Accreditation

‍Sport England, UK – Level 3 Coach & Yoga Alliance US, Australia (CPD).

Introduction

In response to extensive interest, Teen Yoga developed an online version of its highly acclaimed Teen Yoga course led by Charlotta Martinus. Working in collaboration with Yogacampus, our aim is to make the course more widely accessible, particularly outside the UK.

The Teen Yoga Online course is a foundation to yoga therapy for young people. We focus particularly on the issues arising from lockdown and the pandemic as well as exposure to Media related violence and harassment. The course introduces the student to trauma sensitivity within the classroom. The course is rich and thorough with plenty of live interaction, and continuous contact with your tutor. The course certifies you to teach therapeutically applied yoga to teenagers. It is recognised by Yoga Alliance US and Australia as a CPD program and has been constructed with the help of specialist adolescent Neuroscientists, Anatomists, Psychologists, Educators and Yoga Teachers and experts in online learning. The training is accredited by Sport England to become a Level Three Sports Coach.

Who is the course for?

The course is directed towards parents, healthcare professionals, yoga teachers, school teachers, parents and anyone working with young people. We invite students from all countries to join us. A key prerequisite is that you have a solid regular yoga practice of your own and a keen interest in young people.

Course Synopsis & Outline

Yoga can offer an age-old tradition with answers to many of the concerns that the adolescent population are facing. We cover topics such as  – gender identity and confusion, sexuality, the impact of social media on mental health, consumerism and mental health and post-Covid issues likely to arise among young people and what role you and yoga have to play in these issues.

The physical exercise of yoga appeals to many different groups, such as:

• the athletic, as a form of repair and warm up, to enhance performance and reduce injury
• the non-sporty, as a form of easy exercise
• the injured, as a form of therapy for their injury

Many teacher students find this course is an opportunity for them to grow and understand their own development as a teenager and bring that wisdom into their teaching, introducing a deeper respect and compassion for this population.

You will spend approximately a third of your time in lectures, group work and in discussion and two thirds in applied learning, doing practical exercises. It is predominantly a secular and experiential course but grounded in scientific research.

Course Outline

This course aims at being as comprehensive as possible, introducing:

• physical development
• mental development (neuroscience)
• psychological development and theories of adolescence
• Post-pandemic issues and how to support young people
• trauma sensitive yoga sessions
• behavioural management
• mindfulness techniques
• lesson plans for a 10, 20, 30 or 60-minute class
• how to introduce philosophical discourse involving yoga philosophy
• how to teach pranayama and asana
• how to introduce meditation
• marketing techniques
• funding streams

Aims, Objectives & Learning Outcomes

The aim of this course is to learn to share wellbeing tools, to increase the overall health of young people, both mental and physical.

The course is more than a training in how to teach asanas, it is also an exploration in how to share the philosophy and psychology of yoga to ensure a more positive mental health for the students. The teachers adopt a bipartisan approach – including the participants in all exercises to ensure that we learn as much as possible from each other and are responsive to the needs in the room.

The graduate will come away with a toolbox of materials to use in the classroom; lesson plans, hard copy and virtual resources access to funding streams, inclusion techniques, marketing techniques, understanding of anatomical, psychological and neuro-scientific development of the young person and ideas of how to share philosophy and psychology with the group. There is also excellent post-course support to keep graduates inspired.

The TeenYoga graduate will be able to adapt all their yoga knowledge successfully to this age group through the new understanding, brought about by their own self-inquiry, therapeutic work and insights brought about by the course.

We also hope that the graduate may come away with a deeper understanding of their own teenage years and the impact it has had on their subsequent development. The experience of these yoga classes will enhance concentration in the classroom, self-esteem, respect for others as well as the ability to relax completely for the young person.

Our Approach

The Teen Yoga online course goes beyond the usual online offering, using a community approach to ensure the same high quality interactive and participatory experience that Charlotta has always provided. The course is both practical and theoretical – meaning you will be spending time on the mat investigating and experiencing sequences frequently used with young people, as well as engaging in group projects and discussion with your peers and individual reflection, with continuous tutor support in forums and one-to-one tutorials. You will also be learning through visual lectures and audio meditations, and seminars with Charlotta. This unique combination of learning techniques will provide you with a much deeper and grounded understanding of the complexities and intricacies of teaching yoga to adolescents.

