Chair Yoga for Everyone:
Learn to Practice & Teach
with Jivana Heyman & guests,
Melissa Shah, Rodrigo Souza, Karen James & Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee
Now available On-Demand!
REGISTER NOW
Adaptation is part of our nature.
Join Accessible Yoga founder, Jivana Heyman, along with guest presenters Rodrigo Souza, Melissa Shah, Karen James & Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee, for a 9-part online course (now available for on-demand enrollment!) that explores how to practice asana safely in a chair, including considerations for the specific needs of various special populations.
You’ll learn how adapting the practice can offer the same physical—as well as emotional, mental, and spiritual—benefits. This course will cover all the fundamental elements of a holistic practice.
On-Demand enrollment includes 1 year of access to the course content and resources via our online course portal.
Chair Yoga is revolutionary because it makes the practices of yoga available to so many people!
In this course, you'll discover:
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How to build strength and flexibility through Chair Yoga asana practices
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How to share the heart of the yoga teachings when leading a chair yoga practice
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Nervous system regulation and relaxation through skillful breathing exercises
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How to cultivate focus through meditation
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Plus our special guests will share their specialized knowledge and experience of Chair Yoga, including wheelchair yoga and yoga for those with disabilities, Chair Yoga for older adults, building a holistic and therapeutic Chair Yoga practice, and creative and adaptive teaching incorporating chairs for seated and standing, through discussion and sample practices.
Whether you are a teacher eager to make your classes more accessible by offering options with a chair or a student seeking ways to adapt your asanas, this course will offer insight on how to begin, enhance, and grow your accessible yoga toolkit using a chair.
ON-DEMAND COURSE OVERVIEW
Chair Yoga for Everyone is a 17-hour online training, with 4 hours of additional pre-recorded chair yoga practice videos, now available for on-demand enrollment!
On-Demand enrollment includes 1 year of access to the captioned replays of the Chair Yoga for Everyone course (recorded live & online in Sept-Oct 2024), led by Jivana Heyman, plus special guest presenters, Karen James, Rodrigo Souza, Melissa Shah and Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee
*The recording of the first session is available as a FREE course preview!
Session 1 (FREE PREVIEW)
Introduction to Chair Yoga
with Jivana Heyman
In this free course preview session, Jivana offers an introduction to the benefits and challenges of Chair Yoga.
In particular, he’ll discuss how we can focus on keeping the Yoga in Chair Yoga.
He ends the session with a short sample Chair Yoga class.
Check out the first session of Chair Yoga for Everyone as a FREE course preview (REPLAY now available!)
If you are curious about this newly updated and expanded 9-part online course with Jivana Heyman and guests (now available on-demand!), we invite you to check out the first session as a FREE course preview.
Enter your details below to receive access to the captioned recording of this introductory 1-hour session with Jivana Heyman, Introduction to Chair Yoga, which was recorded live & online on September 6th, 2024, as a preview of the full Chair Yoga for Everyone course.
*You'll be taken directly to the captioned session recording, however we'll also email a link for you to access it. Please check your Gmail promotions tab or spam / junk mail folder if the replay email doesn't land in your main inbox, it may be there!
Session 2
Chair Yoga for Strength & Stability
with Jivana Heyman
This session will focus on helping students prepare for Chair Yoga practice, including how to set up and practice safely, as well as common contraindications. Jivana will also address ways to build strength in Chair Yoga, and offer a sample Chair Yoga focusing on strengthening practices.
Session 3
Chair Yoga for Flexibility & Freedom
with Jivana Heyman
Most people think that being flexible is a requirement for Yoga practice, but it’s not. Jivana will discuss the benefits of flexibility and stability. He’ll also discuss how we can release expectations in our Yoga practice and in life by understanding the Yoga concept of nonattachment. Jivana will also offer a sample practice focusing on Chair Yoga for flexibility.
Session 4
Chair Yoga for Ease & Relaxation
with Jivana Heyman
In this session, Jivana will discuss relaxation and the nervous system, as well as pranayama, (breathing practices), and Yoga Nidra (guided meditation) that can be done in a chair. He’ll discuss how we can bring ease into our Chair Yoga practice and in life. He’ll lead a sample Chair Yoga session focused on balancing effort and relaxation.
Session 5
Chair Yoga for Focus & Meditation
with Jivana Heyman
In this session, Jivana will offer some additional skills for adapting any Yoga pose in the chair by focusing on a particular benefit, finding a similar action in the body, or by breaking a pose down into parts. He’ll also share about the role of meditation in Chair Yoga, and how we can offer accessible meditation tools for our students. He’ll end with a sample Chair Yoga class for focus and meditation.
