Welcome to our Ma Yoga/Yoga Alliance RPYT Prenatal Certification website!
I started teaching prenatal yoga right after my first regular teacher training in 2001. I knew nothing about the process of creating them (except of course the basics). At the time, most of the training for prenatal was about what NOT to do. My students were mostly uncomfortable, anxious, and needing a strong practice as much as anyone else.
I was so nervous about hurting the baby that I wasn’t enjoying it much either. Pretty soon I began to remember that nature is the most powerful force we know. It’s impossible to turn a waterfall around. If nature wants to move in a direction, she’s going to go there.
So, like other times in life when we are completely not in control of what’s happening, I began to see pregnancy as a wonderful opportunity to begin to embrace this power within us; to listen to our inner intelligence; and to redicscover our ability to nurture whatever’s gestating within us: a baby, a project, or a vision for who we’re becoming.
As a Kinesiologist and Certified Anusara Yoga Instructor, I had learned specific theapeutic alignment principles and I began adjusting them to address the needs of pregnant women. I call them the Five Sacred Steps, and each principle continues to guide me as a prenatal yoga teacher to this day. I started guiding other prenatal teachers through The Yoga of Pregnancy teacher training weekends starting in 2004.
When I got pregnant in 2006, I thought I was well-prepared prepared to be a mom. Wrong!
I found myself lost without the parts of my identity that had for so long made me feel like me. I couldn’t get anything done, I was exhausted and depleted and having trouble losing the extra weight, and the hardest part: I didn’t have time to do yoga.
The long, focused practices I had come to love were no longer accessible. But I didn’t think it was fair that just because I was a mom, I had to give up yoga.
I honed the yoga I’d be taught down to its essential practices and principles, so I – and other moms – could get the breathing, meditation, alignment and strengthening during naps, while baby is playing – even while we’re holding baby. I shifted the practices so they were more focused on core strengthening, helping us find our new identity, and grounding us in our feminine wisdom, power, and nurturing energy. I called it Ma Yoga.
As for life off the mat – I wanted to be healthier, but I didn’t want to live in the kitchen. I began studying Ayurveda again when my daughter was one (the 5,000 year old wellness system that was traditionally part of yoga), and found myself able to provide healthy food, good self-care and energizing daily rhythms for me and my family.
I gathered what I experienced as essential basic healthy lifestyle routines for women (Dina Charya,or “Anchor Practices”) – that even the busiest of us can all fit in to our day to give us more energy, help us sleep better, and allow us to find our ideal weight. I put them all together in six ebooks and phone calls for the online teacher training, MAyurveda: Living Ayurveda for Women.
I put these modules together into what I feel is the most comprehensive program that provides the broadest understanding of yoga for women available. Here are the elements of the 85-hour, Yoga Alliance-registered Ma Yoga Certification Program:
- Prenatal 1: The Yoga of Pregnancy and Postpartum teacher training
- Prenatal 2: The Yoga of Healing for Women teacher training
- Ma Mentorship: One-on-one work with a senior Certified Ma Yoga teacher trainer
- MAyurveda: Ayurveda for Women training
- Labor Education: either a doula training you take on your own, or our online teacher training, The Yoga of Birth
- Class writeups: Take live online Ma Yoga classes at www.MaYogaLiving.com
To find out when we are offering our trainings, just go to our Ma Yoga Living Calendar.
I look forward to supporting you on your path!
The Ma Yoga/Yoga Alliance RPYT Certification Program will give you the tools to:
Help moms feel nurtured, revitalize, and find their strong core again
Create a meaningful, rewarding career path and offer your gifts fully
Learn simple, efffect practices to access your innate feminine power, wisdom, and nurturing energy
Use birth as a guru to become a powerful co-creator in your own life and relationships
Incorporate Ayurvedic food, self-care and daily rhythm practices for vitality, energy, and health
Instruct with the Ma Yoga 5 Sacred Steps to help your students and clients get and stay out of pain
Weave pregnancy and mom-related themes to motivate students to see the possibilities
Be part of a growing, global teacher tribe who see pregnancy as a guru.
Receive marketing, business and emotional help for growing your own Mama Circle!
Our curriculum is comprehensive, combines Eastern tradition and Western knowledge, and supplies you with the tools to guide women throughout their childbearing years.
