Shine Yoga WNY

What to expect

You will finish the 200-hour training able to teach a class anywhere.

You will have a deep understanding of the body mechanics that make up a pose and how to put poses together in a sequence to support strength, flexibility, breath, alignment, and stress reduction.

You will be able to teach yoga to students at different levels, and who have different abilities and body types.

You will learn yoga philosophy and Sanskrit and will build a daily practice for yourself, using your own body and experiences to become a better teacher.

We will use our amazing studio and teachers as a laboratory, learning how teachers with different styles find and share their authentic voice in a class.

You will learn to connect the different elements of a yoga class, the physical, the emotional, and the meditative through a theme, giving your students an extraordinary class.

What else will you gain?

You will create a lasting bond with the people you train with.

You will have mentors over your teaching career.

You will learn to pay attention to your own body and to communicate better with other people.

You will learn yoga postures, meditation, and breathing techniques

You will learn to go deeper into your life and how to guide people beyond body awareness into energy, stillness, safety, balance, anything you can imagine.

What makes us unique?

We are a studio that provides a wide variety of types of yoga that are unified by the belief that it is the yoga teacher and studio's job to help people feel safe and supported. It is the teacher's job to help people achieve things they never thought they could, and to brighten their lives. We will teach you how to help people ( and yourself) reach whatever their goals are through specific, body mechanics that allows people to do yoga they thought wasn't possible for them. We will also teach you how to inspire them.

We are a studio with a strong, welcoming community. The yoga teacher training will be the same. We are all vulnerable--that's our strength.

We have a wide-variety of teachers with expertise outside of yoga.

-Leigh is a philosophy professor and will cover Yogic Philosophy.

-Jessica studied Sanskrit with one of the foremost Sanskrit scholars in North America, and will teach Sanskrit for meaning and sound.

- Allison is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and will teach about the nervous system.

- Prior to becoming a yoga teacher and studio owner, Sara worked for 10 years as a preschool, grade school, and University teacher. As a teacher at Rutgers University, University of Oklahoma, and Texas Tech University, Sara taught Comparative Literature, Writing, and Composition classes. Sara’s experience teaching concepts and most importantly for this training, how to apply them, is unique among most Yoga Teacher Trainings, which are typically run by Yoga Teachers. Sara also worked as a behavioral health program developer and professional writer for 10 years. The manual, syllabus and training program content benefits from her experience developing detailed programs in written form and managing program success.

Your teachers also have expertise, of course, in yoga. Sara has 300 hours of orthopedics and yoga, meditation, myofascial release, and restorative training under her belt through Tiffany Cruikshank's rigorous advanced training program, in addition to her initial 200 hour certification through Kripalu. Three of your trainers will have completed 500 hours of Yoga Teacher Training by the start of the teacher training ( Sara, Mary, Allison). And all trainers have years of teaching yoga under their belts. Most fall under the category of 200 hour Experienced Yoga Teacher, meaning they have taught 1000 hours of yoga classes over their career.