Session 6
Chair Yoga for Older Adults
with Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee
This session will explore gentle and accessible Chair Yoga practices for older adults who may have mobility limitations or difficulty with traditional mat based yoga poses. Chair Yoga designed specifically for older adults can help improve posture, strength, balance, mental health and help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. We will cover basic poses and dip into the “muscles of independence,“ and calming breath practices best suited for the aging population.
Session 7
Creating a Holistic & Therapeutic Chair Yoga Practice
with Melissa Shah
It is possible to create a full and holistic yoga practice in a chair. In fact, Chair Yoga offers a pathway for a full practice that is fun and accessible. In this session, Melissa Shah will share the ways that incorporating the subtle yogic practices, including pranayama, mudra, mantra and meditation can offer additional mind-body support for practitioners of all ages and abilities. Melissa will also share yoga practices to support those with anxiety, experiencing burnout, living with pain conditions, and more.
Session 8
Wheelchair Yoga
with Rodrigo Souza
During this session, Rodrigo Souza will lead a seated Accessible Yoga practice, and share about facilitating Yoga for wheelchair users who have experienced trauma and disability, which includes individuals with paralysis and those without the use of their legs.
Rodrigo will use his practical experience and expertise to help you build confidence in caring for this community with love, empathy, and insight.
Session 9
Adaptive & Creative Chair Yoga Teaching and Practice
with Karen James
Have you ever felt like options for practicing asana in a chair might be limited, or limiting? In this session, Karen James will show that this couldn’t be further from the truth! Karen teaches yoga in a way that combines her passions for creativity and accessibility, and will share some tips and tools for getting creative in your Chair Yoga practice and teaching. These tools will help you increase your enjoyment of the practice as well as the benefits. Karen will explore ways to incorporate different props into a Chair Yoga practice, as well as options for using the chair in standing practices.
Are you curious about how this training differs from our signature 40-hour Accessible Yoga Training Online?
Check out our FAQs for further details about these two courses.
Check out the course FAQs
A Unique, Creative & Accessible Practice
"Chair yoga embraces those who seek solace in a seated sanctuary. By making this practice unique, creative and accessible, it allows me to not only honour the diversity of bodies and abilities but also celebrate the profound impact that mindful movement can have on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being."
– Karen James, Course Guest Presenter
Making Your Offerings Inclusive & Purposeful
"Chair Yoga is a gentle and tender way to come back to your body. It is a more humanised Yoga practice where everyone is included. It is an essential tool to learn for those who are looking to serve all the range of abilities and to make their offerings inclusive and purposeful."
– Rodrigo Souza, Course Guest Presenter
ENROLL NOW
Chair Yoga for Everyone:
Learn to Practice & Teach
with Jivana Heyman & guests
Now available for On-Demand enrollment!
Tuition for this 9-part on-demand, online training is $399-$499 USD sliding scale
We also offer partial scholarships.
Tiered Pricing Explained:
- Community Rate (supported by your peers)
- Sustainer Rate (covers your enrollment)
- Supporter Rate (covers your enrollment + supports your peers)
If you are able to enroll at the Supporter or Sustainer Rate, your contributions support the ability to offer a lower rate to community members experiencing financial difficulties.
If you would like to clarify which pricing tier is most appropriate for you, please refer to this helpful graphic by Alexis J Cunningfolk:
The Green Bottle: Where You Fall On The Sliding Scale
Intention of Equity Pricing Structure:
Please take a moment to consider the intention of our scholarship program and equity pricing structure, which was created in order to amplify training access for those who hold marginalized identities and those experiencing significant financial hardship.
If neither of those qualifications apply to you, we ask you to please consider other payment options, including using the tiered equity pricing structure and payment plans, or supporting others in our community who have decreased access to financial resources by enrolling as a Sustainer or Supporter, if this is accessible to you.
UPFRONT PAYMENT
Single upfront payment.
Includes 1 year of access to the captioned replays of the 17-hour Chair Yoga for Everyone online course, recorded live & online in Sept-Oct 2024, plus 4 hours of bonus pre-recorded Chair Yoga sample practice videos, and associated resources.
Community Rate
$399 USD
Sustainer Rate
$449 USD
Supporter Rate
$499 USD
PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIPS
If our tiered pricing options are financially inaccessible, please click here to access our partial scholarship application form.
Discovering Subtle Ways To Practice
"The course helped me discover the more subtle ways to move and practice in a chair, including eye movements, breathing and grounding cues.