Ma Yoga Certified teachers get free business coaching to partner with local mom businesses and offer prenatal and mom yoga in their own neighborhoods. So far, we’ve helped over 20,000 women prepare for labor and motherhood, learn how to relieve their aches and pains, and use the challenges of this time to become the “Ma” they want to be.
We would love to have you part of our nurturing, ever-growing teacher tribe!
I tried to make it as easy as possible for busy yoga teachers to get their RPYT Certification:
You can take our affordable modules in any order, and take 3 years to do them
You will be assigned a mentor to support you on your path
You can host our two on-site trainings – the rest you do on your own time and virtually
Once you’ve completed The Yoga of Pregnancy & Postpartum, you can apply for support in starting your own Mama Circle
You will use the essential women’s yoga practices and principles immediately and for a lifetime
Join us in our vision: a Mama Circle in every village in the world!
Email me for your free 30 minute Prenatal Dreams and Visions call to discuss the program and different career possibilities.
Throughout the training period and after, you will be in partnership with an open-hearted, loving group in which we will act as midwives for each other as we give birth to ourselves as wise, powerful, nurturing women teachers for mamas.
Looking forward to finding out how I can support you on your path!
Testimonials from those who have completed the training
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I’d never taught before this program. It gave me the confidence to be a teacher...As a teacher, I love helping moms get their minds and bodies ready for labor. As a doula, I know which poses are good for fetal positioning and labor - and it makes my job easier because by the big day, the things they need to do are second nature.
DONA Certified Doula
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I am now empowered in my own practice and life with the tools I received related to how life create itself, on and off the mat. This program helped me shift the way I deal with aches and pains, enhance my daily routine, and interact with my community. I feel so grateful for the knowledge gained from this life-changing program.
Owner, Spectra Yoga
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Mom and Prenatal Yoga Teacher
I have more confidence with moms that come to me with aches and how to get them out of pain, and through learning Dina Charya (daily rhythms) I know how to help them have more energy. I love that we have this community where I can go for inspiration and support as a teacher, and that we all also create our own little communities in our neighborhoods!
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The Vision and Strategy call with Jessica was exactly what I needed it to be! She answered all my questions with practicality and honesty. The beauty of our conversation was in her deep appreciation and understanding for my desire to find balance in my life and my many roles within it; roles as wife and mother as well as a business owner, and professional support person for birthing families in my community. As I hung up the phone I was filled with a deep gratitude for Jessica's encouragement and guidance
Birth Doula & Childbirth Educator
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I signed up for the Ma Yoga Prenatal Teacher Training purely be more confident in effectively guiding Momma's-to-be through a regular Yoga class. What I got out of this training experience is a whole world more, it truly has been a metamorphosis both personally and professionally. At first, (if I'm honest!) I remember feeling frustrated when I realised it wasn't going to be a case of simply training for two weekends and then getting a certificate. I am so very grateful that this wasn't the course structure. Jessica and the team at Ma Yoga have created a certification made up of crucial components, which allow you to build upon your knowledge and training, continually reassessing and reflecting in order for you to deepen your learning and understanding; thus improving and empowering your teaching and your own life. They care. They care about mothers. They care about you as a teacher. They care about the quality provision of yogic practice. Empowerment and care for this whole community is at the core of all Ma Yoga do. I am at a totally different place than I was before I started on my Ma Yoga journey. I still have a long way to go, but I want to do it and keep doing it... I love it! Thank you Jessica and all at Ma Yoga. You will never know what an impact you have made on me and how much I have taken from your course. You are truly inspirational.
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I had a wonderful experience with Ma Yoga. Jessica is always available and quick to respond to any questions. Jessica wants you to be successful. Through Ma Yoga I feel empowered as a working mom instead of apprehensive or lost in a corporate job that doesn't want to accept my new life as a mother. I love the unique community that Ma Yoga creates. The community goes beyond the studio and mat and into your life. I've met some amazing and inspirational women through Ma Yoga trainings and classes. I can't replace or replicate the experiences or relationships I have gained over the last year completing my Ma Yoga TT.
Let’s Get Started!
Let’s connect! Fill out the form and I’ll reach out. Plus, I’ll send you my free Yoga of Pregnancy for Teachers ebook!
