The detailed syllabus of the training

The course runs over three years, in a spiral: you return to the same foundations, each year a little deeper. Here is what is studied, field by field.

Hours and volume

The training amounts to 2,500 hours of formative work over the cycle, on top of personal practical and theoretical work — reading, research, the dissertation — roughly 200 hours a year. At a rhythm of 9 three-day weekends plus one residential week, that is 34 days of training a year, not counting the observation and assisting hours of the final year.

A typical day: three hours of practice in the morning, supervised at times, and one hour of personal research; three hours in the afternoon — questions and answers, detailed study of the postures, breathing, theory and methodology — and one hour of personal research.

The practice

• Learning the First series (Yoga Cikitsā), then the Second (Nāḍī Śodhana) and the Third (Sthira Bhāga), according to each person’s progress.
• The vinyāsa — the linking movements — and their rhythm.
• Ujjāyī breathing, the bandha (Mūla, Uḍḍiyāna, Jālandhara), the dṛṣṭi.
• How fast to progress: the posture adapts to the body, never the other way round.

Anatomy & physiology

• Anatomy and physiology applied to yoga.
• Basic traumatology in relation to practice — protect, never force.
• Movement: reading the body, placement, adjustments.

Hygiene & diet

• Hygiene of the major systems — kriyā, dhauti.
• Diet: eating to practise, practising to eat better.

Sources, history & philosophy

• History of the texts and traditions: śruti, smṛti, darśana.
• History and philosophy of yoga: etymology, the purpose of yoga, methodology, sacred texts — including the study of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra.
• Comparative philosophy between East and West: cultures and customs, differences and similarities.
• The great religious currents of India, the great Indian masters and their thought.

Supportive listening

The heart of the teacher’s stance — the nature and purpose of the helping relationship, an introduction to the collaborative relationship and its four components.

• The empathic relationship — empathy.
• The authentic relationship — authenticity.
• The warm relationship — being warm.
• The professional dimension.
• The “little bicycle” technique and the meta position: observing in three directions, self-assessment.
• Transference and counter-transference: regulating and stepping back.
• Practical tools of active listening: communication, levels of listening.
• Transactions and relational games: the notion of stroke and the need for recognition, transactional positions (Parent-Adult-Child), dysfunctional relationships.
• How to offer help — and when.

Psychology

• An introduction to group work.
• An introduction to some fields of psychology — temperaments and characters, sleep and yoga.
• Yoga and modern psychology; elements of psychopathology.

Sanskrit & symbolism

• The āsana, their Sanskrit names and their symbolism.
• Connecting each gesture to its source — the vocabulary is collected in the Institute’s yoga glossary.

Teaching material

For the theory classes, each participant receives a digital study document accompanying the lectures: definitions, diagrams and summaries, so that attention can go to the explanation — without replacing active note-taking.

The teaching given here is faithful to the Yoga Korunta, transmitted by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, Karnataka, South India.

Dates for the year

Provisional dates — the start of the next intake is yet to be confirmed.

• Ouvert à tous — Ashtanga – Intensive Practice
• Ouvert en auditeur libre — Study
• Réservé à la formation — Study, Transmission, Residential seminar