Megan Spears is a yoga teacher based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Megan teaches publicly, privately, and is also a lead teacher for EveryOne Yoga School 200 hour yoga teacher training. Megan has been practicing yoga since 2005 and teaching professionally since 2014. Megan has passionately pursued additional education with many teachers and mentors in areas of Trauma-Informed Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Functional Anatomy and Sequencing, Private Yoga Teaching, and Mediation. She is a candidate for the Bachelor's degree of Science in Health Education and Promotion with an emphasis on Exercise Science from Oklahoma State University. Her personal practice, experience, and education informs her ability to effectively meet and teach each student based on where they are on their path.

In this episode you'll hear:

• how defining and working within her scope of practice helped her teaching feel MORE expansive, not less
• why Megan writes proposals for the studio owners she works with when she wants to change something about her classes
• what helped Megan understand how to "read between the lines" with her private clients
• how a deep study into self-inquiry was the most surprising and special part of SPL

Learn More From Megan:

• Instagram
• Facebook

Over the next few weeks we're doing something really special here on The Mentor Sessions. I'm going to introduce you to five amazing yoga teachers all of whom are engaged in active and full teaching practices in very different parts of the world! These five teachers also happen to be alumni from my teacher training, The Science of the Private Lesson™, and you'll get to hear directly from them what has happened in their teaching and business since our time together. First up is Raquel!

Raquel Scalon is a full-time private yoga teacher in San Francisco. She specializes in delivering therapeutic and goal-oriented private yoga lessons to busy professionals, people healing from injuries, athletes and working mamas. She's been teaching since 2010 and has an extensive background in therapeutics, functional movement and fascial release. Raquel's teaching style is straightforward, lighthearted and informative.

A great place to find Raquel online is on her YouTube channel Raquel SF Yoga, which focuses on developing a strong yoga foundation peppered with alignment and practices anyone can follow.

In this episode you'll hear:

• the complete breakdown of Raquel's teaching schedule
• how Raquel defines "floating clients" and how she makes them work in her schedule
• why she decided to create a YouTube channel
• how Raquel decides and stays focused on and themes for each month, PLUS what she is teaching right now!
• why Raquel has taken The Science of the Private lesson twice

Learn More From Raquel:

• Website
• YouTube channel
• Instagram
• Yelp Page
• Facebook

We are doing something new today on The Mentor Sessions! I'm reading some of the Most Frequently Asked questions I get about teaching private lessons and offering you my quick and dirty answers. Some of these topics very well may need their own episode, so please reach out and let me know what follow up questions you have.

In this episode you'll hear:

• How to structure a private lesson so that it doesn't feel the same as a group class.
• How to deal with the boundaries of showing up for our clients through our own illness and hard times.
• How to set a timeline with privates clients that relates to their goals.
• My perspective on asking current clients for referrals and a tiny shift you can make in your relationship with your current students that could help you get more referrals!
• What I think about scheduling software, including the only one I recommend.

Resources mentioned on this episode:

• A blog about the boundaries of chatting in a private lesson.
• Some ideas to help you find your first private client.
• The scheduling software I recommend.

Have you ever had a private client bring their partner or friend to a private lesson and wondered exactly what you should be doing? Have you ever struggled to teach private lessons to a couple who had wildly different physical and emotional needs? In today's episode we are going to cover all that and more!

In this episode you'll hear:

• how to meet the needs of two individuals who have completely different needs
• how to do an intake with two people
• what to charge for a 2 person private lesson
• how to manage the dynamics of a couple in an appropriate way
• how you might break them up if that is best for everyone

In the conversations I have with colleagues about yoga teacher trainings the focus is almost always centered on the idea that 200 hours is not enough time to produce high quality baseline yoga teachers. I brought this question to my friend and teacher Jules Mitchell to get her opinion and very quickly our conversation veered from the serious but simple question, "How many hours of training should foundational YTTs have?" to the much more complex questions of, "Who gets to have the power to decide what makes a good yoga teacher?" and "If we raise the standards to make 'better' yoga teachers what communities get left further behind with less access to yoga than they already have?"

Spoiler alert: We came up with almost no clear answers to these questions, but I think it is important for us to have these conversations publicly and often.

If you don't already know Jules, she is a San Francisco based yoga teacher, educator and massage therapist. She blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study in biomechanics to help teachers develop their craft and empower them with education. She regularly contributes to yoga teacher training programs and leads workshops worldwide, balancing the somatic aspects of yoga with the most current exercise science.

Check out our previous interview to get to know more about Jules and the way she incorporates her knowledge of biomechanics into her teaching in Episode #9, right here!

In this episode you'll hear:

• What Jules thinks is working well in the yoga teacher training culture.
• A conversation about the current standards yoga trainings follow and how they are (or are not) are serving teachers and their students well.
• Some thoughts about Yoga Alliance and whether or not yoga might be served by having an actual regulating body.
• Jules and I go down the rabbit hole of "Who gets to decide what 'good' yoga teaching looks like...and is that something we think should be defined at all??"

Learn More From Jules:

• On her website
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• On YouTube

Also! Yoga Detour Online Training is now open...

It's been a long time coming but my friends over at Yoga Detour are finally releasing their online course which is only open for registration until November 2! Detour Method Online bridges the gap between the yoga you know and love with all the other stuff you know the body needs in addition to yoga like strength work, mobility training and overall feel good movement. It includes live calls with Detour founder Cecily Milne (you can check out her interview on The Mentor Sessions right here if you don't already know her!) plus a bunch of amazing bonuses like audio classes and downloadable resources. You can find out more about the course by checking out their website here and use the code "mentor" at checkout to get $50 off your registration!

