Advanced Breathwork Level 2 Yoga Teacher Training (25/50hrs)
Interested in our 2025 Advanced Breathwork Level 2 Teacher Training? Please register your interest below and we will be in contact.
Fairfield House, Nelson | 3-day in-person intensive + optional 25-hour teaching pathway
Discover the Power of Breath – For Your Practice and Your Teaching
Inhale Deeply. Something Real Is About to Shift.
What if the breath wasn’t just part of your yoga practice—
but the key to unlocking greater depth, ease, and confidence in how you show up on the mat, in your life, and for your students?
This training is for yoga teachers and experienced practitioners who suspect there’s more to the breath than just inhale–exhale—and want to actually understand what it’s doing, why it matters, and how to share it with confidence. Whether you’re looking to deepen your own practice or add clarity and impact to your teaching, this three-day intensive offers something rare: a space to explore breath in a way that’s practical, embodied, and quietly transformative.
Whether you teach vinyasa, hatha, yin, or restorative, breath is the common thread.
This training will help you weave it more skillfully into everything you offer.
Join Us
Join us in this journey of growth and discovery, where we prioritise your growth as both a practitioner and a teacher. Our Level Two 50-Hour Teacher Training Module is designed to elevate your teaching, expand your knowledge, and empower you to inspire more students. Together, we’ll unlock new potential, both in yourself and in those you guide.
This programme is certified by 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. For those wishing to gain 50 hours towards their level two 300hr certificate there's an additional day of training on the Monday plus post training course work and teaching that will be required by you to complete the training, we provide support to complete this process.
What You’ll Learn (and Apply Immediately)
Foundations That Make Sense
Break down breath through the lense of its three core components—biochemistry, biomechanics, and rhythm—so you understand what’s really happening in the body and mind. You’ll explore how breath affects nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and energy levels in a way that’s both evidence-based and experientially grounded. Once you understand these three core components you'll be able to understand the effects of any breathing technique you might practice including those below.
Techniques Covered & Explored Through the Lense of the Three Core Components
Nadi Shodhana and Anuloma Viloma (for clarity and calm)
Kapalabhati also known as the Breath of Fire
Wim Hof-style breathing (for energy and cleansing)
Breath-hold and CO₂ tolerance training from the Oxygen Advantage These are taught with nuance, so you’ll know how, when, and why to use each one—and how to adapt them to individual needs.
UPCOMING DATES: 20th - 22nd September 2025
Choose your Pathway
Personal Practice Track
Ideal if you're looking to deepen your own breath awareness and regulate your nervous system.
- 3-day intensive at Fairfield House
- Guided practices, reflection, and journaling
- Supportive community of teachers and peers
Teaching Pathway
Includes everything above plus 25 hours of additional coursework designed to:
- Develop your voice and presence as a breathwork teacher
- Learn safe sequencing, cueing, and space-holding
- Receive mentoring and feedback on your delivery
Contributes 50 hours toward your Level 2 (300-hour) Yoga Alliance certification
The prerequisites to attend this course are; either, you have completed 200hrs yoga teacher training, or have been doing various breathwork practices and or attended one of Chai's breathwork courses. If you have no experience, but are interested, please email [email protected] to arrange an interview with Chai. 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
What to Expect:
Over three immersive days, you’ll experience a balanced mix of theory and hands-on practice. You’ll not only learn the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ behind each technique, empowering you to breathe with intention and teach with confidence.
Certification and Beyond:
As part of our Yoga Alliance Level 2 Teacher Training, this course contributes 50 hours towards your 300-hour certification, offering a clear path for those ready to take their teaching to the next level.
A practical, embodied understanding of the three pillars of breath:
✨ Biochemistry
- Understand how CO₂ tolerance, oxygen uptake, and nitric oxide influence focus, calm, and energy.
- Learn how to assess breathing patterns using tools like the BOLT score.
✨ Biomechanics
- Learn to recognise and guide functional vs dysfunctional breathing.
- Explore posture, the diaphragm, and accessory muscle use.
✨ Cadence
- Experience how rhythm affects brainwaves, heart rate, and emotion.
- Practice coherent breathing for calm and balance.
Meet Your Facilitator: Chai Deva
Chai brings over 30 years of experience in yoga, pranayama, breath coaching, and body-based therapy. His teaching style is grounded, evidence-informed, and heart-led—making ancient techniques both accessible and relevant to today’s yoga spaces.
You’ll learn in a way that’s experiential, not scripted—so you can teach from your own embodied understanding.
