Yoga for Seniors : Teacher Training Module
with Tucker Adams & Karen Kelly
Seniors and elders are the most dedicated students you will ever encounter. They really listen and deeply respond. This is Yoga at its very root and heart.
This 12.5 hour training is designed for yoga teachers and offers a practical guide and essential tools for working with students 55 and older in a skillful, effective, and safe manner.
The intensive will be highly informative, experiential, and hands on. Participants will be guided through simple foundational practices, dynamic chair sequences, guided breath work and relaxation. We will be addressing some of the common age-related health conditions and their possible effects. Participants will engage in and have the opportunity to observe a senior yoga practice.
Sharing the gifts of yoga with seniors is incredibly rewarding and will become the highlight of your week. Our goal is to help you feel more prepared, competent, and confident with teaching yoga to this population.
We Will Cover:
- Safety & asana considerations
- Common age-related health and medical conditions, including: osteoporosis, high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, multiple medication affects, joint replacements, low back, hip, shoulder, and wrist pain, vertigo, disorientation, slowed cognition, bunions and other foot conditions
- Use of props (chairs, wall, blocks, straps, blankets, bolsters)
- Pacing and verbal cueing
- Balance strategies (for moving up and down from the floor)
- Space and student management
- Sample yoga classes, demonstrations, and observing a senior yoga class
- Guided relaxation, breath awareness, and meditation
- Personal and group reflections, and journaling on aging
- Resources, reading materials, and handouts
- Building relationships with community health care professionals for referrals
Our Schedule – 2019 Dates TBA
To help foster a rich learning environment, participants are required to attend every session. Upon registration, you will receive suggested reading materials and assignments. Bring your questions, curiosity, open mind, and attention.
Meet Our Teachers!
Our instructors specialize in Yoga for Seniors and have decades of combined teaching experience with this population. Tucker Adams and Karen Kelly are certified through the Integrative Yoga for Seniors Professional Training program at Duke University.
Tucker Adams
Tucker began practicing yoga in the 1970’s and began teaching in the early 1980’s. She immediately fell in love with the practice and teachings, and continues to be compelled by and drawn to them. She has taught public classes and privately in Ojai for 20 years.
Tucker has studied and trained over many years with a number of inspiring and amazing teachers, including many in the Iyengar tradition. She is certified through the Integrative Yoga for Seniors Professional Training program at Duke University, and is a certified iRest® Yoga Nidra teacher.
Tucker founded the Yoga for Seniors Program in 2007, which is offered through the local social services non-profit Help of Ojai. She has managed and taught in the program since that time. Tucker has extensive experience working with seniors and those who may have movement limitations. She particularly enjoys working with those who are new to yoga, and her passion is to help make these practices available to everyone who has a desire and interest in exploring yoga.
In Tucker’s classes, we practice listening to our bodies, creating physical space and inner and outer strength. We use alignment principals to keep us moving with safety and ease. We practice making space for what is actually here in this moment. We practice unfolding in self-compassion to the experience of our bodies, mind and breath, connecting us to the the wholeness that is our true nature.
Karen Kelly
With joy and delight, and with the breath as her teacher, Karen helps us become conscious of the natural wisdom in the body, mind, and heart, through movement and in stillness. Karen completed her yoga teacher training in 2006. She is also certified in Yoga for Seniors and Yoga for Kids. Since 2009 Karen has assisted and taught in the Yoga for Seniors program with Help of Ojai. She teaches a variety of classes through Yoga Alters, and continues to deepen her learning and love for yoga.