What If Teacher Training Is Also About Unlearning?

Christina Helms, Co-Owner of Three Birds Yoga Studio

One of the things I love most about having a foot in both worlds—teaching yoga and practicing as a therapist—is how much these two professions have taught me about each other.

Both are about supporting human beings in their growth, healing, and wellbeing. Both require knowledge, skill, practice, and a willingness to keep learning.

But over the years, I’ve come to believe that one of the most valuable things we learn in both professions is actually unlearning.

Jason Crandall recently said, “It’s actually quite easy to learn something new, and much, much harder to unlearn something old.”

Whether it’s a long-held belief about ourselves, a familiar way of responding in relationships, or even a postural habit we’ve carried for years, changing those patterns can be incredibly challenging.

For me, both being a therapist and teaching yoga are ultimately about the same thing:

Holding space for another person to grow, and helping them discover their own capacity for change.

It’s not about telling people what to do.

It’s about being in relationship with another human being.

In our 200-hour YTT, our students will study sutras, philosophy, anatomy, hundreds of poses, sequencing, and teaching methodology. But then they are asked to walk into a studio and, in a sense, put all of that knowledge aside.

Observe.

What do you actually see in front of you?

What does this particular student need right now?

That, to me, is where the real teaching begins.

Because teaching yoga isn’t just about knowing a lot about yoga.

And therapy isn’t just about knowing a lot about psychology.

Both are about learning how to listen, how to be present, how to stay curious, and how to trust the person in front of you.

Curious about becoming a yoga teacher? Explore Root to Rise 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training →