The Whole Self Yoga Teacher Training is a gift that has emerged from the inspiration that Rudy and Ed have drawn from their teachers, their students and years of study and practice of yoga.

This training is an awareness – based experience, founded on the philosophies of the Yoga Sutra, the practices of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the teachings of Swami Kripalu. Whole Self Yoga will immerse you in the Classical yoga system drawing from ancient teachings and the practices of ahimsa (non-violence). You will learn from direct experience and self observation allowing compassion to form the foundation from which the rest of the intentions of this training spring forth.

This training is intended to give you the knowledge, skill and personal development to provide an environment of physical and emotional safety for your students. Trusting with your approach will create a sanctuary for your students to explore, inquire, strengthen awareness and nurture physical, emotional and mental health. You will feel confident guiding well-supported movements, instructed with clear details of alignment, while being mindful of students' experience, condition and limitations.

This training will prepare you to teach a class to a vast majority of populations that include people with physical limitations to those who appear more physically. In addition, this training provides an introduction to teaching strategies for many specific conditions, while presenting the latest research and practices for teaching to four of the most prevalent audiences affecting yoga students today: weight-loss, inflexible athletes, depression and anxiety.

This is a comprehensive yoga teacher training, designed and tailored to meet the 200-hour yoga alliance criteria. It is Yoga Alliance approved and upon graduation, you will be a Certified Yoga Instructor.

As you deepen into your practice of yoga, explore compassion-based methods of teaching yoga and take this next step in your personal growth, your teaching will begin to reflect your unique personal style.

Bring your love for yoga and we’ll help you develop the skills necessary to teach yoga with your intuitive gifts.

Your Exceptional Faculty begins With Our Two Directors:

Rudy Peirce, MA, ERYT-500, has studied and practiced yoga for over 30 years developing Gentle Yoga, a unique approach to yoga that has inspired many students and yoga teachers. A certified yoga teacher since 1983, his passion is guiding this self-empowering, mindful, deep-release yoga that is accessible to beginners and inspiring to experienced practitioners.

Rudy has been training and mentoring yoga teachers since his early days in the mid 1980s as a resident of the Kripalu Yoga Ashram. In addition to directing Yoga Teacher Training programs for the Kripalu School of Yoga, while immersed in daily classical yoga practice, study and yogic lifestyle, Rudy directed the mentoring program to provide on-going one-to-one coaching for the yoga teaching faculty at Kripalu and all Kripalu Yoga Teachers training for their 500hr. certificate.

As a resident at Kripalu, he did extensive advanced practice and study with Don Stapleton, PhD., Christopher Baxter, Joyce Hammond, Carolyn Delluomo and Todd Norian among many other gifted teachers. He has also studied Advanced Pranayama with Swami Prabhakar, Hot Yoga with Bikram Choudury, Power Yoga with Beryl Bender Birch, Yoga Nidra with Richard Miller and Chair Yoga with Lakshmi Voelker.
He teaches internationally and his popular 4CD set, The Gentle Series, is well-known for supporting a vital regular personal practice.

Edward Harrold, ERYT-200, began his career in yoga and holistic health 12 years ago. Ed was a gifted athlete whose body was beginning to fail him. He thought yoga would help some injuries that were beginning to plague his body. Little did he know he would embrace this tradition so totally and move on to open yoga studios in NJ and DE and create a yogic-based performance training program designed for athletes and fitness enthusiasts called Flexibility For Athletes.

Ed experiences yoga as a complement to all sports. By discovering a way to combine both his athletic background and training with yoga and ancient breathing techniques, Ed created and designed the Flexibility For Athletes® program which has been embraced by the sports and fitness community. Ed's cutting-edge training had led him to working for Stephen Cope's Institute for Extraordinary Living at Kripalu Center as the Director of Sports Training & Yoga. The Institute studies the effects of yoga, yogic breathing, and meditation on optimal performance in sports and the performing arts-and performs rigorous scientific research on these effects through its’ partnership with top researchers at Harvard Medical School.

He now directs the Flexibility For Athletes 70-Hour Teacher Training and has developed podcast workouts for the rowing, running, walking.

