Mama Nirvana's New Yoga
200-hour Teacher Training:
October 2010-January 2012
Tuition & Registration Details | Teachers | Testimonials | Download Application (PDF)
What current class members want you to know (PDF)
Trainers:
Ruth Anne Lundeberg, e-RYT500
Joshua Schumer, e-RYT200
Mama Nirvana's Yoga Teacher Training is much, much more than a professional training. You will experience inner and outer transformation into greater peace, confidence, purpose and connection. The training offers you 15 months of time-tested teachings from the Spiritual Wisdom Traditions, endless opportunities for personal exploration and self expression, and deep insight into the practice of yoga.
Be prepared for fun, playfulness, mental stimulation, personal growth challenges—all while acquiring the highest level of skill in yoga teaching.
We go above and beyond the average level of 200-hour trainings. Our graduates gain an encyclopedic knowledge of postures, anatomy, and techniques. We offer hours of coaching on teaching methods. You will come away with a body of knowledge and skills that distinguishes you as a true professional.
We also provide you with coaching and support to set up your own yoga teaching practice.
Most of all, we provide the structure and knowledge to help you transform every aspect of your life through yoga. Our training will take you far beyond the postures into the lesser-known mental and spiritual teachings. You will learn how to tap into the power of your mind manifest inner peace, prosperity, health, and joy.
- Have you ever wanted to know what yoga is, where its knowledge comes from, and what its message is for humanity?
- Do you want to find out how yoga can transform your relationships, your work, and every corner of your life?
- Are you curious about your human body, how it works, and how you can shape your own health?
- Are you open-minded about your own potential for positive new experiences and realizations?
- Are you excited about being surrounded by friendly people who share your values, passions and interests?
You will find abundant answers and insights in these and other areas through our teacher training.
In addition to dramatically improving your physical and mental capacities, you will also learn:
- In-depth anatomy for yoga and wellness
- Yoga cleansing techniques
- Postures and modifications for various levels
- Core strength and stabilization for yoga and other activities
- Yogic diet
- Deepening your spiritual connection
- Meditation, Pranayama, and Yoga Nidra
- History and philosophy of yoga and Buddhism
- Yoga in daily life
- Establishing and sustaining a personal home practice
- Using yoga to enhance creativity, spontaneity and self expression
- Professional relationships and boundaries
- Empowering and clarifying your communication with others
- Concentration, centering, and listening
- Formatting a Yoga Sequence
- Connecting with others at the heart level
- Preventing yoga injuries
- How to inspire, encourage and lead others
- Manifesting Your Highest Vision …AND MORE!
How do I know if I am ready?
If you have been studying yoga with a teacher for at least six months we encourage you to apply. Keep in mind that your sincere desire is the most important factor in your success.
What kind of person becomes a yoga teacher?
Being curious and enthusiastic about yoga is the first prerequisite. Qualities like empathy, clarity, integrity, determination and playfulness are hallmarks of great teaching. Doing advanced postures is not very important for teaching yoga.
How will I go from where I am now to being a confident yoga teacher?
You will learn gradually so you can integrate the various practices and background knowledge. Week by week we will coach you on improving your personal practice. During our training sessions we will break down and practice the elements of effective yoga teaching. By the time you graduate, you'll be skilled at teaching a basic level yoga class.
I'm not interested in being a teacher. I just want to learn more about yoga.
Yoga teacher training will give you a depth of skill and knowledge without parallel. Though you will do some teaching during the course, yoga teaching needn't to be your ultimate goal in order for you to take full advantage of the training.
What kind of work does a professional yoga teacher do?
Yoga teachers work in a wide variety of settings, with a range of students. Most yoga teachers are self-employed, teaching either part-time or full-time at more than one location. Income is a reflection of an instructor's specialized knowledge and skills, so a yoga instructor works fewer hours and is paid more per hour than in most traditional jobs. Part-time yoga instructors can supplement their regular income by teaching as little or as much as they want. Venues can include:
- Colleges
- Public Schools
- Private Schools
- In Your Own Home
- Workplaces
- Outdoors
- Partnering with Teachers of Other Disciplines
- Adult Education Programs
- Community Centers
- Senior Centers
- Health Clubs/Gyms
- Doctors' Offices
- Spas
- Resort Centers
- Hospitals
- Private Homes
- Cruise Ships
- Foreign Countries
- Yoga Centers
Why it's important to choose the right training structure: Yoga is learned by patient practice and experience. Knowledge is imparted directly from teacher to student and should be based on the individual's needs. Large classes, high-profile seminars, yoga conferences, workshops with celebrity teachers, and distance learning are less than ideal formats for teacher training.
Beware of trainings that provide limited access to the trainer (lots of students, or a celebrity teacher), those that condense many hours into a short time frame (as in a vacation or retreat format), those that have heavy homework and online classes and less face-to-face instruction; and those that offer less than 200 contact training hours.
