Training in the YOGIST-Well At Work method for a wellness coach: feedback
The certified Well At Work® facilitators have so much to share with you. We’ve selected this lively testimonial from Delphine Drouin, a wellness coach who completed the Well At Work® Facilitator training with YOGIST in late 2022. We’ve kept the original format of the interview, featuring the trainer’s questions and our Well At Work® facilitator’s answers.
What does your job involve?
I’m a health and wellness coach. I named my coaching practice “Be to B”: “feeling physically well at work, feeling stress-free at work, and feeling comfortable working with others.”
Most of my work takes place in the corporate sector, as part of workplace well-being programs.
“The Well At Work Facilitator training was exactly what I needed to focus on physical well-being without veering into sports coaching. The Yogist Academy certification really boosted my services!”
Delphine Drouin
"Be to b" Wellness Coach
How did you end up at Yogist?
I had both of Anne-Charlotte Vuccino’s books on my bookshelf. As a certified in-home yoga instructor, I began introducing yoga to the workplace. So I would go to companies with my mats and workout clothes, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Then I realized that yoga as it is wasn’t suited for the workplace. So I had to redirect my clients toward the Yogist method instead.
For me, this training was a no-brainer. Of course, this training meets my expectations. It’s a tool I needed to work on physical well-being without veering into sports coaching. The Yogist Academy certification has really boosted my services, as I now offer many Yogist workshops to my clients. For example, if they choose the “Physically Well in My Job” program, they’ll be entitled to a Yogist workshop.
“It was easy for me to introduce the Yogist method in the workplace because it makes sense.”
How do you incorporate the Yogist method into your services?
I always start my coaching sessions with a Yogist workshop. At work, we’re completely disconnected from our bodies, yet we can’t function properly if our bodies aren’t working right. So I ask participants to become aware of their bodies, to reconnect with them, to breathe, and to do a few poses so they can feel their bodies.
Some people realize then that they weren’t actually breathing before this workshop! No, you aren’t breathing—you’re holding your breath all day long. That’s why it makes perfect sense to start my programs with breathing exercises. In fact, once they’ve tried the Yogist method, they’re much more open to trying the other programs!
Have you had a memorable experience using the Yogist method?
Oh yes! Brinks in Réunion had asked me to lead Yogist workshops for cash transporters and security guards. I walked into a room full of burly Réunionese men, who started speaking to me in Creole, explaining just how reluctant they were to participate in my program (without really knowing what it was all about).
It was a magical moment for me, for those fifteen men who were chanting that they were already familiar with the TMS posture exercises, that they were useless, and that they didn’t teach them anything.
I assured them that my workshop was much more fun, and they went along with it. I started with some breathing exercises to help them relax, and then they all got into the poses for an hour and 15 minutes. They wanted more! They loved the names of the Yogist poses, especially when I had them do the Drunkard’s Pose at the end…
I ran into them again last week during Mental Health Awareness Week, and they gave me great feedback. Their back and eye pain has eased, and they think of me every time they do a Yogist pose. They asked that Yogist workshops be scheduled on a regular basis throughout the year.
I love working with this kind of group—for example, the workshops I’ve led for bus drivers. I find them much less jaded than some office workers who already have access to workplace wellness programs. I find the sessions more fun…
Watch Delphine, a Well At Work® facilitator, share her story in this video.
