Mark Stephens is
a california yoga teacher and best-selling author. He integrates insights from vastly diverse sources found in ancient-to-modern yoga, tantra, science, mythology, and philosophy. Practicing yoga since 1991, teaching since 1996, and training teachers since 2002, his four comprehensive yoga textbooks, Teaching Yoga, Yoga Sequencing, Yoga Adjustments and Yoga Therapy, plus Yoga for Better Sleep, are available in many languages. Mark is currently writing a book on the histories and philosophies of yoga from ancient to modern times. He wrote the “For Teachers” column for Yoga Journal Deutschland in 2017-2019. Mark lives in Santa Cruz, California and teaches globally.
Learn more at markstephensyoga.com.
Inspiring & Uplifting Yoga Intensives for Autumn and Life
Info: You are able to book seperate days or masterclasses ( mail to barfuss@theyogaloft.de)
Every moment of our lives is filled with potential for deeper, simpler, more sublime experience. In opening our senses to being fully aware of our reality, we discover insights for consciously refining our actions and ways of living, making our practice and life more beautiful and joyful. Rather than only turning our awareness inward, we open to being fully awake in the whole of it all, conscious in the beauty of existence, even – or especially – amid complex lives in this often crazy, stressful, and unpredictable world.
These sessions blend insights from yoga, tantra, mythology, science (mostly kinesiology and neuroscience) and philosophy. Some are “Master Classes” (fully developed and intricate practices) and others are “Workshops.” All are for deepening your personal practice and – if it’syour intention – the practice of sharing yoga with others as yoga teachers and yoga therapists.
Master Classes:
These classes are designed and taught for all levels of students, offering alternative options for beginners to seriously advanced students and teachers. They model how to teach, including how to teach multi-level classes, while focusing on guiding the practice in accessible, sustainable, and meaningful ways.
Workshops:
These sessions are designed primarily for teachers and teacher trainees, and are open to anyone interested in seriously deepening and refining their knowledge of yoga.
*The Art & Science of Designing Yoga Classes
We’ll start with a lecture on theories and principles of sequencing, with ample opportunity for discussion. Then we will collaborate in creatively designing classes for a variety of different conditions and intentions: basic classes, different class “levels,” different yoga “styles,” and a variety of “special conditions” (such as lethargy, anxiety, pregnancy, limited mobility, and acrobatic exuberance).
*A Deep Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Yoga Therapy:
After a lecture on the foundations of yoga therapy (“yoga chikitsa”) distilled from ancient to modern sources, including Ayurveda, we will focus on the methods and nuanced practices for bringing yoga therapy techniques into regular yoga classes and for providing yoga therapy sessions. We will explore self- assessments, other-assessments, and creation of comprehensive therapeutic yoga treatment plans that include asana, pranayama, and meditation practices.
Day 1: Thursday 12 September
9:00– 13:00h : Sequencing Workshop Part I: Theories, Principles, and Methods
This overall Sequencing Workshop is all about designing optimal yoga classes for the students in them. We start with basic question at the heart of sequencing, “why this then that?” We’ll briefly consider how the order of things – of actions in life and yoga – are presented in primary ancient to modern yoga sources before distilling a set of coherent principles that can be methodically applied in designing yoga classes today. Next, we’ll look at the general interrelations of asanas within and between different asana families (such as standing poses, backbends, and twists) for insights into how generally to arrange asanas, both in relation to each other and in relation to the theme, level, style, and other qualities of any yoga class. This session applies and expands upon prior learning about functional anatomy, bio-mechanics, kinesiology and other elements of the practice.
Prior anatomy knowledge is not required!
14:00– 18:00h : Sequencing Workshop Part II: Designing Basic Classes
Rather than offering a rigidly set sequence (such as in Ashtanga Vinyasa and Bikram) or the opposite, randomly creative sequencing, this workshop is based on how the body works and how to make the practice of asanas as safe, accessible, yet as deep as possible. Building on the foundational insights from Part I, we will work in small groups to collaboratively design basic yoga classes in different styles of yoga (flow, intro, basic hatha, restorative, etc). Each small group will present its designed class to the entire workshop for kind discussion, loving critique, and beautiful refinement.
19:30– 21:00h : Master Class – Hip Opening
This mixed-level class will take you deeply into your hips with slow, patient, methodical, sustained and potentially revelatory techniques. First, we will sit, breathe, visualize, and set clear personal intention. Second, we will explore a gradually deepening array of very specific actions in the hips, mostly while supine. Third, we’ll explore with great specificity a variety of standing hip opening asanas in a flow-style with many options for different conditions and intentions, offering a deeper exploration of the hips. Lastly, we will rest, then sit.