We maintain a small class size; multiple sessions spaced over 15 months; a close teacher-student relationship with two highly experienced teacher trainers; a supervised, ongoing inquiry into all aspects of yoga including ethical, personal, psychological and spiritual realms.
Structure: Half-Day trainings on 2nd and 4th Saturday afternoons each month for 15th months. In addition, students observe one beginner class per week and participate in one intermediate/advanced class per week. The intermediate/advanced class is designed specifically for training participants and is offered on: Saturday Mornings in Easthampton, Monday evenings in Amherst and Easthampton and Tuesday evenings in Amherst. In the last three months of the program you will be required to teach one class per week outside of Mama Nirvana's.
Contact Hours with Teacher Trainers:
25 seminars totaling 107 hours
15 months of upper level techniques classes: 130 hours
15 months of participation/observation basic level techniques: 80 Hours
TOTAL: 307 hours
Tuition & Registration Details
Where: Mama Nirvana's New Yoga - Easthampton Studio, 384 Main Street, Easthampton, MA and Mama Nirvana's New Yoga-Amherst Studio 479 West Street, Amherst MA. Training sessions alternate between both studios.
When: Training meets on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month from 1:30-6:15pm from October 9, 2010-January 14, 2012. No trainings on Nov 27, 2010, Dec 25, 2010, May 28, 2010, August 27, 2010, November 26, 2010, December 25, 2010
Certification: From Mama Nirvana's New Yoga, upon completion of all hours, plus demonstration of practical skill and knowledge in teaching yoga. This training is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the 200 hour level.
Tuition: is $2500. Includes Saturday seminars and 2 classes per week for 15 months. Initial deposit required with application is $500. You can pay by check or MC/VISA.
How to Register: Space is limited to 20. We review applications as they are received. You should fill out an application and pay your deposit as soon as you know you want to take the course. Download an application (PDF)
To get more information: We are very happy to meet with interested individuals and go over the program. Please email me, Ruth Anne, at info@mamanirvana.com and request an appointment.
Who Are The Teacher Trainers?
JOSHUA SCHUMER holds a BS degree in Physical Education from the University of Massachusetts, where he specialized in Exercise Science. Josh is a certified yoga instructor and an ACE certified personal trainer. Josh's commitment to health and fitness is apparent in his teaching, which is positive, focused and transforming. Josh brings over 20 years of practical and theoretical knowledge of mind-body disciplines to his practice and teaching of yoga. Josh has co-taught 2 teacher trainings of 18 months each. His specialties are musculoskeletal anatomy and body mechanics.
RUTH ANNE LUNDEBERG is blessed to have studied with the topmost teachers of yoga, dance, Buddhism and meditation since 1983. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from New York University, where she studied voice, movement and performance intensively with the top experimental performers/directors in NYC. In 1984 at age 19 discovered traditional Hatha yoga at the Himalayan Institute on Fifth Avenue and at Satchidananda's ashram, Integral Yoga, on 13th street. Later, she studied directly with yoga master Sri Dharma Mittra (whose poster of himself performing 908 yoga poses hangs in studios all over the world.) Ruth Anne has also studied directly with Beryl Bender Birch (author of the "Power Yoga" and "Beyond Power Yoga," Beryl was largely responsible for introducing Ashtanga Yoga to the East Coast) and Jivamukti Yoga founders Sharon Gannon and David Life at their original East Village loft studio.
In addition, Ruth Anne is a long-time dedicated student of Theravadin Buddhism and meditation. She has sat numerous retreats since 1989 with a variety of international teachers including Jack Kornfield, Christopher Titmuss, Larry Rosenberg, Christina Feldman, Sharda Rogell, and Leigh Brasington. Ruth Anne is a committed daily meditator with over 20 years of experience.
From 1992 to 1999, Ruth Anne taught yoga full-time in the Pioneer Valley and Greater Hartford. She instituted the yoga programs at Holyoke Hospital, Greenfield Community College, and many corporations and fitness venues. In 1999, she graduated her first class of teachers (who had been studying semi-privately in her home) and opened the first Mama Nirvana's New Yoga at the Eastworks building in Easthampton. Since then, has taught or co-taught three more 18-month teacher trainings.
Ruth Anne brings a unique and powerful spiritual flavor to teaching and practicing yoga. Her teaching is defined by her years of study with masters of yoga, Buddhism and experimental movement forms. In a time when yoga has been re-defined as an exercise modality, Ruth Anne offers her students and trainees a rare chance to learn traditional yoga as a method of spiritual awakening.
Mama Nirvana's Yoga Teacher Training will transform you personally and professionally. Taking this time to explore yoga's deeper wisdom is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you think teaching yoga might be part of your path, or if you simply want to experience your yoga in depth, give yourself the gift of this life-changing experience.
