YOGA TEACHER MENTORING
As yoga continues to grow, teachers face increasing challenges and pressures. Yet, unlike practitioners in other lines of work, little exists to help them process and grow from these challenges. For many teachers, once they have qualified there is little access to support and guidance. There are several opportunities for teachers to develop more skills and additional qualifications yet even with these extra qualifications it is still very common that teachers feel insecure about teaching, lack confidence to teach and feel very disillusioned with their teaching as well as the 'industry' as a whole. And this is not limited to newly qualified teachers. Being a yoga teacher is a great gift and can be incredibly fulfilling but it is not always as rosy as it looks from the outside. Whether you teach several classes a week or just teach now and then, mentoring has a lot to offer.
Benefits of Mentoring:
- Support
Mentoring is very supportive. Sharing experiences lessens the sense of isolation that can often be felt while teaching. You might have specific questions about how to manage certain challenging moments that arise during teaching or how to grow and evolve your business.
- Greater awareness and understanding
Mentoring provides teachers a space to process their teaching, the individual experiences as well as the experience of teaching as a whole. It is an opportunity to challenge yourself and to continue to reflect on your journey as a teacher.
- Confidence building and passion kindling
Mentoring is an ideal opportunity to connect with passions around teaching and to continue to harness your voice and beliefs. Maintaining authenticity in teaching can be a big challenge and this can be very beneficial to reflect on.
- Sustainable teaching
Teaching yoga focuses teachers' attention on others and can take up significant physical and emotional energy. Mentoring is an opportunity for teachers to connect with self-care and to explore how teaching intersects with other responsibilities and commitments.
- Finding balance
Mentoring is an opportunity to find balance balance between giving and receiving, being a teacher and being a student, looking out and looking in, taking care of others and being cared for. When teachers take a moment to pause and reflect, it gives them more scope to enjoy their teaching journey and to grow their teaching with increased awareness and energy.
Types of mentoring:
- Regular Mentoring
This mentoring is similar to supervision in counselling/psychotherapy. Regular sessions take place on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis and is a space for ongoing support, processing and reflection of all aspects of teaching.
- Flexible mentoring
In this form of mentoring teachers book in sessions as and when needed to explore specific issues that are arising in teaching or for guidance on developing particular aspects of teaching e.g. creating workshops and running retreats.
I truly hope my mentoring services can fill some of the void that teachers experience, to support them as they navigate the various challenges and pressures they face and to help guide the direction they want to move in.
For more information and a free 15 mins chat please contact me
