500 Hour Certification

Professional Level Yoga Training Program

Take your passion for yoga a step deeper

After completing a Yoga Alliance approved 200-hour yoga teacher training, you may take the Professional Level Yoga Training modules in any order as the rotation of scheduled modules continues year to year. After finishing each module you will receive a letter of completion. When you have completed your required hours you may register with us as a Trinity Yoga Centre Professional Level Yoga Teacher. There is a one-time registration fee of $50 fee to review your application and issue your certificate. With this certificate you may register with the Yoga Alliance as a 500-hour graduate of a Registered Yoga School.

The 500 Hour curriculum consists of eight modules. Six of these modules are considered core modules and must be completed to receive 500 hour certification. The remaining modules may be chosen from the list of elective modules. Of course, all 4 elective modules may be taken to enrich your experience and understanding but are not required. Additional elective modules will be added in the future. Each module provides 35 training hours. These may be taken in any order.

All contact hours are with Sonya or Jeff (Harshad), or other approved program directors.

Curriculum

Core Module Titles:
1. Teaching Meditation
   
2. Swami Kripalu's Therapeutic Yoga
   
3. Teaching Advanced Pranayama
   
4. Teaching Advanced Practice (Kripalu Stage 2 and 3)
5. Teaching Advanced Asanas 1
   
6. Advanced History and Philosophy
   

Elective Module Titles:

7. Hatha Yoga Pradipika
   
8. Teaching Advanced Asanas (2)
   
9. Teaching Advanced Asanas (3)
   
10. Yoga Nidra

The experience of meditation is one of release, expansion and tranquility. This program will explore the many approaches to meditation such as Samkhya (classical), Raja (eight limbs), Tantric and Buddist as well as Natural Meditation. We will experience the many benefits of a regular practice: emotional and mental stability, clarity, and how meditation can be incorporated into your classes.

Prerequisite: A minimum of a three-day meditation sit is recommended but not required, however, a regular meditation practice is strongly recommended.

Module 2:	Swami Kripalu's Therapeutic Yoga
Dates:	November 20 - 23, 2008
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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Swami Kripalu, one of the greatest Kundalini yogis of the 20th Century, was a scholar, playwright, composer, and classical musician who contributed encyclopaedic writings on yoga & classical music.

In this module we will explore Asana and Mudra. One of the few writings of Swami Kripalu's translated into English. Asana and Mudra is presented as a scientific approach embracing physiology, which gives knowledge of the gross body; psychology, which resolves the difficulties of subtle relations and thoughts; yoga, which builds an individual's character; hygiene, which protects the body from disease; and ayurveda, which leads one to health.

Suggested Reading: Pilgrim of Love by Atma Jo Ann Levitt

Module 3:	Teaching Advanced Pranayama
Dates:	December 11 - 14, 2008
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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In yoga practice, pranayama (breath control), equals mental control. This program will guide you through a variety of pranayama techniques designed to energize and harmonize the body, creating a solid foundation for mental concentration and the induction of higher states of consciousness. Learn the five aspects of Prana, along with the effects of combining pranayama with bandhas (locks), kumbhaka (retention), and ways to safely integrate advanced breathing practices in your own sadhana (spiritual practice) and into your yoga classes.

Module 4:	Teaching Advanced Practice (Stage 2 and 3)
Dates:	January 22 - 25, 2009
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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Samkhya Yoga philosophy defines Prana as the intelligent life principle of all that exists. The key to the three stages of Kripalu Yoga lies in understanding and experiencing Prana as the link between body, mind, and spirit. Prana is the ultimate object of concentration and allows union with Prana to facilitate and obtain a completely harmonious state of being. In the Stages 2 and 3 of Kripalu Yoga, Prana is freed from its physiological and psychological blocks held deep within the body, and awakened to the “evolutionary” level where it functions at an accelerated rate of purification.

Stage two focuses predominantly on developing the traditional raja yoga disciplines of pratyahara and dharana, while at the same time deepening the practice of hatha yoga. We will experience and learn how to guide a stage two Kripalu yoga practice, a process of tuning the mind into the universal wisdom of the body, entering into witness consciousness.

This module is designed to enhance the breadth, depth, and vision of your yoga teaching and personal practice using the Kripalu approach to yoga.

