Practice Teaching & Critiquing

November 14 -16, 2025
Barbara Ruzansky, Jen Leavitt + Staff
•••••••

Friday, November 14: 5:30 - 9:00 pm
Saturday, November 15: 1:00 - 9:00 pm

Gain practical, hands-on training with mentors and senior teachers during this 20-hour training. Students will:

  • Design and sequence effective and powerful vinyasa yoga classes

  • Demonstrate and refine hands-on adjusting skills

  • Teach yoga sequences to their peers and the public

  • Receive feedback from instructors on teaching

  • Observe others teaching and receiving feedback

$275, registration required

instructors

Barbara Ruzansky, E-RYT 500
Founder and Director of WHY
Barbara’s own path to health is at the heart of her teaching. She has a deep conviction that yoga can help you observe your self more objectively, become healthier, more fulfilled, and better able to serve others. In 2002, she opened West Hartford Yoga, a holistic center, offering yoga classes and workshops, teacher trainings, intensives with international teachers, massage, meditation, and kirtan. She spent 20 years as a macrobiotic chef and teacher, and her yoga training includes work with Ana Forrest, David Swenson, Shiva Rea, and Dan Leven as well as deep studies of Bikram Yoga, Kripalu Yoga and a 500 hour yoga alliance certification. Over the last 25 years, she has blended this knowledge into a dynamic style called WHY Power, which encourages students to explore their edges, develop core strength, and connect to their breath. Barbara is compassionate and insightful about students’ individual needs. Her classes move people deeply. Students have said she has an uncanny ability to see where they are blocked and help them move forward.

Jen Leavitt, MSW/JD, RYT 200
Jen Leavitt is WHY’s former studio manager and WHY Power teacher. A 2011 graduate of WHY’s 200-hour Teacher Training, she creates an energetic, vigorous, sweaty practice for those looking to move and breathe. Jen is also a certified Therapeutic Yoga and Yin Yoga teacher who has explored different paths along the yoga road, including Bikram, Ashtanga and Kripalu. Her personal practice has served as an anchor through various life experiences, including divorce, recovery, and spiritual growth. Trained as a social worker and a lawyer, Jen worked as a criminal defense lawyer prior to joining the management team at WHY. Jen continues to serve and support WHY in various administrative capacities.