Foundations of a Healthy Back
with Donna Farhi
Five Day Yoga Intensive
16th-20th April 2027
Herne Bay, Auckland
Donna began her formal yoga training just as her dance career was ending because of debilitating neck and lower back pain. In the decades that followed she discovered that most approaches to back care fail because they view the spine as an isolated entity, when in fact spinal health begins from the ground up; with balanced feet, strong legs, mobile hips and the ability to move with pure iliofemoral motion that reduces pull on the lumbar spine.
Strong core muscles and stable sacroiliac joints supporting an upright pelvic position set the stage for the spine to rise effortlessly leading to graceful posture and good body mechanics.
In this intensive Donna will help you to understand the structure of your vertebral column and its intimate relationship to the rest of the body. This can help you to orient your yoga practice in a direction that not only leads to a pain-free back but also to a sense of wholeness and integration throughout your body.
You can achieve amazing results for yourself (and your students) with gentle practices that can have surprisingly powerful effects!
To help you become your own back expert, Donna will share detailed anatomical PowerPoint presentations. She is renowned for being able to communicate complex concepts in simple, accessible language that can create a bridge between theory and practice.
She will also elaborate on many of the common “alignment cues” that have perpetuated misinformation and injury within the yoga community, offering alternatives that reflect how the body works.
This workshop is for anyone who has been practicing Yoga consistently for at least a year and is especially recommended for teachers working with others.
The focus of this workshop is on creating spinal health through integrated movement throughout the whole body. Those with spinal problems accompanied by mild chronic pain who are already receiving ongoing Yoga instruction are welcome to attend but this workshop is not suitable for those with acute back pain. While Donna will make every effort to help individuals with specific spinal problems participants need to respect the limits of what can be attained within a group class in a short period of time as contrasted to ongoing one-on-one Yoga therapy.
Each day of this intensive will be divided into a morning and afternoon session. We’ll explore a wide variety of practices, from active practices that build strength and vitality to more passive practices that restore calm and relaxation.
About Donna Farhi
Leading yoga teacher Donna Farhi has been practicing for almost 50 years and teaching since 1982. As a post-lineage pioneer, Donna has been at the forefront of generating a new model for teaching that fosters self-inquiry through the cultivation of a deepening trust in one’s own perceptions.
Through creating a warm atmosphere free of judgment and competition she invites her students to investigate their experience and to adapt and evolve their practice according to their individual needs. Incorporating the rigorous backing of anatomical principles for safe and sustainable practice, Donna offers progressive levels of engagement that allow people of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic yoga practice.
Considered the “teacher of teachers”, people return to Donna’s intensives year after year to be a part of the inspiring evolution of her own practice and teaching.
Donna’s livestream and online courses make her expertise accessible to teachers and students worldwide and, in 2021, Donna became the first yoga teacher to present the practice of yoga to a global audience through MasterClass USA. This e-learning platform hosts the world’s foremost minds and experts in their fields.
Donna is the author of four contemporary classics:
The Breathing Book; Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness; Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living; Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship, which is a curricular text for teacher training worldwide.
Her fifth and most recent book, co-authored with Leila Stuart, Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease is becoming the go-to text for Yoga teachers, therapists and somatic practitioners.