13 Day 100-Hour Yin Yoga and Sound Healing Teacher Training in Koh Phangan, Thailand

Certification

%Students who complete this training are eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT).

This can be a stand-alone module or it can be accredited to the 300-hour Yoga Alliance certification program.

Alternatively, it can count as Yoga Alliance Continuing Education credits - for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) only.

Yin Yoga Therapy™ and Sound Healing Diploma

Additionally, students will receive a 100-hour ‘Yin Yoga and Sound Healing’ - Yin Yoga Therapy™ practitioner diploma, accredited by Alexandra Denkinger, Doctor of Medicine in Acupuncture M.D. (Acu) and founder of The Body-Mind-Soul Centre Yoga Alliance School, affiliated with the Indian Board of Alternative Medicine as a module of the 700-hour Yin Yoga Therapy™ professional education.

Overview

Throughout your days, you will be constantly exposed to sounds, and for most of it, you will not notice that you are almost always physically responding to the sounds around you. What you do realize when you consciously listen is that sounds, music, and vibration are affecting your mood, and that your entire nervous system is responding.

Sound healing methods are ancient and used in many traditions, but nowadays, they have become more and more of interest in the modern-day wellness scene. There is a fascinating field of study that dives into the ways that sound and vibration are affecting you all the way down to a cellular level.

The Yin yoga practice, with its long-held still poses, offers the perfect meditative space for this experience. This Yin and sound teacher training program will show you how to use Yin yoga combined with sound as a therapeutic tool for promoting physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Your Yin yoga guide in the course, Manuela Sauter, will collaborate with selected international artists from various backgrounds to offer you a wide range of Yin and sound healing experiences. Hear from these artists about their approach to sound healing and get to know their instruments.

To complete the journey into yoga and sound, you will also have an introduction to mantras, bhajans, and kirtans.

What you will learn

Experience Yin and sound healing

There is the “yoga of sound,” called Nāda yoga, described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as one of the most powerful and efficient meditation techniques to still the mind. In this Yin and sound module, you will cover the study, theory, and practice of both sound healing and Yin yoga.

Experience Yin yoga healing sessions with your teacher Manuela Sauter, in collaboration with a variety of selected musicians and sound healers. Listen to their various instruments, such as singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, chimes, flute, didgeridoo, harmonium, or handpan, combined with the practice of Yin yoga, yoga Nidra, mindfulness, and meditation.

The sound of these instruments will provide an immersive, full-body listening experience that can recalibrate your system and create a Yin yoga therapy space for physical, emotional, and mental healing.

Sound waves produce subconscious activity in the brain. You can think of sound waves as aural units of measurement. Each of these units enters through the ear and into the brain, where a chain reaction of psychological and physiological changes can be observed.

For example, you have experienced this when a song makes you nostalgic. It produces certain psychological shifts in your perception, right?

There is a physical component to the way sound waves interact with your brain. Each sound wave must be inspected by the brain and turned into neural information, and with it comes a wide array of action potentials that swarm around to make sense of it.

Combine these interactions with the slow pace and passiveness of Yin yoga, and you will have the perfect backdrop for a healing experience that can help reduce stress and promote relaxation.

Sounds are not just heard by your ears, but also felt through your entire being. Sound healing also taps into the power of vibrations to reach every part of your body.

Theories suggest that stressed-out or diseased cells change frequencies and develop discordant vibrations from the rest of the body.

Sound healing may help cells operate in harmony once again. Through sound, rhythm, and frequency, you can enable your brainwaves to down-shift your normal beta state, the waking consciousness, to a relaxed consciousness in the alpha state, and reach the theta meditative state and even delta (sleep), where internal healing occurs.

Potential benefits of sound healing

• Encourages deep relaxation, which aids in meditation
• Balances blood pressure and heart rate
• Activates the brain to chemically release natural opiates
• Can lead to reduced anxiety levels, tension, and sadness, as well as diminished pain
• Synchronizes brain waves to restore the normal vibratory frequencies of cells
• Aligns, awakens, and balances the subtle energies in the body

Yin and sound foundations

• What is sound
• Sound, mind, and awareness
• Music and sound theory foundations
• Nāda yoga - yoga of sound
• Sound and spirituality

The art of Yin and sound

• Benefits of sound healing
• The magic combination of Yin and sound
• Common instruments for sound healing
• Common mistakes
• Solfeggio frequencies

Playing singing bowls

• Historical context
• Understanding singing bowl resonance and harmony
• Different types of singing bowls
• The authentic Tibetan sound bowls
• How to use the bowls for sound and vibration
• Resonance / chords / tones of a bowl
• Decoding singing bowl frequencies
• How sound vibration resonates with your body
• Other frequency and space cleansers

Sound healing

• Balancing act: Navigation of soft sciences and cathartic practices with sound healing
• Specific chakra healing protocols
• Self-healing
• Sound healing 1-to-1
• Precautions when using singing bowls
• Overview of chakras vs. Taoist elements

Sunset circles

• Mantra chanting / kirtan / sharing circles / cacao ceremony

Sound healing complements the Yin yoga practice by invoking the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress, and helping the body to ultimately gain a sense of peace, calm, and presence to ultimately recalibrate your cells to shift from ‘lower frequencies’ - slowing down and relaxing the mind and body - towards ‘higher vibrations’ to stimulate the body’s natural healing processes.

