Yoga Across the Lifespan: Bridging Yoga from Children to Seniors
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What do toddlers, teenagers, busy adults, and wise elders all have in common?
Bodies that need movement.
Nervous systems that need calming.
Brains that learn better when they feel safe.
And, occasionally, a need to be reminded that falling out of Tree Pose is not a moral failure.
Yoga Across the Lifespan is an inspiring, practical, and joy-filled weekend training designed for yoga teachers, educators, caregivers, therapists, and wellness professionals who want to expand their teaching toolbox and serve students at both ends of life’s beautiful spectrum.
On Saturday, we begin with children’s yoga — exploring movement, imagination, play, mindfulness, emotional regulation, classroom strategies, sensory integration, coordination, crossing the midline, and brain development. Participants will learn how to create classes that help children build confidence, focus, self-awareness, and the ability to settle their bodies and minds. In other words: tiny yogis, fewer wiggles, bigger breaths.
Children’s yoga will be led by Tasha Wellence, ERYT-500, RCYT, YACEP, a deeply experienced children’s yoga teacher, Montessori educator, and mother of five. Tasha brings more than 20 years of experience working with children, along with a gift for making yoga playful, multi-sensory, accessible, and meaningful. Her approach reminds us that children learn best when movement feels like discovery rather than instruction. Tasha is synonymous with children's yoga in Memphis.
On Sunday, we turn toward senior yoga — with a focus on balance, mobility, functional movement, safety, accessibility, adaptations, and confidence-building for older adults. This portion of the training will help teachers create classes that support strength, independence, steadiness, and peace of mind. Because healthy aging is not about pretending we are 25 forever. It is about staying curious, capable, connected, and able to get up from the floor with dignity — or at least with a sense of humor.
Senior Yoga will be taught by Tahnyana Maguire, RYT 200, and Tahnya Updegraff, RYT 500, E-RYT 200, YACEP.
Tahnyana Maguire brings more than 30 years of personal yoga practice and teaches from lived experience. At 79, she understands the real-life challenges that may come with aging, including arthritis, neuropathy, and changing mobility, while also demonstrating that vitality, growth, and joy do not have an expiration date.
Tahnya Updegraff brings a strong background in chair yoga, balance, pelvic floor, medical limitations, fascia, chronic pain, Yoga for Healthy Sleep, Yin, Gentle, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga. As an active gardener and thoughtful teacher, Tahnya understands functional movement from the inside out — how we bend, reach, balance, breathe, adapt, and keep participating in the lives we love.
This training is not just about learning “kid's yoga” on one day and “senior yoga” on the next. It is about becoming a more skillful, adaptable, observant, compassionate teacher.
You will learn how to:
• Make yoga more accessible for different ages and abilities
• Use play and creativity without losing structure
• Support emotional regulation and focus in children
• Teach balance, mobility, and functional movement for older adults
• Offer meaningful modifications with confidence
• Use breathwork, movement, reflection, and teach-back exercises
• Build classes that feel safe, engaging, and purposeful
• Bring more confidence, creativity, and compassion into every class you teach
Research continues to affirm what yoga teachers have seen for years: movement matters. For older adults, regular physical activity that includes strength and balance work supports function and reduces fall risk. For children, movement and mindfulness practices can support attention, behavior, emotional regulation, and readiness to learn.
This weekend brings these worlds together.
Whether you teach children, seniors, beginners, mixed-level classes, chair yoga, community classes, school-based yoga, or private sessions, this training will help you meet students where they are — and help them grow from there.
Join us for Yoga Across the Lifespan: Bridging Children’s Yoga & Senior Yoga at Yoga Center of Jackson.
June 27–28, 2026
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM both days
Yoga Center of Jackson
365 North Parkway, Suite 300
Jackson, Tennessee 38305
20 Yoga Alliance Approved CEUs
or 1 Unit of YTSE's YA Alliance Advanced Teacher Training
Investment: $200
To reserve your space, call Johnnie Lou Getz at (845) 598-4519.
Come ready to learn, move, laugh, adapt, and remember that yoga is not just for one age, one body, or one season of life.
Yoga is for the whole beautiful lifespan. Come learn to teach from wobbly little tree pose to wise old oak tree pose!
