Yoga is often marketed in the West as a timeless, ancient practice — yet the reality is far more complex. Modern yoga has been shaped by centuries of cross-cultural exchange, political struggle, colonial influence, and caste oppression. Today, yoga is both a global industry and a site of possibility: it can reinforce systems of power, or it can serve as a tool for justice and collective healing. Through a blend of critical inquiry, somatic and restorative practices, dialogue, and group reflection, this 7-session series invites practitioners and teachers to unlearn question, and reimagine yoga.

Across four sessions, Indu Vashist (yoga teacher, somatics practitioner, historian, and Executive Director of the South Asian Visual Arts Centre) will guide participants through the modern history of asana: demystifying myths of “ancient” postural yoga, exploring global influences on its development, and unpacking how caste, class, gender, and colonialism have shaped yoga’s trajectory. Indu’s sessions weave together lecture, movement, and reflective practice to provide a solid historical grounding for understanding yoga’s place within contemporary global contexts.

Building on this foundation, Sheena Sood, PhD (scholar, activist, yoga practitioner, and co-founder of Yogis for Palestine) will lead three sessions on decolonization and anti-oppression. Sheena will introduce frameworks for understanding caste oppression, unpack yoga’s weaponization by military and nationalist projects, and guide participants in envisioning liberatory practices rooted in social justice and collective healing.

DATES:

• Session 1: Friday Nov 14, 7-9pm - Indu
• Session 2: Friday Dec 12, 7-9pm - Indu
• Session 3: Thursday Jan 29, 7-9pm - Sheena
• Session 4: Thursday Feb 12, 7-9pm - Sheena
• Session 5: Thursday Feb 26, 7-9pm - Sheena
• Session 6: April 25, 1-3pm - Indu
• Session 7: Saturday April 26, 3:30-5:30pm - Indu

Important Details

November through April

14 hours total:  Indu (8 hrs) + Sheena (6 hrs) 

$375+hst

Primarily live online sessions with some options to join for in-person sessions

Live attendance is encouraged to participate in discussions, but all recordings and supplemental materials are available to you for 1 year. 

Indu Vashist (she/her)

Indu Vashist is a yoga teacher, historian, and the Executive Director of the South Asian Visual Arts Centre in Toronto. With a passion for uncovering the histories of yoga, she explores how the practice of asana has evolved across time, cultures, and social contexts. Her work examines the intersections of yoga with physical culture, caste, colonialism, and contemporary power dynamics, offering new perspectives on cultural appropriation and the politics of practice.

Indu completed a 300-hour yoga teacher training with Kathryn Bruni Young and Carly Stong (2022) and foundational 200-hour training at Union Yoga + Wellness. She recently finished a three-year Professional Certification in Clinical Hanna Somatic Education.

Sheena Sood, PhD (she/her)

Sheena Sood, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, activist, yoga practitioner, and healing justice visionary based in Philadelphia. She is the founder of Yoga Warrior Tales, co-founder of Yogis for Palestine, and serves on the editorial board of Race & Yoga Journal. Sheena’s research examines “Omwashing” — the weaponization of yoga by far-right, militarized, and ethno-nationalist institutions — and the intersections of caste, colonialism, and oppression in contemporary yoga.

Through her workshops, Sheena guides practitioners in critical reflection and anti-oppressive practice, helping them confront both personal and systemic inequities embedded in yoga. She earned her yoga certifications at Kailash Tribal School in McLeodganj, India, and brings together scholarly insight, activist praxis, and embodied teaching to support participants in developing liberatory, socially conscious, and ethically grounded approaches to yoga.

An 8-session continuing education module for yoga teachers and practitioners

Our bodies carry the legacies of trauma, colonialism, and systemic oppression—but they also hold resilience, wisdom, and the potential for healing. Decolonizing Our Bodies invites teachers and practitioners to explore how nervous system theory, trauma-informed practices, and somatic embodiment can transform both personal practice and teaching. This series offers tools for noticing, tracking, and shifting nervous system states, while also challenging the cultural and systemic narratives that shape how we experience our bodies.

Across three sessions, Leslie Stokman (yoga teacher, mobility educator, and trauma-informed facilitator) will introduce participants to nervous system theory, exploring sympathetic and parasympathetic responses, polyvagal theory, blended states, and the impact of trauma. Participants will learn practical strategies for self-regulation and embodied awareness, and discover how to bring these insights into trauma-sensitive teaching.

Carla Beharry (racial justice and somatic health equity educator) leads four sessions exploring how oppression, colonialism, and wellness culture have shaped the body as a site of control. Through somatic practices, restorative approaches, and frameworks for liberation, participants will explore how embodiment can serve as a tool for justice, healing, and collective care.

Nicole Brown Faulknor (psychotherapist and trauma-sensitive yoga facilitator) concludes the series with a session focused on Trauma Centre Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), offering participants experiential insight into how yoga can support trauma recovery and bodily empowerment.

Through lecture, movement, dialogue, and reflection, this 8-session series equips practitioners and teachers to cultivate nervous-system-aware, trauma-informed, and justice-centered approaches to yoga and embodiment.

