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The Mentor Sessions — Fitness & Nutrition
The Mentor Sessions

With amazing guests or solo, I explore the craft of teaching yoga, as its own practice. I’m seeking answers to the questions about why we teach something the way we do, how we could be more expansive and inclusive in our teaching, and how we can continue to grow and evolve in our teaching practice.

I’m so glad you are here because I believe the depth that arises in teaching comes from inquiry and relationship. Join me as I offer nourishing support to help you feel more confident in your teaching and realistic strategy to help you find more clarity on your career path.

Francesca Cervero (she/her) has been a full-time yoga teacher since 2005. Her teaching is inspired by her foundational training with Cyndi Lee at OM Yoga Center, the years she spent as a dancer and the subsequent years she spent in physical therapy. Her teaching is also influenced by her love of Buddhist teachings and a constant curiosity about anatomy and biomechanics. She is in private practice teaching a full schedule of 1×1 clients, mentors yoga teachers in The Science of the Private Lesson™, hosts the podcast, The Mentor Sessions: Support & Strategy for Yoga Teachers and is the founder of the adjoining community, The Mentor Sessions Sangha.

Latest Episodes:

116: Integrating Buddha Dharma and Asana with Meredith Witte- Live Mentoring Session Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

Many of the yoga teachers I've worked with feel more comfortable and confident teaching asana than they do teaching the other seven limbs of yoga. This was true of me as a new teacher also! Questions about how to skillfully interweave dharma and asana come up frequently with the teachers in our community.

I'm so happy to share with you this Live Mentoring Session with longtime listener of the show and wonderful yoga teacher Meredith Witte, of The Playground App. Meredith brought excellent, thoughtful questions that inspired an in-depth conversation about finding my voice and integrating dharma and asana.

Show Notes: https://www.francescacervero.com/category/podcast/

Meredith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplayground.app/

Meredith's website: http://www.theplaygroundapp.com

115: The Case For Teaching Leveled Classes Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

The thinking behind this episode has been a long time in the making. I haven't talked about this much publicly, but If you've done 1x1 mentoring with me, if you've taken my group classes, if you're in The Mentor Session Sangha, or if you've taken a teacher training with me, then you've heard me talk about it....

...and today I'm publicly making The Case for Teaching Leveled Classes.

I haven't talked about it publicly because it's nuanced and complex and challenging to present in a one-sided conversation. So what I hope to share today are some questions to help you reflect on your teaching as an individual, some questions to help you reflect on the institutions you are teaching at, and some some questions for us as a wider yoga community.

In this episode you'll hear:

why I think leveled classes can be helpful for both teachers and students
how to create leveled classes and still dismantle the notion of hierarchical progress in yoga
the different language we use to talk about "Open Level" classes, and what actually happens most often
what I think belongs in an "advanced" yoga class
how leveled classes have the opportunity to be more accessible, not less
why a beginner's class is not the same things as a gentle class
how to support a student who has been in a Level 1 class for many years
the difference between something being taught or "offered"
where to take this conversation deeper!

114: Pelvic Health in Yoga Classes with Shannon Crow Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

Our students' movement patterns directly impact their pelvic health, and their pelvic floor impacts their movement patterns! With those two aspects of our students' health so intertwined, it's really important that yoga teachers understand the nuances of that relationship. We are so lucky to have longtime yoga teacher, teacher's mentor, and yoga for pelvic health expert Shannon Crow on the show with us today!

113: How To Respond To Students Who Want "Correct" Alignment with Ariele Foster Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

Ariele Foster is a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of Yoga Anatomy Academy, a no-nonsense, evidence-based resource for learning yoga anatomy and movement science. She runs an integrative physical therapy clinic in Washington DC (and via telehealth). In addition to teaching online courses and an anatomy mentorship through Yoga Anatomy Academy, she has also taught online courses for and written for Yoga Journal on hip stability and fascia release. Ariele began teaching yoga in 2001 and her grandmother was also a yoga teacher.

112: How To Find New Private Clients with Mary Reddinger Nov 15, 2022

Show notes

Mary Reddinger is joining us on the show today to share how she built her full-time private yoga practice just recently! Mary and her family moved in the middle of the pandemic, and with her husband in school, her yoga teaching is their sole source of income. Mary worked incredibly hard to build a private practice and she did it quite quickly! She has a full roster of dedicated students who are engaged in their practice and appreciate her work immensely.

111: Planning A Beginner's Series with Dara Madigan Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Over the last few years more and more yoga teachers have worked to create their own teaching offerings outside of a studio setting, and I think this is a great thing! While I absolutely value the community space a yoga studio can create, I also think creating learning opportunities for students (especially new students) outside of a typical yoga studio can be wonderful. And it can be great for us as teachers to begin to build our own teaching opportunities and small businesses.

A longtime member of my community, Dara Madigan, created and ran her first Beginner's Series on her own this fall, and it was such a smashing success I asked her to come on the podcast and share all the details with y'all so you could model your own Beginner's Series after hers! And I'm intentionally releasing this in October, because I think mid-January next year would be a great time to run in, which means you need to start planning it now!

110: Q+A, Taking Time Off, Hamstrings, Continuing Ed + More! Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

I've been collecting your questions over the last few weeks, and I'm so happy to share this Q+A episode with you today! (It's an off the cuff, casual vibe. I think you'll like it!)

In this episode I'll answer questions like:

How do you work with plantar fasciitis?
How do we work with our students' injuries when we think some movement might be helpful, but a doctor has told our student to stay away from movement?
What happens to our classes and our students when we take an extended period of time off?
How did you plan for and manage your maternity leave?
What is the best way to recover from a hamstring injury?
How are you balancing your teaching/work schedule with being a new parent?
How do you make time for/organize continued education and study in relation to your teaching?

Ep. 109: The Ten Things Saving My Life Right Now Sep 16, 2022

Show notes

Hello! After a long maternity leave I'm back in front of the podcasting mic and so excited to be here. This episode is quite a departure from our usual conversations about the craft of teaching yoga. Since I've been out for so long I wanted to connect with all of you in a more intimate way, so this episode is more personal than usual!

I'm going to share the Ten Things Saving My Life Right Now to give a little inside peek into my season of life, my plans for teaching and how I'm calling in support.

In this episode you'll hear:

all the places I'm getting support as I make this big transition
what I replaced social media scrolling with
all about the best food delivery service I've ever used!
the online communities where I love to hang out
my favorite places for online asana classes
how I slowly started teaching again this summer
where I keep all my to do's organized
a breakdown of my entire fall weekly schedule!

108: Anti Capitalist, Anti Racist Yoga with Avita Bansee Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

Avita Bansee (she/they) is here today to talk to us about what Anti Capitalist, Anti Racist Yoga looks like. Avita is a graduate of Yogaworks 200 hour RYTT and their life experiences and continuous study of yoga philosophy, anatomy, pranayama and biomechanics inform their teaching and self-practice.

107: The Science of Tissue Adaptation + Motor Control with Dr. Garrett Neill May 10, 2022

Show notes

One of the most downloaded episodes of this podcast is Episode 59: ROM, Neuroscience + Yoga with Garrett Neill. In that episode we talked about the difference between Active Range of Motion and Passive Range of Motion, the three main barriers to range of motion that show up in our joints, some of the reasons the body might "tighten" and limit our range of motion, what we should we be thinking about in terms of how we teach movement when it comes to creating stability and how mobility and flexibility are different from one another.

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