workshops & classes

workshops and events

May

Bhakti Jam

May 08th, 2025

Our month­ly Bhak­ti Jam is a chance to join togeth­er, play music for the divine, dance, chant and feel the devo­tion­al bha­vana. Dona­tion based for diverse projects.

Reg­is­ter here for free

Embodiment Lab — a laboratory for experience

May 11th, 2024
14:00 — 17:00
Svaru­pa Lorraine

This col­lab­o­ra­tive space does not focus on mas­ter­ing spe­cif­ic tech­niques, but on evolv­ing toward a rich­er under­stand­ing of our being to fos­ter more gen­uine con­nec­tions with both our­selves and that which is around us.

We come togeth­er to embark on a pro­found explo­ration through our body-instru­ment. Guid­ed by an inte­gra­tive blend of somat­ics, yoga, free move­ment, sound­scapes and being in com­mu­ni­ty we chal­lenge our pre­con­ceived notions.

Each lab will pro­vide a vari­ety of prac­tices and prin­ci­ples that encour­age you to inves­ti­gate, sense, ques­tion, express and unrav­el. We will engage in ways that refine our per­cep­tion of the sub­tle shifts with­in our body-mind-heart. This is a for­mat to leap into the new and strange while recon­nect­ing with our deep inner know­ing.

Teacher: Olivia Winiger
Lan­guage: Ger­man (or Eng­lish if required)

Price: CHF 75.00
Reduced price avail­able  — get in touch here to apply

Sign up here

Space is lim­it­ed — max. 24 participants

June

Breathwork Session

Jun 13, 2025 19:30 — 21:30

Con­scious con­nect­ed breath­ing is a dynam­ic and pro­found prac­tice that helps to release ten­sion and block­ages on var­i­ous lev­els and to recharge your bat­ter­ies. The ses­sions are struc­tured in a trau­ma-con­scious way and are accom­pa­nied by bodywork.

Bewusstes ver­bun­denes Atmen ist eine dynamis­che und tief­greifende Prax­is, welche hil­ft, Span­nun­gen und Block­aden auf ver­schiede­nen Ebe­nen zu lösen und neue Energie zu tanken. Die Ses­sions sind traum­abe­wusst aufge­baut und wer­den durch Kör­per­ar­beit begleit­et.

Teacher: Ani­ta Jet­zer
Lan­guage: Swiss Ger­man (or Eng­lish if required)

Price: CHF 80.00

Sign up here

Space is lim­it­ed — max. 20 participants

10 Hour Restorative Yoga Training

June 14th & 15th, 2025
Svaru­pa Lorraine

A Katon­ah Yoga based approach to phys­i­cal and men­tal recov­ery: We use proven shapes, prop set-ups, the breath and our imag­i­na­tion to reform the body and re-inform the prac­tice.

Top­ics:

  • Sup­port­ed back­bends, inver­sions, folds and being in joint space.
  • Breath tech­niques for flu­id­i­ty and link­ing the dif­fer­ent prac­tice fragments.
  • Katon­ah yoga the­o­ry: Sea­sons, organs and inter­nal body mapping.
  • The archi­tec­ture of ther­a­peu­tic prop set-ups tak­ing body pro­por­tions into account.
  • Adjust­ing, self-adjust­ing and on how to pro­mote a sta­ble phys­i­cal structure.
  • Active Recov­ery for Ath­letes: Address­ing injuries and pro­mot­ing restoration.
  • Reg­u­lat­ing the ner­vous and endocrine sys­tem for bal­ance and wellbeing.
  • Embod­ied med­i­ta­tion. Embod­ied men­tal health.

Guar­an­tee
You will feel a lot of good­ness in your body and take home effec­tive recipes for your­self, a friend or your stu­dents. This train­ing is open to yoga prac­ti­tion­ers and teach­ers, the curi­ous and every­one mind­ful of an orga­nized inte­ri­or.
10 hours count towards the Katon­ah Yoga cer­ti­fi­ca­tion program.

Includ­ed:
Com­plete man­u­al with the­o­ry and detailed prac­tice descrip­tions (will be sent as a PDF doc­u­ment).

