Alongside the more intensive courses I’ve taught through my studio and online work since 2006, I teach Yoga Philosophy, History & Culture, and Ayurveda modules for YTTs around Toronto and abroad. The YTT format is particularly enjoyable for me, as it brings students who are at a strong transitional moment in life that allows them to consider substantial shifts in self-perception, self-care, and worldview. The ethos and poetry of the material tends to substantially complement and support their growth in physical and contemplative intelligence.

New Module Launching March 2019: PRISM Training: A 30-hour yoga teacher training module in critical thinking and community health

Yoga practice is only as therapeutic and transformative as the communities that hold it are ethical, healthy, and resilient. Sadly, too many yoga communities have failed to deliver, while nevertheless portraying the experience of yoga in wholly positive terms.

Yoga practices and communities are prismatic: they throw off a full spectrum of light and dark colours. In this unique training module, we’ll play close attention to that range of experiences — from transformative to traumatic — as reported by people from many yoga communities. The intention is to encourage a practice of acknowledging and healing trauma patterns in the culture, so that communities can expand their inclusivity.

The discernment aspect of the module will use historical data to explore the interpersonal and structural aspects of harm and institutional betrayal in yoga communities over the past fifty years. We’ll look at how sexual abuse has been enabled by learning environments of toxic masculinity, somatic dominance and spiritual mystification, and supported and hidden by cultic dynamics. Then, trainees will be provided with inquiry exercises and a clear, actionable set of best practices to inform their community engagement and formation moving forward.

Central to these is the PRISM method, a practice to Pause, Research, Investigate, Show, and Model community health. Trainees will come away from this module with a clear and positive vision of how to preserve and nurture what they truly value about yoga as they share it with others.

This module draws on the five years of research and interviews that began with the WAWADIA? project, and are culminating with the publication of Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cultic Dynamics, and Healing in Yoga and Beyond. It is 30 hours (50/50 in person/online) and provides CEUs through Yoga Alliance. It can fulfill requirements in ethics/history/philosophy in YA 200 or 500-hour RYT programs.

The in-person portion is 15 hours long, ideally scheduled into 5 3-hour discussion-based classes. It will encourage practices of reflective listening and conscious relationship. These sessions can fit into a 20-hour weekend training schedule with 5 additional hours of practice or discussion time facilitated by the host. The supported online component follows the in-person weekend, consisting of 50 personal inquiry questions to be completed in a time frame set by the director. The online platform will show completions.

Cost:

  • $2750 instructor’s stipend (base rate) or 60% of net income for the module
  • Travel and accommodation expenses. Billeting is fine.

$50 per trainee to cover one copy of Practice and All is Coming plus online access and administration. Please get in touch to discuss booking.

Workshop — From Interoception to Performance and Back Again: The Trauma-SensitiveTurn: Presentation and Discussion

Only a hundred years ago, traditional yoga instruction was transmitted orally, usually to one student at a time. The focus was on the psycho-spiritual realm, accessed through interoception: our natural talent for registering internal sensations. The instructor’s role was to guide the student towards an awareness of feelings and perceptions, and how they can be channeled or shifted by posture and breathing.

The early 20th century saw a colonial and technological shift to visual media as a primary pedagogical tool, and this changed everything. Demonstration and performance quickly began to dominate the teaching of physical yoga — and the bodies doing it. Photography became a means of isolating, cataloguing and commodifying postures for mass consumption.

Every citizen of Instagram knows all about how this can feel, whether good or bad. Or — how it doesn’t feel like anything, because visual epistemology overrides interoception.

However: old ways are coming back through new (but also old) ideas. “How do these postures feel?” — is once again becoming the dominant question, along with: “Is this functional, or is it aesthetic?” and: “Can I do yoga as though no one is watching?” The traumasensitive movement caps it all off by asking us all to consider yoga as a means for healing and restoring internal agency. Things these days seem to be looking up — or in.

