200 hour Teacher Training
Registration open Now through November 30, 2023
Training begins January 2024!
We aim to support people on their journey as they learn about and practice integrating yoga into their lives, so that they may share these healing practices with others through the lens of their own experience.
-Arielle & Brittany
Words from a graduate…
“THIS PROGRAM GOES SO FAR BEYOND THE PHYSICAL ASANA. I FOUND A COMMUNITY THAT STILL SUPPORTS AND LOVES ME AND CHALLENGES ME TO GROW AND REFLECT EVEN AFTER GRADUATION.”
Training Details
Unity Yoga aims to make all offerings accessible. We acknowledge the very notion of Teacher Training as a capitalistic model which is meant to gate-keep those with less privilege. We recognize this flaw and work to dismantle it, while also playing the game of survival within it. We offer payment plans and scholarships to make this training as accessible as possible.
Full Tuition is $3,600. Deposit to hold spot is $500.
We are thrilled to partner with the Teddy Krazinski Foundation to provide
1 Full Ride Scholarship for a person in recovery.
We are also offering 3 Partial Scholarships for people in or seeking recovery.
Partial scholarships are between 25% and 75%.
Registration closes on November 30, 2023.
Registration can be paid in full at the time of registration or a non-refundable deposit of $500 can be made to hold your training spot and enter into a payment plan. Payment is due in full at the registration deadline, unless you have an approved payment plan.
We are thrilled to partner with the Teddy Kradzinski Foundation to provide
1 Full Ride Scholarship for a person in recovery.
Teddy Kradzinski was a founding Unity Yoga teacher from our opening 2019. He was interested in our recovery-focused approach and wanted to give back to a community that had helped him in his journey. He was loved by his fellow teachers and students.
“In the garden of humanity, I found that social support—supporting others just as I have accepted support—has given me purpose, has made me feel like a part of a whole.” -Teddy Kradzinski
Students that complete all parts of the training, including mentorship and apprenticeship, will be certified as a Registered Yoga Teacher RYT 200 with Yoga Alliance*
*We recognize that a certification through Yoga Alliance is expected of most studios, and comply with their requirements for certification. We also recognize the limitations of these requirements, and have chosen to emphasize areas of study that we believe to be crucial to a well-rounded yoga learning experience. Included in this training is our Mentorship Program and Apprenticeship Program, which offer students experience in observing and offering space-holding practices, further insight into sequencing, cueing and leading a class.
Unity Yoga’s Teacher Training is facilitated by Arielle Ashford and Unity Yoga was the first Registered Yoga School in Philadelphia to be approved under the new Yoga Alliance guidelines, in 2020, which ensures all trainees receive a well-rounded experience. To us, a well-rounded experience highlights beyond the physical practices, and gives equal attention to the many other aspects of yoga, including the history, philosophy, stories, and the colonization of it.
Training topics include but are not limited to:
- A comparative overview of yoga histories from written and oral perspectives
- An overview of historical yogic texts and their place in modern life (the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita, etc.)
- Yogic Practices: Chanting and Mantra, Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Asana
- The 8-Limbs of Yoga
- An introduction into ayurveda
- Body-Knowledge: Anatomy, Bio-Mechanics, Subtle Body, Prana
- Teaching yogic practices: sequencing, demo-ing, guiding, cueing, and correcting.
- How to safety and effectively structure and deliver a well rounded class
- Asana: cueing, demo-ing, and modifying through a trauma-informed lens
- Yoga Ethics, Yoga for Social Justice, Recovery Yoga, DEI in Yoga, and much more!
Dates
All dates are for in-person gatherings, unless stated otherwise. Saturdays gatherings will be held in Manayunk.
Sunday gatherings will be held in the Chestnut Hill studio.
Online gatherings are facilitated via Zoom.
Weekend 1: January 6-7, 9am-3pm
Weekend 2: January 20-21, 9am-3pm
Wednesday, January 24, 6pm-8pm Online
Weekend 3: February 3-4, 9am-3pm
Weekend 4: February 17-18, 9am-3pm
Wednesday, February 21, 6pm-8pm Online
Weekend 5: March 2-3, 9am-3pm
Weekend 6: March 16-17, 9am-3pm
Wednesday, March 20, 6pm-8pm Online
Weekend 7: Saturday, March 30, 9am-3pm
Weekend 7: Saturday April 6-7, 9am-3pm
Weekend 8: April 20-21, 9am-3pm
Wednesday, April 17, 6pm-8pm Online
Weekend 9: May 4-5, 9am-3pm
Weekend 10: May 18-19, 9am-3pm
All Trainees are required to attend all in-person and online sessions unless there is pre-approval of at least 1 week before the session. With approval from Arielle & Brittany, missed time can be made up in a 1:1 tutoring session. This will be for content missed, not time. Our rate is $100 – $150 an hour depending on the facilitator. No more than 5 consecutive hours can be missed in this training. If an entire weekend will be missed, we cannot guarantee the Trainee will graduate with a certificate to teach yoga. While some time may be missed, it may not be 5 consecutive hours or more.