Teacher: Reni Bick­el
Lan­guage: Eng­lish

Price: CHF 320.00

Sign up here

Living with Purpose — a weekend with Max Strom

Jun 20th-22nd, 2025
Svaru­pa Lorraine

What would you do if you found out there is a way that you can live with­out anx­i­ety and con­stant stress? What would you do if you could sleep like you used to sleep when you were a child the whole night and feel refreshed when you wake up? What would you do if you found out there is a way that you can live with more mean­ing, not only for you but for your fam­i­ly? You know there is a bet­ter way to live then you are liv­ing now. To live with pur­pose is the goal of near­ly every­one but so few know how to achieve it. 

Join Max Strom for a week­end that will teach you how to restore your­self and help you iden­ti­fy your life pur­pose. Bring writ­ing materials. 

Fri­day, June 20th — 18:30 to 21:30
A Life Worth Breath­ing
3 hours — all lev­els — lec­ture and move­ment

This spe­cial event is focused on trans­form­ing depres­sion into inspi­ra­tion and anx­i­ety into calm.  Max’s work is known for its heal­ing, pen­e­trat­ing affect, leav­ing stu­dents feel­ing renewed and open.  The work­shop begins with a talk by Max based on ideas from his book of the same title. This will be fol­lowed by the inte­gra­tion of breath­ing exer­cis­es and yoga move­ment.  The final seg­ment of the work­shop will focus on seat­ed breath­ing exer­cis­es to revi­tal­ize and inspire your body, your emo­tions, and your life.

Sat­ur­day, June 21st — 10.00 to 14.00
Releas­ing and Heal­ing our Emo­tion­al Body through Pos­tures and Breath-work
2 hours — move­ment-based sem­i­nar — all lev­els

It is said that the human being has a pow­er­ful guid­ing voice with­in; it is the voice of our intu­ition and wis­dom.  But this voice is com­mon­ly drowned out by the noise in our mind.  The noise is often caused from chaot­ic or con­gest­ed emo­tions from stress, depres­sion, PTS, or anx­i­ety.  In this work­shop we will begin with a talk by Max, then move into a gen­tle breath-ini­ti­at­ed move­ment sequence.  The sec­ond half of the work­shop will focus on floor pos­tures and breath-work to release the mind and body from long-held emo­tions that impede our hap­pi­ness and our abil­i­ty to sleep well. Bring your mat and writ­ing materials.

Sat­ur­day, June 21st — 14:00 to 16:00
Some Doors Open Only from the Inside
2 hours — breath­work and lec­ture — all lev­els

Tes­ti­mo­ni­als:
“Gen­uine­ly life-chang­ing.”
“Turn­ing point in my life.”
“Major break­through.”
“High­ly val­ued cat­a­lyst in my ther­a­py process.“

Just a few of numer­ous com­ments of peo­ple who have expe­ri­enced a ses­sion of pow­er­ful breath­work with Max Strom. There’s a time for the­o­ry, and there’s a time to let our breath work for us and go beyond what we can ratio­nal­ly grasp to release our con­gest­ed emo­tions from stress, depres­sion, anx­i­ety, or PTS. Emo­tions affect our breath­ing, for exam­ple: cry­ing and laugh­ing. But did you know that chang­ing the pat­tern of our breath­ing influ­ences our emo­tions? An inno­v­a­tive method, sim­ple tech­niques, and incred­i­ble results. The prac­tices you will learn in this work­shop take you to a calm and inspired state with new depths of insight. This work­shop will include lec­ture, stand­ing and seat­ed breath­ing exer­cis­es. Bring writ­ing mate­ri­als. (not advised if you are pregnant)

Sun­day, June 22nd — 10:00 to 12:30
Find Your Life Pur­pose
2.5 hours — lec­ture and writ­ing

Join Max for an inspir­ing and insight­ful talk and a con­cise course in essen­tial steps to reveal and/or launch one’s life pur­pose.

