Teachers
-
*Hamsa SpagnolaC-IAYT, E-RYT 500, T.R.M.Judi/Hamsa Spagnola, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, T.R.M., is Integral Yoga certified and has been teaching various styles of Yoga for more than 40 years with compassion and an open heart. She has also been teaching both Chair and Mat Yoga Classes for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York and in New Jersey for 30 years.
Since there were no adaptive yoga books in the early 1990’s, teaching Yoga to people who were disabled, elderly, or had physical limitations was done purely instinctively and with loving care and caution. Due to this need, and with the blessing of Integral Yoga, Judi/Hamsa pioneered and created the Adaptive Gentle/Chair Yoga Teacher Training certification program and Adaptive Training Manual to teach the Yoga Teachers how to adapt, adjust and accommodate the students no matter their limitations.
Hamsa also offers in-depth workshops on the Chakras, what they are, how they affect us both physically and emotionally, what yoga postures can be done to strengthen the Chakras. She also teaches stress management and meditation classes.
Judi/Hamsa is a Traditional Reiki Master who teaches the various levels of Reiki and offers private Reiki sessions throughout New York and New Jersey. She is an Interfaith Minister of Spiritual Healing and an active member of IYTA, Yoga Alliance, and IAYT.
-
Amy Daya EberhardtMPH, LMT, CYTAmy Daya Eberhardt lives with her husband and cat in a cottage in the woods. Their house is in the middle of a peninsula in the North Atlantic ocean. This is a dream come true and she is grateful to be here.
Her Sanskrit name, given by Swami Ramananda of the Integral Yoga Institute, is Daya which means “mercy and compassion”. Daya is learning how to practice kindness, mercy and compassion for all, especially for herself. She understands that this practice is part of her life’s work.
Daya hold a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from Columbia University. She was graduated from The Swedish Institute and is a York State Licensed massage therapist (LMT).
She practices Reiki at level two.Daya has been certified by the Integral Yoga Institute (IYI) to teach Hatha levels I and II. She studied with IYI master teachers, disciples of founder Swami Satchidananda, including Kali Morse, Swami Ramananda, and Inga Ishwari Benson. She is also certified to teach gentle, chair and adaptive yoga, which she learned from Hamsa Spagnola, and restorative therapeutic yoga, having trained with Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peale. Daya is looking forward to serving as a lead teacher trainer in the IYI Adaptive Yoga Teacher training program intensive in November of 2022.
Prior to moving to the forest in 2020, Amy worked for over 6 years as an integrative health practitioner at NYU Langone Health. She was one of the pioneer massage therapists and yoga teachers in the Department of Integrative Health Programs within this large teaching hospital in New York City. She was able to work with patients of every age and background, recovering from gender reassignment surgery, in the midst of cancer treatments, and in all stages of sickness and health, and while they were dying. She was part of the teams that pioneered many new programs and initiatives with inpatients including the pediatric integrative health program, the highlight of which was serving on the palliative care team and providing Reiki to infants in the NICU as well as to children under palliative care.
Daya enjoys writing, especially journaling which she does most mornings. She has been studying astrology, tarot, nonviolent communication, and gardening, and practices these new things awkwardly and with joy.
-
Diana MeltsnerC-IAYT, E-RYT 500, T.R.M.Diana Meltsner has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 2001. She grew up in Prague where she established a meditation practice in her early twenties, and soon after discovered yoga. After she finished her college degree in Czech Republic, she moved to the US and now lives with her family in San Francisco, California.
After many years of practicing and teaching yoga, she has become a lead yoga teacher trainer for the 200-hour and Meditation Teacher trainings and a yoga therapist C-IAYT, practicing privately and at the Integral Yoga Therapy Clinic. Diana Meltsner also works as a programs manager and serves on the board of directors at Integral Yoga Institute, an urban ashram in San Francisco.
Since 2004, Diana has been working for Kaiser Permanente teaching classes for Kaiser members, doctors and staff, as well as workshops for the Worksite Wellness Department.
Diana loves nature and considers it very healing to the body and the mind. There is a kind of peace that communing with nature brings. It soothes deep tiredness and nourishes the soul. She is an avid gardener and celebrates all stages in the cycle of life. Feel free to ask her about gardening.
-
Rev. Sam Rudra SwartzIYM
Reverend Sam Rudra Swartz, an Ordained Integral Yoga Minister. Also know as ”The Sarge,” is a KAY (Kidding Around Yoga) Trainer, and has a previous ordination as an Interfaith Minister from the All Faiths Seminary, New York City (2004). He is certified in Integral Yoga from Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville and The Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco as a Hatha Yoga (2011) teacher, having taken the Accessible-Yoga Teacher Training in San Francisco, as well as a Meditation (Yogaville, 2011), and a Raja Yoga Teacher (IYSF, 2012). His teaching home base is the Integral Yoga Institute of New York and has been fortunate to travel internationally offering classes and training’s. As a minister he has performed wedding ceremonies as well as other life cycle events in many places both locally in the New York/New Jersey area as well all around the U.S.A.
