Way of the Waters: 28 Hour Foundational Yin Training with Advanced Considerations
The Way of the Waters is a foundational yin yoga teacher training for 200-hour yoga teachers and experienced practitioners who wish to deepen their understanding of yin as a contemplative, somatic, and relational practice. This training offers advanced considerations in trauma-responsiveness, attention, fascia, water physiology, and subtle-body awareness—while remaining grounded, accessible, and experiential.
Rather than approaching yin as a technique to be applied, this training invites teachers into a different orientation: tending the field instead of teaching, listening rather than directing, and cultivating the conditions in which healing and insight naturally arise.
At the heart of this training is a theory of change rooted in the waters—the body’s internal waters, the ground substance of fascia, the flow of attention, and the alchemical processes that unfold through time, stillness, and presence. Yin is explored not as passive holding, but as an intelligent dialogue with the body’s innate wisdom.
Meet Emily
Emily Peterson is a yin yoga teacher-trainer, shamanic practitioner, and guide in embodied healing. Her work is informed by over two decades of practice and study in applied psychology, mindfulness and peacebuilding, biomechanics, trauma and post-traumatic growth, somatic inquiry, and energy healing.
In addition to her formal training, Emily walks a shamanic path rooted in direct relationship with land, elements, and the unseen dimensions of experience. The Way of the Waters was not developed solely as a curriculum, but co-created through an ongoing relationship with the Spirit of the Waters—the living intelligence of water as it moves through body, psyche, and field.
This orientation shapes the heart of the training. Rather than positioning the teacher as an authority who applies techniques, Emily invites practitioners into a listening relationship with the body’s internal waters, the ground substance of fascia, and the subtle currents of attention that guide healing and transformation. Teaching becomes an act of tending—of creating conditions in which the body’s innate wisdom can emerge.
Emily is known for her ability to translate complex material into clear, accessible, and embodied teaching. She bridges scientific understanding with contemplative and shamanic insight, offering frameworks that support both rigor and reverence. Students are guided to develop confidence not through mastery or performance, but through presence, discernment, and ethical relationship with those they serve.
Graduates of her trainings leave with practical tools, lived understanding, and a deepened trust in their capacity to teach yin yoga as a practice of listening, care, and communion with the waters of life.
Who This Training Is For
This training is ideal for:
200-hour yoga teachers seeking a strong foundation in yin with advanced depth
Teachers interested in trauma-responsiveness, mindfulness, and somatic healing
Practitioners drawn to water-based, fascia-informed, and contemplative approaches
Teachers who wish to move beyond scripts and into relational, responsive teaching.
Upcoming Dates & Times:
Saturday April 18th 11am-7pm
Sunday April 19th 11am-7pm
Saturday May 16th 11am-7pm
Sunday May 17th 11am-7pm
Location: Saturdays Coolidge Corner Studio - 1297 Beacon St, Brookline, MA
Sundays Back Bay Studio - 364 Boylston St, Boston, MA
Price: Early Bird $725| Full Price $775
All cancellations will result in a credit to your account, not a refund. Studio Credit will be offered with 48 hour notice before the event. Any cancellation less than 48 hours will not receive studio credit.
A Practice of Attention, Water, and Alchemy
The Way of the Waters unfolds over two weekends, moving through the yin–yang continuum of attention:
Yang attention: learning to hold attention steady, discern agenda, and recognize effort
Yin attention: welcoming what attention holds with clarity, compassion, and non-preference
Integrated attention: tending the internal field with skill, humility, and care
Through meditation, inquiry, yin practice, working with water as a collaborator, and teaching practicum, students learn how attention itself becomes the primary instrument of healing.
Alchemy is presented not as metaphor, but as lived process—how sensation, emotion, memory, and awareness transform when met with time, space, and non-interference.
What You Will Explore
This training weaves together methodology, philosophy, and embodied teaching practice. Students will explore:
What yin yoga is—and what it is not
Yin and yang as qualities of attention rather than effort
The historical and philosophical roots of yin within Daoist thought
Fascia and ground substance as a primary medium of yin practice
The stages and phases of water as a lens for healing and change
Kidney/water, liver/wood, spleen/earth, heart/fire, and lung/metal through embodied practice
Meridians and Five Element theory held within a broader somatic and relational context
Photonic light, EZ water, and the Ka-body as subtle dimensions of experience
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness and four-beat awareness as lived practice
Trauma, nervous system response, and the creation of a trauma-responsive practice environment
Attention, preference, and how unconscious agenda shapes experience
Rather than memorizing concepts, students learn to sense, notice, and track these principles through their own bodies and teaching.
Tending the Field: The Art of Teaching Yin
A central teaching of this training is the shift from “delivering content” to holding a field.
Students will learn how to:
Create and sustain a clear, regulated class container
Use language as invitation rather than instruction
Sequence from intention, attention, and elemental logic
Offer modifications and options with sensitivity and precision
Work skillfully with pregnancy, hypermobility, injury, and heightened sensitivity
Respond to disclosure with care, recognizing yoga teachers as frequent first points of contact
Support wellbeing and resilience through pacing, tone, and presence
Teaching practicums throughout the training support students in offering short yin sequences with clear tenets, benefits, and messaging—always in service of the student’s internal experience rather than performance.
Testimonials
“Emily’s Yin teacher training is transformational, at a minimum. Her ability to deliver and express the truest essence of Yin, alongside her own personally derived advancements in the field, is absolutely remarkable. Upon the completion of my time learning from her I felt prepared to teach and ended up getting hired at a revered local studio. There is still so much I could continue to receive from Emily, but this TT alone has been a massively formative milestone in my personal and professional yoga journey.”
-Evan Kenny
"Emily's teaching and trainings are a vast container for both self-exploration and transformation. Every moment with her feels like an invitation inward—into stillness, into truth, into a more intimate relationship with one’s own body, mind, and heart.
She brings immense thoughtfulness, care, and the kind of depth that can only come from years of devoted study. Emily holds space with such grace and clarity, creating an atmosphere where insight arises naturally and students feel deeply seen, supported, and empowered. It’s no wonder her presence leaves a lasting imprint on all who have the privilege to learn from her.
Her way with words is unmatched, her knowledge runs deep, and her generosity as a teacher is truly extraordinary. It is a profound honor to have learned from someone of her caliber—guiding, sharing, and inspiring with each breath and every offering she makes."
-Brooke