Known for his depth per­cep­tion and insight into the human expe­ri­ence, this sem­i­nar offers an inspir­ing and insight­ful talk by Max, fol­lowed by a con­cise course in essen­tial steps to reveal and/or launch one’s life pur­pose. The insight you will gain can­not be pur­chased or found in a book, uni­ver­si­ty, or web­site. This spe­cial sem­i­nar will help you to see your world dif­fer­ent­ly, and even course-cor­rect the tra­jec­to­ry of your life course. Be sure to bring writ­ing mate­ri­als.

Are you pre­pared for suc­cess? (Do you believe that you deserve it?)
If you have suc­cess, do you have mean­ing?
Reveal­ing your blind side, your gifts and pur­pose
Reverse-Engi­neer­ing your pur­pose
Dis­tin­guish­ing hap­pi­ness and mean­ing
The rela­tion­ship between lead­er­ship and pur­pose
Pri­ma­ry resources – Time vs. mon­ey
Men­tor­ship
Recal­i­brate and course-cor­rect

Don’t miss the chance to learn from one of today’s fore­most teach­ers of well­ness, find­ing mean­ing in the dig­i­tal age, and breath-based movement.

Biog­ra­phy
Max Strom was born with severe clubbed feet and spent much of the first nine years with his feet con­fined in plas­ter casts or braces. Today he is a renowned speak­er, author and breath­work teacher, and has ded­i­cat­ed over 30 years to suc­cess­ful­ly guid­ing indi­vid­u­als toward emo­tion­al heal­ing, self-dis­cov­ery, and trans­for­ma­tion. With his trans­for­ma­tive Breathe to Heal method, Max offers high­ly impact­ful tech­niques that not only alle­vi­ate anx­i­ety, pan­ic attacks and sleep issues, but also cat­alyze pro­found shifts in indi­vid­u­als and their rela­tion­ships.

Max cap­ti­vates audi­ences world­wide with his empow­er­ing keynote address­es and has pre­sent­ed four impact­ful TEDx Talks, includ­ing the viral Breathe to Heal with 3.9 mil­lion YouTube views. His books, There is No App for Hap­pi­ness and A Life Worth Breath­ing, res­onate inter­na­tion­al­ly, with his third book on the hori­zon.

Redi­rect your life’s jour­ney with Max’s in-per­son cours­es and train­ings, his livestream work­shops and his online video and audio cours­es. Breathe into new insights, release the chains of sup­pressed pain and trau­ma, and become part of a trans­for­ma­tive move­ment. Dis­cov­er more at www.maxstrom.com – your gate­way towards a life of mean­ing and pur­pose. Max teach­es in English.

Pric­ing
Sin­gle Ses­sions
- 2.0h: CHF 55.00
- 2.5h: CHF 65.00
- 3.0h: CHF 75.00

Full Pack­age CHF 225.00

Book­ing

Full Pack­age
Ses­sion 01
Ses­sion 02
Ses­sion 03
Ses­sion 04

July

Usha Devi and Siddharta Krishna 

July, August Sep­tem­ber 2025
Svaru­pa Lorraine

A week­end of  heal­ing and insight using Iyen­gar Yogasana from mas­ter teacher Usha Devi (Rishikesh, India) and sup­port­ing phi­los­o­phy lectures/discussions with Sid­dhar­ta Krisha (Rishikesh).

Fri­day, July 18, 2025 @ Iyen­gar Yoga Bern (Schän­zli­halde)
_ 15:00 — 18:00 Asana with Usha Devi
_ 18:00 — 18:30 Tea and Snacks served
_ 18:30 — 19:30 Phi­los­o­phy with Sid­dhar­ta Krishna

Sat­ur­day, July 19, 2025 @ Svaru­pa Lor­raine
_ 8:30 — 11:30 Asana with Usha Devi
_ spe­cial veg­e­tar­i­an Indi­an lunch avail­able (must be ordered in advance — CHF 20.00)
_ 13:00 — 14:00 Phi­los­o­phy with Sid­dhar­ta Krish­na
_ 14:30 — 16:30 Asana with Usha Devi

Sun­day, July 20, 2025 @ Svaru­pa Lor­raine
_ 8:30 — 11:30 Asana with Usha Devi
_ Chai and infor­mal talks afterwards

About Usha Devi
Usha Devi has been liv­ing in India since the late 1970s. In 1993, she began to study yoga with the world famous Yoga mas­ter B.K.S. Iyen­gar “Guru­ji”. She still spends sev­er­al months each year at the Rama­mani Iyen­gar Memo­r­i­al Yoga Insti­tute (RIMYI) in Pune.

