Embodied & Somatic Yoga Teacher Training
Embodied and Somatic Yoga connect the mind and body through movement. This strengthens our connection with ourselves, making us more attuned, gently allowing us to feel and experience in the moment.
Caitriona’s teachings and trainings weave together a unique blend of Traditional Yoga, Embodied Movement and Somatic awareness. Through this unique combination, we build greater awareness and a deeper connection to our innate wholeness, we tap into our own intuition, learn coping skills and increase flexibility, strength and resilience of mind and body; all leading to a healthy and full life with balance, calmness and ease.
Embodied & Somatic Yoga
Embodied Yoga is a somatic practice, which means ‘of the body’. To practice in an embodied way, you ‘feel’ the movements and bodily sensations, rather than following instructions on how to move and achieve set poses. This is also known as “Interoception”, a new sense we all have, and a growing field in the World of neuroscience. Developing our Interoceptive abilities plays a very important role in our well-being.
A somatic movement, generally speaking, is one which is performed consciously with the intention of focusing on the internal experience of the movement rather than the external appearance or result of the movement. Somatic movement is a form of movement practice that is designed to balance and realign the neuromuscular system of the body, decrease muscle tension, restore functional, graceful movement, and improve posture. It is safe, gentle and accessible to everyone, offering them freedom and ease in their body. The Somatic exercises are slow, mindful movements.
“Soma” is the word Somatics pioneer, Thomas Hanna coined during the 1970's to designate “the body perceived from within.” It describes a human as Soma: a unified brain-body, an integrated system of perceiver and perceived.
The Teacher training - Embodied & Somatic Yoga (25 hours)
This Embodied and Somatic Yoga training for teachers will be offered as 4 separate one day trainings throughout the academic year, these will be on Saturdays from 9.30-5.30pm. These days can be taken together as a series (with a bundle and early bird price) or as individual modules to cater for the busy life of a yoga teacher.
This training is an introduction to Embodied Yoga and Somatic based awareness through the lens of a yoga practice and also explores how to introduce this approach to your students. Each day will include a 2.5 hour facilitated embodied practice, journalling, teaching enquiry and workshop.
We will be using the musculoskeletal system as a map for the journey, through embodied anatomy, somatic enquiry and exploration of free movement. We will also be introducing components pioneered by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Body Mind Centering, such as BMC Body systems and development movement patterns.
Caitriona is a Yoga Alliance Certified Education Provider (YACEP), these 4 days will count as CE hours. (25 hours total).
Dates: The training commences on Saturday 21st of September and continues on November 9th, February 8th and April 12th.
Location/ Venue: This training will take place at Aras Chronain, Clondalkin Village, D22 X856
Price: €420 early bird for full 4 days (before 7th September) €460 standard price €130 per individual module
*Exclusive additional one-to-one mentoring and online resources will also be available to our group. *not included in the course price
Aims of this 4-day training
For you as a practitioner of Yoga and movement
Cultivate an enhanced understanding of your body-mind (or soma) and how to approach the practice from this place.
Meet yourself - and others - with curiosity, clarity and compassion.
Develop your somatic acuity, experience asana and movement from within.
Develop kinaesthetic, proprioceptive and interoceptive acuity, which is our ability to sense and feel, both our internal and external landscape.
Experience embodied anatomy and gain an understanding about your body and how it works from the inside out.
Find joy and pleasure in your asanas and movement practice.
Explore movement beyond the boundaries of traditional Yoga asana through embodied led and free movement.
For you as a teacher of Yoga and movement
From your own discovery of the body-mind (soma) gain the skills to explore the teaching of Yoga with this integrated perspective.
Unpack the function of alignment cues and explore a student led embodied approach.
Redefining the teacher's role from a knowledge provider to a facilitator of exploration.
Gain insight into inquiry-based learning, shifting power from teacher to student by focusing on asking questions rather than giving answers, guiding them through their own discovery process.
Learn about the language of guided enquiry.
Understand the role of “the embodied facilitator”
Discover the role of our voice, transmission and language in creating an embodied yoga container.
“What teachers can do is shift their focus and orientation away from playing Simon Says and Monkey See, Monkey Do, towards creating an optimal context for people to gain access to the ever-changing kaleidoscope of sensation that is embodiment. This is a skill that can only be developed when we have a conscious teaching strategy that is committed to helping people gain entry to their own felt kinesthesia (the feeling of the body and of movement), and interoception (the sensations that arise from within our viscera).” Donna Farhi
If you can sense it & feel it you can change it.
– Thomas Hanna, Founder of Somatic Movement Education
My Journey
Following several years of personal practice in the domain of Yoga, Breath work and Meditation, my Yoga Teacher Training journey began twenty years ago when I stepped into Yoga Therapy Ireland’s 500 hour teacher training. This brought me to a huge life transition leaving the corporate world and into the landscape of full time Yoga teaching for many years whilst starting a family. I continued my training journey for a decade with YTI, training as a Yoga Therapist, also specialising in Yoga for Cancer Care, Yoga for Pregnancy and Birth, Chair Yoga and Yoga for Amputees, and also as a tutor on their pregnancy teacher trainings. Throughout this time, I enjoyed many different styles of Yoga and movement, including Hatha, Astanga, Iyengar, Anusara and Scaravelli.