Day 2: Friday 13 September
9:00– 13:00h: Sequencing Workshop Part III: Beyond Basic Classes
Picking up from Part II, this session focuses on creatingnot basic yoga classes: classes for specific conditions (such as pregnancy, kids, foosball players, stressed tech workers, and intermediate to advanced practitioners. We will continue with the same process of small group creation, presentation, and discussion, with
Mark actively facilitating this process.
14:00– 18:00h: Sequencing Workshop Part IV: Your Own Best Class Designs
You know what you want to teach, and perhaps you already teach it. Now we go into our caves to independently design a set of classes. During this process, Mark will consult with each participant as they work on their classes. After completing a class design, you will receive a friendly critique from at least one other participant before giving your final draft to Mark for his review and discussion of it with you.
Master Class 18:00– 19:30h: Healthy Back, Open Heart
Description: Fear of moving into the unknown is just one of the many challenges of backbending. Restriction in the spine, tightness in the shoulders, hips and groins, and weakness in the arms, legs and abdominal core all contribute to the difficulties one might encounter in stretching and opening the front of the body. At the heart of it all is the heart and a lifetime of embodied experience – every joy, trauma, hope and dream from childhood to the present moment pulsating inside to the rhythm of the heartbeat.
This master class will utilize a variety of techniques - including heart-centered guided meditation, core integration, hip & groin openers, shoulder openers and spinal twists - to help you move safely and joyfully into a deeper backbending, heart opening practice. We will discuss the functional anatomy and biomechanics of movement and positioning that most lend to stability, ease, and opening more deeply to it all.
Day 3: Saturday 14 September
10:00- 13:00h: Yoga Therapy Foundations: History, Theory, and Methods
Mark will give a lecture (entirely open to questions and discussion) on the historical and conceptual foundations or yoga therapy, including theories and practices of Ayurveda and modern yoga therapy theory and methods. We will explore the curious distinction between “teaching yoga” and “yoga therapy” and discuss what it means to do yoga therapy as either (or both) a yoga teacher and/or a yoga therapist.
14:30- 17:30h: Yoga Therapy in Practice/ Assessments & Creation of Therapeutic Practice Plans
Yoga therapy involves deep self-assessment as well as assessment of our students or clients who seek yoga therapy. Self-assessment can be the more challenging of these. But with greater self-understanding, we are better prepared to engage with our students or clients in communication with them about their conditions and intentions. In this session, we will do both types of assessment and use them in developing detailed therapeutic practice plans designed for specific individuals based on their conditions and intentions.
Master Class 18:00- 19:30h: Cultivating Self-Acceptance and Self-Transformation in Integrated Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation Practices
Yoga practices can be as though so many different windows through which to more clearly see ourselves from the variety of perspectives that each form creates. Paying attention to our actions and reactions, we can discover what we gravitate towards, resist, find frustrating or joyful. Rather than limiting our practices to gaining physical strength and flexibility, we can open ourselves to practicing as a tool of deeper self-discovery, and in cultivate self-acceptance in ways that makes the practice one of self-transformation. In this master class, we will do a balanced Vinyasa Flow practice –including asana, pranayama and meditation – in which the primary focus is self-awareness, self-study, and opening to clearer awareness about who we are in the present moment.
Day 4: Sunday 15 September
Basic Master Class 9:00- 10:30h: The Intricacies of Surya Namaskara – Remix and Refinement
There a few simple remixes and several principles rooted in biomechanics and neuroscience that can make these precious gems of yoga better for all – safer, more accessible, more sustainable, and more beneficial. While bowing deeply to ancient wisdom and the creativity of Krishnamacharya, Sivananda, and others, we will explore new methods and techniques for practicing and guiding Surya Namaskara A/B and Classical Surya Namaskara, considering how best to practice them as students and guide them as teachers. Begins with a lecture on the philosophies, mythologies, and histories of human being ritually bowing to the sun, especially in doing yoga.
11:00- 15:00h: Yoga Therapy in Practice: Musculo-skeletal Injuries and Mental Health
This session offers deep exploration of how to implement therapeutic yoga practice plans. We will begin with musculo-skeletal injuries that are commonly found among yoga students: strained hamstrings, shoulder issues (impingement, frozen shoulders, and rotator cuff tears), and generalized low back pain. Next, we will consider matters of inner life, of emotion and mental experience and how with yoga we can cultivate healthier ways of experiencing ourselves and living our lives.
All 4 days:
*Early Bird (up to 1st of may 2024) = 560€
*Late Bird = 600€
*Yogaloft Unlimited Members (6 & 12 Month Memberships) and Alumnates = 480€
Daily Rate: (save your spot & get more details: mail to barfuss@theyogaloft.de!)
including the Master Class: 170€
Master Classes: (save your spot & get more details: mail to barfuss@theyogaloft.de!)
*Regular: 25€
*Unlimited Members: free