In her teach­ing, Usha Devi is very pre­cise and strict. As a result, her stu­dents are often aston­ished by the lev­el of per­son­al appli­ca­tion and aware­ness that they are able to achieve dur­ing her class­es.  For many, the first impres­sion is of a hard, demand­ing teacher; this is true, but stu­dents quick­ly real­ize that Usha Devi’s dis­ci­plined approach aris­es from a gen­uine love for oth­ers and a nat­ur­al self­less­ness which enables her to form quite a unique rela­tion­ship with the stu­dents in her class­es. Under her con­tin­u­al guid­ance, stu­dents are allowed to achieve depths of yoga prac­tice that they had no con­cep­tion of before.

Most stu­dents who work with Usha Devi come to feel that her instruc­tion has giv­en them a true under­stand­ing of the impor­tant aspects of Yoga which in turn, gives a life­long improve­ment to their prac­tice.  Her iron­ic sense of humor and her forth­right com­mon sense con­tribute to mak­ing her some­thing of a leg­end in the Yoga community.

About Sid­dhar­ta Krish­na
Sid­dhartha Krish­na was raised in the fam­i­ly tra­di­tion of Yoga. He was edu­cat­ed at the Kailas Ashram Brah­ma Vidya Pitha, a monastery focus­ing on the teach­ing of Vedan­ta whose name is relat­ed to well known schol­ars and Mas­ters such as Swa­mi Vivekanan­da (founder of the Ramakr­ish­na Mis­sion), Swa­mi Ramatirtha (founder of the Ramatirtha Mis­sion), Swa­mi Tapo­van (Mas­ter of Swa­mi Chin­mayanan­da, founder of the Chin­maya Mis­sion), and Swa­mi Sivanan­da (founder of the Divine Life Soci­ety).

Lat­er, he taught cours­es on San­skrit gram­mar and Indi­an phi­los­o­phy at the same monastery, and also edit­ed their pub­li­ca­tions on Vedan­ta. In his fur­ther study he has spe­cial­ized on Veda and Yoga phi­los­o­phy as well and has pub­lished trans­la­tions of and com­men­taries on San­skrit texts. Cur­rent­ly, he teach­es at the Patan­jala Yoga Cen­tre in Rishikesh, India. He also trav­els exten­sive­ly out of India as a guest instruc­tor.

In his philo­soph­i­cal dis­cours­es he dis­cuss­es the ancient yog­ic texts in a way which sup­ports the more uni­ver­sal under­stand­ing of the Yog­ic wis­dom and its source, the Veda, in accor­dance with mod­ern intel­lec­tu­al thought.

Costs
Entire Week­end CHF 320.00
Lim­it­ed Spaces for this Spe­cial Pro­gram — course must be booked as a full package

Book here

Spe­cial requests, con­tact [email protected]

Arm Balance & Inversion Quest

Jul 2025 — Feb 2026

Eine 6‑teilige Ver­tiefung für Yoga-Übende und — Lehrer*innen

Inten­tion
In der Prax­is von Arm­bal­an­cen und Umkehrhal­tun­gen steckt eine tiefge­hende Auseinan­der­set­zung mit uns selb­st. Diese Asanas laden dazu ein, über kör­per­liche Gren­zen hin­auszuwach­sen und die eige­nen Äng­ste zu über­winden. Sie sind nicht nur kör­per­liche Her­aus­forderun­gen, son­dern auch Spiegel unser­er inneren Welt. Die Erfahrun­gen, die wir dabei machen, fördern unser Kör­per­be­wusst­sein, stärken unseren Geist und helfen uns, beweglich­er zu wer­den – physisch und psychisch. 

