Specialty Course Descriptions

Teachers: Alan Finger, Sarah Finger and Peter Ferko

25 hour course. The ISHTA Meditation training provides students with a direct link to an ancient lineage of meditation. Kavi Yogiraj Alan Finger, a master of Tantra and Kriya meditation, together with two of his senior teachers, Yogirajs Sarah Finger and Peter Ferko, have created a profound, yet accessible, program for all levels of student. Based on techniques handed down from teacher to student, these rich and proven practices will deepen your yoga and prepare you to teach meditation, if that is your goal.

The training includes:

• A primer on the philosophical structures underlying the meditation process

• Health benefits of meditation and how meditation works in the physiology of the brain

• The core of the training is practical application of the practices used in ISHTA Meditation, considering benefits and personalized instructions for using the techniques, and practice teaching them to ensure that students understand the nuances of the practices.

This course is designed for both students interested in delving deeper into yoga nidra as well as teachers interested in teaching it.

Join Mona for her annual three day yoga nidra foundations course. Learn the science behind yoga nidra and it’s numerous benefits while releasing layers of inner tension you may not even know you’re holding in your body and mind. You will experience, learn about, discuss and practice teach each of the nine step system of yoga nidra Mona developed with Alan Finger. Students often describe this training as a mini staycation because of the deep level of relaxation and inner stillness they experience over the three days whilst learning this technique.

In this course participants will:

• Study the science behind yoga nidra and it’s numerous benefits.

• Experience, design, discuss and practice teach each of the nine steps.

• Through direct experience, class discussions and journaling become aware of one’s own unconscious programming and beliefs

• Release layers of inner tension.

• Learn how to develop yoga nidra practices for deep relaxation, sleep, stress management, anxiety, creativity, pain management and more.

• Learn how to integrate yoga nidra into asana and restorative practices. And more!

Recorded content will be provided for self reflection and class discussions. This 25 hour training includes pre-recorded content, select class recordings, journaling, and time for reflection. Training includes a one hour optional online Q + A Mona after the training ends!

Teacher: Mona Anand

35 hour course - 5 hours per chakra. Can be taken individually or all chakras. The training will delve deeply into the issues associated with each chakra and how to use all of the tools of yoga including asana, restorative poses, pranayama, mantra, and visualization, and Yoga Nidra to find balance.

• Learn how to recognize imbalances in a specific chakra

• Learn how to design each of the nine steps of Yoga Nidra created by Mona and Alan for specific chakra imbalances

• Discuss how to sequence asana and restorative postures

• Integrate pranayama, mantra and visualization for specific chakra imbalances

• There will be opportunity to design and practice teaching yoga nidra and receive feedback on sequences

Anand Menza Restorative

25 hour course. Delve into the practice of Restorative Yoga with Mona Anand and Gina Menza in this unique course, created for both students and teachers. Participants will learn how to teach restorative yoga and develop their own home practice.

• The science behind restorative yoga.

• How to teach restorative yoga including the benefits and contradictions of key poses.

• How to work with a variety of props in restorative poses for classes, privates and your own practice.

• How to sequence a practice.

• How to design and modify a restorative practice for specific issues.

• Learn the benefits and science behind yoga nidra and how to teach a basic rotation.

• An introduction to essential oils.

• How to give hands on adjustments in restorative poses.

• Experience a class taught by Gina and a class taught by Mona.

• The opportunity to give and receive a private and get feedback from both Mona and Gina.

• This course will focus on developing practical skills and working with fellow students to develop an “eye” to see physical misalignments. This is a 20 hour course.

Teachers: Elissa Lewis, Alan Finger, Sarah Finger, Mark Waterman

Marma points are energetic centers that act as “little brains” that feed the organs, nerves and cells of your body with the intelligence they need to function efficiently. Stress, whether physical, emotional/mental or environmental in origin, can cause marmas to become strangled in the soft tissues of the body. ISHTA Marma Therapy frees the strangled marmas, releasing blocked energy, cleansing away stress and returning the individual to homeostasis. Learn to heal yourself using this profound technique, developed by Yogiraj Alan Finger, South African Tantric and Kriya Yoga Master.

Wendy spent six years working closely with Alan Finger on Tantra of the Yoga Sutras, an interpretation of the Yoga Sutras that is accessible to contemporary practitioners of yoga and resonant resonant with the tantric underpinnings of ISHTA Yoga. The new Tantra of the Yoga Sutras course will be offered in six modules.

Yoga as Philosophy and Practice – The Cyclical Nature of the Four Padas – Module 1, April 14

Upcoming module dates to be announced for offerings in this series including: Samadhi Pada, Sadhana Pada, Vibhuti Pada, Kaivalya Pada, Integration. This course can also be taken as part of the 300 Hour.

15 hour course, 5 hours on each dosha which each be taken independently. In this course, learn how to adapt the nine steps of Mona Anand’s ISHTA Yoga Nidra for Pitta / Vata / and Kapha conditions. In Ayurveda, physical and mental diseases are believed to be caused by imbalances in the five elements that make up who we are: earth, water, fire and space.

The training will focus on how to use each of the steps of Mona Anand’s ISHTA Yoga Nidra for specific dosha imbalances.

The training will also include a discussion on how to develop short, mid-length, and long Yoga Nidra Practices for different imbalances.

Trainees will get the opportunity to design and practice teaching different length Yoga Nidras.

Trainees will learn how to use pranayama, asana, and visualizations for different dosha imbalances.

This training is designed for students, teachers, health care workers, and anyone interested in Ayurveda, the sister science of yoga and the science of wellness.

Learn how to recognize your own imbalances and use the tools of asana, restorative, visualization, pranayama, and yoga nidra to find balance.

Teacher: Ulrica Norberg

Are you interested in Neurofascial and Neuromuscular science? In the connection between spirituality and science? Of how to work with tension? Of connective tissue? Intrigued by energy work? The embodiment and healing yoga? How to use yoga to increase life quality and the building of muscular strength? Is meditation appealing to you but are too restless?

Then this training is something to consider for you. You don’t have to be a teacher to benefit from this training. For those of you who wish to deepen your personal yoga practice and teaching, it will be very fruitful in many ways. This training is focusing on the art of Yin Yoga; the practice of how to de- tensify in order to re-sensify. Why? So, we can live stronger, more alive, better restored, more wholesome, clear, solid and powerful in body, mind and spirit.