Yoga Philosophy, History, Culture Module: Sample One

Questions in the Body: Yoga Philosophy and History Module

My focus is on opening the doors of yoga philosophy and history for lifelong study. In many YTT programmes, this material is simply glossed over, but as the industry grows and changes, the students and instructors who grow and change with it are those who can creatively engage the deepest questions the Yoga tradition asks. The culture is broad and its literature is vast, but every new instructor can get a clear foothold on its territory through considering the texts and practice contexts of four eras:

  1. The world-renouncing asceticism of the Yoga Sutras;
  2. The enigmatic challenge of the Bhagavad Gita to embody states of devotion and flow;
  3. The exuberant body-breath-mind experimentation of the medieval Hatha Yoga period; and
  4. Modern Hatha Yoga in the globalization era — which is what we’re most familiar with. It carries the echoes of everything that came before, but in a contemporary context that offers new possibilities and challenges.

Over the course of one or two weekends, we explore these four historical zones and their key ideas, and workshop how their ideas resonate with practice today. There will be lecture format, but we’ll also discuss, journal, and explore the various “bodies” of the Yoga tradition with free movement (and mental digestion) breaks. We’ll use a reading list and journaling assignments.

The overall goal is to workshop a contemporary synergy of yoga’s past with our current aspirations for a practice that is safe, therapeutic, and social justice oriented while retaining the threads of mystical inspiration that are as old as time. We’ll also look at the ethics of instructing in the modern era by not shying away from what has gone wrong (guru and lineage scandals, injury coverups) and what has gone really really well (innovation, trauma sensitivity, interdisciplinary sharing).

Alter, Joseph S. Yoga in Modern India: The Body between Science and Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2004. Print.

Bryant, Edwin F., and Patañjali. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators. New York: North Point, 2009. Print.

Buitenen, J. A. B. Van. The Bhagavadgītā in the Mahābhārata: Text and Translation. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1981. Print.

Goldberg, Elliott. The Path of Modern Yoga: The History of an Embodied Spiritual Practice. Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2016. Print.

Jain, Andrea R. Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. Print.

Larson, Gerald James. “The Bhagavad Gītā as Cross-Cultural Process: Toward an Analysis of the Social Locations of a Religious Text.” J Am Acad Relig Journal of the American Academy of Religion XLIII.4 (1975): 651-70. Web.

Michelis, Elizabeth De. A History of Modern Yoga: Patañjali and Western Esotericism. London: Continuum, 2004. Print.

Remski, Matthew. Threads of Yoga a Remix of Patanjali-s Sutra-s, with Commentary and Reverie. Createspace, 2012. Print.

Singleton, Mark, and Jean Byrne. Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Singleton, Mark. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. OUP, 2010. Print.

Syman, Stefanie. The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print.

Svātmārāma, and Brian Dana Akers. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Woodstock, NY: YogaVidya.com, 2002. Print.

White, David Gordon. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography. Print.

“Matthew’s thoughtful exploration of Ayurveda, The Yoga Sutras, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of our teacher training program. He offers knowledge and insight that honors yoga’s complex histories and philosophies while placing his teachings in a rich context. Students consistently finish our program expressing gratitude for the ways in which Matthew’s gentle and informed approach touches their hearts and nourishes their daily practice.”
– Christi-an Slomka, Director of Kula Annex in Toronto

Yoga Philosophy, History, Culture Module: Sample Two

Between Transcendence and Therapy: What does the body in yoga want?

This weekend will explore the unfolding history of practice, grounded with conceptions of the yoga body and its purpose through time. We’ll look at Indian sources for the cosmic body, the body of sacrifice, the body as temple, the meanings of dismemberment and mortification in mythology, and then the “hydraulic awakening laboratory” of the medieval Tantric body. We’ll look at the confusing way in which “hatha” has been translated—as “violent exertion”. Is that accurate?

How do these bodies relate to modern, global, middle-class bodies of therapy and performance? How did the perception and consideration of the yoga body change with colonization, industrialization, photography, and the burgeoning of the Indian Independence movement?

Who was T. Krishnamacharya? Why was he teaching yoga? For whom? How many roles did he have to play? What role did demonstration have in his pedagogy? What did he teach the students who would go on to globalize yoga as a “secular religion”?

