yoga training
ADVANCED IMMERSION SERIES
Designed for Curious Practitioners and Diligent Teachers
Are you a dedicated yoga practitioner or teacher looking to deepen your knowledge about classical and modern yoga but don’t know where to start? Would you like a program tailored to your interests and needs?
The Advanced Immersion Series program is designed to satiate your curiosity and expand your understanding of yoga on your terms and schedule.
Evolved from the Advanced Teacher Training, this remodeled immersion structure presents themes one weekend at a time. You can choose your areas of interest from 12 topics.
Take one weekend or all twelve!
Deepen your knowledge of postural yoga, yoga philosophy, restorative and yin yoga, social justice, meditation, breathwork, the subtle body, yoga and the nervous system, and more.
We’ve designed this program for you.
It is perfect for a committed and curious practitioner with years of experience in yoga or another movement practice. It is also ideal for dedicated teachers with a 200-hour certificate who want to get re-inspired or deepen a specific skill.
Choose either an á-la-carte formula where you mix and match weekends for a yoga learning elixir or a 100-hour Advanced Teacher Training Certificate if you complete 9 of the 12 weekends.
~ CORE PROGRAM~
If you choose to create your 100-hour TT program, you must complete four fundamental or ‘core’ weekends to obtain the diploma.
You then add five other weekends to build your unique program. The ‘CORE CONTENT’ of this Advanced Immersion includes the courses we think are essential to progress your skills and knowledge as a teacher, and some are also prerequisites for other topics/weekends in this training.
This structure provides the foundations for expanding teaching skills while maintaining the ability to tailor your education to suit your unique interests in the wide world of yoga instruction.
For those of you interested in the 100-hour certification program here is a list of the CORE CONTENT SESSIONS (obligatory to receive certification) and why we’ve chosen them:
ALIGNMENT 1
History & philosophy 1
Cueing/Cognitive feedback & Language
ALIGNMENT 1 IS REQUIRED.
Building Better Sequences
ALIGNMENT 1 IS REQUIRED.
~ SATELLITE PROGRAM ~
You can choose 5 weekends below to complete the 100hours certification.
Pranayama & Meditation & Restorative
ALIGNMENT 2
ALIGNMENT 1 IS REQUIRED.
ADJUSTMENT & ASSIST
ALIGNMENT 1 IS REQUIRED.
Diversity and Equality in Yoga Culture
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY 2
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY 1 IS REQUIRED.
Embodied Rest & Restore
SUBTLE BODY
A Somatic and Yogic Approach to Trauma
SCHEDULE
Weekends are 10hours of training
Saturday (5 hours total) 8am – 1:30pm (with a break)
Sunday (5 hours total) 8am – 1:30pm (with a break)
PRICING
Regular
9 of 12 weekends = 100hr certificate ~ $2450 | No tax applicable
12 weekends ~ 2875$ | No tax applicable
Individual weekends ~ $275 + Taxes
Former Teacher training
100h certification = $2225 | No tax applicable
12 weekends ~ $2550 | No tax applicable
Individual weekends ~ $250 + Taxes
Payment plan
PAYMENT PLAN
If you choose to pay in several installments, here are the requirements:
– You have to pay 250$ at registration
– ¼ of the training has be paid by August 15th 2023
– The full training has to be paid by March 15th 2024
– We ask for regular payment inside of these balises.
If you choose to do the training over 2 years, here are the requirements:
– You have to pay 250$ at registration
– ¼ of the training has be paid by August 15th 2023
– ½ of the training has to be paid by February 15th 2024
– The rest of the training will be paid depending on your progression during the first year of training
REGISTRATION & QUESTIONS
If you wish to REGISTER OR HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PROGRAM, PLEASE CONTACT US THANKS TO THE FORM BELOW.
To register for only a few weekends, you will find the registration links below.
~ INFORMATION SESSION ~
REPLAY
Are you interested in our new program? Would you like more information on the topic of a specific weekend and/or regarding the 100-hour advanced certification that can be obtained with completion of 9 weekends?
