Meet Sandy Raper
Teacher, Mentor, Podcaster, Author
Stability is the new flexibility.
With over two decades of teaching experience, Sandy Raper is a vocal advocate for yoga teachers, dedicated not only to sharing the class experience of yoga but also to educating others on how to sustain and cultivate longevity within their yoga practice. She has trained, mentored, and equipped numerous teachers around the globe with the essential skills and tools to deliver impactful yoga classes and evolve into leaders and agents of change in their communities as yoga teachers.
Driven by a deep passion to inspire, encourage, and empower yoga teachers, Sandy launched the Beyond Yoga Teacher Training Podcast in October 2020, alongside her Beyond Yoga Teacher Training Mentorship Program. Both resources provide the mentoring, guidance, and tools necessary for yoga teachers to cultivate character, confidence, and leadership skills, ensuring that teaching yoga remains both feasible and sustainable, extending far beyond the foundation of their initial teacher training experience.
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In addition, she provides and leads 200-and 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training Programs, continuing education workshops, and training.
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Sandy Raper's first book, Teaching From the Heart: Lessons on Developing Character, Confidence, and Leadership as a Yoga Teacher, debuts in April 2024.
CERTIFICATIONS
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200-Hour Vinyasa Yoga Teacher certification with Rolf Gates
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300-Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher certification with Rolf Gates
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300-Hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga Medicine®
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Registered Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist: Concentrations include - Spine & Shoulder Anatomy - Dysfunction & Application - Nervous System & Restorative Yoga - Traditional Chinese Medicine - Myofascial Release - Yoga for Athletes - Functional Yoga Anatomy
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Two-time Presenter at the Yoga Medicine® Innovation Conference, 2020, 2023
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Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
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Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School since 2013
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Reflections on Being a
Yoga Teacher
I stepped into my first yoga class at a crucial time in my life after my mother passed away. I was a young mother of two and I had been a caregiver for my mother in the last 5 years of her life. I was at a crossroads. Life, as I had known it, had suddenly changed and I quickly found that the yoga practice was going to support me through this new and next season of my life. It wasn’t long after, that I sought out teacher training out of a deep desire to know more and to possibly teach a few classes while I remained a stay-at-home mom.
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My teaching pathway has revealed itself in a variety of ways and through many amazing opportunities to share. I have taught in a variety of locations, venues, and settings. I continue to find that yoga is for everyone and it can be shared to meet the needs of all. This concept quickly became my pursuit as a teacher and connection and service became my motivation and intent to teach. It is the two things that continue to motivate me to teach, share and inspire other yoga teachers to pursue this most worthy endeavor.
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Fast forward twenty plus years later, I am still teaching and I have expanded my teaching opportunities in a variety of ways. I have spent many ongoing hours in the pursuit of my own quest to know more of the practice as a student, I have led thousands of hours of classes, workshops, and trainings. I have trained others to be teachers of the yoga practice.
I have ventured into the unknown seeking various and new ways over the years to continue to support and share yoga with others through online teaching platforms and recently within my, Beyond Yoga Teacher Training Podcast which launched in 2020. All of this while remaining creative and inspired along the way.
Over the past two decades, I have come to realize that there is still so much more to learn yet I find contentment in what I do know at this moment. And what I do know at this moment is enough. It’s enough to share and encourage, and support others along the way.
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- Sandy