An embodied encounter
Ten years ago I encountered a teacher that resonated with me on a deep level, this teacher was Tara Judelle from the School of Embodied Flow. I immediately embarked on my first transformational Embodied Flow training with Tara, uncovering a new way to move and experience my body; opening my senses to an embodied and somatic approach, offering me absolute freedom and deep healing from a different place, from within. This was so different to how I had previously trained and taught. This presented a major fork in the road for me, and I began to move away from a more instructional alignment based, structured and mechanical approach to asana, transitioning towards a deeper self exploration and self led space, one with curiosity, playfulness and openness, creating a platform that holds space for the uniqueness of each person on the mat. This resonated for me as a teacher and felt much more open and accessible in so many ways. It was also aligned with my meditation practice, as it felt like meditation in motion. The word Somatics came about in the 1970’s from a movement pioneer and philosopher Thomas Hanna, Soma simply means “of the body” and is all about experiencing from the inside out.
My Embodied and Somatics training journey
Since this first mind blowing step into the World of Embodied and Somatic Yoga, I have studied continuously with Tara both in person all over the World and also online, completing over 400 hours training and becoming her first and currently only Embodied Flow Inspired teacher in Ireland. In addition to being a student of Embodied Flow, I have also spent the past nine years studying Somatic Movement through the lens of Hanna Somatics (Thomas Hanna’s movement practice) and also Somatic yoga with the amazing Lisa Peterson and Sidhartha Brian Ingle. I have also been blessed to train in trauma informed yoga and to attend several immersions with World renowned embodied yoga teachers Amy Mathews, Donna Farhi, Uma Dinsmore Tuli and Scott Lyons.
Sharing these practices with students and teachers
I have been sharing these practices on the mat with my students through the evolution of my path, incorporating hanna somatic movement, embodied practices, somatic enquiry and free movement and this natural progression led me to share in the teacher training space. With two decades of training, teaching and personal practice, I have a real desire to share these embodied and somatic teachings with other trained Yoga Teachers and those starting their teacher training path. I have had the joy to tutor with Aruna Yoga on their 200 hour teacher trainings and I believe the Yoga world is really ready for this deeper embodied approach. For me the practice of Yoga is all about our connection to our innate wholeness, union with all that is (non duality) and these embodied practices allow me the freedom to return to this place again and again, continuously opening new doorways and possibilities for me to feel more resourced, supported and connected. It is my passion to create powerful containers for others to access this within themselves and to facilitate this ability within our Yoga teacher community.
When you pay attention to your internal feedback, you not only enhance your emotional intelligence but can learn to carry this wisdom into the world in a manner that enhances your health and relationships.
Dr. Arielle Schwartz
This training is for you if
- If you are a qualified Yoga Teacher (min 200 hour)
- You are curious and you feel there is more depth and possibility to experiencing a movement practice and want to explore this further in a fun and accessible container.
- You want to offer a space for your students to move deeper into their own experience and allow their practice to come from this place.
- You want to move beyond the more traditional teacher instructional, pure alignment style of teaching and you want to offer a space for curiosity and exploration within your classes and student offerings.
This training is not for you if
- You are looking for a fast tracked qualification in the arena of Somatic Movement Education or Somatic Yoga. This training is an introduction to Embodied Yoga and Somatic based awareness through the lens of a yoga practice and explores how to introduce this approach to your students. Please note this training is not a full Somatic Movement Training. Somatic Movement trainings are usually a minimum of 13 full days (86 contact hours) and focus purely on somatic movement as a modality, such as Thomas Hanna Somatics. See more here. Somatic Yoga Professional Training is a one year (80 hour) training offered by the Novato Institute. See more here.
Join me on the journey
Here’s what people are saying about
Caitriona as a Teacher Trainer
Adrienne Perry
Caitriona was my instructor on the YTI pregnancy yoga teacher training which I completed in 2019. She is an experienced teacher, I found her mix of practical examples and theory really enjoyable. Her relaxed but informed teaching style meant I felt really comfortable teaching in front of the group at an early stage, and we had so much fun learning. She gave me the confidence to teach from a place of knowledge and had lots of practical guidance for setting up my own class. I felt inspired to make a positive difference to the pregnancy and birth experience through my teaching. Catriona’s teaching training and course content was not just based on adapted yoga for pregnancy. It focused on structured prenatal yoga classes to inform and educate mums to be so they can have the best possible birth experience.
Julie Hanrahan
I had the pleasure of being taught by Caitriona in 2018 as part of the YTI Pregnancy Yoga Teacher training. Caitriona is a wealth of knowledge but more importantly, there is a genuine warmth & enthusiasm to how she shares this. You can tell that she loves what she does & her energy is infectious. I would highly recommend yogies to take the opportunity to train with Caitriona...it will nourish your mind & body
Sheila Garvey
I had the pleasure of meeting & studying Prenatal Yoga with Caitriona Leavey. She was the highlight of the Yoga Therapy Course for me and an endless source of knowledge and positivity.
Caitriona is a very open, warm and loving person. She always willingly gave her expert advice & time on the course. She continued to assist me on several occasions over the years after the course was well & truly over. I am truly grateful for this....thank you so much.
I feel blessed to have learnt from one of the best tutors in this field and to have made a beautiful connection with such a soulful being.
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