My 200-hr TT Didn't Prepare Me For This
The more I see modern yoga being taught, the further it drifts from an internalised experience to an outward performance. Perfect poses. Beautiful bodies. Carefully curated Instagram feeds. And somewhere along the way, we forgot who yoga is actually for.
True story.
After my first 200-hour training, I walked into my first real teaching gig ready to lead a beautiful sequence. Then I saw her. A woman with a prosthetic leg, rolling out her mat right in the front row. My entire plan crumbled in seconds. I had no training for this. No one had taught me how to adapt, how to see the person instead of the pose. I went up to her to express my lack of skill, and she lovingly told me that she knew how to adapt herself and all I needed to do was watch, and I would learn a thing or two.
That moment changed everything. How I taught, how I practiced and now, how I train other teachers.
The truth is, most 200-hour trainings are preparing you to teach a very limited audience. The already-flexible. The already-fit. The already-able. And what happens? Yoga teachers become the new starving artists - teaching to a tiny pool of students, forced to position themselves with a certain look and style just to get noticed. But the people who actually need yoga? They're the ones with injuries, chronic pain, anxiety, trauma, or bodies that don't look like the cover of a magazine. They're the ones who walk past yoga studios because they don't see themselves in the pictures.
Hersha Yoga Academy's 200-hour training is different.
It's built on one principle: Teach people, not poses. Rooted in the Integral Yoga lineage, Hersha’s signature methodology teaches you to adapt cues for every body and ability. You learn to see the student, not just the so-called alignment. This is training rooted in over 20 years of experience as a yoga therapist and inclusive teaching through the YAMA Foundation.
What you get:
A curriculum covering philosophy, anatomy, pranayama, and real-world teaching
The skills to teach students with injuries, disabilities, and diverse needs
Post-training mentoring and actual teaching opportunities
A supportive community that values commitment over contortion
October 2026 - June 2027 | Monthly intensives | Weekly Practices (In-person and online options available)
Wednesday Sangha: Come practice with me.
Join our weekly community class starting in September - Wednesday evenings, by donation. Open to all levels, online and in-person. It's a chance to reconnect with the internal practice, not the performance. These classes are part of the TT, but also serve as community offerings through the YAMA Foundation. Come experience teaching that meets people where they are.
The world doesn't need more teachers who can do a perfect handstand. It needs teachers who can see the person in front of them and hold space for whatever shows up. Let's train the kind of teachers we wish we'd had.