The Strength Collective
Train to teach, and get a room to teach in.
A 230-hour instructor certification across four modules, run in person in Chicago, Charlotte and Denver. Cohorts are capped at twenty-two, and every graduate is offered a place on a live schedule.
- Instructors certified since 2023
- 214
- Graduates now teaching with us
- 91
- Places per cohort
- 22
- Fully funded places per cohort
- 6
Curriculum
Four modules, 230 hours, all of it in person.
Three disciplines and the practical work that surrounds them. The trauma-aware module is included on every track, whichever route you take.
In total
230
Hours across the four modules, taught over twelve or twenty-four weeks depending on the track you take.
- Yoga foundations80 hours
- Breathwork facilitation60 hours
- Trauma-aware practice40 hours
- Community leadership50 hours
Yoga foundations
Anatomy, sequencing and the practical craft of teaching a mixed-ability room outdoors, on uneven ground, without a microphone.
- Functional anatomy for teachers, with no prior science background assumed
- Sequencing a 60-minute all-levels class that actually holds together
- Teaching without demonstrating, so you can watch the room instead
- Hands-off adjustment language, and when to say nothing at all
- Running a class of eighty people on grass with the wind against you
Breathwork facilitation
How breathing practices act on the nervous system, how to hold a room through an intense session, and how to recognise when to stop.
- Respiratory physiology and what each pattern is actually doing
- Building a 90-minute session with a safe ramp and a real recovery
- Contraindications, screening questions and when to decline a participant
- Holding space for an emotional response without becoming a therapist
- Altitude, heat and the adjustments each one demands
Trauma-aware practice
The language, choices and room design that make a session usable by people carrying something they have not told you about.
- Invitational language, and why every instruction needs an exit
- Room layout, sightlines and the door rule
- Consent for touch, and our position that you simply do not touch
- What is inside your scope as an instructor and what is not
- Referral pathways, and the fifteen partner clinicians we work with
Community leadership
Everything that surrounds the class: finding a site, pulling a crowd, keeping it free, and building something that survives you leaving.
- Permits, parks departments and how to get a fee waived
- Sliding-scale pricing that covers costs without shaming anyone
- Recruiting and keeping volunteers who are not being paid
- Running a welcome that converts first-timers into regulars
- Succession, so the gathering continues if you move away
What you get
What the certificate comes with.
The qualification matters less than what happens after it. These are the six things we hold ourselves to.
A teaching slot, not just a certificate
Every graduate is offered a place on a live schedule in Chicago, Charlotte or Denver. Ninety-one of the two hundred and fourteen instructors we have certified now teach with us regularly.
Insurance and permits handled
We carry the liability cover and hold the park permits for every gathering you teach under our name. You will never fill in a city form for us.
Paid work from your third month
Instructors are paid for every ticketed session and every festival stage. Free community classes are volunteered, and we are direct about which is which before you enrol.
Mentorship that outlasts the course
Each participant is paired with a lead instructor for the full programme and for twelve months afterwards. You keep the same mentor throughout.
A cohort of twenty-two, deliberately
We cap every cohort at twenty-two so the practice teaching is real. Everyone teaches the full group four times before they graduate.
A cost we will meet you on
One in four places in every cohort is fully funded. You apply for it on the same form, and the decision is made without seeing your payment details.
Cost
Three ways in, and one of them is free.
Pick the route that matches how much you want to teach. Six places in every cohort are fully funded, and those applications are read without the payment section attached.
Foundation Track
$890
one payment, or four of $225
One discipline, taught over twelve weeks. Choose yoga foundations or breathwork facilitation and finish qualified to teach that discipline on our community schedule.
- Your chosen module, 80 hours for yoga or 60 for breathwork
- The 40-hour trauma-aware practice module, included with every track
- Twelve weekly sessions, Tuesday evenings, in person in your city
- Four supervised practice teaches in front of the cohort
- A named mentor for the full twelve weeks
- Certification in one discipline and a place on the community schedule
Full Certification
Most complete$1,750
one payment, or six of $295
Every module across twenty-four weeks. This is the qualification our lead instructors hold, and the only route to running a gathering of your own under our name.
- All four modules, 230 hours in total
- Twenty-four weekly sessions plus two full weekend intensives
- Eight supervised practice teaches, four of them at live public gatherings
- A named mentor for twenty-four weeks and twelve months afterwards
- Permits, insurance and site support to start your own gathering
- Priority for paid festival stages and ticketed sessions
Community Scholarship
$0
fully funded, 6 places per cohort
The Full Certification programme at no cost, funded by our festival ticket revenue. It exists for people already holding their neighbourhood together without a title or a budget.
- Everything in Full Certification, at no charge
- A $400 stipend toward travel and childcare across the programme
- Mat, props and course materials provided
- No means testing and no financial documents requested
- Applications read without the payment section attached
- Six places in every cohort, decided by the city teams
Who teaches it
Three lead instructors, each teaching the module they wrote.
Maya Okonkwo
Lead instructor and curriculum director
Chicago
Maya taught the first Montrose Point class in 2019 to eleven people and has led more than six hundred gatherings since. She wrote the yoga foundations module and still teaches the Saturday sunrise class herself every week.
Teaches
Yoga foundations, sequencing, teaching outdoors
Marcus Adeyemi
Breathwork lead
Chicago and Denver
Marcus came to breathwork after fifteen years as a paramedic, which shows in how he screens a room and how quickly he notices someone struggling. He built our altitude protocol after the first Denver winter.
Teaches
Breathwork facilitation, contraindications, altitude practice
Rosa Delgado
Lead instructor, Charlotte
Charlotte
Rosa opened the Charlotte programme in 2022 with a single class in Freedom Park. She teaches the trauma-aware module across all three cities and is the person who insisted our instructors do not touch participants at all.
Teaches
Trauma-aware practice, beginner instruction, welcome design
Graduates
What people said once they had finished.
I had two hundred hours from a studio programme and could not hold a room of forty people on a windy lawn. This taught me the part nobody else teaches, which is everything outside the sequence.
Hannah Voss
Full Certification, 2025 cohort, Denver
The trauma-aware module changed how I teach every single class, including the ones I run at my own studio. Forty hours and I still use something from it every week.
Terrence Iyer
Foundation Track, 2024 cohort, Chicago
I applied for the scholarship expecting to be asked for bank statements and turned down. I was asked what my block needed instead. Two years on I run two gatherings a month.
Beatriz Salcedo
Community Scholarship, 2024 cohort, Charlotte
Apply
Send us an application.
Six questions. A lead instructor in your city reads every one, and you will hear back within ten working days.
Before you apply
- Every cohort is capped at twenty-two people, so places are limited and we read applications in the order they arrive.
- Six places in every cohort are fully funded. You apply for one on this same form, and no financial documents are requested.
- The forty-hour trauma-aware module is included on every track, whichever one you choose.