Please find below the link to watch the replay of our information session with our teachers Terri McCOLLUM and Jill CAMPBELL.
~ YOUR TEACHING TEAM ~
JILL CAMPBELL
Every job or hobby I ever invested myself in plateaued. I realized that yoga had transitioned with me through many life changes and managed, not only to hold on, but to stimulate interest, questions and growth. The more I learned and practiced the more I wanted to learn and practice.
On the micro level, asana provides a place where I can let go of all else that swirls around in my mind; on a more macro level, it has helped me through life challenges and enriched my experience along the way, providing a platform for self-love, support and community. My refuge, my temple, my student, my meditation, my movement, my mirror, my counsellor, my community, my devil's advocate, my rudder, my teacher, my breath, my soul... it's right here, and, for so many reasons, i feel it all deeply when moving through asana. How can I not share it with others? I've practiced with wonderful guides and gurus. I pass on their teachings in honour and appreciation.
TERRI MCCOLLUM
I was influenced early in life by the practice of yoga. My first classes were after school at 11 years old, in my adolescence and teen years I became very fascinated by different tools for self-discovery and expansion of thought. As a teenager I found the practice of asana to be a great compliment to my other physical activities, and meditation a tool for calming and focusing my busy mind. This is likely what planted the seeds for my later pursuits in meditation and yoga.
At 19 I took my first trip to India to study more deeply and intensely the practice and philosophy of yoga. That first trip took me to a number of Ashrams in Southern India. I developed a keen desire to know more about the history, language and culture surrounding yoga. This fascination led me to complete my studies in Asian religion and South Asia and to make several subsequent trips to India.
Over the years I have been lucky to have the opportunity to practice with many wonderful teachers in several yoga traditions and various movement practices. My personal practice is exploratory and varied including many modalities of movement, pranayama and meditation. In my teaching I draw upon many influences but really encourage a practice unique to the individual. I truly believe that practice itself, of all the limbs, is the true teacher and I hope to inspire and nurture my students to cultivate their own path.
DETAILED PROGRAM
ALIGNMENT 1 - 21 & 22 SEPTEMBER 2024
Dive into STUDIO MILE END’s fundamental approach to postural work. We will unpack and explore anatomical position, methodology for practicing and teaching postures, and myth-busting common misconceptions about asana. The intention is to enrich the quality of our practice and our ability to teach what we know.
In addition to deepening your wisdom about the physical practice of yoga, the information shared in this weekend immersion will help you create better sequences based on knowledge of the body, the energetic effects of postures, and what general alignment principles apply to the postures. Your feedback and cueing will become more sophisticated and better able to serve practitioners/students as you dive into what is happening in the body as you practice. You’ll be better able to identify families of postures and their neutralizing or countering effects on other families.
A basis in anatomy, Sanskrit terms, and postural yoga is helpful for this weekend, as we will explore all these topics.
We will practice, discuss, observe, hypothesize, and learn together. You can expect to learn about:
- General alignment in Asana with awareness of individual needs
- Postural Breakdown, including muscular engagement, energetic directions, and skeletal positioning
- Anatomical positioning with relationship to gravity
- Postural families/groupings and how to apply our knowledge across them
- Foundational support of the body in Asana
- Finding more breath ease in Asana
- Stretch Theory and Practice
- Preparatory postures for advanced or complex Asana
- Practical application to our practice and in-class planning & sequencing
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
PRANAYAMA & MEDITATION - 5 & 6 OCTOBER 2024
This weekend, we will focus on restorative postural work to prepare the body and nervous system for pranayama practice and meditation. The emphasis will be on the practical, exploring these concepts and techniques through practice to better understand and embody them individually so we can share the work with others.
Some topics covered include but aren’t limited to:
- Pranayama history and philosophy
- Pranayama practice methods
- Bandhas and breath
- Meditation history and practice methods
- Pranayama and meditation practice and experimentation
- The role of preparing the body/nervous system for pranayama with restorative asana
- Teaching and sharing pranayama & breathwork
- Teaching and sharing meditation
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
ALIGNMENT 2 - 18 & 19 january 2025
If you want to optimize movement, manage pain or injury, or simply feel more embodied, this weekend is for you. Building on concepts covered in Alignment 1, we will focus on common movement patterns and therapeutic applications that can be employed for our practices, general public classes, and when working with individuals that may require more personalized attention.