Learn to play singing bowls

During the course, the students will explore and practice how to create Yin and sound yoga sessions as well as learn to play singing bowls themselves.

Singing bowls are musical instruments used in meditation and spiritual practices, originating from the Himalayan region of Nepal, India, and Tibet. They are typically made of bronze or brass and have a round, bowl-like shape with a flat bottom and a rim that can produce sound when struck or played around with a mallet.

They produce a rich, harmonic sound when played, and are often used in meditation and mindfulness practices to help calm the mind and bring a sense of inner peace.

In traditional Tibetan culture, singing bowls were used by Buddhist monks for religious ceremonies and meditation practices. Today, people all over the world use singing bowls for wellness and spiritual practices, as well as for music and sound healing.

Singing bowls come in various sizes and designs, each with its own unique sound and energy. They are used for sound healing and therapy, as sound vibrations are believed to have therapeutic benefits for both the body and mind.

Sometimes, bowls are tuned to specific musical notes or healing frequencies. Generally, they are used to create a harmonious soundscape for meditation or yoga practices. Students are recommended to have their own singing bowl set of a minimum of three bowls (available at the training as well).

Yin yoga foundations

While Yin yoga is a wonderful practice by itself, in combination with sound healing, you can transform the practice into a multi-sensory experience.

For a solid foundation for your practice and teaching, Manuela will introduce you to the practice of Yin yoga according to principles and components, following the foundations laid out originally by Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, and Bernie Clark.

The consideration of an individual skeletal structure, functional alignment, and working with ‘Yin tissue’ to not only stretch but also strengthen them requires quite some ‘know-how’ to dive into. You will learn how to address the physical benefits, safe ways of guiding into poses, and intelligent sequencing principles according to anatomical requirements and energetic aspects.

In Yin yoga, you work with the ancient healing wisdom of the Taoist philosophy, the meridians, and the chi flow in the body. You will also get to know all the main meridians and different ways to activate and address them in the Yin yoga practice.

Transforming a Yin yoga class into a yoga healing experience needs skill and practice, so there will be the opportunity to practice teaching yourself. Mindfulness principles provide insight and guidance for the practice. Learn how to integrate mindfulness, connecting your body to a Zen state of mind to create the space to allow energetic and physical healing to take place.

Yin yoga foundations

• The components of Yin
• The practice principles
• The transformative power of the rebound

Yin yoga practice

• Classic Yin yoga poses
• Variations and additional poses for the upper body
• Sequences for each Taoist element / meridian
• Sequencing guidelines
• Asana lab

Yin yoga and the movement mechanics of the body

• The theory of exercise, fascia, and Yin tissue
• Aesthetic vs. functional alignment
• Compression vs. tension

Therapeutic aspects of Yin

• The concept of balance, Yin and Yang, and chi
• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) meridians and the Taoist elements, and their physical, emotional, and energetic value

The art of teaching Yin

• Intention / expression / context / tools
• The art of sequencing a Yin class
• Mindfulness applied
• Trauma-sensitive teaching
• Embodied practical experience

Daily practice

• Yin yoga and sound healing immersion
• Daily morning Yang practice for balance
• Daily meditation and mindfulness practices

Sample schedule

There is an example day, but you will adjust to sunrise / sunset, temperature / mosquito time, and it might change a bit from day to day, depending on sunset / sunrise times and the venue.

Weekdays will be study immersion, while your weekends will be free to explore the area and dedicate yourself to some self-study. There will also be no meals provided on Saturdays and Sundays.

The mornings will start with a nature meditation, followed by some movement with guided Yang yoga classes. After breakfast, there will be theory and methodology classes until lunch, followed by a long midday break. The late afternoons will be dedicated to the Yin yoga practice and a sunset circle to complete the day. Days can vary, but here is an example day:

• 06:30 - 07:00 - Sunrise sadhana - Spiritual self-practice time
• 07:00 - 07:20 - Nature meditation
• 07:30 - 08:30 - Guided Yang yoga practice
• Breakfast break
• 09:15 - 10:15 - Theory
• 10:20 - 11:20 - Theory
• 11:30 - 12:30 - Methodology
• Lunch and afternoon break
• 15:30 - 17:30 - Yin yoga and sound immersion
• 17:45 - 18:45 - Sunset circle