What Students Say about Mama Nirvana's In-Depth
Yoga and Teacher Training Program:
"Ruth Anne and Josh's teacher training...was the best learning experience I have ever had. I knew that I loved yoga from the first time I attended one of Ruth Anne's classes before starting the program.... I am currently teaching yoga and I love what I do. It has changed my life in many ways. They are phenomenal teachers, who are extremely knowledgeable about every aspect of yoga, from philosophy, anatomy, the ethics of being a yoga instructor, and also meditation, relaxation and of course, asanas. They not only taught me how to be the best instructor that I could be, but also the best person that I can be. The students that were in my class became my very close friends, and we learned a lot from each other as well. If you are interested in learning more about yoga, whether to teach or become more aware of your own body, I would strongly recommend Mama Nirvana's New Yoga. It changed my life! I have them to thank."
— Gayle Stefanelli, Yoga Instructor, RYT, Pilates Instructor
"Mama Nirvana's Yoga Teacher training was more than just an in-depth course that covered the yoga poses and human anatomy in exquisite detail. It brought a group of total strangers together in such a way that by the end of the course, we had become like a family who nurtured each other's confidence, friendship, strengths and awakening. While the academic topics all held gravity, they were presented with such levity that you might find yourself in peals of laughter while learning about the rotator cuff, or samadhi. Ruth Anne and Josh's synergistic senses of humor eased our transition from students of yoga to yoga teachers in a way that deepened our respect not only for the discipline itself, but also for one another."
— Jessica Faller-Berger, Yoga Instructor, RYT, Personal Trainer
"I am a graduate of Ruth Anne Lundeberg's Yoga Teacher Training Program in 2000-01. Ruth Anne, her classes and the training have all had a significant impact on my life opening me to all the physical and spiritual aspects and benefits of yoga practice. Ruth Anne's eclectic and organic style is diverse, comprehensive, spontaneous, unique and relevant to the needs of her trainees. She is a masterful yogi and I continue to be grateful for her presence in my life."
— Emily Newton, Yoga Instructor
"Studying with Ruth Anne and Josh for a year and a half opened many doors within my own yoga practice. Their compassionate and down-to-earth style set a supportive tone and their inside-out knowledge of asana, anatomy, pranayama, and meditation provided the tools to take my practice to new levels. A special treat for me was the introduction to meditation techniques and Buddhist psychology and their connections to yoga. Ruth Anne and Josh are great teachers and heart warming people. I'm grateful to have studied with them."
— Sam Hammer
"When I signed up for teacher training, my primary intent was to deepen my yoga practice... I wasn't so sure about the actual teaching aspect of it. I think it's a credit to the structure of the training (occurring over a long period of time) and the thoroughness of the instruction that I did go on to teach yoga. And when I started teaching, I felt completely prepared. I knew the poses, knew how to teach them, and knew what to expect as a teacher. As if this weren't enough, I received another gift that I never saw coming: a rock-solid sense of confidence in myself. It's been a great, life-changing experience for me. I highly recommend Mama Nirvana's teacher training to everybody!"
— Deborah Van Wright
"Mama Nirvana's teacher training provided me with not only the knowledge but the confidence to teach a fun, safe and challenging yoga class. Eighteen months may seem like a long time but taking the time we did through Mama Nirvana's teacher training allowed me to learn, explore and experiment in an environment that was encouraging and informational. We were able to learn, practice and eventually teach while having the support of Ruth Anne and Josh through it all. My own practice and understanding of yoga deepened more in Mama Nirvana's teacher training than I could have imagined. My expectations of what yoga should be transformed to what it can be and I grew to appreciate and feel more comfortable in my own body than ever before.
Mama Nirvana's teacher training was an experience that I will never forget. The knowledge changed my life. The support form Ruth Anne and Josh as well as the other students has been most valuable and the confidence it established in me transfers from my teaching into every day life."
— Aaron Michael Vega, Yoga Instructor, RYT
"The 200-hour teacher training at Mama Nirvana's New Yoga was a wonderful and life-changing experience for me. At first it seemed like 18 months would be a long time, but once I was in the program the time flew by. The program immerses you in the study and practice of yoga, in a way that cannot be attained through simply going to a yoga class once or twice a week. Josh and Ruth Anne have keen understanding of yoga, anatomy, ethics and philosophy. They are patient in their teaching and they generously take the time necessary to help the teacher trainees be successful in the program. When I was done with the program I felt that my personal practice had grown through the knowledge I had gained from Ruth Anne and Josh. I also gained the friendship of the other teacher trainees as we went through a very remarkable journey in our yoga training together. I would highly recommend that you enroll in this program, it is powerful experience."
— Ruth Giles, Yoga Instructor, RYT
Director, Now and Zen Yoga
Chicopee, MA