Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Diploma: Foundational Training
This foundational training for Birthlight Well Woman Yoga is for yoga teachers and yoga therapists who wish to offer classes for women’s health and well being through the life cycles (the training does not include pregnancy).
About the Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Diploma Core Training
The course trains teachers to empower women with therapeutic yoga integrated in their daily lives from menarche to perimenopause and beyond.
Well Woman Yoga helps women actively enhance their vitality as well as addressing common conditions that the female population experiences including pre-conception and post childbearing issues. Wellness, living with ease and joy, and healing are magical but not mysterious: a path of practice, in an inclusive circle of friends, opens the way. Whilst the Well Woman Yoga course does not include Pre & Postnatal Yoga, the Well Woman Yoga course very much complements Birthlight Perinatal Yoga training.
Why you should train in Birthlight Well Woman Yoga:
#1. Well Woman Yoga offers all women unique ways to traverse the hormonal, physiological and emotional changes they inevitably go through during their life cycles, whether they have previous yoga experience or not. With Well Woman Yoga all women can increase their health and well-being because
- they can enjoy a fluid and dynamic style of yoga without compromising on a safe range of motion, stability and balance.
- strong and flexible muscles in healthy spinal alignment contribute to wellness, this is the foundation of our teaching in relation to the nervous system and the endocrine glands.
- this therapeutic yoga empowers women on and off the mat, at all stages of the reproductive cycle and beyond.
- the practices promote hormonal balance and the regulation of the menstrual cycle before and after childbirth or the childbearing years.
- Micro-movements of the pelvis and isometric toning with the breath promote deep awareness and health of the whole pelvic area, central to women’s vitality
- they can practise yoga in a welcoming and caring environment which enhances all aspects of their yoga
- in face-to-face classes, circle, small group and pair practices promote a sense of connection while allowing each woman to develop her own transformative yoga practice
#2. You will learn a new skill set to specifically support women’s health and well-being, this may be a totally new area of teaching depending on your background or add substantially to what you are already offering, whether you come from a yoga teaching, yoga therapy or another professional background.
#3. Whether you are already passionate about improving women’s experiences of pelvic health, menstruation, fertility, menopause, or just starting in this area this course will give you the experience and skills you need to start running effective enjoyable sessions in generalised well woman yoga classes, more specific themed classes or workshops and tailored 1:1 sessions or integrating the practices into your existing classes.
Structure of Birthlight Well Woman Yoga course
3 foundational core training modules =
- Foundation 1: Yoga for Women's Health
- Foundation 2: Yoga for Pelvic Health
- Foundation 3: Yoga for the Menstrual Cycle
Self study (1 self study Ayurveda module) and Coursework (see below for details)
What you will learn:
- Principles and hands-on techniques to help you support wellness patterns in women, irrespective of age, health status, degree of fitness or life trajectory.
- A strong focus on core strength, understood both anatomically and energetically
- Yoga practices promoting hormonal balance and the regulation of the menstrual cycle before and after childbirth are presented and explained in the light of current advances in yoga anatomy and principles of yoga therapy.
- The fundamentals of structure and movement together with breathing patterns as specific to women’s bodies
- Appropriate mudras, use of breath and sound.
- Experiential anatomy, supported by the use of visual materials and research articles, to assimilate anatomy and physiology in direct ways.
- Tried and tested sequences with therapeutic benefits that can be integrated in programmes for groups or individuals
- Elements of practice that yoga teachers can integrate in therapeutic programmes to individualise the practices according to women’s ages, energy levels and health status.
- Resources for creating a welcoming and caring environment for teaching Well Woman Yoga in studios or in clinical settings.
Assessment, Self-study & Coursework
You will be assessed throughout the course with quizzes and informal teaching practicals. As an extension of the training the self-study hours and coursework consolidate your understanding and skills. All coursework is thoroughly read and commented on to make sure you continue refining and developing your teaching beyond the training days.
Coursework:
- 1 case-study (each case study documents 4 successive sessions, in a group class or a 1:1)
- A worksheet of 20 questions
- A recording (10 minutes) of your teaching as specified by the course tutor
Further professional development:
This course forms the foundational core of the Modular Birthlight Well Woman Diploma Course. To complete the full diploma course, the other component parts include:
1 elective module*
Self study and Coursework
(please see Birthlight website for details)
*If you have completed one of the following courses you are not obliged to take an Elective module after the Core course to complete the Well Woman Yoga Diploma training:
- Menopause Yoga training with Petra Coveney
- Birthlight Postnatal Yoga
- Birthlight Short courses in Yoga for Fertility, Yoga for a Holistic Menopause, Yoga for Breast Health.
- Other courses relating to yoga and women's health and well being may be considered if the course required coursework that included teaching and presenting a set of case study classes. Please send a copy/photo of your certificate.
Yogacampus Diversity and Accessibility Bursary
We are offering one bursary (50% off the full course price) to a dedicated yoga student with a demonstrated financial need and active involvement in a community that could benefit from yoga. This bursary is provided by Yogacampus – The Life Centre Education, a not-for-profit educational body committed to sharing knowledge and making yoga accessible to all.
Bursary places will be awarded to a teacher or trainee who has the ability and commitment to take the course teachings into a disadvantaged community and play their part in the drive to increase accessibility to these profoundly healing practices. Priority will be given to those who themselves are from marginalised or vulnerable groups or are from a minority ethnic background.
To apply, please complete our online form before the closing date of 8 December 2024.
Meet the Teachers
Kirsteen Ruffell is the Co-ordinator for Birthlight’s land-based training courses and is one of Birthlight's experienced Perinatal and Baby Yoga Tutors. She is a registered Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance Professionals, has been teaching yoga since 1998 and began tutoring in 2008. Kirsteen is passionate about nurturing students’ professional development on every training course and enhancing their ability to use new understanding creatively to best serve the students in their own classes.
Within the sphere of Perinatal Yoga, Kirsteen has developed a particular interest in Postnatal Yoga and has worked closely with Birthlight founder and pioneer, Dr Françoise Freedman, to develop specific practices for the postnatal year. She continues to refine her practice and understanding through regular CPDs (Continuous Professional Development courses) and Birthlight Conferences. Her background is in Hatha Yoga (Sivananda) and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and she started teaching Birthlight Perinatal Yoga in 2002. She is also a trained Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist (Karuna Institute).
Kirsteen is continually inspired by teaching Birthlight’s gentle and enjoyable yoga practices that work profoundly across languages and cultures to support women and babies around the world. She regularly leads Birthlight training courses in London, the Netherlands, China, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany.
Belinda Staplehurst has been a Hatha Yoga Teacher since 2000 and is a Senior Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. She grew up in France but is based in the Midlands, UK. Belinda joined Birthlight in 2015 as a Perinatal Tutor after completing multiple Birthlight diplomas specializing in land practices. Belinda has developed her knowledge and practice further and now also tutors for Maternity Professionals and Well Woman Yoga. She is a tutor for Birthlight courses in France and regularly runs training in the UK, China and Russia.
