NOW AVAILABLE ON DEMAND
13 hour pre-recorded 9-part online course
Enrollment includes 1 year of access to course replays, recorded live in August 2023, and accompanying resources
*Completion of this online short-course will make RYTs eligible for 13 Continuing Education hours through Yoga Alliance.
$225-$345 USD Tiered Pricing
Partial scholarships available
Check out a FREE course preview:
Introduction to Chair Yoga
Enter your name and email below to access the Session 1 recording from Chair Yoga for Everyone (On-Demand), Introduction to Chair Yoga with Jivana Heyman, as a free course preview (recorded live in August 2023).
If you enjoy the free preview, you can enroll to access the full 9-part Chair Yoga for Everyone (On-Demand) course.
*After submitting your details, check your inbox for the preview
Adaptation is part of our nature.
Join Accessible Yoga founder, Jivana Heyman, along with guest presenters Rodrigo Souza, Melissa Shah, Karen James & Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee, for a 9-part online short-course that will explore how to practice asana safely in a chair, including considerations for the specific needs of various special populations.
You’ll learn how adapting the practice can offer the same physical—as well as emotional, mental, and spiritual—benefits. This course, offered live and online via Zoom, will cover all the fundamental elements of a holistic practice.
Course recordings and resources will also be available for registrants to access via our online course portal for a whole year!
In this course, you'll discover:
- How to build strength and flexibility through a Chair Yoga asana practices
- Nervous system regulation and relaxation through skillful breathing exercises
- How to cultivate focus through meditation
- Plus our special guests will share their specialized knowledge and experience of Chair Yoga, including wheelchair yoga and yoga for those with disabilities, Chair Yoga for older adults, building a holistic and therapeutic Chair Yoga practice, and creative mixed-level teaching incorporating chairs for seated and standing, through discussion and sample practices
Whether you are a teacher eager to make your classes more accessible by offering options with a chair or a student seeking ways to adapt your asanas, this course will offer insight on how to begin, enhance, and grow your accessible yoga toolkit using a chair.
What Will I Need?
- 2 sturdy chairs (at least one without arms)
- 2 blankets
- 1 bolster (or firm pillow)
- 1 yoga strap (or belt / scarf)
- 2 yoga blocks
- A designated or suitable practice space
Recommended resource to accompany this course:
Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body, by Jivana Heyman
Chair Yoga for Everyone: Learn to Practice & Teach
On-Demand Course Outline
*Available as a FREE Preview*
Class 1: Introduction to Chair Yoga
with Jivana Heyman (he/him)
In this free preview class, Jivana will offer an introduction to the benefits and challenges of Chair Yoga. In particular, he’ll discuss how we can focus on keeping the Yoga in Chair Yoga. He’ll end with a sample Chair Yoga class and Q&A.
Class 2: Chair Yoga for Strength & Stability
with Jivana Heyman (he/him)
This class will focus on helping students prepare for Chair Yoga practice, including how to set up and practice safely, as well as common contraindications. Jivana will also address ways to build strength in Chair Yoga, and offer a sample Chair Yoga focusing on strengthening practices.
Class 3: Chair Yoga for Flexibility & Freedom
with Jivana Heyman (he/him)
Most people think that being flexible is a requirement for Yoga practice, but it’s not. Jivana will discuss the benefits of flexibility and stability. He’ll also discuss how we can release expectations in our Yoga practice and in life by understanding the Yoga concept of nonattachment. Jivana will also offer a sample practice focusing on Chair Yoga for flexibility.
Class 4: Chair Yoga for Ease & Relaxation
with Jivana Heyman (he/him)
In this session, Jivana will discuss relaxation and the nervous system, as well as pranayama, (breathing practices), and Yoga Nidra (guided meditation) that can be done in a chair. He’ll discuss how we can bring ease into our Chair Yoga practice and in life. He’ll lead a sample Chair Yoga session focused on balancing effort and relaxation.
Class 5: Chair Yoga for Older Adults
with Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee (she/her)
This session will explore gentle and accessible Chair Yoga practices for seniors who may have mobility limitations or difficulty with traditional mat based yoga poses. Chair Yoga designed specifically for older adults can help improve posture, strength, balance, mental health and help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety. We will cover basic poses and dip into the “muscles of independence,“ and calming breath practices best suited for the aging population.