Mit dieser 6‑teiligen Ver­tiefung möcht­en wir dir eine struk­turi­erte Plat­tform bieten, um dich inten­siv mit diesen Asanas auseinan­derzuset­zen und somit deinen eige­nen inneren Dia­log zu fördern.

Zwis­chen Juli 2025 und Feb­ru­ar 2026 tauchen wir in fol­gende The­men ein:

6. Juli 2025
Key Com­po­nents to find Bal­ance in your Hand­stand
Auf­bau der Grund­la­gen, um Sta­bil­ität und Leichtigkeit im Hand­stand zu finden.

17. August 2025
Build­ing on Fore­arms  — Pin­cha Mayurasana
Ver­tiefung der Vorarmhal­tun­gen und Verbindung zur Körpermitte. 

14. Sep­tem­ber 2025
Advanced Arm Bal­ances — Side­body & Splits
Kom­plexe Arm­bal­an­cen mit Fokus auf Lat­er­allinie und Spagat.

30. Novem­ber 2025
Float with Ease: Dynam­ic Hand­stand Entrances
Ein Her­an­tas­ten, wie es sich anfühlt, dynamisch in den Hand­stand zu schweben.

25. Jan­u­ar 2025
Hand­stand Press-Up — Work Smarter not Hard­er
Effizien­z­train­ing für Handstand-Press-Technik.

22. Feb­ru­ar 2026
Advanced Arm Bal­ances with a Twist
Diverse Vari­anten gedrehter Arm­bal­an­cen.

Alle 6 Ver­tiefun­gen: CHF 585.00
Einzelne Ver­tiefung: CHF 108.00

zur Buchung

August

Angelo Cecchi Teachers Intensive

Aug 06 — 08, 2025

3 days of Insight to Asana
In this 3 day teach­ers inten­sive, we will explore a deep­er under­stand­ing of align­ment through the lens of Bio­me­chan­ics, Iyen­gar’s insights, and Osteopa­thy. The course is intend­ed for teach­ers  of Yoga Asana. Grow your own prac­tice, and gain clear Insight into bet­ter align­ment for stu­dents, mod­i­fi­ca­tions and help in pre­vent­ing and heal­ing from injury

Wednes­day, Aug 06, 2025
- 6.0 hours — 13:00 to 19:30 (with break)
Thurs­day, Aug 07, 2025
_ 6.0 hours — 09:00 to 12:00 & 14:00 to 17:00
Fri­day, Aug 08, 2025
_ 6.0 hours — 09:00 to 12:00 & 14:00 to 17:00

Course is a 3 day pro­gram — Lim­it­ed to 20 teach­ers
cer­tifi­cate for Svaru­pa con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion avail­able for 18 hours

Apply here

Pric­ing
CHF 375.00
Fees due upon reg­is­tra­tion & acceptance

Yogasana Alignment, Biomechanics and Beyond

Aug 09 — 10, 2025

Ange­lo Cec­chi returns to Svaru­pa
In this week­end work­shop, we will explore a series of clas­sic pro­gres­sive pos­tures, focus­ing on deep­en­ing the under­stand­ing of align­ment through the lens of Bio­me­chan­ics, Iyen­gar’s insights, and Osteopa­thy. The course is intend­ed for reg­u­lar prac­ti­tion­ers of Yoga Asana.

Sat­ur­day, Aug 09, 2025
_ 09:30 — 12:30 Dynam­ic Stand­ing
_ 14:30 — 16:30 Seat­ed Asanas

Sun­day, Aug 10, 2025
_ 09:30 — 12:30 Dynam­ic Back­bends
_ 14:30 — 16:30 Restorative

Costs
_ Morn­ing Ses­sions: CHF 65.00
_ After­noon Ses­sions: CHF 50.00
_ 2‑Day Pack­age: CHF 200.00

Work­shop is a 2 day pro­gram — Lim­it­ed place avail­abil­i­ty, sign up early

Book­ing

2‑Day Pack­age
SAT Morn­ing
SAT After­noon
SUN Morn­ing
SUN After­noon

September

Breathwork Session

Sep 05, 2025 19:30 — 21:30

Con­scious con­nect­ed breath­ing is a dynam­ic and pro­found prac­tice that helps to release ten­sion and block­ages on var­i­ous lev­els and to recharge your bat­ter­ies. The ses­sions are struc­tured in a trau­ma-con­scious way and are accom­pa­nied by bodywork.