We expect all trainees to arrive at weekends or online meetings on time and ready to begin. Should one arrive late, this will begin to accrue against the 5 hours and time will need to be booked and paid for with the facilitator to review missed content.
Teachers
Arielle Ashford RYT-500 is the owner of Unity Yoga and Co Facilitator of Unity’s 200 hour teacher training. Arielle received her 200 hour from Dana Hot Yoga in 2017 and her 300 hour from the Himalayan institute in 2020. She has trained in Yoga Nidra with Hilary Jackendoff (100 hours) and Uma Dismore-Tuli (150 hours).
Arielle is passionate about meditation and the practice of Yoga Nidra, the subtle body, yogic philosophy, DEI work, and teaching. Arielle is currently studying Vajrayana Tantra, and Jyotish (astrology) as a forever student, you can always find her unlearning.
Brittany is an ERTY-200, and holds additional training certifications in Yin Yoga, Trauma Informed Teaching, and Advanced Teaching Methods.
Brittany is passionate about all things anatomy and the body, yoga ethics, and yoga for social justice. She is fascinated by the human experience, and turns to the body for exploration and discovery. She also believes that everyone has gifts and hopes to support the discovery and encourage the development of these gifts. Brittany is a passionate student and loves diving deep into and discussing all manor of subjects, from the natural to the supernatural, true crime and more.
Yoli Maya Yeh is a Yoga & Shiatsu Therapist (AOBTA, VYASA, Yoga for the Special Child) and an Educator in Comparative Religions and Global Studies (MA Comparative Religious Ethics). Yoli works at the intersection of Indigenous Preservation, Healing Arts and Social Justice and is co-founder of DEIcipher Group. Raised in her family’s Native American spiritual teachings, Yoli spent twelve years of her young adulthood studying language, yoga, tantra, healing arts and meditation in India and continues to travel and teach around the globe.
Yoli holds transformative healing space for especially hard to treat, autoimmune, chronic conditions, unexplainable, undiagnosable, compound situations. She is devoted to healing for women and birthing bodies and offers supportive space for grief, loss, birth loss, traumatic birth expereinces and the spiritual dimension.
Ace Schwarz is a trans/non-binary middle school science teacher residing on the traditional land of the Lenni-Lenape. They have been teaching science for nine years and love incorporating social justice elements within the science classroom. Ace uses social media platforms like Instagram to help educators, caregivers, and administrators create LGBTQ+ inclusive environments. They also host this work on a website called Teaching Outside the Binary and a Patreon called Growing Outside the Binary with their friend, Skye Tooley. They were awarded GLSEN’s Educator of the Year award in 2019 for their work.
Teacher TBD
Unity's Path to Teaching
Prior to applying for training we highly suggest students do the following:
- attend classes in studio, including but not excluded to Arielle and Brittany’s Flow or Flow + Heat classes. This is to ensure that you enjoy the style of practice that Unity Yoga offers, and that you resonate with Unity Yoga’s lead facilitators.
- attend Yoga Studies: Off the Mat. This will be a classroom setting not unlike our trainings, so students will have a firsthand experience to inform whether the setting, the topics and the discussion are correct for them.
- Additional Resources: Skill in Action by Michelle C. Johnson, IG accounts: @susannabarkatati, @tejalyoga
Once a student is ready to apply the process is as follows:
- Students submits application > If applicable, student also submits scholarship application
- Student will receive an email invitation to schedule an interview via Zoom
- Following the interview there is a 7 day determination period, after which student will receive response
- If accepted, student will receive a detailed itinerary for the training, a supply list and preparatory assignments, and passes on their MindBody account to attend classes
- If not accepted for this round of Teacher Training, facilitators may offer guidance on how to prepare for a future Teacher Training, should the student wish
Once a student is accepted into the training program they will be credited with class passes on their account through MindBody. This will allow them to begin attending their required classes.
Training begins January 2024. Students are expected to attend all in-person training days, attend or review all virtual trainings, submit all assignments on time, complete their required 20 classes, attend 2:1 meetings with facilitators, and lead 2 community classes
After graduating students will begin mentorship program* for a minimum of 3 months.
After completion of mentorship students move to the 3 month apprenticeship program*.
After completion of apprenticeship program, teachers may be offered a position as a substitute or regular teacher in a Unity Yoga studio.
*Mentorship and Apprenticeship Programs are only required for anyone interested in teaching for Unity Yoga. These are complimentary learning support for anyone interested.
Training Outcomes
Students that complete all assignments and requirements will receive a certification through Yoga Alliance for 200 hours of Vinyasa Teacher Training. This will allow them to teach at most, if not all, studios in the US.
Who is this for?
This is the path for anyone who feels the call to teach and share these practices with others.
Students that complete all assignments and requirements, but do not teach the 2 community classes will receive a certificate of completion.
Who is this for?
For the students that are interested in expanding their understanding of and experience with the yoga practices, philosophy, and history, as well as any professionals looking to add yoga practices to support their work.
Students that do not complete all assignments and requirements will not receive a certification.