Yoga Alliance Registered School

Intuitive Vinyasa Flow 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

If you are interested in future trainings, sign up for our waitlist:

What Is Intuitive Vinyasa Flow?

Intuitive Vinyasa Flow is a way of moving, breathing, and being fully embodied that honors our lived experience and recognizes our greater connection with the whole. Forget strict linear movement patterns, Intuitive Flow is inspired by the movement of nature: the undulating waves of the ocean, the unfurling of a blossom reaching towards the sun, the way a tree grounds into the earth, the expansion and contraction of the cosmos, the flow of breath that moves like the wind.

This is a method of embodying the energetic flow from a place of self inquiry and wonder. From a place of love, devotion, evolution, revolution. It’s a commitment to self study and change, while excavating, examining where we’ve been, and holding creative space for where we are going. We are at the brink of a huge paradigm shift, individually and collectively. We are the next wave of teachers and healers, movers and shakers. The world is waking up, we are an essential part of that awakening.

Rooted but in the flow

One of the beautiful and essential cornerstones of the yoga tradition is its ability to be both timeless in its response to the human condition, while also being able to evolve. This practice has always evolved to meet the current needs of the practitioner, and now is no different. We believe that we can honor the roots, the philosophy, cosmology, mythology, the heartfelt teachings of the yoga tradition, while also holding space for what is needed so this practice can continue to meet us where we’re at. 

Intuitive Vinyasa Flow, Yoga Alliance Registered School (RYS) weaves foundational techniques, history, cosmology and philosophy, subtle body exploration, chakra activation, meditation, pranayama breath work, Ayurvedic self care, self study, and movement rituals with innovative sequencing techniques, modern science and applied anatomy, bio-mechanics, strength training & myofascial release techniques so that this practice can continue to inspire, challenge, serve and evolve with the modern yogi.

Commitment to inclusivity, social justice and de-colonizing our yoga practice

One of the backbones of this program is our examination of the complicated history and evolution of yoga, and how cultural appropriation, colonialism, privilege and exclusivity show up in the yoga world. What is the intersection of yoga and social justice? How can we teach and lead from a place that honors yoga’s roots and informs, vs. whitewashing the history of this practice? How can we share from an informed, respectful and appreciative place that honor’s yoga’s roots and history?

Throughout this course we will examine ways we can hold ourselves accountable as yoga teachers and practitioners. We’ll look at ways racism, cultural appropriation, exclusivity, able-ism and privilege are perpetuated in the modern yoga space and how we can take action on and off the mat. This means we won’t just talk about it- we’ll look at how we can take meaningful action and integrate this social justice work into our teachings. As part of our commitment to inclusivity, accessibility, social justice and de-colonization, we have created a BIPOC Scholarship to help encourage better representation in the yoga community.

What makes this program unique?

While most programs ask you to memorize their trademarked set sequences, Intuitive Vinyasa Flow teaches you how to offer from the heart and from your own unique, authentic experience in the flow. You'll learn Rachel's signature techniques for open flow, creative sequencing and theming, how to teach from a place of self-inquiry and investigation, and know how to offer your own inspiring, accessible, soulful practices.

This program will teach you how to honor your edge, how to develop your own practice and to trust in your experience so you feel empowered to create your own unique offering.

Yoga is for every body

We’ll learn and explore applied anatomy and biomechanics so that we’ll intimately know energetic and physical alignment. In our asana labs and applied alignment workshops, we’ll look at what alignment works best on different bodies and how to offer in a way that supports students listening to their body, and moving from their personal somatic experience.

What makes this program unique is that for every pose you learn, you’ll also learn how to adapt and offer for different bodies and needs. We do this in a way that takes away any better or less than, any hierarchy in poses, so that this practice is inclusive, accessible and empowering. Learn to teach and offer in a way that will truly meet your students where they are and their current needs.

Connect with what makes you come alive, learn to live and teach from that space

By constantly tuning in to what's needed, this method of teaching and learning means some days the practice will incorporate restorative, grounding breath work and extended deep relaxation with yoga nidra. Other days the practice will be reverential prostrations and moon salutations with mantra. And some days, it's ecstatically dancing to Beyoncé in goddess pose, freeing the shakti and getting down. This is a practice of liberation, you choose which form that takes.

Say YES to who you are and who you are becoming

For many, they step into this program knowing they have been called to rise up as a teacher, leader and a healer. Others decide to commit to this training experience because they have a strong desire to deepen their practice, peel back the many rich layers, and learn more than we are able to squeeze into a 60 minute public class. Just as many commit to this program and end up deciding they are ready to change everything, quit their job and live the life they’ve been too scared to live.

