BLOG 195: GUA SHA AND FACE YOGA TEACHER TRAINING AND EXACTLY HOW IT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

I’m sure that many of you will already be familiar with Katie Blake. One of our Face Yoga Super Trainer and one of the co-founders of the Facial Gua Sha Teacher Training course, Katie is a regular on my podcast and often joins me for lives over on Instagram too. 

Catching up with Katie is always so much fun because she shares my passion for helping others and has such joy in seeing people start to shine as they learn new skills and grow their understanding of face yoga and facial gua sha. 

We met recently for an Instagram Live, which you can now find as a recording over on my podcast. It was a great opportunity for us to chat about teacher training and how we’ve seen it transform people’s lives. 

So, if you’ve been considering learning some new skills in 2023 and are wondering about enrolling on one of my teacher training courses, this blog post is for you! 

OUR STORIES: KATIE 

Katie and I come at teaching from different places, so I thought it would be interesting to share some background with you – you might see yourself more in one or other of our stories. 

For example, Katie never imagined that she would be a teacher. She’s been a holistic beauty therapist since she was eighteen and has always specialised in hands-on treatments, working with clients in clinic. 

However, when the pandemic hit in 2020, Katie knew she needed to pivot her work. She couldn’t offer hands-on therapies while the country was in lockdown, but she still had the same desire to help people and give them the tools they need to feel better in their skin. 

So, Katie started to do more teaching. She’s one of the super trainers for our Face Yoga Teacher Training and worked with Katie Brindle and me to develop the Facial Gua Sha Teacher Training too. 

Although restrictions have now lifted and Katie’s able to offer hands-on treatments again, she’s fallen in love with teaching and enjoys how much variety it gives her working days. She gets to meet a wide range of people and loves to see how learning new skills makes them start to shine. 

Katie also finds that her teaching fits well with her hands-on treatments. Now, she can give her clients techniques to use at home between sessions, meaning they can continue to work on their skin and their self-care in the gaps between seeing her. 

And doing more teaching has also helped Katie realise just how much she knows, especially about facial gua sha. Putting that knowledge into a format to share with others has been an amazing gift to share with people. 

OUR STORIES: DANIELLE 

Unlike Katie, I always knew I wanted to teach. But I originally imagined I’d be a teacher in a school – I didn’t really know there were other options out there. 

However, just after graduating from university, I got sick with M.E. and was essentially housebound. At the time, I wasn’t into anything holistic at all, but the conventional doctors didn’t know how to help me, so a friend encouraged me to try yoga. 

I couldn’t do much, but I did get a yoga DVD and managed some stretching and breathing from my bed. It was a lightbulb moment – I realised how much better just breathing properly made me feel. I dove deeper into holistic therapies and within a year had managed to cure my M.E. 

From there, I was determined to share these amazing wellness techniques with others. I did qualifications in relaxation therapy, yoga, facial massage, and nutrition, and started to teach yoga and meditation classes. 

But I began to wonder – why does yoga stop at the neck? Why are we neglecting the 57 muscles in the face? And my students used to ask the same. So, I dove deep into researching yoga, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the science of the skin, muscles, bones, and lymphatic system. 

I put it all together to create the Danielle Collins Face Yoga Method. At first, I just taught a little at the end of my existing yoga classes, and my students helped me refine the method. From there, I’ve continued to teach, both in person and online, and have grown face yoga into a multi-six-figure business. 

WHO IS TEACHER TRAINING FOR? 

As you can see from Katie and my stories, teacher training can suit people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Some of our students come from a hands-on therapy background and want to add a new skill to their existing list of therapies. 

Others are yoga teachers, personal trainers, Qigong teachers, or similar and want to incorporate face yoga or facial gua sha into their existing sessions, extending their practice beyond the body and up to the face. 

But you don’t already need to be working in a complementary field to take advantage of the teacher training courses. We’ve had plenty of people join us as career changers, who want to develop a new business that fits their values and gives them the flexibility to live the lives they want. 

Some people join the courses just because they want to deepen their personal knowledge and have no intention of teaching others at all. It doesn’t always work out that way though – we’ve heard of people joining for their personal practice and then starting to teach as a side hustle, just because they really want to share these skills with others. 

One of the great things about the teacher training courses is the lovely, supportive community that has grown up around them. We have dedicated Facebook Groups for both courses, where people can support each other on their journeys, ask questions, and develop business partnerships. 

It’s truly fascinating to see all the different directions people take this training in. Everyone has their own unique slant on it, depending on their background and how they choose to incorporate teaching into their lives. 

Some people teach purely online, others in person, and others do a mixture of both. One person might focus on one-to-one sessions, while another prefers to do group workshops or host retreats. 

Once you have the certification, you can take it anywhere you want. Whether you want to add to your existing offerings, teach a few classes as a side hustle, or set up a whole new business, it is totally up to you where you want to take your new skills. 

To find out more about teacher training and enrol, visit the teacher training pages here.