200 Hour In-depth Foundational

Yoga Teacher Training Program 2009-2010

The Chicagoland and Northest Indiana area is in need of yoga teachers who can teach yoga to every "body". Our training teaches you how to do just that: teach yoga to anyone from your 2 year old to your 90 year old grandfather. Come and learn how to give the gift of yoga to others.

The Yoga Room Teacher Training:

Exceptional Course Content #1. You will learn how to teach yoga to all people, ages 2 to 90, learning to adapt practices from a variety of hatha yoga schools to meet the needs of the individuals in your classes. No one size fits all yoga or yoga fit approach here just real yoga to be taught to real people. Also, our course content far exceeds that of any yoga accreditation or registry program.

Exceptional Course Content #2. You will learn asanas, pranayama practices, meditation and yoga nidra practices so that your students transform their own lives.

Experienced Training Staff. Mike Zolfo has studied, practiced and taught yoga since 1984 with more than 6000 hours of training and teaching. JP Dave has practiced meditation for 80+ years. Gabriel Halpern and Don Wenig have 25+ and 30+ years teaching experience. You will simply not find a more experienced yoga teacher training staff anywhere in the Chicagoland area.

So com and immerse yourself into the world of yoga and transform yourself and the lives of others with our Yoga Teacher Training program. Discover your joy through becoming a certified yoga teacher.

If you would like to deepen your understanding of yoga and the yoga system or if you want to transform your students lives by teaching yoga, then our program is for you.

Our 200 hour program covers yoga history & philosophy, asana, hatha yoga anatomy, pranayama, pratyahara, yoga nidra, yoga sutras, yoga diet/nutrition and meditation practices. We believe that every person should be able to do some form or style of hatha yoga, from conception to natural death. We will teach you how to teach yoga to everyone from your 2 year old to your 87 year old grandfather. So, during our Yoga Teacher Training you will learn teachings from several different hatha and raja yoga schools including the Viniyoga tradition, the Himalayan tradition, the Iyengar method, the Bihar School, and others to be able to adapt practices to meet the needs of your future students.

The purpose of the intensive days is to deepen the practices, teach specific philosophical information and practice, practice, practice. Intensives run Fridays from 6:30pm to 9:00pm, Saturdays from 8am to 4pm and Sundays from 8am to Noon. Specific text assignments will be given at the first intensive.

If you have any questions, please give me a call at 219-226-1000 or email zyogadoctor@sbcglobal.net. Please sign up for the training by Friday, August 1st.

Our intensives begin Sunday, August 23 @ 8am. Work-study scholarships are available. Pay in full by July 1st and take 15% off the cost of the training.

200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Program 2009-10

I.Basic Information

A. Weekend intensive trainings include:

*yoga history & philosophy

*yoga asanas

*hatha yoga anatomy

*pranayama practices

*pratyahara practices

*yoga nidra practices

*yoga sutras study

*yoga diet/nutrition

*meditation practices

Weekend intensives dates for our 2009-2010 training include:

August 23, September 18-20, October 2-4, 17, November 6-8, 21, December 4-6, 19, January (2010) 8-10, 23, February 5-7, 20, March 5-7, 20, April 2-4, 17 May TBA, June TBA

B. Participation in The Yoga Room Classes or other Hatha yoga classes
60 Hours of clinical observation/participation- explained at first intensive training

C. Yoga asana and meditation practice journal & diet/nutrition journal

D. Supervised student teaching

E. At-Home study course work includes:
1. Assigned readings, reports and assignments.
2. Written test on text material.
3. Performance test on asanas, pranayama, meditation, etc.

II. Textbooks
Coulter, H. David. Anatomy of Hatha Yoga. Honesdale: Body & Breath Inc., 2001.
Iyengar, B. K. S. Light on Yoga. New York: Schocken Books, 1966.
Satyananda, Swami Saraswati. Four Chapters on Freedom. Bihar, India: Yoga Publications Trust, 1989.
------ Yoga Nidra. Bihar, India: Yoga Publications Trust, 1998.

