Neurodivergence – Informed Yoga
with Charli Van NessAn invitation to teach with deeper care for the one in five students whose experience of a yoga class will be profoundly different. Over two livestream days, Charli Van Ness opens a way of teaching that meets neurodivergent students with inclusive language, sensory awareness and nervous–system literacy. Rooted in Charli’s lived experience, this Yoga Alliance accredited course also includes a guest psychotherapist
Overview
From Inclusion to Belonging: Yoga for Neurodivergent Students
This training is for yoga teachers, facilitators and wellness professionals who want to teach in a way that truly meets neurodivergent students, with understanding, accurate language, and tools that work. Did you know that one in five people are neurodivergent, and many neurodivergent students experience classes differently? Lighting, sound, movement cues and language all impact their ability to focus and feel safe. Whether you’ve noticed neurodivergent students in your classes, are neurodivergent yourself, or simply want your teaching to be more accessible, the course offers the framework to do this with confidence and compassion.
Over two livestream days, Charli weaves practical teaching exercises with expert input from a guest psychotherapist specialising in neurodivergence. The course will cover sensory processing, emotional regulation, adaptive cueing, and nervous–system literacy. You’ll learn how to recognise sensory and emotional needs, adapt cues and sequencing, and create yoga experiences that support regulation, autonomy and belonging for every student. The course speaks to teaching both children and adults.
Take this as a stand–alone CPD or allocate your hours to your 300–hour Yoga Teacher qualification.
'we need to cultivate a space for students to truly be as they are without apology, allowing them the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, that they are safe and deserve to be here and they are welcome...always.'
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Good to know
- Livestream attendance for this course is compulsory if you wish to receive certification
- Hours count towards 300–hour certification or CPD hours.
- Prefer a different payment plan? Pay your deposit and email us to arrange. Full payment must be received before the course starts.
- Select bank transfer (BACS) at checkout — it helps us keep course fees down by lowering card processing charges.
- Bursary available: one 50% bursary place is offered each year. Learn more →
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- T&Cs Learn more →
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After this training, you will be...
A teacher equipped to recognise sensory and emotional needs in your classes, and to know how to respond with language, pacing and presence that meets each student where they are.
Fluent in adaptive cueing, sensory–safe sequencing, and the use of breath, asana and meditation as tools for regulation rather than performance.
Grounded in nervous–system literacy and polyvagal–informed teaching, with practical tools for grounding, co–regulation and sensory reset you can bring into any class.
A Yoga Alliance–accredited teacher (RYS 300 / or YACEP), with a teaching practice that honours difference at its centre – inclusive, neurodiversity–affirming and held with care.
What Our Students Say
What our students say
“Charli’s lived experience changes the room. As a neurodivergent teacher and mother of neurodivergent children, Charli teaches from inside the experience – not about it. This is combined with her incredible depth of knowledge and skill as a teacher trainer to make this a rich and important addition to our programme"
EM, School of Yoga Director“Oh boy! It was such an amazing, intense, original, generous pack of teaching gems – No matter how much one thinks about it, it is utterly extraordinary how one person, Charli Van Ness, can give so much in so little time – condensed in some kind of magic formula and made to look easy.”
José G, GP and 200–hour Graduate“Charli encourages every student to bring out their own unique teaching style, in a nurturing environment. Her teaching style and support both on the course and after completion is exemplary. It is the best decision I could have made, and the YTT has been transformational – truly life changing. I have the utmost respect and gratitude for Charli.”
Francesca Deith, 200–hour Graduate“Charli created a beautiful space, which was inspiring and fun. The content was thoughtfully designed and encouraging of everyone’s individual teaching style and personality. She was very approachable and encouraging – really got me out of my head and into my body.”
200–hour Graduate“This teacher training course has been the opportunity that reminded me, over and over, of the beauty, light and potential we each hold, whilst equipping me at the same time to go out and safely teach yoga.”
Emma Maltby, 200hr Graduate“Incredibly unique, empowering and transformational in learning the art of teaching yoga. Charli is an incredible person, teacher trainer and mentor. She radiates love and joy and is so very inspirational, warm and nurturing – always leading from the heart.”
Saara Vance, 200hr Graduate“Charli’s approach is rooted in compassion, community and curiosity – the invitation is always to meet yourself exactly as you are. That ethos shapes every minute of her teaching.”
Course GraduateYour Teacher
Your teacher Charli Van Ness
Senior teacher across both the 200 and 300-hour programmes, bringing profound depth of knowledge.
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Course details
- The neurodiversity paradigm vs. deficit models
- Overview of key neurotypes – ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Auditory Processing Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder
- How social and sensory environments shape experience
- Reflection on assumptions and unconscious bias
- Sensory processing, interoception and proprioception
- Movement variability and embodied empathy
- Somatic exploration – ‘listening through sensation’
- Executive functioning, anxiety and emotional regulation
- How masking, burnout and rejection sensitivity show up in body and mind
- Therapeutic principles teachers can apply ethically – without ‘therapy–ing’
- Building safety, trust and agency in class settings
- Q&A and a short grounding integration
- Asana – choice, pacing, proprioceptive feedback
- Breath – regulation versus overstimulation
- Meditation – offering options for focus and stillness
- Language and cueing for diverse cognition
- Polyvagal–informed teaching in accessible language
- Tools for grounding, sensory reset and stimulation
- Mini–practice – co–regulation through presence
- Designing sensory–safe class frameworks
- Building adaptive class plans for mixed–experience rooms
- Communication strategies and adaptive cueing in practice
- Sensory–safe environment checklist
- Small–group analysis of neurodivergent student profiles
- Creating adaptive class plans and communication strategies
- Sharing insights and feedback in the main group
- Neurodiversity–affirming teaching as ethical practice
- Holding space for autonomy, agency and belonging
- The teacher’s scope of practice – supporting without ‘therapy–ing’
- Welcoming neurodivergent teachers and practitioners as part of collective learning
- Each participant teaches a 5–7–minute neuro–inclusive segment
- Peer feedback and facilitator support
- Live, real–time integration of the weekend’s teaching
- Yoga Alliance–accredited module (RYS 300 or YACEP)
- Can be taken as a stand–alone CPD or as an elective module on the Shala’s 300–hour Yoga Teacher Training
- Certificate of completion issued on complete fulfilment of attendance livestream
Course Dates
Course dates & schedule
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