A day in the life of a trainee:
We believe learning breathwork shouldn’t be dry, clinical—or overwhelming. Instead, each day is carefully designed to balance learning, reflection, and embodiment in a way that feels spacious, engaging, and deeply human.
Here’s a glimpse of what your day might look like:
Morning: Embodied Exploration
We start the day together with a guided breath practice—each day exploring a different technique such as Kapalabhati, Nadi Shodhana, or coherent breathing.
You’ll be encouraged to tune in, notice the effects, and reflect on:
- What changes?
- Where do you feel the breath most?
- How does each technique shift your mood or energy?
This isn’t about right or wrong—it’s about becoming curious, and starting to build your own inner map of how breath works for you.
Followed by a shared breakfast at 9 a.m., allowing time to connect and settle into the day.
Late Morning: Understanding the Why
Our mid-morning session dives into breath science and philosophy, but always with a practical lens. Expect to learn about topics like:
- Blood chemistry and CO₂ tolerance
- Nervous system regulation
- Breath and emotional patterning
We keep things moving with interactive elements, gentle movement, and time for questions. This isn’t a lecture—it’s an exploration.
Afternoon: Bringing it to Life
After lunch, we shift into applied learning. These sessions are focused on:
- Practising techniques
- Working in pairs or small groups
- Exploring how to cue breath clearly and safely
- Learning to adapt breathwork for different bodies, needs, and settings
There’s plenty of space for discussion, peer feedback, and shared insights. We also break for afternoon tea, giving your brain (and breath) time to integrate.
End of Day: Integration & Practice
We close each day with a more practical, embodied session—designed to leave you feeling grounded and spacious, rather than overloaded.
You’ll finish each day with:
- A deepened sense of how breath feels in your own body
- Greater confidence in sharing what you’ve learned
- That satisfying feeling of having done something real, useful, and alive
This isn’t about cramming in content. It’s about learning in a way that sticks—because it’s embodied, personal, and shared.
There are breaks throughout each day, giving you space to eat, reflect and explore. Breakfast and afternoon tea is included, plus tea & coffee. Please provide your own lunch.
Venue
Dates and price
Super early-bird
- Includes 3-day intensive (25hrs)
- Teacher Training Pathway (50hrs) $1199
Early-bird
- Includes 3-day Intensive (25hrs)
- Teacher Training Pathway (50hrs) $1299
Full Price
- Includes 3-day intensive (25hrs)
- Teacher Training Pathway (50hrs) $1399
A non-refundable deposit of $300 upon booking with full payment due 30 August 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.
The Teacher Training Pathway
For those ready to share the breath in a bigger way, this add-on stream is designed to give you the tools, structure, and confidence to teach breathwork as a focused offering—whether in class, one-on-one, or as a standalone course.
This pathway includes:
- An extra day of in-person training (post-intensive), focused on cueing, sequencing, and holding space
- Access to Chai’s 4-week breathwork course (as a student first)
- A requirement to teach your own 4-week course
- Additional study, practice, and reflection to bring your total to 50 hours—suitable for Level 2 Yoga Alliance certification
You’ll walk away not just understanding the breath, but able to teach it with clarity, integrity, and your own authentic voice.
This is for yoga teachers who want to offer more than asana, and are ready to bring a deeper presence into their teaching.
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 TEACHER
Kindred Co-FOUNDER
Chai
Kindred Studio Co-Founder
Evolve Festival Co-Director
E RYT 500, YACEP, Dip Therapeutic Massage
Chai has been working with breath, body, and awareness for over 30 years. His path has taken him from traditional yoga and pranayama lineages to modern breath science, bodywork, and nervous system regulation—and somewhere along the way, the breath stopped being a technique and became a way of life.
He’s trained in everything from classic yogic pranayama to the Oxygen Advantage, and blends this with deep experience in manual therapy, somatics, and the kind of wisdom that doesn’t always come with certificates. You’ll find threads of Advaita, Tantra, and Zen running quietly through his approach—but never in a way that demands belief.
“I’m not here to give you a method—I’m here to help you trust your own experience of breath. That’s what stays with you long after the course ends.”
Chai is also a father, festival organiser, and the co-founder of Kindred Studio in Nelson—a community space where yoga, dance, and healing practices are shared with warmth, humour, and care. His teaching style is down-to-earth, clear, and quietly transformative.
This isn’t a breathwork bootcamp. It’s a space for curious, committed teachers and practitioners to explore what breath can really offer—beyond the buzzwords and into something far more meaningful.
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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