Let’s reimagine and explore what it means to move in an ‘optimal way’. We will introduce movement concepts from the Franklin method. There will be a balance of theory and practice to invite learning integration. We hope you will come away with increased curiosity and a broader imagination of the body’s movement possibilities.
Topics we will explore:
- Overall Health and alignment through postural work
- Unique individual alignment
- postural work with therapeutic focus
- Common postural dilemmas and how to address them in ourselves and others
- Franklin Method
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
Adjustments & Assists - 2 & 3 NOVEMBER 2024
Many of us love a profound, juicy adjustment, while others prefer a lighter touch or directive assist to inform them of how to learn the work. But how do we know what is appropriate? Join us for a weekend of assists and adjustments rooted in a deep understanding of energetic and anatomical directions and individual alignment needs. Touch is a potent tool, and we will examine how our intention behind touch and our awareness of ourselves and others impacts the act itself. We will look at how to recognize signs from the nervous system as indicators of what touch is needed and how much to offer. We will cultivate sensitivity and nuance in adjustments through exercises and discussion while increasing our touch vocabulary. Power dynamics, consent, the history of touch in yoga, and trauma sensitivity related to touch will all be discussed and considered. We want the adjustments and assists we offer and receive to be therapeutic and beneficial through clear and effective verbal communication or body language. The curriculum and exercises will outline a variety of assists, including feel-good adjustments, light do-it-yourself assists, directional assists, full-body adjustments, and much more.
These sessions are very hands-on. Please inform us of any accessibility needs or considerations related to offering or receiving touch so we are aware before the workshop and can accommodate. These considerations can include, but are not limited to, injuries, trauma, or nervous system sensitivities.
Here is an outline of what topics we will explore:
- Understanding energy directions, alignment, and diagnostics before touch
- The role of breath and the nervous system in adjustments
- Consent to touch before and during an assist
- Choosing the appropriate assist
- Touch and delivery, including a multitude of techniques
- Practice receiving and offering adjustments and assists
- Communication and feedback for assists
- Adjustments as a collaboration
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
Diversity and Equality in Yoga Culture - 16 & 17 NOVEMBER
Look boldly at how privilege and marginalization appear in our yoga studios, practice, and culture. Understanding how modern yoga culture perpetuates marginalization and other-ing increases our ability to improve and build better, broader communities. We will examine our identities within the social/cultural/economic web to unpack how systemic oppression impacts our relationships with others, which is at the heart of this work. Through practical exercises and discussions, we will consider how we set up a space, what words we choose when guiding and greeting, how we promote our classes, and whether our most minor or broadest actions can uphold the values of equality and equity. This weekend will allow you to practice your values, examine your ethics, and understand your identity and how you can contribute to a better yoga culture. It will also offer the chance to get real and have a more accurate view of what the yoga world is, which is highly driven by capitalism and white-washing. Expect friction and inspiration.
Some of the topics we will explore include:
- Self-awareness around personal identity related to broader social structures
- Vocabulary to understand some of the ways that racism, sexism, ableism, classism, heteronormativity, and lookism show up in our minds, our spaces, and our communities
- Getting familiar with the barriers to entry people experience in yoga spaces/classes/studios
- Ways to build spaces and practices that are welcoming to people of diverse social identities
- Allyship in yoga spaces (interrupting, intervention, mutual care)
- Role-playing, problem-solving, and practice as means of learning and unlearning
We will examine topics through a variety of methods, including discussion, journaling, exercises, and lectures. Bring a notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY - 26 & 27 october
The historical and philosophical underpinnings of the yoga tradition date back thousands of years. Understanding modern yoga’s philosophical and historical relationship with its predecessors helps us understand and contributes to how we pass down this information.
