COURSE BREAKDOWN:
The Salt and Light Coalition Yoga Workshop is a 25 hour continuing education program affiliated with Yoga Alliance where students learn how to teach yoga to vulnerable populations. The course was developed based on the vast experience both trainers have with nonprofit work and has the seal of approval of our referring partners.
Pay it forward!
50% of course revenue are invested on the participants at Salt & Light Coalition
Focus Module:
Working with vulnerable populations
1. Systems of oppression and yoga work
a. What are Systems of oppression
b. What are the systems of oppression your population is dealing with
c. How do these systems affect your students and their yoga practice
d. How to counteract systems of oppression in the classroom
2. Teaching yoga in the context of justice and anti-oppression work
3. Cultural Competence and Linguistic sensitivity for yoga class
4. Teaching with trauma awareness
5. Adaptive yoga for elders, people with injury and illness,
people with limited resources
6. Teaching the economically disadvantaged
7. Teaching Racial and Ethnic Minorities
8. Teaching the Homeless
9. Teaching victims of sexual trauma
10. Teaching the incarcerated
OUR TRAINERS:
Izabel Olson
PhD.; 200 e-ryt, M-HYI, YACEP, Kids Holy Yoga Trainer and Instructor
Izabel Olson, PhD, 200 E-RYT, is the founder and director of Salt and Light Coalition. Izabel stumbled into yoga in her native Brazil and fell in love instantly because the practice reminded her of dance, an art form she was passionate about, but had long been forced to forget due to an injury. During a trip to India to deepen her yogic studies, she became conflicted with her faith and yoga passion. After almost quitting yoga, she found Holy Yoga ministries which allowed her to combine her passion for yoga and her love for God. Olson was born and raised in Brazil and brings latin rhythms and movement developed deep in the streets of Rio, to create a well rounded and fun yoga practice. Izabel was a professional dancer and is currently an enthusiastic Holy Yogi and Ashtangi. Her classes are grounded in the traditional techniques of the Ashtanga method and in the grace and love of faith, while playing with the freedom of Latin movement. Always focused on a trauma-informed practice, Izabel has taught Holy Yoga at the Cook County Jail, at the Vine, an after school program for low income youth, and at the Dream center Chicago, a residence program for trafficked women. Izabel is currently serving at Salt and Light Coalition, while simultaneously being part of the Holy Yoga Leadership team, and a course instructor for their level 3 Kids Holy Yoga program. Izabel is passionately dedicated to promoting the use of faith, yoga, meditation, and pranayama as pathways to healing and empowerment.
Izabel’s Yoga Certifications: 200 e-ryt | 500 hr yoga teacher training (at present) | M-HYI (Master Holy Yoga Instructor) | Trauma Sensitive Holy Yoga Instructor | Kids Holy Yoga Instructor Trainer | Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP) | Yin Yoga certified
Alexia Bauer
500 e-ryt
Alexia’s first encounter with yoga was a playful one. As a five-year-old she would walk around the house on her knees in lotus posture, mimicking the photos she found in a yoga book in her grandfather’s library. The book disappeared but the inspiration remained in the back of her mind. Seventeen years later, Alexia realized that she couldn’t deny her hunger to learn the practice of yoga: she left Guatemala, her home country, and moved to Chicago to start her teacher training. Alexia’s greatest influence was Kino MacGregor, one of the few certified Ashtanga teachers in the country. Kino’s inspiration helped Alexia discover that her heart is in the Ashtanga yoga practice. Alexia practiced for six years under the guidance of Todd Boman, who supported her practice and taught her faith and dedication with his own shining example. She apprenticed with Todd in the mysore classes and learned how to teach the method. In July 2012 Alexia went to Mysore, India for the first time and studied for six weeks under the guidance of Sharath Jois at the Jois Institute where Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was first codified. In 2013 she got a 200-hour certification from Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor at the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado.
Alexia teaches the mysore program at Yogaview, Chicago, public classes at Moksha Yoga Center, and private lessons. She has found daily practice to be profoundly transformative, calming, and empowering. As a teacher, Alexia inspires students to persevere, with enthusiasm, and share in these benefits.
