The Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course provides training in Sivananda Yoga based on the yoga of Swami Sivananda. It was developed by Swami Vishnu-devananda, among the first yoga masters in the West to develop a training in 1969. He did this not only with the vision to develop yoga professionals, but also to give sincere aspirants the skills of personal discipline and to develop as messengers of peace.
Contents
The Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course bases itself on the ancient gurukula teaching system, integrating a student's daily life into the yoga training. It aims through an intensive four-week course to ready students to teach others, in addition to strengthening their own yoga practice with self-discipline and awareness of the nature of body, mind and spirit. Courses are held worldwide in the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams and affiliated centres.
Origins and technique
Swami Sivananda founded an institute of education within his Rishikesh (India) Ashram, named the Vedanta Forest Academy. Swami Vishnu-devananda was one of the principal professors of the academy and as an extension of this educational program, the Sivananda teacher's training was developed.
The course is based on the traditional Indian system of Gurukula, in which students live with the teacher in an ashram (yoga and meditation center). Closely supervised by the teacher, students work physically and mentally and acquire the full experience of yoga, which can later be passed on to others, as their teachers did for them. In the efforts to create the most favorable conditions possible, this training is structured as an intensive, immersive course in the ashrams.
Certification for teachers
Graduates of the Teacher Training Course (TTC) receive a diploma from the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy of Rishikesh (situated in the Himalayas), and the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and Ashrams, (headquartered in Val Morin, Quebec, Canada). The title given is Yoga Siromani which signifies jewel of the crown of yoga.
Graduates of the Advanced Teacher Training Course (A TTC) are given the title Yoga Acharya, which means master of yoga. It is the title of the diploma for the advanced teacher's training.
The program has seen the graduation of more than thirty thousand students over the last forty years.