Bewusstes ver­bun­denes Atmen ist eine dynamis­che und tief­greifende Prax­is, welche hil­ft, Span­nun­gen und Block­aden auf ver­schiede­nen Ebe­nen zu lösen und neue Energie zu tanken. Die Ses­sions sind traum­abe­wusst aufge­baut und wer­den durch Kör­per­ar­beit begleit­et.

Teacher: Ani­ta Jet­zer
Lan­guage: Swiss Ger­man (or Eng­lish if required)

Price: CHF 80.00

Sign up here

Space is lim­it­ed — max. 20 participants

Tuscany Retreat

Sep 22nd — 28th, 2025

with Stephen Thomas & Bri­gi Thomas-Moog

Join Stephen Thomas and Bri­gi Thomas-Moog at Caso­lare Alberel­li in Tus­cany (I) for a week of Yoga Asana, Pranaya­ma and Med­i­ta­tion. A chance to deep­en prac­tice, share time togeth­er and restore energy. 

About the Pro­gram
Our typ­i­cal day begins with morn­ing Mantra, Pranaya­ma & Med­i­ta­tion. We break for some tea and silent space — then re-gath­er­ing to immerse in a long Asana ses­sion and deep Savasana. We take brunch and the after­noons are free until we meet for a sec­ond ses­sion of Asana, Pranaya­ma and Dhar­ma talks before our evening meal.

About the Food
Enjoy veg­e­tar­i­an meals pre­pared with sea­son­al, organ­ic and most­ly local­ly sourced prod­ucts, pre­pared with the love-filled hands of the fam­i­ly.
In warm weath­er, meals are served on the gar­den ter­race over­look­ing the sea, and in chilly weath­er, we will enjoy the yum­my food in the lodg­ing’s din­ing room where the crack­ling fire­place adds a cozy feel­ing of home.

Sched­ule

Sep 22 — Arrival Day
17.30 – 19.00 Yoga Asana
fol­lowed by arrival Dinner

Sep 23 — 27 Typ­i­cal Days
07.30 — 11.15 Yoga Asana, Pranaya­ma, Med­i­ta­tion
11.30  Brunch
After­noons free for walk­ing, read­ing, rest­ing in the ham­mock, time at the sea
16.30 — 18.30 Restora­tive Asana, Pranaya­ma, Med­i­ta­tion
19.00 Din­ner

Sep 28 —  Depar­ture Day
07.30 — 10.30 Ear­ly Morn­ing Prac­tices, Clos­ing Cir­cle
11.00 Brunch fol­lowed by departure

Pric­ing
CHF 1’790.00 per per­son, dou­ble ocup­pan­cy
CHF 1’690.00 per per­son, triple occu­pan­cy
sin­gle occu­pan­cy lim­it­ed avail­abil­i­ty on request

includ­ed:
- 6 nights accom­mo­da­tion food yoga 

not includ­ed:
- Tourist tax (1 euro per per­son per day)
- Trav­el costs

Retreat Pol­i­cy and Pay­ment Details

This retreat host­ed by Stephen Thomas and Bri­gi Thomas-Moog is lim­it­ed to 16 par­tic­i­pants.
For details about the retreat cen­tre, vis­it www.alberelli.com

Reg­is­ter here
Ques­tions

October

Wild Lotus Weekend Immersion

Oct 11th — 12th, 2025
Svaru­pa Lorraine

Week­end Pro­gram with Patrick Creel­man from Pure Yoga — Hong Kong

First vis­it to Bern with a 4‑session week­end format

More Info com­ing soon

November

Injury Management Training for Teachers

Nov 07th ‑09th, 2025
Svaru­pa Lorraine

Novem­ber 07th — 09th, 2025

Joan Hyman from Brus­sels and USA, com­ing to Bern for the first time at svarupa

Home­page Schoolof.yoga

More Info com­ing soon