Embodied Yogi School - Level 1

Established 2026

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Embodied Yogi School

Program Instances

In person

Dates: TBD

200 hours • TBD

Torrance, CA, US

Led by

JOANN DRASDIS

CYT-L3

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Purpose

Your Training at a Glance

Program: 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training
Format: Six in-person immersion weekends, mentorship, independent study, and practical teaching experience
Duration: Six months of immersions, with up to 12 months to complete program requirements + mentorship circles
Location: All Yoga Torrance, California / Online
Certification: American yoga Council Level 1 teacher training through Embodied Yogi School + My Best Playlist from DJ Taz

What to expect

Your Learning Journey

Your training unfolds through six immersive modules, each building upon the last.

Foundations of Embodiment & Sadhana: Establish your personal practice and explore the foundations of yoga.
Embodiment, Integration & Functional Movement: Understand the body and develop an intentional approach to movement.
Trauma-Informed Teaching & Ethics: Learn to create inclusive, compassionate, and empowering spaces.
Cueing, Voice & Presence: Discover the art of delivering the Embodied Yogi Method.
Teaching Excellence & the Art of Experience: Create meaningful experiences through movement, music, and connection.
Professional Growth & Teaching Integration: Integrate your learning and prepare to share your gifts as a teacher.

Style/Lineage

Your journey from practicing yoga to embodying it begins here.

Welcome to Embodied Yogi School (EYS)! We're excited to guide you through a transformative journey of self-discovery, intentional movement, and personal growth.

Our 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training is designed to help you deepen your personal practice, expand your understanding of yoga, and develop the confidence to share its teachings authentically, both on and off the mat.

Whether your goal is to become a yoga teacher or simply deepen your connection to yourself, this experience is about more than learning poses. It's about learning to live the practice.

Additional Information

Core competencies

By the end of this program, graduates will be able to…

Lifestyle & Ethics	Explain why ongoing self-care and honoring personal limits are essential to teaching with embodied presence, describing the connection clearly. Evaluate personal daily conduct against the yamas and niyamas, identifying areas of alignment and growth with honest supporting evidence developing a personal plan for living a chosen Limb, ensuring the plan is specific, observable, and consistent with yogic ethics. Identify the cultural and historical roots of yoga and the key elements of inclusive teaching, naming each accurately.
Teaching Skills	Apply trauma-informed principles in a class setting, offering explicit choices and opt-outs that leave authority with the student consistently. Demonstrate layered cueing that combines directional, alignment, and sensory language, using inclusive and invitational phrasing throughout. Examine how vocal pacing and the use of silence influence the energy of a room, distinguishing calming from agitating patterns with specific examples and demonstrate a slow, steady, and soothing vocal delivery with intentional pauses, maintaining grounded and non-reactive presence throughout a class. Apply sequencing principles to build a vinyasa flow with smooth, intelligent transitions, placing each posture family in a logical and safe order and design a themed vinyasa class that weaves philosophy, breath, and movement into a coherent energetic arc, ensuring a safe journey toward and away from the peak posture. Assess a class for accessibility to diverse populations, justifying recommended adaptations by safety, inclusion, and functional need, offering props and modifications to students with diverse bodies and abilities, using inclusive language that normalizes every option.
Practice Skills	Create a balanced personal asana practice that progresses intelligently from grounding to peak to integration, ensuring safety and stability throughout. Practice interoceptive awareness and witnessing during asana and stillness, noticing sensations and emotions without over-identifying with them consistently. Practice a consistent personal sadhana and document it with reflective journaling, maintaining steady commitment over time. Explain the meaning of pranayama and the purpose, benefits, and contraindications of each foundational technique, describing each clearly.
Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics	Explain how the transverse abdominis, diaphragm, and pelvic floor create intra-abdominal pressure to support the spine, describing the role of the bandhas clearly. Identify directional terminology, the planes of movement, and the joint types most relevant to asana, using correct anatomical terms consistently, describing movement in each plane during common postures, matching each posture to its plane accurately. Demonstrate efficient diaphragmatic breathing in seated and supine positions, showing smooth expansion of the abdomen and ribs without strain. Explain how prana flows through ida, pingala, and sushumna and how the vayus govern its movement, describing these relationships clearly. Apply nervous system principles to choose cool-down and closing practices that support down-regulation, explaining how posture, breath, interoception, and vagal activation shift the body from stress responses toward rest and digest, describing the physiology clearly.
Business Skills	Define the scope of practice of a yoga teacher, recognizing clearly where it ends relative to medical and mental health professions. Use consent forms, waivers, and incident documentation correctly in a teaching context, maintaining confidentiality and factual accuracy throughout. Identify the elements of a teacher's value proposition and niche, such as nervous system regulation, trauma sensitivity, and functional movement, and explain how ethical marketing differs from overpromising cures, describing how honest messaging builds lasting trust with students.
Yoga History & Theory	Identify the major periods in the history of yoga, from the Indus-Sarasvati civilization through the classical, hatha, and modern eras, naming each in order. Apply the limbs of ashtanga yoga to interpret how personal practice moves from outer conduct to inner absorption, using accurate examples. Apply the kleshas to observe moments of attachment and aversion in daily life, documenting each observation accurately and without judgment. Describe what students can expect from each major style of yoga, explaining its pacing, intention, and benefits clearly.

AYC allows each school to state and evaluate the competencies each student acquires. Students rate how well the program delivered them.

Program Emphasis

Evaluation methods

Program evaluations

Written Submission
Solo Project Or Presentation
Graded Skill Demonstration
Direct Observation
Oral Exam
Graded Demonstration
Other

Students will be expected to teach a final community class and submit a video of themselves teaching as their final practicum

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Program Faculty

Featured Faculty

JOANN DRASDIS

With 20 years of experience in group fitness and movement education, JoAnn Drasdis is the founder of Embodied Yogi School (EYS). Her journey has evolved from group exercise instruction into a holistic approach to yoga, mindful movement, breathwork, and embodied living.

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