Class 6: Wheelchair Yoga
with Rodrigo Souza (he/him)
Learn how to facilitate Yoga for wheelchair users who have gone through trauma & disability, including folks with paralysis and/or without the use of their legs.
Rodrigo will share his embodied experience and knowledge to help you gain confidence in order to serve this population with love, compassion, and understanding.
Class 7: Creating a Holistic & Therapeutic Chair Yoga Practice
with Melissa Shah (she/they)
It is possible to create a full and holistic yoga practice in a chair. In fact, Chair Yoga offers a pathway for a full practice that is fun and accessible. In this session, Melissa Shah will share the ways that incorporating the subtle yogic practices, including pranayama, mudra, mantra and meditation can offer additional mind-body support for practitioners of all ages and abilities. Melissa will also share yoga practices to support those with anxiety, experiencing burnout, living with pain conditions, and more.
Class 8: Creative Mixed-Level Chair Yoga Teaching & Practice
with Karen James (she/her)
Have you ever felt like options for practicing asana in a chair might be limited, or limiting? In this session, Karen James will show that this couldn’t be further from the truth! Karen teaches yoga in a way that combines her passions for creativity and accessibility, and will share some tips and tools for getting creative in your Chair Yoga practice and teaching. These tools will help you increase your enjoyment of the practice as well as the benefits. Karen will explore ways to incorporate different props into a Chair Yoga practice, as well as options for using the chair in standing practices.
Class 9: Chair Yoga for Focus & Meditation
with Jivana Heyman (he/him)
In this session, Jivana will offer some additional skills for adapting any Yoga pose in the chair by focusing on a particular benefit, finding a similar action in the body, or by breaking a pose down into parts. He’ll also share about the role of meditation in Chair Yoga, and how we can offer accessible meditation tools for our students. He’ll end with a sample Chair Yoga class for focus and meditation.
Are you curious about how this training differs from our signature 40-hour Accessible Yoga Training Online?
Check out our FAQs for further details about these two courses.
A Unique, Creative & Accessible Practice
"Chair yoga embraces those who seek solace in a seated sanctuary. By making this practice unique, creative and accessible, it allows me to not only honour the diversity of bodies and abilities but also celebrate the profound impact that mindful movement can have on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being."
– Karen James
Chair Yoga for Everyone Guest Presenter
Making Your Offerings Inclusive & Purposeful
"Chair Yoga is a gentle and tender way to come back to your body. It is a more humanised Yoga practice where everyone is included. It is an essential tool to learn for those who are looking to serve all the range of abilities and to make their offerings inclusive and purposeful."
– Rodrigo Souza
Chair Yoga for Everyone Guest Presenter
Meet Your Facilitators
Jivana Heyman
Jivana Heyman (he/him), C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the founder and director of the Accessible Yoga Association, an international non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings. He’s the author of two books, Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body, and Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion (Shambhala Publications).
Jivana coined the phrase, “Accessible Yoga,” over ten years ago, and it has now become the standard appellation for a large cross section of the immense yoga world.
He brought the Accessible Yoga community together for the first time in 2015 for the Accessible Yoga Conference, which has gone on to become a focal point for this movement. Jivana is also the creator of the Accessible Yoga Training and the co-founder of the online Accessible Yoga Training School with Amber Karnes, which is a platform for continued education for yoga teachers in the field of equity and accessibility. They also created the Accessible Yoga Podcast in 2020 (now The Love Of Yoga Podcast, hosted by the Accessible Yoga Association and Anjali Rao).
Over the past 25 years, Jivana has led countless yoga teacher training programs around the world, and dedicates his time to supporting yoga teachers who are working to serve communities that are under-represented in traditional yoga spaces.
