Yoga Teacher Training, Level 1
Please register your interest for 2025 below, and we will be in contact!
Discover the transformative power of yoga and deepen your practice with our unique 17-day program developed by the renowned Chai Deva. With over 29 years of yoga experience, Chai has crafted a holistic course that covers the Eight Limbs of Yoga, including specialist workshops on cultivating self-esteem, public speaking, anatomy and physiology, yoga philosophy, and intelligent sequencing.
This programme is certified by both Yoga New Zealand & Yoga Alliance International, our course offers a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum that will challenge you to unlock your full potential. But it's not just about personal growth - this program is also about inspiring others.
Join a genuine community of like-minded fellow students who are all on the same transformational journey. You'll be guided by experienced instructors who are passionate about helping you reach your goals and achieve your dreams.
Are you ready to take your practice to the next level and inspire others along the way? Sign up for our unique program today and experience the power of yoga like never before.
UPCOMING DATES: 11 - 27 APRIL 2025
What's involved
You will be able to teach your peers daily, embodying your learning early on in a safe environment. You will slowly grow your kete of knowledge and leave the course feeling confident to teach. At Kindred, we thrive on continuously supporting you on your yoga journey. For students living in Nelson, we offer the opportunity to lead a koha class and provide mentorship.
Cultivate your ability to become an inspiring and skilled teacher. It will also deepen your practice. Connect with like-minded people walking the same path and deepen your knowledge of anatomy and physiology, the history and philosophy of yoga and, ultimately, yourself.
Each session has two instructors to ensure plenty of support for around 15 participants.
There are no prerequisites, but it is desirable that you already have a regular yoga practice or similar. Participants from all over New Zealand are invited – with cheap flights from Auckland and Wellington (and an easy drive from Christchurch), making sunny Nelson more accessible than ever before.
What you will learn
- Foundation yoga asanas
- Sequencing a great class
- What gets in the way of self-esteem
- Meditation and pranayama
- Anatomy for yoga, including skeletal variation and fascia
- Adjustments
- Yoga history and philosophy
- Voice projection
- Ayurveda for wellness
A typical day in the life of a teacher trainee
From 7:00 am to 6:30 pm each day, the course is a life-changing opportunity to completely immerse yourself in daily yoga practice.
- To begin - Meditation & Pranayama - creating a foundation that will support your yoga practice and explore yourself in daily life.
- Asana practice - to open and warm the body.
- A theory session each morning when the brain is at its best.
- A practical session each afternoon learning each of the asanas when the body is warm and flexible.
- Concluding the day with a Nididhyaasa (the introspective practice of digesting information & experience), integrating the learnings from the sessions, leaving you relaxed yet curious.
There is an extended lunch break each day, giving you space to eat, reflect and explore. Delicious vegetarian breakfast and afternoon tea are provided.
Venue
Dates and price
11TH TO 27TH APRIL 2025
Super early-bird
$2995 - available until midnight 31 December 2023
Early-bird
$3295 - available until midnight 15th March 2024
Full price
$3495
A non-refundable deposit of $500 upon booking with full payment due 11th March 2025 to confirm your place and the super/early-bird rates. *Payment options are available on request.
If you would like to avoid the credit card fees, then register as unpaid and contact us and we will send through the account details for internet banking.
We offer a partial scholarship program to give opportunities to those who would otherwise not be able to attend a YTT program and to make our offerings accessible to everyone who feels called toward this path. To apply, please complete this form.
Hear From Those Who Have Experienced It
"I loved every minute of my 200 hr Yoga teacher training at Kindred studio in Nelson. The course content is varied and comprehensive. Chai's depth of knowledge, insight and congruent engagement allowed for a deep connection to learning the eight limbs of yoga, the asanas, anatomy, and myself. It is easy to be inspired by Chai's enthusiasm.
Learn how Hafsa followed her intuition, cured her hormonal imbalance through yoga and created a full-time yoga and wellness career.
Before completing Kindred's 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, she describes her mindset as hopeless and her life felt disastrous. Now she feels in tune with her higher self. She quit her corporate job and now runs a successful wellness business in Auckland.