Metamorphosis

Committing to a teacher training will change your life and be a catalyst for your own continued inner and outer evolution, even beyond this training. Connect with your fire, your calling. Find your voice. Have the courage and confidence to finally listen to your intuition. Discover who you are, your soul’s purpose, your dharma. This training will crack you open, let the light in.

Together we rise

You’re not alone. We’re in this together. Our crew of senior teachers, as well as fellow students, will be there with you, stumbling, falling, brushing it off, getting back up and nailing it together. You’ll learn and grow just as much from tea and practice study dates with each other, as you will from our workshops and presentations.

Fall 2021 Intuitive Flow 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Format:

To say that the pandemic has forever changed all of us would be an understatement. We are emerging into a new world after over a year of struggle, loss, isolation, resiliency, and well, doing what we had to do to get through the day. For many in our community, yoga was an anchor. It became clear that this practice isn’t just a practice of love and light, rainbows and daisies, it’s a practice that prepares us for sitting with discomfort and navigating a changing landscape. 

Like so many small businesses, in the midst of uncertainty, we were forced to pivot and reimagine how we were doing things. How to keep sharing these teachings in a relevant, accessible, and transformative way? 

This practice has always evolved to meet the current needs of the practitioner, and now is no different. Last year was our lemonade, make it work moment. Even with the world now opening back up, we’re never going back to the old way of doing things. Intuitive Vinyasa Flow founder and lead trainer, Rachel Wilkins, has developed a new, immersive, hybrid, up-leveled format for her program that’s here to stay:

• Every weekend will be a combination of in-person sessions held outside, as well as indoors at our private indoor studio space. When not in the studio, we’ll meet at the park, on the beach, and go on nature meditation hikes around Santa Barbara. 

• While the majority of the program will be live in-person, these live session will be supplemented with online content. We’ve found this helps accommodate different learning styles and schedules.

• As needed, we will also be live-streaming and recording in-person workshops and sessions for those out of town or who have work conflicts. After years of running this training program, we’ve found this hybrid schedule allows for flexibility as well as supporting the learning process.

• All online sessions will be saved and organized online in a learning management system for reference to reinforce live teachings and study. One of the advantages of this library of online content is you can pause, rewind, review and replay for an enhanced learning experience. 

• 200 hours is a lot of content and we dive deeper than most trainings. It’s helpful to be able to re-watch and go back over material. Forget what the scapula are doing in downdog? Check out one of the in-depth recorded alignment and applied anatomy labs from our asana workshops, then we’ll meet in person to assess, ask questions and practice teach together. 

• This thoughtfully curated program not only prepares and inspires trainees to embrace and teach an evolving world while honoring the roots of this practice, it also fosters soulful community, friendships and powerful life long connections.

What should I expect?

This program is a progressive immersion into the heart of yoga and this evolutionary practice. We’ll explore yoga’s roots through philosophical and historical discussions, workshops introducing us to Ayurveda and the subtle body, how to activate and engage lines of energy, chanting, ceremony, open circle discussions, along with daily practices designed to take you out of your comfort zone and towards an open space of liberation.

We'll spend each day exploring the full spectrum of what it means to be a yogi: dropping into self-study and inquiry, open dialogues about ethics and how to live your practice, anatomy and alignment labs so you intimately know how to embody the asanas and safely lead others.

Teacher Training Dates:

Intuitive Vinyasa Flow YTT begins on the morning of October 1st 2021 with weekend intensives through January 23rd 2022:

• 10/1- 10/3 (Friday - Sunday)

• 10/9 - 10/10 (Saturday - Sunday)

• 10/23 - 10/24 (Saturday - Sunday)

• 11/5 - 11/7 (Friday - Sunday)

• 11/20 -11/21 (Saturday - Sunday)

• 12/3 - 12/5 (Friday - Sunday)

• 12/11 - 12/12 (Saturday - Sunday)

• 1/8 - 1/9 (Saturday - Sunday)

• 1/21 - 1/23 (Friday - Sunday)

Curriculum:

• Intuitive Vinyasa Flow Sequencing & Theming

• Pranayama & Meditation Techniques

• Intro to Ayurveda & Yogic Lifestyle Practices

• Mudra, Mantra & Chanting

• Chakra & Subtle Body Anatomy

• History & Evolution of Yoga

• Philosophy & Ethics

• Cultural Appropriation, Social Justice & Seva

• Inclusivity & Accessibility in Yoga

• Trauma Informed Yoga for Stress Management

• Alignment & Adaptations for Every Body

• Applied Anatomy & Physiology

• Asana Labs & Practice Teaching

• Business of Yoga & Building Your Brand

• The Art of Holding Space

For those who have already completed their 200 hour training under another program and are interested in continuing their studies, contact Rachel directly to apply for her 300 hour certification program. This unique program offers additional mentorship support and apprenticeship before, during and after the 3 month 200 hour program. To complete the 300 hour program, modules such as Advanced Pranayama, The Subtle Body & Embodying Shakti for a total of 100 additional hours under the Intuitive Vinyasa Flow RYS program must be completed.