Get to know Jivana:
www.jivanaheyman.com | @jivanaheyman | facebook.com/jivanaheyman
Rodrigo Souza
Rodrigo Souza (he/him) is an RYT 200 Adaptive & Accessible Yoga teacher with experience in teaching yoga to folks who have gone through Trauma & Disability. Rodrigo suffered a spinal cord injury (T3 complete) in 2014 after a fall accident. He has been studying and practicing Mindfulness and Adaptive Yoga to help him deal with muscle spasticity, chronic nerve pain, anxiety, and many other secondary symptoms conditions that the injury has brought him.
Through direct personal experience with traumatic injury, and chronic pain, and discovering the need to take charge of his recovery to optimize long-term wellbeing, Rodrigo decided to become a Yoga teacher and teach from his own experience, creating Allihopa Accessible & Adaptive Virtual Yoga Studio. He also runs a non-profit organization called AllihopaBrasil to make yoga more accessible to marginalized groups in Brazil and also teaches newly injured folks in an active rehabilitation non-profit in Sweden.
Rodrigo received his Adaptive yoga certification training under Matthew Sanford, the leading pioneer and “Jedi” of the Adaptive Yoga World. He is focused on creating a supportive community for those who have experienced trauma & disability through Adaptive yoga.
Get to know Rodrigo:
www.allihopayoga.com | @allihopayoga
Melissa Shah
Melissa (she/they) is an Indian-American yoga therapist who skillfully adapts yoga and Ayurveda to the individual. She believes that yoga doesn't need to be stripped of its culture and history in order for it to be palatable and beneficial to others.
She is committed to the intersection of yoga and social justice, and works to make feeling well accessible to all, but especially those who are often left out of the wellness conversation.
They offer group and 1:1 yoga therapy and mentorships, facilitate immersive retreats, and has an online membership for those who want to practice on their own time.
Get to know Melissa:
www.findyourbreath.net | @findyourbreath
Karen James
Karen James (she/her) has a passion for making yoga accessible to all. She has been teaching yoga in a part time basis since 2019. She has experience teaching a variety of classes, including yin, chair, gentle yoga, and yoga Nidra.
With a deep understanding of the benefits of yoga for all body types and abilities, Karen is dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all practitioners.
She particularly enjoys incorporating the chair and adding creative flair to her classes.
Get to know Karen:
karenjamesyoga.co.uk | @karenjamesyoga
Jacquie 'Sunny' Barbee
Jacquie “Sunny” Barbee (she/her) is an E-RYT 500hr yoga teacher living in the Panhandle of Florida.
Sunny finished YTT in 2016 after turning to an asana practice to help with her chronic illness and depression. While in YTT she realized there was a need for more teachers that didn’t fit the stereotypical “yoga body” image like her and that she could make a difference in helping people see that yoga is for every body.
She is able to share with others how to customize their practice to fit their own body, whether that body is larger, aging, or living with illness or injury, much like she does with her own practice. What she loves most about teaching is that she tries to create safer spaces where the student can connect and make peace with their bodies.
She is also certified in Accessible Yoga; Yoga for All Bodies; Mind Body Solutions; and Yin Yoga.
Get to know Sunny:
www.sunnybeeyoga.net | @sunnybeeyoga | www.facebook.com/SunnyBeeYoga2
Enroll Now (On Demand)
Tuition for this on-demand online short course is $225-$345 USD sliding scale
If you are able to enroll at the Supporter or Sustainer Rate, your contributions support the ability to offer a lower rate to community members experiencing financial difficulties.
We also offer partial scholarships.
Need a partial scholarship?
Please take a moment to consider the intention of our scholarship program and equity pricing structure, which was created in order to amplify training access for those who hold marginalized identities and those experiencing significant financial hardship. If neither of those qualifications apply to you, we ask you to please consider other payment options, including using the tiered equity pricing structure, or supporting others in our community who have decreased access to financial resources by enrolling as a Sustainer or Supporter, if this is accessible to you.
Discovering The
Subtle Ways To Practice
"The course helped me discover the more subtle ways to move and practice in a chair, including eye movements, breathing and grounding cues. It was an excellent course and gave me more confidence to teach chair yoga."
– Sara Lilley
Valuing Rest
"This was a wonderful course. I love how accessible yoga reaches all corners and includes everyone. My biggest take-away is how much can be done in a chair yoga class."
– Mariellen Wheeler