Bodies that need movement.
Nervous systems that need calming.
Brains that learn better when they feel safe.
And, occasionally, a need to be reminded that falling out of Tree Pose is not a moral failure.
Yoga Across the Lifespan is an inspiring, practical, and joy-filled weekend training designed for yoga teachers, educators, caregivers, therapists, and wellness professionals who want to expand their teaching toolbox and serve students at both ends of life’s beautiful spectrum.
On Saturday, we begin with children’s yoga — exploring movement, imagination, play, mindfulness, emotional regulation, classroom strategies, sensory integration, coordination, crossing the midline, and brain development. Participants will learn how to create classes that help children build confidence, focus, self-awareness, and the ability to settle their bodies and minds. In other words: tiny yogis, fewer wiggles, bigger breaths.
Children’s yoga will be led by Tasha Wellence, ERYT-500, RCYT, YACEP, a deeply experienced children’s yoga teacher, Montessori educator, and mother of five. Tasha brings more than 20 years of experience working with children, along with a gift for making yoga playful, multi-sensory, accessible, and meaningful. Her approach reminds us that children learn best when movement feels like discovery rather than instruction. Tasha is synonymous with children's yoga in Memphis.
On Sunday, we turn toward senior yoga — with a focus on balance, mobility, functional movement, safety, accessibility, adaptations, and confidence-building for older adults. This portion of the training will help teachers create classes that support strength, independence, steadiness, and peace of mind. Because healthy aging is not about pretending we are 25 forever. It is about staying curious, capable, connected, and able to get up from the floor with dignity — or at least with a sense of humor.
Senior Yoga will be taught by Tahnyana Maguire, RYT 200, and Tahnya Updegraff, RYT 500, E-RYT 200, YACEP.
Tahnyana Maguire brings more than 30 years of personal yoga practice and teaches from lived experience. At 79, she understands the real-life challenges that may come with aging, including arthritis, neuropathy, and changing mobility, while also demonstrating that vitality, growth, and joy do not have an expiration date.
Tahnya Updegraff brings a strong background in chair yoga, balance, pelvic floor, medical limitations, fascia, chronic pain, Yoga for Healthy Sleep, Yin, Gentle, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga. As an active gardener and thoughtful teacher, Tahnya understands functional movement from the inside out — how we bend, reach, balance, breathe, adapt, and keep participating in the lives we love.
This training is not just about learning “kid's yoga” on one day and “senior yoga” on the next. It is about becoming a more skillful, adaptable, observant, compassionate teacher.
You will learn how to:
• Make yoga more accessible for different ages and abilities
• Use play and creativity without losing structure
• Support emotional regulation and focus in children
• Teach balance, mobility, and functional movement for older adults
• Offer meaningful modifications with confidence
• Use breathwork, movement, reflection, and teach-back exercises
• Build classes that feel safe, engaging, and purposeful
• Bring more confidence, creativity, and compassion into every class you teach
Research continues to affirm what yoga teachers have seen for years: movement matters. For older adults, regular physical activity that includes strength and balance work supports function and reduces fall risk. For children, movement and mindfulness practices can support attention, behavior, emotional regulation, and readiness to learn.
This weekend brings these worlds together.
Whether you teach children, seniors, beginners, mixed-level classes, chair yoga, community classes, school-based yoga, or private sessions, this training will help you meet students where they are — and help them grow from there.
Join us for Yoga Across the Lifespan: Bridging Children’s Yoga & Senior Yoga at Yoga Center of Jackson.
June 27–28, 2026
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM both days
Yoga Center of Jackson
365 North Parkway, Suite 300
Jackson, Tennessee 38305
20 Yoga Alliance Approved CEUs
or 1 Unit of YTSE's YA Alliance Advanced Teacher Training
Investment: $200
To reserve your space, call Johnnie Lou Getz at (845) 598-4519.
Come ready to learn, move, laugh, adapt, and remember that yoga is not just for one age, one body, or one season of life.
Yoga is for the whole beautiful lifespan. Come learn to teach from wobbly little tree pose to wise old oak tree pose!
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Where is it happening?
365 N Parkway, Ste 300, Jackson, TN, United States, Tennessee 38305
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherYoga Center of Jackson