Ed founded the Comfort Zone Center For Whole Self Healing in Lewes, Delaware in 2006 with his wife, Wendy. Ed is an inspirational teacher who leads yoga programs, teacher trainings, workshops, trains sports teams teaching the Flexibility For Athletes® program to enhance athletic performance and endurance.

Amy Weintraub, MFA, E-RYT 500, author of Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books) and founding director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, is a leader in the field of yoga and mental health.  She offers professional certification in LifeForce Yoga® Practitioner Trainings for Depression and Anxiety and speaks at medical and psychological conferences internationally.  Amy is involved in ongoing research on the affects of yoga on mood.  Her evidence-based yoga protocol for managing mood is featured on the LifeForce Yoga® CD Series She edits a bi-monthly newsletter that includes current research, news and media reviews on Yoga and mental health. 
Amy is the LifeForce Yoga® Facilitator at the Psychotherapy Networker Symposia, and was a Colloquium Speaker at the Boston University Graduate School of Psychology.  She leads PESI Seminars around the U.S. and has offered her trainings at the Cape Cod Institute, the University of Georgia, and the University of Arizona.  She has been a consultant for a number of research projects on Yoga and mental health and is a co-author of "LifeForce Yoga® Mood Study," published in the International Journal of Yoga Therapy.  She regularly presents at Kripalu Center, Omega Institute, Mount Madonna Center, Sivananda Ashram, Yogaville, and Yoga studios throughout the United States and abroad host her retreats and trainings annually.
Amy has done many Yoga trainings in the United States and in India, including Kripalu Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Desikar family in the U.S., Lakulish Institute in Gujarat, India, Vivekanandra Kendra in Bangalore, India and the Narayana Gurukala in Tamil Nadu, India. Richard Miller, Ph.D., is her mentor.
Amy has won numerous literary prizes for her short fiction and also edits books on spiritual psychology, including the much-praised Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope (Bantam, 1999). She holds the Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars, Bennington College.

Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD. Neurophysiology, is a Research Scientist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He conducts research in the field of Mind-Body medicine, specifically the evaluation of the clinical effectiveness and basic psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the practice of yoga and meditation techniques. He plans to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga treatments for disorders that have strong psychosomatic components or are stress-related, such as depression, anxiety disorders, etc.

He teaches nationally and internationally, presenting on the effects of yoga on insomnia, cancer, stress management, depression, self-care, cardio-vascular conditions, sleep-disorders, mental health and diabetes. He educates yoga teachers about the current research on Yoga and Yoga Therapy. He also writes extensively and is an editorial board member of The International Journal of Yoga Therapy and International Journal of Yoga.

Currently he is conducting research studies on the treatment of primary insomnia with yoga and meditation techniques under NIH funding.

Larissa Hall Carlson, a 500–hour Kripalu Yoga teacher and Ayurvedic yoga specialist, is Manager of Yoga Education for Kripalu’s Institute for Extraordinary Living. She has an additional 200-hour certification in Yee Yoga, teaches prenatal yoga and chakra yoga, and is a Reiki practitioner. Larissa has taught yoga, meditation, pranayama, and yogic philosophy for the Tanglewood Music Center, the Berkshire Opera Company, and the Juilliard School. She currently manages curriculum development and teaches yoga for the Boston Conservatory. Additionally, Larissa travels the country teaching yoga workshops, advanced pranayama trainings, and Ayurvedic consultations. Creator of the CDs: A Sadhana for Teachers and Meditative Yoga Flow: A Kripalu Sadhana.

Style
This style of yoga is based on the experience of the individual and the yogic adage, “the true source of knowledge is direct experience.” This yoga practice is approached as an inquiry into what is revealed in the body, breath and mind in the present moment. The individual is encouraged to adapt the practice and postures to find well-supported positions that have a quality of ease and comfort. Through focusing the attention on the breath, the mind is trained to become introverted, steady, and ready to let go into the transcendent, meditative qualities of non-reactive witnessing, Dhyana and Samadhi.