Your investment:

• Full tuition is $3350, $500 deposit to secure your spot.

• Payment plans are available! Please note that a $150 payment plan fee will be added to your total.

• Tuition deposits and payments are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Due to the intimate nature of this training, space is limited.

Meet Our Team:

Rachel Wilkins E-RYT 500 // YACEP Founder & Lead Trainer

For Rachel Simone Wilkins E-RYT 500 // YACEP, yoga is an expression of the cosmic, creative pulse that connects us all. Her personal practice and public offerings are a soulful tapestry of creative movement, somatic awareness, spontaneous flow, intuitive choreography, open meditation, and transformative pranayama. Our practice is a way to connect with the sacred within and to recognize the universal reflected within all of us. Rachel’s evolutionary approach to yoga is inspired by seasonal energetic shifts, lunar cycles, the radiance of the sun, the steadiness of the mountains, the fluid churning of the waves, the cleansing flow of the wind and the wild dance of the heart flames.

Rachel grew up in rural, coastal Maine. She was always called to be a teacher and a healer, I just didn’t know what form it would take. In college, she immersed myself in dance, pilates, art, and philosophy. She moved to California after graduating and completed her initial 200 hour certification in 2011 with Tracey Rich and Ganga White of the White Lotus Foundation, followed by advanced studies under their guidance.

Rachel began studying with Shiva Rea in 2014 and completed her 500 hour certification under the Prana Vinyasa tradition, as well as an initiation into Kalaripayattu in Kerala, India. She received her Shamanic Reiki I & II attunement in Bali with Devi Ma, as well as her Reiki Masters with Melanie Koch. She incorporates these energetic, subtle and astral body healing techniques into her offerings. In 2021 she completed an additional 300 hour advanced training with Jason Crandell that focused on yoga philosophy, modern asana alignment, biomechanics, anatomy, and injury-management techniques.

Besides her beloved private and public class offerings, her soul’s path, her dharma is leading my empowering Embodying Shakti ritual retreats and her Intuitive Vinyasa Flow RYS 200hr teacher trainings locally and globally.

Michelle Rousseau, E-RYT : Applied Anatomy

Michelle Rousseau is a yoga teacher (RYT 500, E-RYT 200) and has a masters degree in somatic psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition, she has an extensive background in Ayurveda and holistic healing practices. She teaches public, private, accessible, and corporate yoga using the experience and knowledge gained about the nature of body-mind connection from her undergraduate, graduate, and yogic studies.

With an emphasis on the therapeutic aspect of yoga, Michelle’s classes serve to cultivate balance, strength, and ease in the body, while also reducing stress and calming the mind. She also brings her education and training into the one-on-one / private setting and can tailor the practice to each person’s unique needs. She believes that yoga is for everybody, as long as they are willing to try, and breathe.

From the perspective of somatic psychology, Michelle continually seeks to deepen her understanding of our lived embodied experience of the world. This perspective understands the body and mind as one entity that works together to create individual experience.  This perspective is useful in the therapeutic yoga setting because our bodies speak to us through our symptoms in the language of metaphor and image in attempts to communicate deeper imbalances. Taking time to slow down and feel into our bodies with the tools provided through yoga allow us to know ourselves on a deeper level and facilitate true mind-body-spirit healing.

Brianna Welke Turpin, E-RYT: Philosophy, Ethics & Bhakti

I believe that yoga is for everyone and that we all benefit from reconnecting with our breath, bodies and authentic sense of purpose and being in the world. My approach to yoga is "come as you are" this practice is meant to meet and transform you where you are at in your own physical, mental, and spiritual life. 

I have been cultivating my own practice for nearly a decade and began my training as a yoga instructor at Samadhi Yoga Center in Seattle, Washington. I combine dynamic anatomical alignment with mindful mantra, spiritual awareness, and energetic function. My classes are both physically active and a deeper unification of the mind and body-- they'll help you get out of your head and into this moment! Aiming for balance, optimal health, peace of mind, and fun! I assist students through challenging, fun, interesting yoga classes with the belief that yoga is a unique experience for everyone!

I dabbled in yoga for years until I found myself all wound up in stress and worry that I HAD to do something. I went back to yoga. I remember a deep sense of letting go and unwinding in every moment. This profound shift inspired me to take a yoga teacher training to learn more, that changed everything. I can't wait to share it with you! Yoga is my bliss and sharing it is my dharma (purpose in life). I can't wait to share it with you!