This two-part series will start from the beginning (as far back as we know it) and examine how it influences our contemporary understanding of the practice. If you want to add more philosophy to your teaching, the information shared in this session will assist you in attaining knowledge to embody and eventually transmit.
We will focus on the early and classical periods, roughly 5000 years. We will also spend time understanding the different philosophical ideologies that have influenced yoga over time.
Topics we will cover:
- Historical outline of Indus Valley and Indian subcontinent as it relates to yoga through the ages.
- The orthodox and unorthodox schools of Indian philosophy and why they are important.
- The most relevant schools of philosophy for the modern yogi – yoga, Samkhya, and Vedanta.
- Introduction to Classical Yoga/Yoga Sutras
- The role of the Indian epics (Mahabharata & Ramayana) in yoga.
Bring a notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
Cueing/Cognitive feedback & Language - 8 & 9 february 2025
ALIGNMENT 1 (or equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite to this course.
Effective communication is one of the most significant skills we need as guides and instructors. The way we bring movement and action into words and then transmit that message to others is crucial to our teaching and their understanding. Cueing, or the way we guide others through practice, has a major impact on the outcome of their (AND OUR!) bodies and minds. The words we choose, the quality and speed of our voice, and the order of how we present information all influence the practitioner’s ability to absorb and interpret the information offered. At the STUDIO, we use voice almost exclusively to transmit the practice. This workshop will enhance your ability to communicate clearly and efficiently what you want to say and simplify your delivery so there can be SILENCE!
While we will discuss the theory around communication, this weekend will be a much more practical application of cueing themes and techniques.
We will explore the following topics:
- Cueing with a strategic krama (order) to build clarity
- Cognitive feedback – offering general or personalized instructions to improve the alignment of experience of a posture or practice
- Building visceral language to speak directly to the body
- Inclusive language and ways to build more equity and diversity with our words
- Practical application of lessons
- Identifying and improving our tendencies when it comes to communication
- Examining our feedback as we help our colleagues improve their cueing
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
Building Better Sequences - 1 & 2 march 2025
ALIGNMENT I (or equivalent) is a prerequisite for this course
ALIGNMENT 2 & CUEING are recommended prerequisites
Create better sequences! Building an intelligent practice is a process that requires a deep understanding of the body, a rich personal practice, and a toolbelt full of potential exercises. Designing a healthy, intriguing, compelling sequence combines intuition, creativity, and science. This session will break down many considerations when planning your sequence and offer alternatives to your planning methods to inspire diversity in your approach. We will also look at ways to enrich postural work through theming and variation to keep classical asana practice fresh and captivating for you and the practitioner. There are many ways to sequence a practice; discover an extensive range of possible ways to do it responsibly.
Some of the topics we will explore include:
- The nervous system and sequencing
- Energetic arcs and their role in sequencing
- How classroom management impacts the sequence
- Practice “delivery” and vocal guidance and how it impacts the sequence
- Neutralizing and countering postural work
- Layering physical or ethical themes into a practice
- Sequencing within a pose to build body wisdom and ease
- Sequencing a class and the STUDIO MILE END structure
- Sequencing over an extended period
- Sequencing for a variety of practitioners
- Practice building sequences
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY 2 - 22 & 23 march 2025
MUST HAVE TAKEN HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY I TO ATTEND (unless they have done our 200hr)
The historical and philosophical underpinnings of the yoga tradition date back thousands of years. Understanding modern yoga’s philosophical and historical relationship with its predecessors helps us understand and contributes to how we pass down this information.
This two-part series will start from the beginning (as far back as we know it) and examine how it influences our contemporary understanding of the practice. If you want to add more philosophy to your teachings, this session will assist you in attaining knowledge, embodying it, and eventually transmitting it.
This second weekend in the two-part series will focus on studying the philosophy of the Yoga Sutras, the influence tantra and hatha yoga have on modern practice, and the impact India’s independence movement has had on modern postural yoga in a postcolonial world.