DATES:

• Session 1: Online preparatory videos with Leslie (online, asychonrous) 
• Session 2: Saturday, January 10, 2026, 3:30-5:30pm- Leslie (in-person/hybrid)
• Session 3: Saturday, February 7, 2026, 1-3pm- Carla (in-person/hybrid)
• Session 4: Saturday, February 7, 2026- 3:30-5:30pm- Carla (in-person/hybrid)
• Session 5: Saturday, February 7, 2026, 6:30-8:30pm- Leslie (in-person/hybrid)
• Session 6: Friday, March 6, 2026, 7-9pm- Carla (online)
• Session 7: Thurs, March 12, 2026, 7-9pm- Carla (online)
• Session 8: Friday, April 24, 2026, 7-9pm- Nicole (in-person/hybrid)

Important details

Sessions occur from January through April

16 hours total:  Leslie (6 hrs) + Carla (8 hrs) + Nicole (2 hrs) 

$395+hst

A mix of online sessions with some options to join for in-person sessions

Live attendance is encouraged to participate in discussions, but all recordings and supplemental materials are available to you for 1 year.

Leslie Stokman (she/her)
YTT Guest Faculty
Mobility, Pedagogy, Nervous System Education and Trauma-informed teaching

Leslie’s been teaching Yoga since 2016, and her classes are informed by all sorts of education and experience in areas like the Tensegrity Repair Series, strength and mobility work, rock climbing, and Vipassana meditation. She is a Certified TRE Provider (Tension & Trauma Release Exercise) and an FRCms (Functional Range Conditioning mobility specialist). She also brings her B.Ed and school teaching experience to our learning community. Leslie loves to dive deep with teacher-trainees into the nitty gritty of joint mechanics and tissue adaptation, nervous system branches, the ethics of the industry, and the deeper meaning of life!

Carla Beharry (she/her)
YTT Guest Faculty
Racial Justice & Racial Trauma: Restorative and Transformative Embodiment Practices

Carla is an intercultural Guyanese-British-Canadian, whose work is rooted in the layers of her multi-ethnic and bi-racial identity. Carla is a racial justice and somatic health equity educator. She specializes in healing racial and oppression-based trauma through embodied movement and practice. Carla works with wellness professionals, educators and agencies to build antiracist and equitable healthcare practices and educational opportunities for under-served and under-represented racialized individuals who have been historically over exploited, excluded, and pushed out of health, wellness and educational systems. She works alongside agencies in anti-oppression training and in restorative and transformative mediation to build equitable spaces of belonging. Carla has lived and worked around the globe in many communities, including Guyana, Belize, Barbados, and Trinidad & Tobago educating on HIV and sexual health education, teaching yoga and mindfulness and promoting mental health advocacy.

Nicole Brown Faulknor
YTT Guest Faculty
Trauma Sensitive Yoga

Nicole is a Registered Psychotherapist, a yoga teacher, and a Child and Youth Counsellor. She is a member of both the Colleges of Registered Psychotherapists in Ontario and the Canadian Association for Psychodynamic Therapy. Nicole has over 18 years of professional experience working with marginalized, vulnerable, and oppressed communities, individuals, families, and children. Nicole's yoga teaching draws on the methodology of Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY). Her approaches as a yoga teacher and a psychotherapist recognize the intimate relationship between the physical body and the psychological well-being of a person. This approach holds the view that the body is a resource for self-discovery and psychological healing. Learn more about Nicole at Wounds2Wings.

This comprehensive Continuing Education module empowers yoga and movement teachers to create truly inclusive spaces that welcome practitioners of all body sizes, abilities, and mobility levels. Led by Emma Dines, this training addresses critical gaps in traditional yoga teacher training by examining anti-fat bias, dismantling harmful myths about bodies and health, and providing practical tools for accessibility-centered teaching.

Through interactive lecture, hands-on practice, and reflective discussions, participants will explore how anti-fat bias and ableism show up in yoga spaces while developing strategies to actively counter these harmful patterns. Teachers will leave with concrete skills, and the confidence to serve diverse populations—from larger-bodied students to practitioners with disabilities and varying physical capabilities.

DATES:

• Session 1: Fri March 27, 7-9pm
• Session 2: Sat March 28, 1-3pm 
• Session 3: May 22, 7-9pm 
• Session 4: May 23, 3:30-5:30pm

Important details for Accessible Yoga

Sessions occur in March and May

8 hours total with Emma 

$195+hst

A mix of online sessions with options to join for in-person sessions

Live attendance is encouraged to participate in discussions, but all recordings and supplemental materials are available to you for 1 year. 

Emma Dines (she/they)

Emma has been teaching since 2010. She is passionate about body positivity, poetry, and linking the practice of yoga to activism, social justice and caring for the wider world. Emma's training includes upwards of 750 hours of training with local and international teachers in the fields of yoga, strength training, functional movement, Ayurveda, anatomy, contact improvisation and the Axis Syllabus. She is a certified Yoga for Round Bodies™ teacher. Emma co-directs the Branches' 200-hour Teacher Training Program through which she has overseen the training and mentoring of close to 90 new teachers.

What if the cues we’ve been giving about breath—“breathe deeply,” “sigh it out”—aren’t always supportive? In this one-session module (with extensive recorded content), Jennifer Snowdon brings a trauma-informed and science-based lens to pranayama, helping teachers rethink cultural assumptions about breathing and integrate practices that are safer, effective, and more sustainable. You will also learn game-changing techniques to enhance and conserve your own energy while you teach, and use your breath more effectively as you speak.

DATES:

Session 1: 3 hours of preparatory videos with Jennifer (online, asynchronous) 

Session 2: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 7-9pm (online)

Important Details

Session occurs in April 

5 hours total with Jennifer: 3 recorded videos and 2 hours live online

$95+hst

Live attendance is encouraged to participate in discussions, but all recordings and supplemental materials are available to you for 1 year. 

Jennifer Snowdon is a trauma-informed Integrative Breathing Therapist and yoga teacher, and her sessions will challenge you to reconsider everything you know about breathing through the lenses of culture, physiology and yoga history.