What Teaching Private Yoga Has Taught Me
Teaching privately requires a real connection. There is nowhere to hide, and no need to. It is just you, your student, and what is actually happening in the room.
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I didn't know when I started teaching yoga that private classes would become 95% of my revenue. That they would feel more steady, more regular than group classes.
I didn't know they would be easier to teach in some ways. More personal, easier to adapt, less performance, more real teaching.
I am more of an introvert, so teaching a large group can feel intimidating. It can feel like performing sometimes, which is the opposite of what drew me to yoga in the first place.
Teaching privately requires a real connection. There is nowhere to hide, and no need to. It is just you, your student, and what is actually happening in the room. Your sequencing constantly adapts. Your observation deepens. You learn to listen not just with your ears but with your eyes, your instincts, your silence.
I didn't know teaching Private asked a different set of skills from me than group teaching ever had.
How do you structure a session for someone with a hip replacement, or a neurological condition, or a complete beginner? How do you hold space for a client who arrives stressed from back-to-back meetings, phone still ringing, and needs more than a sequence, they need permission to stop.
I realised it requires presence. Pure presence. Adaptability, and a willingness to meet each student exactly where they are. That is the art of private teaching.
I didn't know that my students would teach me so much about yoga itself.
That a student working with significant physical limitations would tell me he has never known his body better than he does now. That a high-achieving young student would find, through yoga, the discipline doesn't have to mean pushing, that it can mean returning, quietly, again and again, without forcing. That a couple fitting their session between Zoom calls would remind me that stillness is not a luxury. It is oxygen.
I didn't know that teaching privately would bring me back to the essence of yoga. Not the performance of it. The practice of it.
Helene Retsinias Anido
Hélène Retsinias Anido is a yoga teacher, writer, and the founder of The Art of Presence Teacher Training. She teaches Hatha Yoga in North London, offers one-to-one yoga sessions, and leads the CPD course The Art of Teaching Private Yoga, helping yoga teachers develop the confidence and skills to create meaningful, personalised private sessions. Passionate about mindful living, nature, and the wisdom of yoga beyond the mat, Hélène writes about presence, modern life, and what it means to live with greater awareness.