He received his Bachelor of Music in Brass Performance, with a Tuba Concentration from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts Music School in 1996 and is an accomplished musician having performed as a soloist in Carnegie Hall and was an active busker (a street musician). Currently he uses his music training with his voice serving as a prayers leader (a lay cantorial leader) at the Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Rudra, earned his certification to ”kid around“, as a Children’s Yoga Teacher from Kidding Around Yoga in 2012. He served as a Counselor and Co-Director of Camp Yogaville, at Satchidananda Ashram Yogaville Virginia’s summer camp from 2011 — 2019, where he was bestowed with the loving nickname, ”The Sarge“, for showing an ability to discipline the children in a loving way. He was part of the Kidding Around Yoga Camp in Florida in the same capacity from 2013 — 2016 and led many Kidding Around Yoga training sessions as a trainer in New York and other places both domestically and internationally from 2014 — 2109.
Location
Program Description
The Adaptive Gentle/Chair Yoga Teacher Training provides a solid foundation for Yoga teachers so that they will know how to adapt the traditional Yoga asana for those students who may be limited in movement owing to age, illness, disability, or injury. Through the use of gentle assists, various props and mindful observations, the teacher will receive an overview of how to adapt and teach those students who have all types of limitations and age-related conditions; and how not to feel insecure when working with them.
This course prepares you, the teacher, to adapt, adjust, and accommodate the traditional Yoga class so that students of any age, shape, ability, or disability may enjoy the Hatha Yoga experience safely and comfortably.
Curriculum
- Focus on asana (postures); how to adapt for various conditions/limitations
- Learn how to work with props including wheelchairs and walkers
- Review anatomy and physiology as it relates to various conditions such as osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, scoliosis, spinal conditions, osteoporosis, various cancers, multiple sclerosis, PTSD, Alzheimer’s, etc…learn what to do and not do for specific conditions
- Deepen experience through pranayama (breath work), meditation, Yoga nidra (Yogic rest), and Raja Yoga (philosophy)
- Learn how to create a safe space/environment for your students
In this training you will…
- Receive an in-depth training manual, specifically designed to support you as you continue to grow as an Adaptive teacher
- Gain access to a student portal that provides a centralized location for all your training materials, recordings of the daily practices, and other resources to facilitate a deep immersion
- Collaborate with your fellow teachers-in-training during break-out sessions, designed to help to get to know one another
- Practice teaching and receive constructive feedback from your trainers and peers
- Work one-on-one with people living with specific conditions
- Observe and participate in several classes including Gentle Mat, Chair, and Restorative Yoga; Yoga for Arthritis; Yoga for the Heart; Yoga for people living with multiple sclerosis; and Yoga for Osteoporosis
- Complete a research paper exploring a physical or mental condition of your choosing and develop a practice to support the student with that condition
- Create and design your own Chair/Gentle Mat Yoga class to share as your final practicum
Once you have met all requirements, you will receive a Certificate of Completion from Integral Yoga as an Adaptive Gentle/Chair Yoga teacher.
Upon graduation, you can expect to be able to guide people living with limitations confidently and compassionately through a Hatha Yoga experience that is both safe and satisfying. You will be able to teach in many settings, including Yoga studios, gyms, assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, veterans’ organizations, schools, prisons, and hospitals.
Prerequisite
This program is open to certified Yoga teachers of all traditions with a minimum 200 hours of training.
Please note: health care and movement therapy professionals without a 200-hour Yoga certification, but with comparable experience (such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, Feldenkreis trainers, etc.) will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Technological Requirements
Please be aware that you must have regular access to the Internet to participate in this online training. You must be able to run Zoom on your computer, and also have an active e-mail account for delivery of course materials.
Tuition
- $1395 regular tuition
- $1300 early bird tuition when you register by August 1, 2023
- $1275 for IYINY Active Teachers
A payment plan is available in two monthly installments, there is a $35 administrative fee to enroll in the payment plan. The first installment is due upon acceptance into the program, before the training begins, the second installment will be due the following month. Students enrolled with the payment plan are eligible to receive the early bird discount as long as the first payment is made by the early bird deadline of August 1. Tuition must be paid in full before the start of the training unless you are enrolled in the payment plan.
Auditing
Teachers who are already certified in Integral Adaptive Gentle/Chair Yoga may participate in this program at a discounted rate of $650. Auditors are not required to attend all sessions and will not be evaluated on assignments. If you are interested in auditing this course, please email TeacherTraining@iyiny.org with a copy of your Integral Yoga Adaptive or Gentle/Chair Yoga certificate.
Schedule
September 6 – November 12, 2023
Training sessions run September 6 – October 29
Wednesdays • 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. E.T.
Sundays • 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. E.T.
Practicum classes to be scheduled November 1 – 11
Graduation: Sunday, November 12 • time tbd by participants
Certification
Integral 300-Hour Advanced Teaching Certification
This course offers 100 hours of credit for the Integral Yoga 300-Hour Advanced Teaching Certification. Combine your 200-hour + 300-hour certifications to become eligible for Yoga Alliance RYT 500.
Integral Yoga Therapy 800-Hour Certification
This course is a required core module for the Integral Yoga Therapy 800-Hour Certification. Recognized by the International Association of Yoga Therapists for the Certified Yoga Therapist C-IAYT designation.
