BRAND CREATORS: Trish Corley on Anatomy for Yoga Teachers

Trish Corley, waiting for her anatomy students, Lisbon, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

In a wellness space often shaped by trends and aesthetics, this conversation brings us back to foundations. What does it truly mean to understand the body - not just in theory, but in practice?

In this edition of Brand Creators, I’m speaking with Trish Corley, whose work challenges surface-level anatomy education and replaces memorization with applied understanding. We explore sustainable teaching, grounded authority, embodiment, and the confidence that comes from real clarity.

At its heart, this interview is about depth — and the responsibility that comes with guiding other bodies.

Trish practiced as a physical therapist/physio for years before becoming a professor, teaching functional anatomy to future clinicians. When she became a yoga teacher, her background in the human body and education set her up to teach in a way that went deeper than most trainings offer. As she started leading continuing education and traveling the world taking classes everywhere she went, she noticed a real disconnect. So many yoga teachers don’t truly understand anatomy, and it shows up in their teaching.

That’s what drove her to create the Balanced Posture Alignment framework and Yoga Anatomy School. She’s passionate about helping yoga teachers make their classes clear and impactful because she believes in the power of yoga to heal society, and that won’t happen without excellent teaching.

You work primarily with yoga teachers. From your perspective, how has the role of anatomy evolved in yoga education over the past years?

Most yoga teacher trainings still treat anatomy as a requirement to check off. There’s a set number of hours programs need to cover, and many meet that requirement, though it ends up being a weekend of memorizing some terminology that teachers forget within a month. That’s not really education, that’s compliance. What’s starting to shift, and I think we’re in the early stages of it, is that teachers are realizing on their own that what they learned wasn’t enough.

I hear from so many yoga teachers that they learned the information, but never learned how to apply it. They’re in real teaching situations and don’t know what to do with the body in front of them. That’s why I am passionate about making what I teach applicable right away. I created my online course Enlightened and the Balanced Posture Alignment framework, to bridge that gap between knowing anatomy and actually using it to teach better.

Trish Corley, demonstrating anatomy knowledge to her students, Lisbon, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

What risks do you see when wellness spaces prioritize aesthetics, intensity, or trends over anatomical understanding?

There are inevitably risks in any movement practice, and when people prioritize aesthetics or what postures look like, that risk goes up. We’ve seen yoga swing from an era of intensity and overuse injuries to the opposite extreme of slow, gentle, “listen to your body” teaching. I see the value in that shift, and I think we’ve gone too far. A lot of people are now just moving through gentle movements without any real muscle activation or integration, and while that might feel nice, it’s not actually serving their physical body.

The truth is, our bodies thrive when exposed to the right amount of stress. My aim is for practitioners to find that balance of challenging the body physically while also challenging the mind. That takes more than knowing anatomy facts. It takes understanding how the body actually works; how to cue so muscles are activating and the body is challenged, which goes well beyond just telling someone to “engage.”

What does sustainable teaching look like when a teacher truly understands the body?

It looks like a teacher who can walk into any room, see a wide range of bodies, and know how to guide each person safely without defaulting to one-size-fits-all cues. They’re not relying on choreography or memorized sequences. They’re responding to what’s actually in front of them.

One of my students put it perfectly. She told me she’d felt more comfortable demonstrating rather than cueing, but realized there’s only so much physical demoing her body can handle, especially teaching multiple classes a week. She wanted to make her teaching more sustainable long-term. That’s exactly what understanding the body gives you.

When you develop strong cueing skills grounded in anatomy, you don’t have to demo everything. Clear verbal cues can do the job, and that’s empowering for both the teacher and the student. That’s the kind of sustainable teaching I help people build through the Balanced Posture Alignment framework.

Trish Corley, guiding her student to a pose, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

How does anatomy education change the way a teacher holds authority in the room?

When you understand the body, you can truly stop second-guessing teaching. You can answer a student’s question with confidence instead of deflecting or just repeating something you heard in your training. You can look at someone struggling in a pose and know whether they need a different cue, a modification, or to back off entirely, and you can explain why.

That’s real authority.

It’s not about being the most advanced practitioner in the room. It’s about being a knowledgeable guide. And students feel that. When a teacher truly knows what they’re talking about, there’s a trust that builds in the room that you just can’t fake.

For teachers, studios, or retreat leaders reading this, what mindset shift would you most love to see?

I’d love to see teachers stop believing there are specific cues to memorize for each posture. That’s the approach most trainings take, and it leaves teachers feeling lost the moment they encounter something they didn’t study or can’t remember. The real shift is understanding that if you know the anatomy and basic biomechanics of the body, you can apply that knowledge to any yoga posture. You’re not wondering if you know the right cues for a specific pose because you understand how the body moves.

This is actually how physical therapists and physios work with such a diverse range of people. We don’t learn separate protocols for how to teach someone who had a stroke to walk versus someone recovering from an ACL repair. We analyze human movement. I’d love to see that same mindset come into the yoga world.

And while I’m at it, I’d also love to see teachers let go of the idea that they need to demonstrate everything because “there are a lot of visual learners.” That’s become a crutch. A really skilled teacher checks in on their students with their own eyes and demonstrates when appropriate, not as the default.

Trish Corley, supporting her students during her class, Lisbon , Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

What role does self-awareness play in feeling comfortable being photographed or visible?