Finally, how can we see all of these influences—somatic, psychological, philosophical, and religious—in the contemporary yoga marketplace?

Throughout this journey, we’ll see a primary tension and paradox emerge: it can be hard to know what we’re actually doing in asana, because we’re unclear about the relationship between drives towards transcendence and therapy. The former often depends on vertical power relationships and can foster cultic environments, while the latter attempts to value horizontal learning relationships and informed consent.

In researching how modern practitioners navigated the physical and emotional costs of practice in terms of disillusionment and injury, Matthew has also had the great pleasure of interviewing thought-leaders who are revolutionizing practice to address these very stresses. Woven throughout the weekend will be the findings of researchers and teachers in biomechanics, neurophysiology and breath, psychology, cognitive/academic/language issues, and ultimate existential concerns.

Sample Breakdown:

Friday 5:30 to 8:00 pm
What sensations do we value in practice? The basic tension: Is “moksha” compatible with “self-care”?

Saturday 12:30 – 5:30 pm
Yoga bodies through history. How do we carry — consciously or not — drives towards sacrifice, transcendence, performance, perfectionism, consolation, protection? How do our yoga bodies reject, reflect, or spiritualize ideals from the culture in which we practice?

Sunday 12:30 – 5:30 pm
Yoga bodies moving forward. Are the values of scientific materialism and feminism compatible with yoga traditions? How does the singular body of the heroic yogi in history resonate with the individualistic body of neoliberalism? Can we practice in a way that fosters embodied interdependence?

This weekend will explore the unfolding history of practice, grounded with conceptions of the yoga body and its purpose through time. We’ll look at Indian sources for the cosmic body, the body of sacrifice, the body as temple, the meanings of dismemberment and mortification in mythology, and then the “hydraulic awakening laboratory” of the medieval Tantric body. We’ll look at the confusing way in which “hatha” has been translated—as “violent exertion”. Is that accurate?

How do these bodies relate to modern, global, middle-class bodies of therapy and performance? How did the perception and consideration of the yoga body change with colonization, industrialization, photography, and the burgeoning of the Indian Independence movement?

Who was T. Krishnamacharya? Why was he teaching yoga? For whom? How many roles did he have to play? What role did demonstration have in his pedagogy? What did he teach the students who would go on to globalize yoga as a “secular religion”?

Finally, how can we see all of these influences—somatic, psychological, philosophical, and religious—in the contemporary yoga marketplace?

Throughout this journey, we’ll see a primary tension and paradox emerge: it can be hard to know what we’re actually doing in asana, because we’re unclear about the relationship between drives towards transcendence and therapy. The former often depends on vertical power relationships and can foster cultic environments, while the latter attempts to value horizontal learning relationships and informed consent.

In researching how modern practitioners navigated the physical and emotional costs of practice in terms of disillusionment and injury, Matthew has also had the great pleasure of interviewing thought-leaders who are revolutionizing practice to address these very stresses. Woven throughout the weekend will be the findings of researchers and teachers in biomechanics, neurophysiology and breath, psychology, cognitive/academic/language issues, and ultimate existential concerns.

Sample Breakdown:

Friday 5:30 to 8:00 pm
What sensations do we value in practice? The basic tension: Is “moksha” compatible with “self-care”?

Saturday 12:30 – 5:30 pm
Yoga bodies through history. How do we carry — consciously or not — drives towards sacrifice, transcendence, performance, perfectionism, consolation, protection? How do our yoga bodies reject, reflect, or spiritualize ideals from the culture in which we practice?

Sunday 12:30 – 5:30 pm
Yoga bodies moving forward. Are the values of scientific materialism and feminism compatible with yoga traditions? How does the singular body of the heroic yogi in history resonate with the individualistic body of neoliberalism? Can we practice in a way that fosters embodied interdependence?