Hafsa Wilson
Certified Yoga Teacher, Personal Trainer & REIKI Master
Chai is an inspiring and dedicated yoga teacher. He has an amazing knowledge of anatomy and how each person can relate to yoga. He manages to motivate and entertain, and his classes are full of laughter. As well as laughter and knowledge, he has amazing energy and can induce a sense of calm and relaxation that leaves you floating away from a yoga class. One of the best yoga teachers that I have ever met in over 10 years of practice.
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The best journeys in life are full of new and exciting things, not all are what we expect, and some outright take us by surprise and teach us so much.
2021 was the year I finally completed my level 1 yoga teacher training. It had been a while in the planning. Many emails and calls traded with Chai helped me decide on Chai and the Kindred studio as the right place to embark on my journey further into Yoga.
The journey is the right word. The course was so well put together that it challenged me on so many levels to work on my personal yoga practise, teaching skills, yogic knowledge and understanding, breath, body and skeletal components, to name a few.
Chai created a supportive, caring environment from which deep learning evolved. Looking inward and outward, getting uncomfortable to develop as a person, was all part of this carefully planned and executed emersion over 17 days spent together in our group. Kindred teachers guide from the heart, with a sense of fun. I recommend this training to all still considering where and who to trust as you embark on this powerful learning and personal growth.
Chai is an amazing mentor, deeply passionate and knowledgeable about yoga, the body and mind, and everything related. His credibility and depth kept me in the room and focused.
There's are saying that goes, "you can only give to others when your cup is not only full but overflowing." This is something a 2019 Kindred Yoga Teacher graduate learnt the hard way. Meet Susze, who rebuilt a life overflowing with compassion from her darkest moments of depression.
Susze
Certified Yoga Instructor and Mindfulness Facilitator
More First-Hand Accounts
MEET YOUR TEACHERS
Kindred Co-FOUNDER
Chai
Kindred Studio Co-Founder
Evolve Festival Co-Director
E RYT 500, YACEP, Dip Therapeutic Massage
Chai developed the course based on over 30 years of intensive endeavour that led him worldwide to study with numerous enlightened teachers and thousands of teaching hours.
Chai describes his "purpose in life is to be a guide for internal connection. The word teacher doesn’t resonate with me. I work as a conduit to help others discover who they are. I intend to speak from the heart. I trust the knowledge that has come before me to present itself through me at the right moment. I allow myself to be receptive and surprised by what is revealed for me to share with my students.
I teach from my embodied deep understanding and experience. My teaching style is particular and sensitive to the group I speak to at any specific time. I clear my mind and tune in to see what comes through."
KINDRED Co-FOUNDER
Bex
Kindred Studio Co-Founder
Evolve Festival Co-Director
White Belt Nia teacher, RYT 200.
Bex will be assisting throughout the training teaching how to support and modify asana for women throughout their many life stages from menstruation, pre and postpartum and post-menopause.
She was born to dance. 'It fills me with energy and helps me feel connected to the source,' she explains. Since 19, Bex has integrated her passions – for exploration and discovery, nutrition, permaculture and natural parenting – with business savvy. For the past two decades, she has made her livelihood doing things she loves.
In 2017, Bex completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Kindred.
GUEST TEACHER
Clare
Confidence coach
Clare will be leading a one-day self-esteem class uniquely designed to help uncover the inner drivers behind negative self-talk and get free of it. Clare is a Senior Trainer, Professional Coach and Mentor with the Kairos Foundation. This is an educational trust that delivers the More To Life Programme through many courses around the world. She is an Associate with TriVergent International. One of her strengths is bringing teams alive, seeing the individual, and keeping the organisational goals in mind at the same time.
GUEST TEACHER
Anton
Vocal coach
Anton is a prime example of a motivated Kindred YTT1 graduate. After completing his level 1 training in 2019, Anton quickly became a favourite teacher at the studio. Under Chai's mentorship, Anton has a holistic understanding of what is required of an aspiring and new yoga teacher. He now facilitates an essential voice workshop covering how to free your voice as you articulate clearly, and enhance your vocal resonance and projection.
General FAQs
Have more questions?
Do you want to make sure this is the right course for you? We know that committing to training like this may raise various questions or doubts. We'd like to answer any of your concerns so you can make the best decision for your development.
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