Somatics for Yoga Teachers
Online Course
Have Questions?
It can be helpful to speak to Charlotte in person about anything related to the courses, and you are welcome to book a 15-minute consultation anytime:
- If you are interested in taking a course and would like to discuss any aspect with Charlotte – this can include simply meeting and getting a feel for her approach, clarity on course content, what might suit you most at this time and helping to plan out a time scale for different elements.
- If you are already a student on a course and need support, guidance, insight or anything else!
Click below to go to a page where you can choose a time and then receive a Zoom link automatically.
BOOK A 15 MIN CHAT HERECourse Description
This course is an experiential journey into Somatic practice, with about 10 hours of practice within 15 Somatics videos that make up the online part of a larger hybrid course. This online course can be taken on its own or you can also go on to do the in-person content - the in-person retreats now also incorporate material from the two-day workshops on these key facets of guiding others in Somatics practice.
You can purchase the course in advance of the live sessions. As soon as you pay and sign up you get access to all of the materials below and the more exposure you have to these before the live sessions, the more you will get out of the course.
This training is a part of the full 170-hr certification. More info about becoming certified can be found here.
Download Certification Information
The rich online materials in this course create a full immersion as a journey around the body – to differentiate to feel and explore deeply, in order to integrate back to the whole.
The course is designed to help you foster the embodied awareness and personal practice that helps you to teach others. These mostly lying, held, fluid and responsive practices include rocking, rolling, twisting and pulsing, but also lead up through different levels up through gravity to experience the human evolution from the ground up to standing – with lying, seated, all-fours, lunging, uncurling and standing motions through many different primal movements.
The movements can be practised as moving meditation or fed into a stronger asana practice to support the body’s ease in supporting itself up from gravity. There are over 100 practices included, giving you full scope to intersperse into yoga teaching or base classes around a full Somatic practice.
What's Included in the Online Course
- A 60 page Course Manual (pdf) – with detailed contents explaining the anatomical, nervous system, sensory and other considerations for Somatic practice and teaching (such What is Somatics?, Somatics within yoga teaching, fascial sheaths, practice related to the koshas, unravelling, Sensory Motor Amnesia), as well as pictures and descriptions of all of the practices within the videos.
- Course intro video – Charlotte explains the nature of the course and how to use the content and manual.
- 5 practice sections, each released in fortnightly intervals for you to fully experience the practices and complete the enquiry questions:
1. Central axis and skull-sacrum polarity
2. Shoulders, neck and jaw
3. Hips, sacrum and belly
4. Diaphragm, ribs, lungs and heart
5. Arms, legs and eyes
Each of the practice sessions includes
- Intro video explaining the theme
- 3 practice videos, each about 30-45 minutes – can be used as a longer sequence as they flow into each other, as standalone shorter practice or entry into your own asana sequence.
- 7 Teaching & Practice Enquiry Questions – to be used for your own self-enquiry to guide curiosity and exploration in your practice; also feed into teaching as deeper understanding into the student’s experience, responses and needs.
You can purchase the course in advance of the live sessions. As soon as you pay and sign up you get access to all of the materials below and the more exposure you have to these before the live sessions, the more you will get out of the course.
Who is this course for?
This course is aimed at yoga teachers who want to free up a more rigid practice or are ready to slow down and truly feel a refined and subtle practice. Also for those who recognise that doing more – and doing that faster – can wear down tissues and keep us in stress patterns that ultimately damage the body and keep our mind attached to goals and ideals.
It is for those who want to feel joy in a more fluid, explorative and easeful practice; within a natural range of motion and primal, evolutionary patterns. It is also for those who recognise that movement is emotional expression and when we tune into our body as a guide, we can gain much insight into our needs in the moment, our boundaries and our relationship with the world and beings around us.
It is designed for those with a basic level understood for ‘holding space’, professionalism and a respect for others’ boundaries, differing needs, individualism and the right to move in ways that they need, when they need them. It is intended to bring Somatics practice within the yoga canon (philosophically) and within the context of a yoga teaching environment.
It is also appropriate for those who teach other forms of movement and bodywork, who have an established yoga practice.
The course is also designed for yoga and movement teachers who are fascinated by what is to move as a human being; what it is to occupy space and feel movement as an expression of embodiment – our sense of self. It is also for those who believe we have a right to move as we feel, to treat our bodies and whole self with compassion. It is for those who believe that we are only truly alive when we are able to be present with embodied awareness.
"This course has been an absolute joy. Charlotte has revolutionised the way I practice yoga on and off the mat. It's a cliché but I have genuinely been on a journey to improved self-awareness from the first time I took one of Charlotte's classes at Soul Circus a few years ago and I'm sure the journey will continue for the rest of my life. I have a much better understanding of who I am as a person and why I behave or react in certain ways because of this course."
- Pip Fresch, www.westernwellbeing.co.uk. Braunton, North Devon.
also included
Five live discussion sessions, one for each theme (60 mins) will be a choice of either of these group times per intake.
If you can’t make one of those dates in your chosen group, you can always attend the other for that theme or catch up within a future intake to ensure you have covered the required hours for the course.