Suggested Reading: Kripalu Yoga, A guide to Practice on and off the Mat by Richard Faulds

Module 5:	Teaching Advanced Asanas (1)
Dates:	February 26 - March 1, 2009
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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With this training we will explore optimal alignment, modifications, props, assists, and variations of 16 advanced asanas. Bringing a strong focus of variety, strength and balance into your yoga classes and personal practice.

Postures include:

Balancing Half Moon; Balancing Stick; Rotated Lateral Angle; Rotated Triangle; Reverse Warrior and Lateral Angle variations; Camel; Plow; Bow; Wheel; Side Plank; Reclining Hero; ½ Circle; Headstand; Dancer; Eagle and Gomukhasana.

Module 6:	Advanced History and Philosophy
Dates:	March 26 - 29, 2009
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are a penetrating and concise series of instrumental meditations dating back to approximately 300 BC. In this program we will present each sutra and concept with a number of contemporary commentaries and translations. The sutras are a very inspiring and expert analysis of the nature and functions of the human mind. We will break down each of the four sections, studying the basic principles, disciplines, siddhis (miraculous powers), and finally illumination, in order to integrate the main ideas into our western, modern practice. Using the Kripalu experiential approach, we will study selected sutras as we; listen to the sutra in Sanskrit, chant it ourselves, meditate, then translate and discuss.

Suggested Reading: The Wisdom of Yoga by Stephen Cope

Module 7:	Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Dates:	April 16 - 19, 2009
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is said to be the oldest surviving text on Hatha Yoga, written in the 13th Century. This text describes the original information on asana, pranayama, chakras, kriyas, kundalini, mudras, etc...

We will experience the evolution of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika's ancient wisdom into the yoga practice we have today.

Module 8:	Teaching Advanced Asanas 2
Dates:	To be determined
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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With this training we will explore optimal alignment, modifications, props, assists, and variations of 12 advanced asanas. Bringing a strong focus of variety, strength and balance into your yoga classes and personal practice.

Postures include:

Balancing Hand to Toe; Lotus; Rotated Great Seal; Rotated Squat; Crow; Bhujapidasana; Toe Balance; Forward Splits; Tortoise; Full Shoulderstand; Rabbit and Rotated Balancing Half Moon.

Module 9:	Teaching Advanced Asanas 3
Dates:	To be determined
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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With this training we will explore optimal alignment, modifications, props, assists, and variations of 12 advanced asanas. Bringing a strong focus of variety, strength and balance into your yoga classes and personal practice.

Postures include:

Forearm Balance; Peacock; Handstand; Astavakrasana; Eka Hasta Bhujasana; Firefly; Marichyasana Variations; Visvamitrasana; Yoganidrasana; Koundinyasana; Scorpion; and Standing Splits.

Module 10:	Yoga Nidra
Dates:	To be determined
Cost:	$625 (includes all materials and GST)
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Yoga Nidra is a systematic approach of complete mental and emotional relaxation. During Yoga Nidra one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functional at a deeper level of awareness. In this depth of consciousness, deep healing and realigning of conscious patterns (samskara) and behaviours can be eliminated or reduced. These profound changes occur without the wilful (ego) mind.

Upon completion of this course, participants will understand the principles and practices of Yoga Nidra. This will allow them to create their own experience for themselves, or their students.

Suggested Reading: Yoga Nidra by Richard Miller or Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Tuition and Application Procedures

Graduates of Trinity Yoga Centre’s 300 Hour Integrative Yoga and Health Training receive 70 credit hours for the Holistic Health portion of your training. These graduates must complete the six required modules in order to receive their 500 Hour certification. Of course any or all of the elective modules may be taken to enrich your experience. The total cost for graduates of the IYHTT is $3750. A 10% discount will be taken if the entire required six modules are paid in full in advance.

Trinity Yoga Centre will accept other credit hours from an approved 500 Hour Yoga Alliance Recognized training. These non-Trinity Yoga Centre credit hours must be approved in advance and be relative to our course content.

Trinity Yoga Centre may change the course content and schedule at our discretion. In the event of a change, Trinity Yoga Centre will make every effort to communicate those changes to participants in a timely manner. In the event of a module cancellation, Trinity Yoga Centre will refund or credit any module fees paid.