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Coming into my Yoga Therapist Training, I was a bit reluctant if I’m honest. With repeated encouragement from my personal teacher and mentor, I applied and was accepted. Here we are over three years later and now my heart is breaking a little because we have only two modules left until the program completes. 

I can’t imagine my life without it.

The Yoga Well team invited me to share a testimonial about how this program impacted my life, really thinking about what it was like to be a student first considering this program. When I was in your shoes, I had a lot of concerns that – looking back now – have really worked themselves out.

My main concerns were:

  1. The length of training – 3.5 years is a big time commitment! 
  2. Logistics – I would need to take time off from work and figure out lodging fifteen times.  
  3. Cost of training – it is the price of two used cars.
  4. Viability of Yoga Therapy as a career choice – does anyone actually make a living doing it? 
  5. Can I handle the way this training will reorganize my world? 

Let me share with you where I’m at with these concerns now, as I approach the completion of the Yoga Therapist Training Program.

1. The Length of the Yoga Therapist Training Program

Having time between modules is hugely necessary. We learn so much in each module that it takes time and life to integrate it. If the modules were any closer together, the information wouldn’t have the chance to be so deeply absorbed which would mean we wouldn’t be able to apply it as well and my time and financial investment would feel wasted. Those 2-3 months between in-person modules, combined with the online classes, they create the perfect space for us to integrate and apply the amazing knowledge our teachers have to share.

2. Taking Time off from Work and Travel

Interestingly, the logistics have worked themselves out along the way, no problem. For me, this confirms that I am on the right path.

3. The Cost of the Yoga Therapist Training Program

This training has taken me farther than two used cars ever could have. I feel very well prepared to work with whoever walks in the door. 

I began my Practicum by offering Functional Group classes at the Mayo Clinic and am now completing it with Assisi Heights. The breakthroughs that clients have been experiencing in this class have been garnering the attention of medical professionals. Thanks to this attention, I am slated to speak with a group of nurses who wish to experience my class so they can recommend it more strongly to their patients!

I will be presenting the pañcamaya model in a breakout session of the Holistic Wellness Conference in July 2020, where the target audience is nurses and other health care professionals interested in holistic wellness.

Through the teaching I’ve done as part of Practicum alone, I have been fascinated to witness the power of Yoga on physicians where it is part of a Wellness CME, as well as high school teachers and staff, university professors and staff, single mothers in recovery, single mothers who are engaged in moving themselves and their families out of poverty two generations at a time, and disabled women veterans.  

I am in the process of working with Project Legacy whose goal is to help minority children and young adults graduate from college, almost all of who have experienced various types of trauma throughout their childhood, to share Yoga with them for a year via a grant.

Knowing myself as capable of doing all of these things, being able to make this difference for the people around me, all of this is priceless – worth way more than two used cars.

4. Viability of Yoga Therapy as a Career Choice 

I am passionate about providing Yoga Therapy and am trusting that, like the logistics, some things will figure themselves out. As you can see in my response to the cost of the program, many opportunities are showing up for me out of doing the work for Practicum. So, so far, so good!

5. Reorganizing My World

The requirement to have us be on the receiving end of Yoga Therapy by working with a Personal Mentor is genius. Yoga Therapy has definitely been reorganizing my world in ways that needed to happen and receiving Yoga Therapy along the way has been crucial to my success. Chase is fond of saying, “Don’t blow up your world.” And I didn’t, at least not all at once. However, I did get the healing and strength to make some hard choices that facilitated my personal development, some of which are still in progress. It’s amazing how Yoga can clear your vision so that you can see what you didn’t want to see before, which isn’t always pain-free, and at the same time support you while doing so.

If you’re considering becoming a Yoga Therapist, there are so many options out there, some of which will seem cheaper and faster than Yoga Well. I assure you, from personal experience, the investment that Yoga Well requires, of both your time and wallet, is worth it.

Schedule a session with their Admissions Staff, share your concerns. They are truly amazing at supporting potential students in making the right decision for them, with no pressure to sign up or commit.

Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong will soon be a graduate of our 2016-2020 Minnesota Program. She lives outside of Rochester, MN and can be reached at [email protected].