You can sign up to the online course any time before these dates to access the material.
September 2024 Intake
Mondays 7-8pm UK time on these dates:
- Sept 16: Central axis and skull-sacrum polarity
- Oct 14: Shoulders, neck and jaw
- Nov 18: Hips, sacrum and belly
- Dec 16: Diaphragm, ribs, lungs and heart
- Jan 13 (2025): Arms, legs and eyes
January 2025 Intake
Thursday 2-3pm UK time on these dates:
- Jan 30: Central axis and skull-sacrum polarity
- Feb 27: Shoulders, neck and jaw
- Mar 27: Hips, sacrum and belly
- Apr 24: Diaphragm, ribs, lungs and heart
- May 22: Arms, legs and eyes
March 2025 Intake
Mondays 7-8pm UK time on these dates:
- Mar 3: Central axis and skull-sacrum polarity
- Mar 31: Shoulders, neck and jaw
- Apr 28: Hips, sacrum and belly
- Jun 2: Diaphragm, ribs, lungs and heart
- July 7: Arms, legs and eyes
Take a tour of the course and a sneak peek of what's inside
Payment Options
Buy the course on its own OR the bundle and save
(see all options below)
You can choose to pay in instalments or for less, when paid in full.
Please get in touch with Charlotte directly at [email protected] if you are low income or a concession to arrange further discount.
Additionally, you can add a spiral bound printed course manual for £15. Includes shipping in the UK - you can also buy this for £12 on the Somatics retreat (without P&P) or any other in-person event with Charlotte if you let her know before.
Outside of the UK, please email me prior to purchasing the manual, to make arrangements and determine cost.
The manual can be purchased on the checkout page.
Purchase the bundle
Full Course: Online Course plus Retreat
Retreat weekends held at Emerson College at Forest Row (single room).
Meet Charlotte
Charlotte attended her first yoga class in 1996 and immediately knew that it would be a large part of the route to overcoming her stress-related, digestive, mood and energy issues. She trained at the Vajrasati Yoga School in Brighton (500 hour Yoga Alliance training) founded by Jim Tarran who is influenced by Buddhism and brought a natural mindfulness aspect to practising yoga. This was the beginning of a relationship with yoga focusing on taking time and finding space to feel subtleties of the experience, energetics and responses within the practice and create full body awareness within postures.
Charlotte then went on to train in teaching yoga for people with ME and Chronic Fatigue with Fiona Agombar and teaching for chronic pain with Heather Mason, continuing her interest in yoga as therapy for anxiety, depression and stress states. She deepened her mindfulness practice as a result of a specific mindfulness course for yoga teachers with Cathy-Mae Karelse. She continues to study with teachers Tias Little and Joanne Avison as they combine her love of mindful, somatic practice, yoga as meditation, the contemporary anatomy of biotensegrity and an explorative and compassionate attitude – alongside attention to alignment with respect to the individual needs of students.
Charlotte is an author with many published books, including Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health (Singing Dragon 2018), Good Mood Food (Nourish 2018) and The De-Stress Effect (2015). She is also an award-winning nutritionist, practising since 2000 and specialising in stress-related and fatigue conditions and burnout, and digestive issues.
Charlotte teaches classes in Brighton and London, workshops, UK yoga weekends and retreats abroad. She also runs courses and retreats specifically for yoga teachers to attend to their own self-care so they have the resources to support others.
CPD Info
Breakdown of the course CPD hours related to the online content, which you can do on its own or as part of a further teaching course:
12 hours supportive reading (home study) – specific excerpts from Charlotte’s book Yoga for Digestive Health – to cover basic anatomical, energetic and teaching considerations for optimal connection with the course content. Also Yoga & Somatics for Immune & Respiratory Health.
17 hours online course (pre-recorded and live online) – deeper learning into each of the practical sessions covered on the retreat; videos of the practices with commentary, short lectures; so you have all of the sequences from the retreat and the manual in another form, to practice, experience and teach over and again
10 hours self-enquiry worksheets (home study) – included in the workbook and online course (to be submitted) – on understanding of the practices, teaching language and personal adaptation into individual teaching style and content.
Additional hours for the full course teaching certification of 70 hours:
16 hours practical over the retreat weekend (in person) - an immersion in the Somatic practices in the online course, including Teaching Skills and Sequencing Classes content.
8 hours personal practice (not following the videos) – Somatic practices from the retreat/online course and manual – 6 hours practice, 2 hours written reflection after (considerations given to you in a guided sheet)
2 hours writing 60-90 minute class plan (home study) – submitted to then be taught and reflective practice written and submitted
2 hour teaching designed class (home study) – video submission of a taught class with students present (2 minimum, more if possible) – 60-90 mins teaching, remainder written reflection.
3 hours class attendance (home study) – Charlotte’s classes or workshops (or other appropriate Somatics teacher, can be online), with reflective practice afterwards (to be submitted) – 3 hours or 3 classes (no less) for attendance, remaining time for the write-up – usual class costs to be paid.
= 70 hours CPD
This course can be completed as part of Charlotte's 170 hour Therapeutic Somatics for Yoga Teachers further training for full certification. See more details here.