This practice is eclectic. It’s breath-based, gentle, athletic, creative, whole body, whole self, non-dogmatic investigation, exploring foundational cross-patterning with cutting-edge physiology of breath and movement. With regular practice it can become a meditative, mindful practice that builds core strength, flexibility, concentration, self-awareness and joy.

Who Should Attend
Our mission is to provide a training for each student to develop the awareness, knowledge and skill to facilitate a yoga class environment of compassion, integrity and creativity for students to explore a personal practice of yoga.

As you explore yourself in this way, your teaching will reflect your personality, integrity and a commitment to creating a sacred space for your students.

“The purpose of teaching yoga is the transformation of the teacher.”

You must meet the following criteria to participate in our training program:
- At least 1 year yoga experience
- Those who want to expand their current training to include our specialties
- Able to handle the physical and mental rigors of 15hr days, concentrated immersion in yoga practice, practice teaching with peers and receiving feedback from the directors and instructors.
- Students interested in teaching yoga professionally or enhancing their study and practice of yoga.

Training Schedule
The training is taught in two 14-day cycles. Daily schedule is as follows:

6:30 am – 8:00 am Morning Yoga
8:00 am – 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 am – 11:30 am Training Session
11:30am – 1:30 pm Lunch break
1:30 pm – 4:00 pm Training Session
4:15 pm – 6:00 pm Afternoon Yoga
7:30 pm – 8:45 pm Evening session 3x a wk
7:00 pm – 9:00pm Opening Night sessions

Curriculum
• A full immersion in the study and practice of yoga
• Twice daily full yoga class practice
• Reading before, during and between the 2, 12 day sessions
• An introduction into the Philosophy of Yoga
• Thorough practice and training in the most effective teaching methods
• Analysis, discussion, practice of 36 asana for beginners practice
• Analysis, discussion and practice of the five basic pranayama
• Principles and elements of human anatomy
• Principles and systems of human physiology
• Practice and coaching in leading a complete yoga class for beginners
• How to practice and lead a relaxation
• How to practice and lead meditation
• Safe and skillful approaches to hands-on assisting
• The science of yoga and current research on the benefits of yoga
• Approaches of Yoga practice for specific physical and psychological conditions
• Principles of Yoga for Weight Loss
• Principles of Yoga for athletic activity and performance
• Experiential education methods
• Conscious communication techniques
• Professional standards and ethical practices for yoga teachers.
• The business and marketing of yoga

Course Outline
Pre-program: Read The Wisdom of Yoga, by Stephen Cope

Week 1 Sunday, April 18 – Saturday, April 24, 2010
Certification Criteria, Being a student, Ethical Code
Creating a learning environment
Conscious Communications, Pt 1
The Philosophy of Yoga
- Anatomy of a Yoga class
- Becoming a Yoga teacher, Pt 1
Creating Sacred Space
Guiding a Centering
Warm-ups
- Principles of Alignment
- Asana
- Pranayama
- Hands-on assisting techniques
Guiding Deep relaxation experiences
Structural Anatomy
- Introduction to the Yamas and Niyamas

Week 2 Sunday, April 25, - Friday, April 30
Practice Teach a 30 minute class
Becoming a Yoga teacher, Pt 2
Making contact/Being present
Phases of the asana
Hands-on-assisting
Creating Integration
Conscious Communications, Pt 2
Muscular Anatomy
The Science of Yoga
Becoming a Student
Guiding meditation experiences

Interim Break Saturday, May 1 – Saturday, June 26
Read Yoga For Depression, by Amy Weintraub

Week 3 Sunday, June 27, 2010 – Friday July 3
Conscious Communications, Pt 3
The Philosophy of Yoga, pt 2: Yoga for health, vitality and joy.
- Becoming a Yoga teacher, Pt 3 – Becoming a meditation teacher
- Planning yoga classes
- Teaching to specific conditions
- Yoga for Fitness
- Practice teach a 45 minute class
- Yoga for Weight Loss