Course Content

The course is based on in-depth coverage of the research evidence relating to adolescent development and yoga and over 15 years of hands-on experience in this field. The topics of the online course are the same as the face to face course, namely

• Socio-psychology of the Adolescent
• Anatomy of the adolescent
• Neurobiology of the Adolescent
• Teenagers and yoga principles
• The logistics of teaching teen yoga

Within these topic areas there will be other varied topics also covered, which you can see in the detailed prospectus.

The Schedule

Orientation begins from Friday 11 SEPTEMBER 2026 (obligatory but at your own pace).

Orientation webinar – obligatory. TUE 15 SEPT.

M1 Group Presentation – obligatory. MON 28 SEPT.
M1 Group Webinar – obligatory. TUE 29 SEPT.

M2 Group Presentation – obligatory. MON 12 OCT.
M2 Group Webinar – obligatory. TUE 13 OCT.

PLEASE NOTE: The clocks change in the UK on Sunday 25th October and go back by one hour. The start time of the sessions will be the same but the UK time will change from BST to GMT – please calculate the new time based on your own time zone.

M3 Group Presentation – obligatory. MON 26 OCT.
M3 Group Webinar – obligatory. TUE 27 OCT.

M4 Group Presentation – obligatory. MON 9 NOV.
M4 Group Webinar – obligatory. TUE 10 NOV.

M5 Group Presentation – obligatory. MON 23 NOV.
M5 Group Webinar – obligatory. END ON TUE 24 NOV.

Each webinar or presentation is at 8AM or 6PM UK time – you can choose which time to join for each date.

International students please click here to view the event start time across timezones.

You will receive links to each module’s video lectures and supporting materials every other Wednesday.

Course Structure

The 5 modules are delivered over a 10 week period. During this period the student will need to dedicate between 7 and 10 hours per week to the course. In addition to a wide variety of course content and activities in which you work on different aspects of the subject area with your peers, there are regular webinars and conference calls. Each module has a webinar with Charlotta Martinus and a group online session, as well as an individual session with your tutor.

Teaching Faculty

Charlotta Martinus, the course leader, is supported by a team of highly experienced online tutors. The tutors are experienced TeenYoga teachers and therapists trained exclusively by Charlotta to run this course. Often, they also work with teens in other capacities such as educators or therapists. They are all continuously monitored and supported by Charlotta.

Your Commitment

Effective participation in the course requires a minimum dedication of 7 hours a week, and for some up to 10. There are five modules on the course (plus a short introductory module). Each module lasts two weeks. You should expect to dedicate an average of about one hour a day, and you choose when you wish to do this. However, we recommend that you try to keep a regular rhythm rather than trying to do it all on one day. You will also have a group task to do in each module where you may wish to have meetings with your group, or choose to communicate via messaging.

The course is quite intense in order to give you the grounding you need to teach adolescents yoga effectively. The dedication involves, in each module:

• A theory section which involves a range of detailed content and reflection, with a variety of videos and presentations for you to follow, as well as an example class
• Assignments, which involve one activity to be done in collaboration with others and one individual activity.
• Reflection activities where you consolidate and explore what you are learning, on your own and with peers in the class forum space

All the above activities can be done in your own time. There are also activities that take place in specific time slots, that are appropriate for your time zone. These are:

• Webinar with Charlotta Martinus, (1.5 hours) the opportunity to ask questions and go further into the subject
• Group online session (1.5 hours) where you share the work you have done in your assignments with the group and comment
• Individual tutorials, (30 mins – time arranged with tutor to suit both) where you comment on your progress and discuss any issues that may have arisen in the module

Prerequisites

Several students have taken this course with no previous experience in either yoga or working with teens and have found it most useful. But to ensure full insurance and accreditation, we ask for:

• Preferably at least three years’ yoga practise under the guidance of an accredited teacher and a teaching degree/experience

Or

• a yoga training of any tradition

It is important to have an interest and experience in working with teens.

If you do not fulfil these criteria, please feel free to contact the Course Tutor and have a preliminary interview to ascertain whether this course is for you.

Reading List

Required Reading

• Teen Yoga for Yoga Therapists by Charlotta Martinus – Buy it in the shop
• The Book of Dharma by Simon Haas. Buy it here – Buy it in the shop
• Dark Night of the Soul by Simon Haas – Buy it in the shop

Recommended reading

• Brainstorm by Dr Dan Siegel
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• The Body Keeps the score by Bessel van Der Kolk