Yoga Teacher Travails & Transformations with Leslie Kaminoff

CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy)

Leslie Kaminoff is a yoga educator inspired by the tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar. He is an internationally recognized specialist with four decades’ experience in the fields of yoga and breath anatomy. He leads workshops for many of the leading yoga associations, schools and training programs in the world.

Leslie’s book Yoga Anatomy, (co-authored with Amy Matthews), sold out its first print run of 19,000 within one month of its June 2007 release, and has been a top-selling yoga book on Amazon ever since. The book went into 12 printings before the newly-revised third edition of Yoga Anatomy was released on October 31, 2011, now with well over half a million copies in print and translations into 23 languages.

Leslie also helped to organize international yoga conferences while serving as Vice-President of Unity in Yoga, and was part of the ad-hoc committee that established national standards for yoga teacher training. Prior to the formation of The Yoga Alliance, Leslie was a strong voice in the ensuing national debate regarding the application of those certification standards. This dialogue resulted in the creation of e-Sutra, an influential e-mail list and blog that has an active worldwide membership.

Leslie is the founder of The Breathing Project, a New York City based non-profit educational corporation which ran highly respected year-long courses in yoga anatomy from 2003 to 2017.

Leslie Kaminoff founded The Breathing Project in 2001 as a non-profit dedicated to the sharing of educational, community-based programming related to yoga, anatomy and health enrichment. From 2003 until mid-2017 the main vehicle for this mission was the physical studio we ran in New York City. The Breathing Project continues its mission of community service by producing and co-sponsoring workshops, immersions, symposia and publications featuring thought leaders from the fields of yoga, anatomy, somatics and other allied fields.

The courses Leslie taught at The Breathing Project in New York City have been available online to a worldwide audience at yogaanatomy.net since 2011, with thousands of students worldwide participating in this growing online community.

In this episode, Jacob & Leslie discussed:

• three tiers of yoga education: instructor, teacher, educator (and therapist?)
• the yoga teaching landscape post-Covid
• the historical arc of yoga's popularity
• the psychology of the classroom & student/teacher dynamics
• studying the anatomy of the mouth through Sanskrit

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