Share your passion and boost your qualifications
Overview
We occasionally invite committed yoga students to take part in a post-graduate program, and we are excited to announce one in 2023!
Our program presents a path for someone to become a serious yoga teacher in a more traditional manner. This is in contrast to the popular 200-hour immersions, which may entail as little as a couple of weeks face to face training before certification.
The post-grad course contains both group and one-on-one instruction, hands-on experience, and homework assignments. All of these areas can contribute to your capacity to instruct a diverse range of techniques and be personally responsible for excellent outcomes in society.
If you already have a 200-hour certificate, this course will help you:
- Let go of imposter syndrome and absorb genuine knowledge
- Know how to apply yoga to different sectors of the community
- Learn how to work with injuries and different body types
- Teach pranayama and meditation
- Improve in your self-practice
- Know how to live the highest principles of yoga
If you do not have a 200-hour certificate you can still enrol, even if you’re not interested in teaching. This course is excellent for expanding your knowledge and providing you with more tools for your personal practice. You never know, the certificate might prove handy in the future!
Things we value in applicants:
- A dedicated personal practice
- A desire to help people of all ages and capacities
- A passion to learn more than the usual physical components of modern yoga
If you’ve realised that a basic teacher training course only scratches the surface of yoga, this course will help you. This post-grad program will help you stretch yourself and your understanding beyond the surface level that is typically covered in commercial courses.
Course Content
Students will recap the fundamentals of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems and how they interact with each other and the mind. We will use up-to-the-minute evidence-based research on psycho-physical dynamics and pain science to clarify our use of yogic wisdom.
Important principles of subtle yogic physiology will be taught, including influential ideas that emerged from the 19th century Indian-Occidental fusion that have strongly influenced the Western implementation of yoga. Methods for stoking Kundalini Shakti will be uncovered from the source texts. This covers many modern varieties and myths around the practice will be explained.
A comprehensive examination of the koshas, gunas, and chakras will be included to provide a solid and necessary foundational knowledge of yogic physiology. This is central to the practice of yoga and the wonderfully useful Indian system of metaphysics (which is remarkably similar to leading ideas of modern quantum mechanics).
Important topics on yogic ethics and lifestyle will also be covered, as will a study of various yoga philosophies with a strong emphasis on ethics for yoga teachers. This includes a critical examination of the guru relationship in yoga and its global translation.
Students will receive basic training in the ancient language of Sanskrit, which is essential for a serious study of yoga, in order to gain access to key tools and knowledge that are only available with this understanding. This instruction will be accompanied by essential readings from key yogic texts, providing exciting illumination not typically found in Western courses. Specific techniques and traditional areas of study such as āsana, bandha, dṛṣṭi, prāṇāyāma, kriya, mudrā, and others will be taught. This will include a focus on putting theoretical knowledge into practice to provide students with firsthand experience.
Understanding traditions of bhakti and bhāvana will embed a holistic awareness of the complete yogic path, and show how creative and inclusive your teaching can be. Additionally, methods of meditation that have become popular in the West such as Transcendental, Vedic, Tantric, and Chakra Meditation will be explained and practiced
Teaching methodology, including direct physical adjustment, will provide students with clear guidance and best-practice for helping others responsibly and ethically. The course will also include integrative methods such as supervised practicum, teaching observation, assistance in classes taught by qualified teachers, and receiving and giving feedback.
The course includes ongoing professional mentoring and supervision from a more senior teacher. There is also room for students to further specialise on topics of interest under supervision.
Schedule + Payment
The face-to-face coursework is conducted over 8 weekends in 2023. We run on the first weekend of every month starting 4th of March and concluding 1st of October. Each weekend contains 16 hours of training, 8 hours each day. There will be some homework as well throughout the course.
At Ashtanga Yoga Newcastle we strive for all people to have the power to manage their resources and cultural processes necessary to their existence. We believe in the self-governing of needs and behaviour that results in equitable availability of resources and rights for the Earth and all its inhabitants. This includes the intrinsic rights and dignity due to all people, as well as the setting of limits to growth and consumption.
As such, the fees for this course will be determined by you. As a guide, the going rate for a 150-hour course is $1800 – a payment of between $1200-2400 would be most welcome and gratefully received. The best way to determine what end of the range you ought to pay is by observing how much your car is worth – if it’s a BMW or Mercedes, you can probably pay more than others. Our preference is for a deposit to be made on application, then 50% of the balance to paid upon commencement of the course, and the remainder to be paid before completion. Other arrangements and part payments can be discussed as well.
Certification
This course is certified with Yoga Australia and, when combined with a 200 hour TT, forms a 350 hour YTT qualification, which is the minimum required to teach in many countries.
While we intend for everyone to pass and receive their certificate, this should not be taken for granted. If you are unable to attend a session, it’s okay, we will give you homework instead. If many sessions are missed, you may not receive a certificate.