Teaching Prenatal Yoga with Deb Flashenberg, Founder of the Prenatal Yoga Center

In this episode of “Yoga | Birth | Babies,” I take off my interviewer hat and become the guest speaker! For the past 17 years I have had the joy and honor of leading group yoga classes as well as teacher trainings. In this podcast, I breakdown the principles from which I teach and train other teachers. For those who are new to teaching or just students who want to better understand my methodology, I hope you enjoy! In this episode, I cover:  The importance of seeing your students! Learning from your best teachers, your students. The pros and cons of demonstrating. Know your demographic: who you are teaching and how they best learn. Don’t be afraid to correct and adjust a student Hand on adjustments- does everyone need to be adjusted? Know why you are touching a student – your hands should be giving information as to how to stabilize or go deeper in a pose. Don’t ignore the student who needs the most attention because you are overwhelmed by their poses. My personal pet peeve- massage or little creepy adjustments. Teach! Don’t just recite memorized cues – or shout out poses. Intelligent sequencing – how do poses relate to one another. Using music- it should add to the underlying flow and drive of the rhythm About Deb : Deb is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music with a degree in Musical Theater. She has spent most of her life performing and was introduced to yoga through a choreographer in 1997. After several years as a yoga student, she decided to continue her education and became certified as a Bikram Yoga instructor. In 2001 Deb headed out to Seattle to study with renowned prenatal yoga teacher Colette Crawford, R.N., at the Seattle Holistic Center. Deb has received certification for Vinyasa Yoga from Shiva Rea as well as completed the OM Yoga advanced teacher training with Cyndi Lee in 2004. Deb has also studied the Maternal Fitness Method with Julie Tupler. Deb currently studies with Cyndi Lee, Genevieve Kapular, and Carrie Owerko. After being witness to several “typical” hospital births, Deb felt it was important to move beyond the yoga room and be present in the birthing room. In 2003, Deb attended her first birth as a DONA certified labor support doula. In that short period of time, Deb has attended about 100 births. She is continuously in awe of the beauty and brilliance of birth. In 2006, Deb received her certification as a Lamaze® Certified Childbirth Educator. In September of 2007, Deb completed a Midwife Assistant Program with Ina May Gaskin, Pamela Hunt and many of the other Farm Midwives at The Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee. Drawing on her experience as a prenatal yoga teacher, labor support doula, childbirth educator and mother, Deb looks to establish a safe, effective and empowering class for pregnancy and beyond. In April 2016, Deb had the honor of being a presenter at the Yoga Journal Live New York Conference. Deb is the proud (and tired!) mother of her son Shay and daughter Sage. Click here for Deb’s teaching schedule, her teacher trainings, and her upcoming events! “Yoga | Birth | Babies” is sponsored by Health IQ, an insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, cyclist, weightlifters and vegetarians get lower rates on their life insurance. Go to healthiq.com/YBB</ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices