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Well Woman Yoga – Yoga for Women’s Health and Well-being
Why we need specialist Yoga for Women’s Health and Well being
Women transform through life in cycles. The reproductive cycle changes bodies and psyches -whether women have children or not. From the onset of menstruation, to childbirth and the menopause and after, Yoga can help women to make the most of their life transitions when their yoga practice is wisely adjusted to support the spirals of growth that each gateway opens. Each new stage offers opportunities to heal new or old patterns and face current challenges, with an expanded connection to and love for themselves and others. Yoga supports personal evolution. WellWoman Yoga does so in a way focused on women. At any phase in cycles and spirals, at times of personal challenge, yoga can bring an unprecedented state of vitality at any age.
WellWoman Yoga is open to interested yoga teachers, both men and women.
Here are 5 reasons for teaching WellWoman Yoga in your community:
- Most yoga practitioners are women, whose needs to transform their practice at times of life transitions are not met, or not met enough…
- The increasing medicalisation of the reproductive cycle, from adolescence to motherhood (or not) and menopause creates fragmentation and alienates women from their “selves”.
- “The body keeps the score’ (Bessel Van der Kolk). Gentle yoga can be powerful to unravel the impact of past experiences causing repeat patterns that do not support wellbeing
- Women love yoga taught in connecting “circles of friends”
- WellWoman Yoga practices are accessible to ALL women, from all walks of life and all levels of fitness, from micro-movements in bed or on chairs to intelligent progressions tailored for experienced yoga practitioners and dancers. Increased opportunities for actual interaction across ages and stages are invariably positive.
WellWoman Yoga is not a new brand of yoga that excludes other styles of practice. It is an invitation to interweave gentle, subtle and interactive ways of teaching into your current style of teaching.
Here are 5 skills yoga teachers can expect to gain from WellWoman yoga training
- Teach yoga as you know well with fresh insights into anatomy and physiology. Understand and communicate how neuro-endocrinology links ancient texts of Yoga/Ayurveda with new research on women’s health using selected visual aids and tips to “see” somatic patterns
- Draw from an extensive ‘kit’ of adaptations, modifications and progressive sequences developed over many years of teaching yoga to women of all ages
- Explore the power of safe and caring touch in interactive yoga practice (pairs, small groups and circles)
- Orchestrate your classes (or one to one sessions) to cover the whole palette of emotions women bring, using yoga to create positive awareness without words
- Develop your own yoga practice with new levels of self-understanding, compassion and enjoyment of life.
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Well Woman Yoga Diploma
Yoga for Women’s Health Short courses and Well Woman Yoga Electives
Yoga for Women’s Health & Well Woman Yoga CPDs
Further Professional Development
- other elective modules
- CPDs
- Well Woman Aqua Yoga- a parallel course for those interested in working with women’s health in water
- Attend a Well Woman Yoga retreat
What Makes Birthlight Different as a Training Provider
Close to 1000 teachers have taken this course in the last 20 years.
We have a lot of collective experience. Plus you’ll be taught by tutors with a wealth of experience to share. The Foundation Modules include the participation of an experienced Ayurvedic practitioner and teacher.
While teaching her first yoga for pregnancy and childbirth classes, Françoise Freedman felt motivated to open a special postnatal class for women who needed therapeutic yoga to recover from their births. Soon the group included mothers and older friends seeking to improve their pelvic health with yoga. Françoise coined the label ‘Well Woman Yoga’ for the Yoga for Women’s Health course designed for the Biomedical Trust in London in the late 1990s. Since then, practices have been constantly expanded and refined as Birthlight training tutors have contributed their expertise and incorporated new research.
What Our Participants Have to Say …
‘I think this is a great add on to anyone who is interested in working with women and yoga. It’s a great follow on from pregnancy/postnatal yoga and is also really useful for my own personal practice’.
Cathy Welch, London, July 2019
‘The Birthlight Well Woman Yoga Training is an excellent holistic approach to understanding Women’s Health and all stages of a woman’s life. The course theory is a great foundation in understanding the more common experiences of a woman from fertility through to post menopause and the practices shared are easy to follow and very therapeutic and nourishing. The instruction is excellent and very inspiring. On a personal level, the training helps me to better understand my own experiences and gives me the confidence to share the practices with women of all ages in a general class, workshop or more therapeutic setting’
Ami Patel, London, January 2020
‘The Birthlight courses come from a source of deep knowledge and authenticity. To graduate as a Well Woman teacher under the tutelage of Francoise Freedman gives me the confidence to know that I can really help my students. Such a supportive and welcoming environment makes it a joy to study under Francoise.’
Belinda Edwards, London, January 2020
A unique, useful and caring option for training in yoga for women’s health. Other options seemed to have either no soul or were too ‘woo-woo’ for me! Birthlight always gets it just right. That’s why I come back even when I’ve been away for a while. It’s like coming home.
Liz Brown, 2021
I have attended several courses with dr Francoise Freedman and the Birthlight team in the past and believe them to be the best in terms of relevancy and content. The online format is interactive, and though there is plenty of topics that was covered in out meetings, they did not feel like lectures. From Francoise and fellow teachers to the takeaway materials, I have always found that I come away feeling nourished, inspired and with valuable new tools and techniques that I can implement into my teaching practice.
Jane Kuismin 2021
I was very impressed with Birthlight’s online/blended learning provision. Not only personally, as it was such a lifeline and opportunity during COVID, but also professionally as I’m a Learning & Development Consultant by background with a Master’s level business qualification in Training. I feel end to end the provision is excellent; from the point of booking, to professional and friendly admin support, flexible and affordable payment options, thorough and useful pre course info, outstanding technical/academic elements and rich practical sessions, to self-study and case studies which really embed the learning, to robust evaluation, respectful benchmarking with other organisations etc. What I was most impressed with is that even online there is the ‘feel’ of Birthlight, of community, that all women matter’. That really is impressive. And all from a small organisation – you’re better than some of the bigger names and I can imagine the work that must have happened in the background to make all this happen. I am really very impressed!”
Liz Brown, 2022