Yoga Behind Bars Teacher Training 

Join a growing force in your community creating social change with yoga and meditation

In this two-day training, you will hear stories from the field, learn how to increase your impact as a teacher, gain a greater understanding of the prison culture you'll be entering, get real-time feedback and guidance from masters in the field, and receive the Yoga Behind Bars manual, one of the best resources available for teaching in prisons. Class counts for 14 CE credits with Yoga Alliance.

Be prepared to have your mind blown and your heart opened. OH AND! All the people involved are amazing.

Prerequisites:

1. This training is for yoga and meditation teachers as well as anybody wanting to study yoga based tools to work with people in prison.
2. In order to volunteer for YBB after completion of the training, 200-hour certification with Yoga Alliance or equivalent experience is required.

About the Trainers

Rosa Vissers, Executive Director. Rosa joined Yoga Behind Bars as a volunteer in 2010 and has never looked back. She became a staff member in 2013 contributing a wide range of experience working for grassroots nonprofits such as Velocity Dance Center and Dance Art Group. Originally from the Netherlands, Rosa combines her commitment to service and social justice with an international dance career. 

Seeking a practice to cope with the stresses of dancing, Rosa fell in love with yoga in 2005 and completed her 500-hour Yoga Certification in 2007 at Centered City Yoga in Salt Lake City. She earned an MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah, a BFA from ArtEZ in the Netherlands, and is a certified Permaculture Designer. She believes together we can create a compassion revolution. You can see her TEDx talk about the power of yoga in prisons here. 

Natalie Cielle, Director of Training. Natalie is our homegrown leader in the yoga service world. As co-founder and former executive director of yoga behind bars, she has personally introduced yoga to thousands of incarcerated youth and adults and trained over 100 yoga teachers to do the same. Natalieis a 500-hour trained Purna yoga instructor and holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Washington. You can expect her heart-centered, alignment-based teaching to bring you into greater intimacy with your true, radiant self. When she's not on the mat, she is holding her baby daughter or trying to get some sleep. 

 Nari Baker, Program Director. Nari comes to Yoga Behind Bars with a background in social justice advocacy and a passion for yoga. She is a graduate of Hampshire College and a Fulbright grantee. For the past 10 years, Nari has been engaged in community organizing, politics, and art-making in communities of color, in particular, Asian/Asian American communities. She has worked at the Wing Luke Museum, ChangeLab, Seattle Yoga Arts, and Yoga for People of Color. In 2012, she completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training at Seattle Yoga Arts with Elizabeth Rainey and Denise Benitez. Nari deeply believes in the transformative healing powers of yoga, and embodiment as a radical tool of resistance for people whom are oppressed and marginalized. In addition to yoga and social justice work, Nari enjoys spending time with her family, making art, cooking and reading.

Nova Guthrie: While incarcerated, Nova found Yoga and began sharing the practice with other women behind bars, teaching sometimes more than 15 classes a week for over 5 years. She has unparalleled experience with the specific needs of incarcerated women and techniques that can truly bring healing.

And current Yoga Behind Bars teachers TBD!