Access to Empowerment with M Camellia

Saturday, April 18 from 12-6p (this will be held digitally via Zoom!)

Access to Empowerment: Teaching Agency, Honoring Consent & Understanding Power Dynamics in Yoga Spaces

An undeniable cultural shift is happening--every day, more and more of us are engaging in meaningful conversations around consent, trauma, social inequity, and the politics of self care and access to wellness, healing, and yoga. As a society, we’re asking important questions: who has power? Who has resources, and who is systemically under-resourced? How are we contributing to a culture of agency...or its opposite?

As much as we like to think they don’t, the power dynamics and systems of oppression built into the larger culture seep into our yoga spaces. As yoga teachers, it is our responsibility to be engaged with these bigger questions, and also asking some of our own: how can we honor the non-violent and inclusive ethics of yoga in our studios and classes? In what ways are we potentially wielding unjust power over our students, and how can we actively work towards practices of power sharing? How can we avoid exacerbating the effects of large-scale social trauma and possibly even lead our students towards healing? How do we work together, in conscious union on and off the mat, to create a larger culture of collective access, agency, and empowerment?

This six-hour module will invite you to engage with all of these questions and more, breaking down the definitions of agency, consent, and power and exploring how our own privileges, biases, and blind spots come into the studio with us and show up in our teaching. You’ll leave the day with plenty to chew on, but also with some tangible skills and best practices to incorporate into your teaching, including tools for collaborating with your students, welcoming diverse communities into your classroom and creating an inclusive and accessible environment, the basics of trauma-informing your teaching practice, and personal practices for ongoing self-study and awakening.

Please bring a journal and writing implement. We will do a couple of short centering and grounding practices incorporating gentle movement, breath, and moments for silent integration--please dress comfortably. Registrants will be eligible for 6 Yoga Alliance CEUs upon completion.

Participants are welcome to join for Saturdays’s program and are invited to join for Saturday’s related workshop on Accessible Movement. Sign up below and purchase the pass for (2) sessions to attend both. Pricing has three tiers (need assistance, cover your costs, and provide assistance) - please choose what fits your life: $125-$195 for one session, $220-$360 for both.

Teacher Bio:

Melanie “M” Camellia (they/them), E-RYT, is an East-Coast-based yoga teacher, teacher trainer, and accessibility advocate, called to create profoundly inclusive, agency-oriented spaces for self inquiry and the inner work that serves the outer world. They believe the goal of yoga, as of life, is collective liberation, and in turn challenge contemporary yoga practitioners to dismantle the oppressive systems and beliefs, within themselves and society at large, that hold us all back. They’ve been called a “tour-de-force of encouraging radical self-love” (DC Refined) and listed among the “top thinkers and activists in the field of body positivity” (OmStars).

Teaching since 2016, Melanie is a certified Yoga For All and Accessible Yoga teacher, an Accessible Yoga Lead Trainer, and a yoga teacher mentor. A constant learner, they have committed to extensive continuing education in the areas of accessibility, trauma-informed teaching, and biomechanics. Recognized as an industry leader in the areas of inclusion, agency, and consent, they have served as an expert advisor on yoga ethics to leading industry groups and as a featured presenter at yoga service conferences, including the March 2020 Evolution of Yoga Summit in Los Angeles. Melanie co-leads the Yoga & Body Image Coalition, manages Accessible Yoga Trainings internationally, and writes about queer and trans identity, body image, representation politics, desire, and agency.