Yoga Philosophy, History, Culture Module: Sample Three

New Directions in Yoga Practice, Culture, and Service

Friday, 6-8: Seeing and Disarming Cult Dynamics in Yoga Groups

Matthew has spent the past six years researching and writing about the mechanisms of social control that enable abuse in yoga and dharma communities. This evening he’ll offer an exploration of what those mechanisms are, how they are so easily concealed by spiritual language and strategies for forming and supporting non-coercive community.

 

Saturday, 9:30 – 11:30: Defining Yoga: Navigating Private and Public Discourses with Integrity and Respect.

It’s natural for everyone to have a private definition of yoga practice. What could be more intimate and personal than the sensations and meanings of movement, breath, meditation, and contemplation? And yet, if we stop with our private definitions, we miss out on not only the historical richness and diversity of yoga literature, we run the risk of further fragmenting a heritage that has struggled to survive colonialism and now globalization. In this discussion, we’ll explore the difference between “yoga as a personal journey” and yoga as an historic spirituality with specific roots in Indian wisdom practice.

 

Saturday 2-4:30pm: The Trouble with Adjustments: Problems and Possibilities.

In many yoga spaces, teachers and students share the expectation that adjustments are a standard part of practice. But this aspect of modern yoga is marred by an uncomfortable history. At the dawn of the global movement in 1930s India, adjustments in key learning spaces such as the Mysore Palace merged with the somatics of corporal punishment. They conveyed assumptions about spiritualized pain and surrender, delivered through a pedagogy of unquestioned charisma and presumed consent. In combination, these factors have led to decades of blurred boundaries, sexualized touch, and general intrusion. If you’re a yoga teacher and you want to adjust people, this discussion will help you get square with this history first. It will help you think about how you will protect your students from it, especially in an unregulated industry. It will offer guidelines for moving forward in the creation of safe and student-driven yoga education.

Sunday: 10-12: What Is the Yoga Teacher’s Scope of Practice?

The modern yoga industry has aspirations towards therapeutic and social service, but few mechanisms to guide competency. It also has emerged from a pedagogy in which teachers have been explicitly rewarded for overstepping their trained skill sets. Some of this happens through earnest enthusiasm, but some of it intersects with outright manipulation. Complicating it all is the industry’s allergy to legal regulation. It is left to yoga educators, therefore, to get really smart about understanding and defining what the limits and possibilities of their training are. In this discussion, we’ll explore five potential guidelines that can positively inform scope of practice for the yoga teacher.

 

Sunday: 2-4: Does Yoga Support Social Justice Work? No and Yes.

The Bhagavad Gita was the favourite book of both Gandhi and his assassin. European fascist movements of the 1930s were fascinated with yoga. And today, practicing yoga is not a reliable predictor of one’s political persuasion. The Yoga Sutras will not teach you about reproductive rights, rape culture or white privilege. The Hatha yoga texts are in no way feminist. Is it a mistake to believe that practicing yoga makes you a better citizen or ally? In this discussion we’ll explore how social justice work really begins with education that comes from beyond the yoga mat. And — how those who are working in social justice movement really can trust yoga practice to help build resilience.

Student Testimonials

Ayurveda Modules

Because every training is different, I’ve had to develop several tools to accommodate hours requests. I’ve taught in 3, 4, 8, and 12 hour segments within 200-300 hour programs. At Del La Sol, I teach a 12-hour segment that also covers their lifestyle/nutrition categories. In some places, more extensive programming has been offered in elective format. Some programmes are grounded with the foundational work of my online “A Year of Ayurveda” programme, through Naada Yoga Montreal.

Ayurvedic Instruction for YTT Programs

Yoga Philosophy Instruction for YTT Programs

My presentation style is interactive, and always leaves room for workshop-style digression into any pressing personal or group questions that arise in the moment. I have done my best to activate the pedagogy with Powerpoint (keeping eyes up and out of notes), and breaking up data with activity and partner work.

Aside from the introductory material, I also present on special topics in yoga pedagogy:

  1. “Who’s in Your Class?”: teaching to constitution
  2. “The Ecology of Movement”: an ayurvedic approach to asana
  3. “Daily Ayurvedic Support for Yoga Practice”
  4. “Elemental Rest”: an ayurvedic basis for restorative yoga