For the past year, I’ve focused much of my yoga teaching on therapeutics with most of my students having some form of physical or mental health challenge. It’s been such a gratifying experience to work with these students that I’ve thought a lot about how to leverage my skills to get these teachings to a wider audience. Two ideas have emerged: I could teach therapeutics to yoga teachers and I could teach the staff at hospitals, healthcare agencies, assisted living facilities, etc. to provide yoga to the people they work with.
This week, I took my first step with the first option and taught a mini yoga therapeutics class to a teacher from Italy who wants to teach therapeutic yoga in her home city of Torino. She reached out to me online during the Spring after finding my website and asked if I could teach her what I know about teaching therapeutic yoga. Her boyfriend came to New York City for a month-long cinematography course at NYU and she took the trip as well with the intent of enhancing her yoga teaching. She spent 9 hours of one-on-one time with me to learn therapeutics and then spent a half day for four weeks at the Sivananda Yoga Center. This was my first time teaching a teacher how to teach.
It’s a vastly different skill to teach teachers about teaching than it is to teach a traditional class. The depth of knowledge must be deeper because the teachers are going to ask very specific questions; their curiosity takes the content to a whole new level. You know exactly how you’re doing because they tell you. And with the desire to train the trainer, the responsibility is heavier as well. You need to keep the teachers safe and you also need to help them keep their students safe. The stakes are high but the potential for impact is high as well.
I’m really proud to say that she loved the training and that I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent teaching a teacher. She is bright, eager, and passionate about healing. I am so excited to hear how everything unfolds for her when she returns to Torino and starts to use this training with her students. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I share this practice that I love so much with a teacher who cares about it as much as I do. Another door opens.
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
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Christa Avampato 