*Other texts will be assigned based upon course curriculum

III. Intensive Days Tentative Schedule:
Fridays 6:30-9:00pm; Saturdays 8am – 4pm; Sundays 8am- Noon

IV. Course Fees & Payment plans
Option 1: $2600 One (1) payment due with application
Option 2: $1400- Two (2) payments: one due with application and November 2009 intensive.
Option 3: $1066- Three (3) payments: one due with application, November 2009 and January 2010 intensives.

**Work-study scholarships and internships are available. For more information contact Mike Zolfo at 219-226-1000.

Payments made for the Teacher Training program are non-refundable and non-transferable to other classes, workshops, etc.

Audit Fee: $700 One payment due with application. (Students who audit the course participate in all of the training intensive days but do not have to student teach and they do not receive a Teacher Training Certificate.)

*For IB above: Students who take yoga classes at The Yoga Room receive an unlimited yoga class membership for $19.00 per month for one year. (Audit students pay full rates.)

Course fees DO NOT include Textbooks (trainees receive a 20% discount when purchase from The Yoga Room).

A 200 hour Samapatti Yoga Teacher Training Certificate is granted upon successful completion of all of the above. Students have up to two years from start of program to complete it.

What is Samapatti Yoga?
Samapatti is a Sanskrit word meaning “coinciding with” or “transformative.” Samapatti Yoga(SM) is the integration of various hatha and raja yoga schools with an emphasis on the transformative process of yoga. Through the creative combination of asana variations, pranayama, pratyahara, self-study and meditation a student moves from the gross physical body to the subtle body to the spiritual self.

About the trainers...

Mike Zolfo, M.A., Director, The Yoga Room, has studied, practiced or taught various forms of yoga since 1984. He began studying stress reduction, relaxation training, yoga and meditation in 1984 with Jagdish P. Dave. He is a certified yoga instructor from the Yoga Institute in Houston. He is a member of The Yoga Research and Education Center, and the International Association of Yoga Therapists. He is the owner/director of The Yoga Room in Crown Point, Indiana. He has a Master’s Degree in Counseling/psychology. Loving husband to Mickey, devoted father to Breanne, Nick and Blake, the three best kids in the world. Mike has had many wonderful teachers over the years but considers JP, Gabriel Halpern, Mike Larocca, Lex Gillan, and Stan Hafner his mentors and Krishnamacharya to be the greatest yoga teacher of all time because of his ability to adapt practices to meet the individual needs of his students.

Jagdish P. Dave, PhD., “J.P.” is a meditation master and has conducted meditation workshops in his native country, India, and in many educational institutions and health centers throughout the United States. J.P. came to the United States from India in 1959 as a Fulbright scholar. He has a Ph. D in Education and Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology. His doctoral research focused on Integrative Meditation and cardiovascular health. He is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Governors State University in Illinois. Now 85 years young, JP comes to share his 80 years of meditation experience with us.

Gabriel Halpern (Director, The Yoga Circle, Chicago.) Gabriel holds a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in Health Psychology and is a full-time certified instructor trained at the Iyengar Institutes in Pune and San Francisco.

Other trainers include Don Wenig from Dancing Feet Yoga Center, Betty Uchman, and other Yoga Room instructors.

Our 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program will give you a solid foundation upon which to build your yoga practice and teaching skills so you can be a lifelong student of yoga and a teacher and mentor to others on their yoga journey

What people say about The Samapatti teachings and trainings…

“… your gentle approach to yoga and life inspired me to teach.”
Kathy R., Chicago

“I signed up to learn about hatha yoga, but what I ended up doing was learning about myself. On and off the mat Mike teaches yoga in the true sense of the word. He is the best teacher I have ever studied with and I look forward to taking more trainings in the future.” Tara I., Toronto.

“Mike embodies the ancient teachings found in the traditional literature and the spiritual heritage of India and imparts this knowledge to his students in a way which is understandable. I highly recommend Mike’s teacher training for those of us who wish to carry on the tradition of yoga.”
Pegg A., Chicago.