Consider One-to-One Mentoring

My beginning in Yoga is one of my dearest memories, and left permanent lessons that I still value. I hope that sharing here my experience, and the conclusions resulting from it, will be helpful to you.

 
I am Juan Pablo Girardi, founder of the University of Healing Arts (UHA) and the Brain Optimization Institute (BOI). In the last five years, both organizations have been certifying and granting Masters degrees to advanced students who are interested in profound, life-transforming knowledge.

Before founding the University of Healing Arts and the Brain Optimization Institute, I practiced psychotherapy for 15 years and have just recently renounced my license to devote all of my time to education, and also as a statement of personal independence from the mainstream, with its adherent traps and regulations.

Thirty years ago, I was living in Santiago, Chile; I was 23. I had recently read the book "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda and was deeply interested in progressing from reading, to practicing Yoga. The very dear aunt, who had introduced me to the autobiography, also referred me to her own yoga teacher.

The home of this teacher was located in a modest, middle class neighborhood of Santiago. Her big old house felt magical and mysterious. Maruja Gonzalez was a small, dynamic, affectionate lady, who was not only an excellent Hatha Yoga teacher, but also a psychologist. In relation to this “dual profession” one day she said to me: “I’m first a healer, and second a yoga teacher. My students come here to relax and heal from the stress in their lives.” She deeply believed in the value of healing and her relaxed easy-going approach to yoga, as I soon found out, was undeniably healing.

Before I began practicing yoga, doctors had already recommended that I undergo two separate surgeries. I was young, and when making decisions did not always have the best common sense, but in this case, I had the good common sense of refusing both!

 
I began practicing yoga and in a few months both physical issues that had bothered me for years, were resolved. Because of this experience, today I am convinced that Hatha Yoga can be very healing; provided however, that it is offered in an easy going environment, completely devoid of any sense of competition with oneself or others; and even free of the desire to improve the practice itself!  It is this what makes in my experience, and that of many others, Hatha Yoga safe and effective. Even a subtle competitive attitude breeds straining, and in Yoga, straining can easily lead to injuries.  As I see it, Hatha Yoga should be primarily an exercise in relaxation and surrender.

 
I visited my teacher three times a week after school. I was studying engineering at that time. I was always looking forward to my classes -- how much more interesting than engineering!

 
From the beginning our group was very small, and this provided a highly distinctive quality to Maruja’s classes. After a few months, the few students who had been attending, left; however, Maruja did not hesitate to continue training me alone.

Later, she invited a teacher-in-training, Carlos Thomas, into our class. Quite often, Carlos would teach the class as Maruja observed, and eventually there were two teachers in the room, for only one student. One would think that I would have become a great hatha yogi?  Oh, well …  However, after the class, Maruja took plenty of time to chat and drink coffee with Carlos and me; such delightful, and healing moments! Gradually, she and Carlos introduced me to the mysteries of a deeper yoga and to their love for healing and enlightenment. Her Hatha Yoga was helpful and healing, but the coffee after class, proved to be even more valuable and transformative. This close interaction with my teachers had a profound impact on my life.

This experience has remained indelibly in my memory for thirty years and now is shaping the destiny of UHA and BOI. I can see how my wife and I, to the degree possible in this fast paced 21st century, have been replicating this unique model of one-to-one mentoring. Fortunately, my wife Viviana, co-founder of UHA and BOI, is a born hostess, (as well as an excellent Hatha Yoga teacher who also loves to teach one-to-one).  
Nowadays, although obviously convenient for the schools, the mainstream model of education with dozens and sometimes hundreds of students in one classroom, is not for the highest benefit of the student.
The format of a classroom with many students and one instructor is, despite being hundreds of years old, relatively recent. For example, we find that in both, ancient India and ancient Greece, education was offered by one teacher to very few, or even a single student.

From the beginning, at UHA and BOI, we have worked with small groups or one-to-one. As a result, it has become even more clear to me that teaching a single student, is markedly superior to working with a group – even a small group. Similarly, in psychotherapy, I concluded many years ago, that working one-to-one with a client is usually far superior to group therapy.

Individual therapy offers the opportunity to address intricate and very personal challenges affecting the client, similarly, one-to-one teaching provides the best setting to help the student with the unique professional and personal challenges that could interfere with the achievement of his or her goals. This type of teaching/mentoring is extremely effective; though quite difficult to find these days.

 
Those of a practical bent might argue that, in this one-to-one model, a single teacher can just reach so many students. I agree; through the years it became evident that as UHA and BOI continue to grow, I would not have sufficient time to teach all of our students individually. However, UHA and BOI has had the good fortune of attracting excellent students, some of whom are naturally intuitive teachers and capable of offering a level of instruction, to new students, one-to-one, which is far beyond what is commonly expected.

Juan Pablo Girardi, MS, MA
University of Healing Arts and Brain Optimization Institute, founder