Week 4 Sunday, July 4, 2010 – Friday July 9
The practice of Meditation
Practice Teach a 1 hr class
Becoming a Yoga Teacher, Pt 4 – Life-long Learning, An Integrated Life, Fulfillment
Professional Development - Business Practices, Marketing approaches
The ethics of teaching yoga
Creating a vision statement

Required/Recommended Reading
Below is a list of the books and a reading schedule that will be part of your teacher training. A more detailed schedule will be provided upon registration.
1) Center For Whole Self Healing YTT Manual by Rudy Peirce and Ed Harrold, 2009
2) Yoga and The Quest For The True Self, Stephen Cope, 1999 Bantam
3) Anatomy and Asana: Preventing Yoga Injuries, by Susi Hately Aldous, www.anatomyandasana.com
4) Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga, by Amy Weintraub, 2004 Broadway Books
5) Kripalu Yoga: A Guide To Practice On and Off the Mat, by Richard Faulds and Senior Teachers of Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, 2004 Bantam
6) Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka

PRE-PROGRAM – REQUIRED READING:
YOGA AND THE QUEST FOR THE TRUE SELF, The psychology and philosophy of Kripalu Yoga as practiced in everyday life, by Stephen Cope

DURING THE PROGRAM REQUIRED READING:
1. WHOLESELF YTT, TRAINING MANUAL, by Rudy Peirce and Ed Harrold.

2. ANATOMY AND ASANA: PREVENTING YOGA INJURIES, By Suzi Hately
Aldous

DURING THE PROGRAM HIGHLY RECOMMENDED OPTIONAL READING:
KRIPALU YOGA, by Richard Faulds and senior teachers of Kripalu Center.

INTERIM PERIOD – REQUIRED READING:
YOGA FOR DEPRESSION, A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga. Amy Weintraub.

Housing & Meals
We provide beach houses for your enjoyment while in the training. We offer same sex housing with environments for both men and women.

The houses offer shared or private rooms. Your housing price will differ based on your selection of shared or private room. Each house is equipped with cable TV, grills, kitchen, walk to beach, bike ride to Cape Henlopen State Park for beach, hiking/walking/biking trails and more. Plus 1 mile to local town, markets, restaurants. Outlets for tax free shopping are a short drive. You are just a short drive to the Center for training.

Pictures of housing below. Please bring sheets, towels, beach towels.

We will provide breakfast daily. Breakfast will be served at the Center. You are responsible for your lunch and dinner daily which can be enjoyed at your beach house or local eateries.

In addition, we will be providing a buffet dinner meal on 3 evenings. These meals will be identified on your training schedule. If you have any special dietary needs for breakfast, please let us know.

As for transportation to and from classes each day, the beach houses are typically no more than 3 miles from the Center. You can drive or ride a bike. For those who will be without a car, we find that students typically car pool together creating community!

Ethical Guidelines
All teachers are expected to take responsibility to create safe and sacred space in these learning environments. Ethic guidelines are required in the application process and discussed and affirmed the first days of the program.

For a more detailed description of our ethics policy, click here. Please sign and date and include with your application.

Refund Policy
If you cancel 14 days prior to your program start date, you will receive 100% refund (less a $50 processing fee). If you cancel 13 days or less prior to your program start date, you will receive a non-refundable credit to be used within 1 year of date of issue. If canceling less than 24 hours prior to program start OR you do not show up, no credit or refund is available.


For registration information, please contact the Center directly at 866-967-YOGA.

For an application and the applicable attachments, please click here, here and here.

By Registering for a class, you agree to adhere to our policies as outlined in this form and on our website.

To register for a workshop, complete this form along with payment in full to Comfort Zone Center For Whole Self Healing. Workshops must be paid in full by the day of the workshop or your registration is cancelled.

Comfort Zone Center does not confirm registration. Once registered, you will receive information about your program in the mail from us. You will be contacted again only if the workshop you have chosen is full or cancelled.

If you're registering for a 6 or 8-week series, we will make allowances for 2 make-up classes per Series. You can make-up the missed classes in any of the classes on our walk-in schedule. These make-up classes MUST be used within the dates of your particular series.

To learn more about our Policies, click here.