s retreats to countries where yoga was originally practiced: India, Bali, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Japan. Only one retreat will be applied to their overall 300 hours. A one week retreat to the described destination is worth 45 Hours; a two week retreat is worth 90 Hours.
JOY Mentorship Program
An opportunity for yoga teachers to deepen their knowledge of yoga, and expand their teaching practice. Students will be guided in an in-depth study of guiding asana, breath, subtle body practices, dharma and meditation, refining teaching skills, and deepening yogic study. Included in this program is a deep look into how we share the work we do professionally, all while following individual paths of interest and research.
Questions? Contact us.
Joanne’s philosophy as a yoga teacher is to help people who seek personal empowerment feel connected to their bodies, quiet their mind, stimulate a healthy nervous system, and release tension in the body caused by stress, anxiety, or trauma. Her teaching techniques use a combination of breathwork, meditation, gentle asanas, somatic yoga, medical qigong, and neurogenic tremoring.
Joanne is an E-RYT 500 and earned her certification through Jennifer Prugh’s, YA-certified JOY of Yoga teacher training and is a Level 2 TRE facilitator. Joanne teaches classes, workshops, teacher trainings, as well as runs retreats locally and internationally. She is co-founder of the Yoga for Trauma Recovery Program and teaches trauma-informed yoga at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose, California and has voluntarily taught yoga to women incarcerated at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas and the Center for Survivors of Torture in San Jose.
Jen Walthers is an expert in wellbeing, mindfulness, and archetypal myth. She brings 30+ years of working with yoga, meditation, and Feng Shui, as well as an M.A. in Educational Leadership and certification as a wellness educator, to her work supporting more individuals in high-pressure environments to make space for themselves. Prior to starting her wellbeing work, Jen taught foster parents social-emotional learning strategies as a social worker, received awards for her classroom teaching and curriculum development as a high school English teacher, trained hundreds of high school teachers as a Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction, and spent 5 years doing post-graduate work in comparative mythology.
Recently, she’s spent over a thousand hours combing through the latest research on the nervous system, mindfulness, and wellbeing, curating the findings and training future meditation teachers as a Guest Lecturer at the Joy of Yoga School of Integrative Learning. When she’s not coaching others on how to take their mind-body connection to the next level or how to make room for themselves, you can find Jen planning her next road trip (6 trips cross-country and counting), reading YA novels, or anywhere near water – swimming and kayaking.
I began my study of yoga in 1980. I read in a book that yoga was the best exercise ever invented, and then, within a week, I happened across an ad for the Yoga Room in Berkeley, a mile or so away from where I was living at the time in Oakland. I went to try it out, and here I am today, as I write this 38 years later.Â
I went through my teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco from 1982 to 1986. It was a two-year program that took me more than three years to complete. The friends I made back then are still around today, and still teaching, Clare Finn, Patricia Sullivan, Mary Paffard, Tony Briggs, and last but not least, my evil twin, Rodney Yee.Â
In 1987 Clare, Rod, and I founded the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California. The school had a good run, almost 28 years before closing its doors in January 2015. Amazingly though, the school was resurrected virtually the day after its demise in a new incarnation as You and the Mat, ably directed by Eric and Denise Antonini. I teach all seven of my weekly public classes at this beautiful venue.
Tias synthesizes years of study in classical yoga, Sanskrit, Buddhist studies, somatic practices, anatomy, massage and trauma healing. He began studying the work of B.K.S Iyengar in 1984 and lived in Mysore, India in 1989 studying Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Pattabhi Jois. His teaching includes precision of alignment, anatomical detail and meditative awareness.
Jim’s journey started in Maine and eventually led him to Los Gatos. His path led him through life in many different states ranging from North Dakota to Texas, Montana to Washington, and throughout most of the other Western states. During one 3-year stretch he spent nine months of each year camping and backpacking. Eventually he found his way to Silicon Valley and a career in tech which ended after a 2-year contract working for the DoD.
Along the path, he met a fellow Scuba Instructor by the name of Paul Miller, who introduced him to meditation. Paul’s wife, Kate, introduced Jim to crystals, and his geek was on! Paul and Kate introduced Jim to Gideon and Ana Enz who opened the path to Wuji Qigong and Yang-Style Taijiquan, which led Jim to Breathe Together Yoga. Jennifer Prugh stepped in and led the way to Ladakh, India, and then to the 200-hour JOY of Yoga certification and the 300-hour JOY of Yoga program.