200-Hour Certification
Level 1 Orthopedic Yoga Therapy: Transformational Vinyasa
This training teaches students how to teach Orthopedic Yoga Flow classes.
The word “vinyasa” means to connect. A “ Vinyasa flow” class is one in which the poses are connected and move rhythmically from one to the next. This enables the joints to be bathed in synovial fluid, the internal, healing lubricant of the body. In this course, all levels of flow are taught so students will be able to teach in every situation, to all students. Students leave fully prepared to teach all levels of classes ranging from power style, sweaty and exhilarating classes, to gentle, slow therapeutic flows. The best part is, all students will graduate knowing how to support and protect their students, even those working with constraints or injuries. You will never have to say “If this pose doesn’t work for you, feel free to come into Child’s Pose.”; because you will have the knowledge to modify those postures for those students to make it safe for them.
- An ability to teach informed, safe and inspiring yoga classes ranging from slow, gently and therapeutic to fast, sweaty and exhilarating; to students of all levels and all degrees of experience, in person and online.
- The knowledge needed to keep every student in your classes safe, and always moving towards optimal balance and alignment even if they are working with a restriction or injury
- A deep understanding of the physical and energetic anatomies
- A functional perspective of the joints move, take stress and are to be aligned with regards to yoga; and the ability to feel in in their own bodies and see it in their students.
- The ability to 'body read' which will allow participants to look at their students and know what adjustments that student needs to make where, and why, to bring student into better alignment, out of pain and away from the risk of injury.
- The experience and knowledge to create a unique yoga practice that is right for you; as well as to know when and how to modify that practice as appropriate.
- An in-depth understanding of the often misunderstood 'Fascia' of the body, and how it relates to yoga and orthopedics.
- Experience of offering therapeutic hands-on assists in a safe and effective manner
- An amazing, growth filled and fun experience within an outstanding community of people.
- A life-changing, transformative educational experience that will benefit participants and the lives of the people around them.
Please be aware of the following weekend dates for the training:
We meet Online Wednesday evenings from 6:30-9:30 pm EST at
(All course work is also recorded in the event a session must be missed.)
January 12 - 14
February 2 - 4
March 15 -17
April 27 - 29
May 17-19
June 7-9
Transformational Teachers
Kathleen Coffey
Kathleen is a passionate dedicated yoga instructor who’s goal was to open a beautiful healing space where students could leave behind the burdens of everyday life and practice yoga in a nurturing community so they may discover their own sacred space within themselves and within the studio.
Kathleen received her 200hr Transformational Yoga Teacher training under the renowned Michelle Fleming. She has also completed trainings on yoga for the brain, including addiction and anxiety. Kathleen has been a massage therapist for over a decade and graduated from Cortiva Institute she has a massage practice at Root & Sky Wellness in East Boston she is also a certified Reiki master. Kathleen greatest accomplishments are her children as well as being a two time Boston Marathon Finisher.
Kathleen has a genuine passion for yoga and her studio is a reflection of her heart where she welcomes everyone to embark on his or her own transformative journey thru yoga
Michelle Fleming
Michelle has spent thousands of happy hours teaching yoga classes and private sessions everywhere from hospitals to schools to Gillette Stadium. She has taught in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Medical School on Yoga for Brain Disorders. She was on staff at Spaulding Rehab Group working with orthopedic patients and has spoken at Grand Rounds hospitals on the "Applications of Yoga in Clinical Settings". For more than 10 years she ran summer camps to bring holistic healing to young women with anxiety and mood disorders.
Michelle was the owner of Sanctuary Studio in Massachusetts, the founder of Transformational Yoga, Ritual Vinyasa and Orthopedic Therapy. She is a Board Certified Structural Integrator having studied with the acclaimed Tom Myers of "Anatomy Trains" fame, as well as a Thai Massage practitioner, a Neurovascular Bodyworker and the author of the upcoming book "Orthopedic Yoga".
She has been teaching and studying the science behind yoga for almost 20 years. She now teaches internationally, bringing her unique style of yoga to students of all levels, ages, shapes and sizes. She has taught thousands of yoga students and believes it is a blessing to be able to bring people the gifts of a strong body, a quiet mind and a blissful spirit.
Ray Crist
Ray Crist, of Jaguar Path, has spent the last three decades immersed in shamanism, various styles of yoga, Chinese medicine, martial arts, and Reiki. He has been offering workshops and trainings at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, NY Open Center, Yoga Journal, Blue Spirit, Boddhi Tree Yoga Resort and around the globe for over 15 years. Ray’s trainings focus on how to use shamanic tools and yoga as technologies that assist us to reach an optimal state of being in order to to live a balanced, empowered and extraordinary life.
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Chip Hartranf
Chip Hartranf, PT (Yoga, Insight Meditation, Yoga-Sutra) bridges the traditions of yoga and Buddhism. He is the founding director of The Arlington Center, dedicated to the integration of yoga and dharma practice, and has taught a blend of yoga movement & insight meditation in the Boston area since 1978.
An independent scholar of yoga and early Buddhism, Chip is the author of "The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: a new translation with commentary" (Shambhala). His work has also been included in "The Wisdom of Yoga" by Stephen Cope, "Freeing The Body, Freeing The Mind" by Michael Stone, the Shambala Sun, and many other publications.
Chip teaches the origins, evolution and practices of yoga and Buddhist traditions at Lesley University and at teacher trainings and retreats across the country.
Vanessa Pattison
Vanessa Pattison lives and passionately teaches meditation and yoga in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua where she built and runs the only yoga and meditation studio in town. Originally from California, she traded the golden handcuffs (they're real and shiny) for a more authentic life which includes a surfboard. The surfboard is her husband's (he tricked her into moving) but the yoga studio and the people it serves are what keep her connected, inspired, and growing.
A forever student she has acquired over 3,000 hours of yoga certifications in Hatha, Prenatal, Vinyasa, and Yin since 2005. Vanessa has trained with many teachers in various styles of yoga but two of her first and most influential teachers were Peter Sterios, founder of Manduka, and James Bailey an Aryuvedic Doctor. She co-founded Nicaragua Yoga Institute which hosts and runs Yoga Teacher Trainings and Wellness retreats year-round. Being a mother to three boys herself led Vanessa to support other women as a birth doula and she has assisted and/or delivered over 20 babies in Nicaragua and the United States.
Trained and certified by The Chopra Center in Primordial Sound Meditation Vanessa will take you through a series of sessions to ignite or deepen your meditation practice. You will walk away with not only your very OWN mantra based on your place, date, and time of birth in Vedic astrology but also a greater understanding of your pure potential through this ancient yet relevant practice of meditation. We will explore the practical aspects of how and why we practice, what gets in the way, and practice using our personal mantra as well as open ourselves up to higher states of consciousness.
