Mentorship is an essential aspect of yoga teacher training. Chelsea Cano and Katie Felt are lead mentors for the 2025 cohort and are supported by a group of incredible yogis, including Jeannette Jacques Ali, Margo Chabot, Hannah Chu, Lina Hogan, Lori Juan, Kylee Moats, Evelyne Ruelas, and Melissa Shaw. The role of the mentor is to guide and support your development as a yoga practitioner and facilitator, including:
• Co-creating and maintaining a supportive and inclusive learning community.
• Encouraging you to experience life yogicly.
• Facilitating group discussions centered around the yoga teacher training curriculum.
• Offering conscious feedback in response to your practice and sharing of yoga.
• Modeling mindful and heart-full facilitation skills.
• Helping resolve any conflicts that may arise within the community.
• Assessing your readiness for certification at the conclusion of yoga teacher training.
Mentor group gatherings provide an opportunity to foster lasting connections and help develop your ability to share yoga with the help of an experienced guide. Each meeting is an invitation to co-create a supportive community of fellow practitioners.
Each mentor group meeting will follow the same basic format:
CENTERING PRACTICE
about 6 minutes
Mentor keeps the time and rings bell at end.
CHECK-INS
about 24 minutes
a couple minutes per person
How is yoga practice helping you meet the challenges and joys in your life?
What are you learning and how is the course supporting you in that learning?
SKILL-BULIDING PRACTICE
about 24 minutes
Mentor leads assigned skill-building practice.
Followed by feedback from group members, using the four-step feedback process.
DISCUSSION
about 24 minutes
Discuss the topics assigned for the mentor group meeting.
If no topics are assigned, discuss any topics that come up. General discussions could include:
How are things going for you so far in the program?
Where are you finding inspiration?
What has been challenging for you?
OPPORTUNITY FOR FEEDBACK ABOUT MENTOR GROUP MEETING
about 12 Minutes
Allow “process time” at the end of the mentor group meeting for each person to express how the meeting was for them - what worked well and what didn’t. This allows everyone to benefit from individual observations and hear any ideas that would make the group stronger, rather than anyone leaving the meeting feeling disconnected from the group.