It was an excellent course and gave me more confidence to teach chair yoga."
– Sara Lilley, Course Graduate
Including Everyone
"This was a wonderful course.
I love how accessible yoga reaches all corners and includes everyone.
My biggest take-away is how much can be done in a chair yoga class."
– Mariellen Wheeler, Course Graduate
Course Facilitator: Jivana Heyman
Jivana Heyman (he/him), C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings and supporting yoga teachers. He’s the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body; Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion; and The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body.
Over the past 30 years of teaching yoga, Jivana has focused on welcoming all people to practice and celebrating our individuality and our differences. His work has focused on dismantling ableism in the yoga world, as well as emphasizing the intersection of yoga and social justice. His books, classes, and trainings support yoga teachers and yoga therapists in finding ways to bring creativity and collaboration into their teaching while still respecting the ancient yoga tradition.
Connect with Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
Guest Facilitators:
MELISSA SHAH
Holistic & Therapeutic Chair Yoga
Melissa Shah (she/they), founder of Find Your Breath, is an Indian-American yoga therapist who skillfully adapts yoga and Ayurveda to needs of the individual. Through 1:1 and group sessions, she prioritizes accessibility, belonging, and cultural wisdom to bring a holistic approach to wellbeing.
Having grown up practicing yoga and embarking on their teaching studies at 19, she credits her mother and teachers for instilling core values of devotion, humility, and discernment as she stays steadfast in being an ancestor in training and steward of these sacred practices from their culture. Melissa also regularly guest lectures in yoga trainings and organizations across the country, where she explores the more subtle yogic tools, like mantra and pranayama, and teaches folks how yoga gives us agency to create a more just, equitable world.
One of Melissa’s greatest passions is to create supportive, equitable healing spaces for rest and exploration of Self that are rooted in radical inclusion. Their work has been featured in NBC Asian America, Yoga Journal, Anti-Racism Daily, and SHAPE magazine.
Connect with Melissa:
www.findyourbreath.net | @findyourbreath
RODRIGO SOUZA
Wheelchair Yoga
Rodrigo Souza (he/him), is an Adaptive and Accessible Yoga teacher, passionate about helping people who have experienced trauma and disability. Rodrigo himself has faced significant challenges, having suffered a severe spinal cord injury due to a fall accident, which left him completely paralysed from the chest down. However, he didn't let his condition define him, and instead, he decided to take charge of his recovery and optimise his long-term well-being.
Through his Allihopa Accessible & Adaptive Virtual Yoga Studio, Rodrigo has created a safe and welcoming space for people worldwide with diverse abilities to practice yoga and find healing. He also teaches for several non-profits, community centres, and supports newly injured folks in an Active Rehabilitation Center in Sweden.
He also leads a monthly Ambassador Mentorship program for Accessible Yoga teachers, emphasising creating a strong and supportive community for those seeking to bring Yoga to marginalised groups. The program is designed to infuse their Yoga careers with purpose and meaning by serving the underserved with love and compassion.
Connect with Rodrigo:
www.allihopayoga.com | @allihopayoga
KAREN JAMES
Adaptive & Creative Chair Yoga
Karen James (she/her) has a passion for making yoga accessible to all.
She has been teaching yoga in a part time basis since 2019. She has experience teaching a variety of classes, including yin, chair, gentle yoga, and yoga Nidra.
With a deep understanding of the benefits of yoga for all body types and abilities, Karen is dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all practitioners.
She particularly enjoys incorporating the chair and adding creative flair to her classes.
Connect with Karen:
karenjamesyoga.co.uk | @karenjamesyoga
JACQUIE 'SUNNY' BARBEE
Chair Yoga for Older Adults
Jacquie “Sunny” Barbee (she/her) is an E-RYT 500hr yoga teacher living in the Panhandle of Florida. Sunny completed yoga teacher training in 2016 after turning to an asana practice to help with her chronic illness and depression. While in YTT she realized there was a need for more teachers that didn’t fit the stereotypical “yoga body” image like her and that she could make a difference in helping people see that yoga is for every body.
She is able to share with others how to customize their practice to fit their own body, whether that body is larger, aging, or living with illness or injury, much like she does with her own practice. What she loves most about teaching is that she tries to create safer spaces where the student can connect and make peace with their bodies. She is also certified in Accessible Yoga; Yoga for All Bodies; Mind Body Solutions; and Yin Yoga.
Connect with Sunny:
www.sunnybeeyoga.net | @sunnybeeyoga | www.facebook.com/SunnyBeeYoga2
