Advanced Study for Teachers and Students
Invest in your studentship.
Our Advanced Study Training program is a great place for you to continue onward, enrich yourself and grow your studentship even more from your already completed Foundations or Basics Training program. Or, if you are a committed student that doesn't teach, the perfect place to further your own practice and study. You do not have to be a teacher to benefit from the high-quality education offered here in these programs. Building a community of teachers that are mutually supportive of one another, maintaining high standards of continuing study, opening doors of creative possibility, and creating a web of interconnected teaching that crosses boundary and style, at The Bhaktishop we aim to support you and stay centered on what unites you in your continuing journey.
The community, business and teachers of The Bhaktishop are deeply invested in staff training, meaningful self-education, and building the knowledge, skill and human resource necessary to invest in a more equitable business model. We're creating conversations about race, accessibility, trauma-informed practices, dismantling fat-phobia and equity on a daily basis here, and aim to make use of these skills in a broader capacity in the yoga community.
Progressive. Practical. Rooted.
With curriculum designed by Lisa Mae, bringing more than two decades of teaching and practice to the table, we've curated a program that brings multiple disciplines, experts and traditional wisdom into the overall conversation about yoga and its evolution. Courses of study focusing on strong bio-mechanics and the varied language of asana cues, practical tools for sequencing and progressive class structure, intricate practices to see bodies more fully, depth of focus in the Ayurvedic tradition, deeper philosophical study and coursework in the bhakti tradition as well as much more form the basis for this modular program.
Featuring courses from other skilled teachers, such as a progressive Prenatal Teacher Training with Shana Celnicker-Chong, deep Ayurvedic wisdom workshops with C.A.P. Danielle Hanna, stellar applied Anatomy and Kinesthetic movement instruction from Monicka Koneski, expert restorative practices and psychological study with Jeannie Songer, Trauma-Informed Yoga Training with The Breathe Network's founder Molly Boeder-Harris, plus rich, potent offerings from our cast of visiting teachers including the acclaimed bio-mechanics researcher and stellar yoga teacher Jules Mitchell, practical asana and methodology training from teacher’s teacher Christina Sell, profound adjustment and inner-body awareness training with Portland's own innovator and teacher's teacher Todd Jackson, satsang and philosophy talks with Swami B.V. Tripurari, language and Sanskrit wisdom from Joshua Michaell, mechanical and sustainable genius movement work with both Brea Johnson of Heart and Bones Yoga and Trina Altman of Yoga Deconstructed, LGBTIQ Inclusion dynamics with Zeyah Roge, Anti-racism and Implicit bias trainings with local Racial Equity Trainer Kenya Budd, Fat-phobia dismantling and Size-Inclusion with Be Nourished and so much more, we aim to offer a place where talented teachers can dialogue with each other, share the seat of the teacher, and gain experience and mentorship opportunities that we might not get otherwise.
“I am grateful to you for being one of the teachers who has contributed to the high standards I hold, because you have given me such authenticity and high caliber in every training I’ve had with The Bhaktishop, and I am grateful for how these two worlds are colliding.” ”
“I have many words of gratitude coming you way for all kinds of reasons but the main thing is thank you for pointing out my white, cisgender, size privilege and opening my eyes to all the ways I have been blind. I grew in all kinds of ways over the past two and half years, but your social justice agenda was the wake up call I needed.”
Curriculum as varied as your wide-ranging backgrounds.
Designed to be taken in portions of 50-75 hours at a time, with no set endpoint, it is intended for those already teaching or that have completed an approved Basic training or Foundations program, though it does not have to have been here at The Bhaktishop. You can apply to begin at anytime, as there is something being offered each and every season. Please see the requirements for the program at the bottom of the page in the “fine print” section. You may start the program at anytime, and if you have questions about how to get going, please email weloveyou@thebhaktishop.com.
If you are seeking an Advanced Study Certificate, please email for an application form and return it to us to get started.
Statement on the Yoga Alliance
We find this organization to be deeply problematic and we object to it opn many levels. The Bhaktishop has been considering leaving the Yoga Alliance and their registration service for many years now, and still remain in conflict about it. I have personally been a member of YA since 1999, and have found absolutely no utility to the entity of the Yoga Alliance and its "governing body" over these 10 years as a registered school, other than in name only. I am deeply concerned that they lack ethical oversight, compliance enforcement or accountability protocol for their schools or teachers, and thus we do not feel that they represent a significant source of credibility in the teaching of yoga.
According to the Yoga Alliance, no specific curriculum is required, nor is there any required assessment of a registered teacher’s skill. Ever. And there are no plans to change that. It is this massive omission that has gotten us where we are with modern yoga yoga right now-- trainings with arbitrary curriculum being taught to prospective teachers who don’t know any better by underqualified teachers that cannot answer basic questions about yoga history, philosophy or lineage; this situation was borne of and is propelled forward by Yoga Alliance.
There is always the question: How do you regulate yoga? It has always been a wild practice, and it appears in many different forms through many different traditions and lineages. Yoga Alliance simply requires that a certain number of hours be spent covering each of five areas of study that they designate as important, with no specificity given on how to fill those hours, nor any follow-up on whether or not a school, once registered, ever actually sticks to that curriculum. As listed on their website, a registered 200-hour training (the level that 85% of their 90K+ registered yoga teachers hold) must include 100 hours of yoga practice, 25 hours of teaching methodology, 20 hours of anatomy, 30 hours of philosophy and ethics, and 10 hours of practice teaching. But, the content of each area of study is left up to the school and once submitted (in the loosest possible terms, believe me, these applications have no oversight) that is the last you hear of them except to tell you that your dues are up and you have to pay them again for another year. As a school with extremely high integrity, and high bar and a threshold of 300+ hour of Foundational training (which still is not enough!) we have always insisted on more than 200 hours in our basic training, a focus on safety, equity/inclusion, and current movement theory, as well as a strong basis in the lineage and philosophy of yoga, and also require ongoing continuing education and advanced study for our teachers rather than simply the ERYT-500 stamp from the YA.
We realize that this may be controversial, and might cost us some potential trainees/students, but as they are simply an online registration body/directory and have offered little else since their inception, they offer nothing other than a logo after one's name or school with no real follow-through or follow up on curriculum, compliance enforcement of standards, ethics and beyond. But someone, somewhere, has to break the iron fist that this organization has around the throats of the yoga industry, and not simply go along wtih them simply because "they are the only thing available."
All of that is to say that when you finish your study here, you will receive a certificate from us stating your advanced study happened here and reflects the 300+ hours of live, in-person study and contact time with teachers that you invested. You may do whatever you wish with that certificate, including register with YA if you choose. For the time being, we will remain on their list.
We work hard to make this program an embodiment of integrity, ethics and high teaching standards, as well as respect for the tradition. If you have any questions about or wish to comment on how this decision might affect you or your decision to study here, please do be in touch at weloveyou@thebhaktishop.com
Current Advanced Study Workshop/Series/Training Offerings
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
March 22-24, 2019 $400
15 hrs: Friday 5-9pm, Saturday 1-7 and Sunday 3-8pm
In this 15-hour Prenatal Yoga primer, we endeavor to take the worry out of teaching a pregnant student and supply you with the basics to be safe, knowledgeable and helpful in your teaching. We cover the anatomy of the pregnant body, some basic "Do's and Don'ts, " the strengths and weaknesses in a pregnant body, some helpful modifications to well-known poses, basic Ayurveda practices and thoughts about pregnancy, and how yoga can prepare one for birth both physically and mentally. This module can be taken as a stand-alone or as a requirement of the larger certification program.