The Mentor Sessions
Summary: Francesca Cervero is a full-time yoga teacher and yoga teacher's mentor. She has been teaching yoga in New York City and Washington, DC since 2005 and the foundation of her teaching practice comes from OM Yoga Center’s style of alignment-based vinyasa. Her teaching is also inspired by the years she spent in physical therapy, a constant curiosity about anatomy and biomechanics, and her love of Buddhist teachings. Francesca believes that introducing more people to the deeply healing benefits of yoga has the power to completely transform our world and the best way to get more people practicing (mindful, therapeutic) yoga is to raise the bar of professionalism for yoga teachers. She hopes that yoga teaching can be a career path that is respected and allows for sustainable income. She believes that the responsibility is on us as teachers to be worthy of, and demand such respect. It is for this reason she has maintained a thriving business teaching 15 private yoga clients a week and added a full practice teaching and mentoring yoga teachers in The Science of the Private Lesson™. Here is the plan for The Mentor Sessions: Support + Strategy for Yoga Teachers---> Making the deeply healing benefits of yoga and its sister practices more accessible has the power to transform the world we live in. An important part of making smart, mindful, therapeutic yoga more widely available is for all of us to continue to deepen and evolve as teachers. I believe the depth that arises in teaching comes from inquiry and relationship, not from collecting information from gurus. I want the yoga world to have higher standards for quality teaching AND better support networks for teachers, and I want this podcast to be at the forefront of those discussions. I’m here to offer nourishing support to help you feel more confident in your teaching and realistic strategy to help you find more clarity on your career path.
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I hear frequently from yoga teachers who feel burned out and are trying to figure out how to dig themselves out of that hole. We become yoga teachers because we love the practice and are initially so excited to share it with others, but the realities of making a living as a yoga teacher can be very challenging. In today’s podcast episode we are going to talk all about what we can do with our teaching schedule to avoid burnout and so much more.
The yoga world is a subculture of our society; it mirrors both the beauty and the problems of the wider culture it inhabits. If we want our world to be different and better it is up to create that change. For that reason I am SO honored and excited to introduce you to the Yoga Is Dead podcast. I'm honored to introduce you to my friends Jesal Parikh and Tejal Patel
As a white woman teaching yoga is there any way to do that without appropriating and stealing from a culture that is not my own? We are so so lucky to have Susanna Barkataki joining us on The Mentor Sessions today to bring her lived experience, wisdom and expertise to this question and many more.
Ann Swanson is a certified yoga therapist, mind-body science educator, and author of the beautiful new book, Science of Yoga. She is part heart-based healer and part science nerd. With a Master of Science in yoga therapy and roots studying yoga in India and tai chi/qi gong China, Ann uniquely applies cutting-edge research to mind-body practices while maintaining the heart of the traditions. She joins us on the podcast today to talk about the intersection of yoga and science.
Matthew Remski is a yoga teacher and author. As the survivor of two cults, his work has been pivotal in illuminating the shadows of globalized yoga and Buddhism, and showing that disillusionment and critical inquiry can be gateways to mature spirituality. Matthew has written a new and very important book called Practice And All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, And Healing In Yoga And Beyond and it should be required reading for all yoga teachers.
Erin Jade has been working in massage therapy and yoga/movement instruction since 2004. In 2014 she began to pivot away from traditional asana into varietal movement drawing from the influences of Katy Bowman, Erwan Le Corre, Ido Portal, Igor Burdenko, Moshe Feldenkrais, FRC, Laban Bartenieff, contemporary dance and more. We are so lucky to have her on the podcast teaching us the basics about applied neuroscience in yoga and movement classes.
This is a VERY special podcast episode! To celebrate Episode #50 I decided to turn the microphone around and let someone interview ME. And it’s not just any “someone”. Almost by coincidence two of my very best friends from college, Alece Demeray and Nikki Hay, became yoga teachers many years after I did. We are Yoga Friends now but we still are Regular (Best) Friends first. I knew if I asked them to interview me you folks would get a glimpse at the real, unfiltered version of Francesca!
It is common for yoga students to come into class, tell us they have an injury and expect us to be able to modify for them or at least give them ideas as to what they should avoid. If those moments before class make you nervous then today’s podcast episode is for you! Gabby DeLorenze has her Bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training, a Master’s degree in Biomechanics, a certification from NASM as a Certified Exercise Specialist and is also a yoga teacher.
Today we get to hear from Caitlin Casella who has been teaching yoga and leading teacher trainings for a decade! Since adding strength training and other functional movement modalities to her repertoire, her practice and priorities have shifted. Now, as she pursues her Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy, Caitlin’s aim is to make movement more accessible to the general population and demystify the science of the human body.
Today I am THRILLED to introduce you to yoga teacher, writer, mama and studio owner, Octavia Raheem. This episode stands out as an all time favorite; the deep wisdom and beautiful words that Octavia shared felt like a salve for a wound I’d hardly even noticed was there. Octavia Raheem leads a yoga and meditation teacher training called Be Still, Then Move at her home studio, Sacred Chill {West} in Atlanta, GA and offers ongoing continuing education and mentorship to yoga teachers.
More and more yoga teachers are incorporating resistance bands into their teaching because they can be a wonderful complement to the movements found in a traditional asana practice! We are super lucky to have TWO amazing teachers who are EXPERTS at this joining us on the podcast today for a roundtable discussion on incorporating resistance bands into asana classes. Welcome Giulia Pline and Laurel Beversdorf!
Have you been hearing yoga teacher friends talk about PAILs and RAILs and CARs and 90/90 and you’re feeling a little left out because you have no idea what they’re talking about? No worries... we’re going to fix that today! Clayton Weakly is a friend of mine and while he started his teaching career as a Yoga Tune Up teacher he now works as a Functional Range Conditioning movement coach. We’ve got him on the podcast sharing tons of great ideas for incorporating FRC into yoga classes!
Tax time is coming up here in the States and I know how stressful the process of filing and paying our taxes can be for yoga teachers! Did you know that every year yoga teachers around the U.S. overpay in taxes due to a lack of knowledge around beneficial tax deductions they can take as independent contractors? To helps us all understand everything we need to know to prepare and file our taxes we have Michelle Linane joining us on the podcast today.
Many yoga teachers want to have a meditation practice, or feel like they should have a meditation practice but don’t for some reason. Other yoga teachers practice meditation but feel shy or uncertain about how to incorporate meditation into their teaching. We are very lucky to have Cyndi Lee (!) on the podcast today, talking us through everything that is important about practicing and teaching meditation in her Classic Cyndi Way: clear, steady, gentle and warm.
Janie Ganga Fronek is a teacher of the Integrated Amrit Method of Yoga. Janie Ganga began practicing Amrit yoga in 2002 as a weekly student – until shifts in her life led her to Amrit Level I (RYT 200) certification in 2013. She believes in Health at Every Size - the simple premise that the best way to improve health is to honor your body – and offers Size-Affirming yoga workshops and Chair Yoga.