Some topics we will explore include:
- A deeper look into the philosophy of the Yoga Sutras
- Tantric period and its complexity – from about circa 600 CE – 1500 CE
- Hatha Yoga – the practical application of the yogis circa 1000 CE – 1800 CE
- Mythology & storytelling – How cosmology has evolved over this history
- Modern yoga, colonialism, and what we do today tie it together.
Bring a notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
Embodied Rest & Restore - 12 & 13 april 2025
This weekend will be a delicious dive into the quieter yogic practices to melt away tensions, restore your breath and mind, and replenish your well-being. Gear up for an entire weekend dedicated to blending practice with theory so you can understand and feel how the yin, restorative, and nidra practices impact you physically, emotionally, and mentally.
We will outline how these practices have different goals and effects on our bodies and, more specifically, our nervous systems. We will cover some theory during the weekend, but a greater emphasis will be on practice, an opportunity to plunge in and gain a greater understanding. We will discuss the theory and philosophy of these modalities and their histories and evolutions over time. This weekend will delight and soothe the body, mind, and soul.
Some of the practices and topics we will explore include:
- Yin:
- An introduction to the fascial system and how yin affects it
- Compression and tension and how they impact our alignment and position
- Unique individual postural work
- A brief history of yin yoga
- Contraindications and considerations
- Practice, including target areas and sensory cueing
- Restorative:
- How restorative yoga tones the nervous system and helps create more resiliency
- Noticing your breath and nervous system throughout the practice
- A brief history of restorative yoga and its evolution
- Counterindications
- Practice
- Non-sleep, deep rest nidra:
- To reset and restore the body and mind
- The history of Yoga Nidra
- Counterindications
- Practice
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
SUBTLE BODY - 3 & 4 may 2025
Almost all wisdom traditions have a system for mapping the physical, energetic, and body/mind connection. This weekend, we will examine how subtle body concepts appear in the yoga tradition.
Though we may never fully comprehend what those who imagined it meant, we can certainly do our best to understand the complexity of our energetic systems and how they interact with our physical understanding of body and mind. Once we have some idea of subtle body mapping, we can look at ways to embody this information and then use it as a tool for guiding our classes.
Concepts we will cover:
- Chakras + Nadis
- Bandhas
- Koshas
- Vayus
- Subtle body asana alignment
- Sequence creation using subtle body concepts.
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.
A Somatic and Yogic Approach to Trauma - 24 & 25 may 2025
Trauma occurs when stress is too big for us to handle, and it is not “just in the head” but stored in the body. These “body memories” are a physiological response to an overwhelming event or too much ongoing stress over time. It is essential for any professional working with people’s bodies to be trauma-informed. Being trauma-informed means understanding how the nervous system works and recognizing our personal experience of trauma to support the people we work with.
This workshop is for allied health professionals (therapists, alternative medicine practitioners, yoga teachers, life coaches, massage therapists) and anyone who wants to understand trauma from a somatic perspective, work with it for personal healing, and offer support within a professional context.
We will examine how our nervous system works and how the body tries to keep us safe. We will develop an awareness of our emotional landscapes and breath patterns and listen to our innate sensitivity to the messages our bodies communicate daily through practical exercises based on kundalini yoga (kriyas), pranayama (breathwork), and somatic therapy (somatic means of the body).
This course will likely bring emotions, stress, and symptoms of trauma to the surface. If you have any information related to your trauma history or special consideration that you think is important for us to know, please reach out before the session so we can best prepare and collaborate with you. This course is not a therapy group nor a substitute for therapy.
To recap, here are the topics that will be covered in this session:
- What is trauma, and how does it show up in the body
- Some tools to build resiliency by grounding and centering the body
- Naming and feeling emotions to bring them into practice in healthy ways
- Listening to the body and interpreting the messages it is sending
- Noticing your own triggers and response patterns
- Embodied integration of the learning through grounding somatic exercises and breathwork practices
Tools to be supportive of others who have experienced significant stress or trauma - Understanding trauma within a larger cultural/philosophical system from a Western and Eastern perspective.
Bring a yoga mat, practice clothing, notebook & writing tools, and a tablet or laptop for viewing articles and materials.