Trina Altman is the creator of Yoga Deconstructed® and Pilates Deconstructed®, which take an interdisciplinary approach to foster an embodied understanding of yoga and Pilates and their relationship to modern movement science. Her book, Yoga Deconstructed®: Transitioning From Rehabilitation Back Into The Yoga Studio is slated to be published by Handspring Publishing in December 2019. Check out our previous interview to get to know more about Trina and her Yoga Deconstructed approach in Episode #3.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Why it can be helpful to add more stability, strength and motor control into our asana classes.
• The difference between local stabiliser muscles, global stabiliser muscles and global mobilizing muscles.
• Some of Trina's favorite props to bring into a yoga class in a non-traditional way.
• Some cues that help students to support themselves in the poses rather than sinking in their joints.

Here's some examples of exercises for the local stabilizers:

• Scapula circles
• Pelvic Sobriety Test

Here's some examples of exercises for the global stabilizers:

• Crawling

Here's some examples of exercises for the global mobilizers:

• Open Chain Bird of Paradise
• Hand Jumps

Here's the link for the Adductor Slides video and here's the link for Trina's Pilates Style magazine article with 8 blanket slide exercises.

Dianne Bondy is a celebrated yoga teacher, social justice activist and leading voice of the Yoga For All movement. Her inclusive view of yoga asana and philosophy inspires and empowers thousands of followers around the world – regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, or level of ability and we are so lucky to have her offering her wisdom and inspiration on The Mentor Sessions podcast today!

In this episode you'll hear:

• How to make yoga spaces that are supportive of marginalized populations that have been traditionally left out of the modern western yoga world.
• What changes we hope come to the yoga world over the next several years.
• Some of Dianne's favorite ways to create inclusive and innovative warm-ups.
• How to teach hands free vinyasa flows.
• What we teachers can do to help students to trust their experience and take full agency over their bodies all the time, but especially in their yoga practice.
• About Dianne's upcoming book, Yoga is For Everyone: 50 Poses for Every Type of Body, including why this book needed to be written and what she hopes it brings to the yoga world.

Learn More From Dianne:

• Find her on Facebook and Instagram.

It is becoming increasingly common for yoga teachers to bring movements and practices from outside the traditional yoga practice into their teaching. Are you one of these teachers? Do you want to be, but feel unsure about the most skillful way to bring non-yoga movements into the practices you teach?

At the forefront of this cultural shift we find Cecily Milne of Yoga Detour and I am so excited to have her on the podcast today sharing her wisdom with us.

An avid Ashtanga practitioner from 2003-2013, Cecily practiced under the guidance of senior teachers before becoming injured. This then led her to train with multiple movement enthusiasts including the Ido Portal team, Agatsu Inc and Dr. Andreo Spina, receiving her certification as both a Functional Range Conditioning Movement Specialist (FRCms) and a Functional Range Assessment practitioner.

Cecily is known for seamlessly integrating the knowledge gained from her strength and movement coaches into a yoga practice that is informed, accessible and above all feels good! She works as yoga "integrator", leading her signature Move Well classes at Downward Dog Yoga Centre in Toronto and traveling around the world introducing people to the Detour method.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Why Cecily thinks it is important to integrate movements from outside of the traditional asana practices into yoga classes.
• Some examples of the kinds of non-yoga movements she likes to integrate into asana classes.
• A discussion about why many teachers have some trepidation about doing this and some supportive suggestions for them.
• A discussion about whether or not it makes sense to keep calling our classes "yoga" when we start to bring in non-yoga movements.
• And so much more!

Have you ever had a pregnant yoga student walk into your group yoga class and immediately think, "Oh crap. I don't know how to modify the practice for her or keep her safe without changing my whole plan!" ?

Today's podcast episode with prenatal yoga expert (and my old friend!) Deb Flashenberg will cover everything you need to know on this subject! Deb is the founder and director of the Prenatal Yoga Center in NYC and host of the podcast, Yoga | Birth | Babies. She is also a certified prenatal yoga teacher, labor support doula, childbirth educator, and mother of two. Deb is passionate about establishing safe, effective, and empowering yoga classes for pregnancy and beyond and she is full of wisdom for all yoga teachers.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Some of the most important things teachers can keep in mind when trying to accommodate a pregnant student in an open level asana class.
• What can happen when a pregnant student doesn't modify her practice and how might it affect her birth.
• How we feel about the saying- "if you did it before you were pregnant you can continue to do it pregnant".

Crystal McCreary has a true teacher's heart and if you aren't already familiar with her work I am so excited to introduce you to her on today's episode! Crystal has taught yoga and mindfulness since 2007. She is committed to creating and holding safe spaces for people to connect, heal, learn, and build resilience in a world that often takes relentless hold of our bodies, minds, and hearts.

Crystal leads 100-hour kids yoga and mindfulness teacher trainings for Little Flower Yoga and Bent On Learning, and facilitates trauma-informed yoga for court-involved youth in juvenile detention centers with Lineage Project. Crystal implements yoga programs in New York City Schools, youth development organizations, and in corporations committed to cultivating sustainable and compassionate work environments.

In this episode you'll hear:

• How Crystral came to her teaching path a bit reluctantly.
• About the work Crystal has done with with teachers and professionals who support communities who suffer from trauma.
• Some examples of things yoga teachers might do that either create obstacles or foster a loving connection with diverse student populations.
• Us talk about the major barriers to people of color (or differently abled or LGBTQ or, or) becoming yoga teachers and opening yoga studios.