I’m human, and I have many of the same worries other people have before a photoshoot. Am I going to look my best? Is the lighting right? Are the angles right? It’s the same nervous energy that comes up before standing in front of a room full of students.

Self-awareness is what gets me through these moments, and it’s something I emphasize in my trainings and mentorship (yes, even more than anatomy). What I often see is yoga teachers who don’t fully believe they belong in front of the room, and they end up hiding by just doing the practice. Doing the postures becomes the crutch. What’s actually vulnerable is standing there and letting people see me for who I am, without the performance; and it’s what allows students to connect with me.

Yoga taught me the most valuable thing, which is to love myself and to show up as the unique light that I am. From that place of self-love, the noise quiets down. That’s the practice, whether it’s a camera or a classroom. Show up as me.

As someone who works so deeply with the body, what stood out to you about experiencing a photoshoot through an embodied, rather than performative, approach?

The photoshoot with Lucie was really fun. I had three yoga teachers help me out, and we wanted to capture moments of me teaching. At first I tried to stage what I wanted the pictures to look like, but just like yoga teaches us, when you reach for something you’re not, it doesn’t feel authentic.

So I stopped pretending and dropped into the embodiment of actually teaching, of being me. I could feel the difference in my body when I was posing versus being natural. What was so great about working with Lucie is that she quickly became in tune with who I am naturally. She could sense when I was posturing and would gently bring me back.

At one point towards the end I was tired, she asked me to smile, and I gave her the fakest smile. She caught it immediately. Everything she did was in the effort to capture real moments of me, and I really appreciate that. It was a beautiful reminder of what it means to feel embodied; and to have someone on the other side of the camera committed to capturing the authentic me is exactly what I wanted.

Trish Corley, showing her personality with her educational books, Lisbon, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

You help yoga teachers build confidence on and off the mat. What parallels do you see between developing that kind of confidence in the studio and building confidence as an entrepreneur?

They’re incredibly parallel. One of the foundational teachings of yoga is to use the practices to calm the fluctuations of the mind. Whether it’s going for a challenging posture, leading a class, leading a training, or opening a business, fluctuations of the mind show up. They often come in the form of doubt.

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly riding a wave. There are highs, there are lows, moments of real excitement followed by moments of wanting to throw in the towel. To me, this is life. And it’s also what I experience every time I practice yoga. I’m grateful that I have the tools and practices of yoga to bring mindfulness and self-awareness into those moments of doubt. Not to push them away, but to acknowledge them and ask myself: what’s happening right now? What do I feel in my body? What do I want to have happen, and what action can I take right now? Yoga is philosophical and it’s about taking action. My teacher teaches me to ‘be a yes’ for what I want to make happen in this lifetime.

When I decided I wanted to lead yoga teacher trainings, I had all the doubts and questions every entrepreneur faces. Other people are already doing this. Who am I? Where’s the money going to come from? And then I stopped and said, this is what I’m going to make happen. I said yes, put myself in action, and moved forward. The doubt didn’t disappear. I just made a higher call and took action. I wanted to lead the trainings and start my business because I could see how it would empower other people. I knew my why and I listened to my heart. This is what drives me on the mat and in my business. Acknowledge the doubt and take action based on what my heart says.

Trish Corley, working in the café in the center of Lisbon, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová

You’ve lived in over 10 cities and now call Lisbon home. What about Lisbon’s business or cultural environment has supported your growth, and what advice would you give women building their businesses here?

One of the things that’s really helped me thrive in Lisbon is the culture of meetups and networking events. I’ve met some amazing people, especially women, at gatherings focused on leaning into each other and supporting one another in entrepreneurship. That community has been invaluable.

As for advice, and I’d give this to men and women alike: don’t let indecision stop you. There are always going to be a million ways to do things, and staying stuck in indecision will hold you back more than anything else. Do your homework, ask questions, have conversations, but don’t hide behind the “researching”. The way to actually build a business is to take action, try things on, and learn as you go. To me, it’s a much bigger failure to wonder about it than to try something that doesn’t go perfectly. You can always pivot, change, and keep growing.

Something I’d say specifically to women is that sometimes masculine energy is needed. I’m married to a very data-driven entrepreneur, and we live in a world of AI and spreadsheets and numbers that can help drive decisions. I pay attention to that because it can’t be ignored. And there have been times where I’ve leaned too far into the data and away from what feels aligned. We need to honour our feminine energy too!! When I come back to what feels aligned, everything works better. I enjoy it more, I serve my people better, and the results follow.

My brand story talks about creativity caused by the proximity of the ocean. Does the ocean affect you? If so, how?

The ocean is in my soul too. I grew up on the Jersey Shore (that’s what locals call the beach in NJ, USA) and spent my summers living on boats. I can still recall falling asleep as a kid to the sound of water lapping against the hull. My late father loved the ocean, and to this day, when I stand looking out at the horizon, I think of him.

There’s something about the water that connects me to something bigger than myself. It also connects deeply to my teaching. In yoga, we work with the five elements, and people always tell me I’m very grounded, which makes sense because I carry a lot of earth energy in my body.

It’s actually one of the reasons I love teaching vinyasa yoga, because it brings in that element of water and flow. What a lot of people don’t realize is that vinyasa isn’t just a flowing dance. It’s a state of flow, and I can create that experience even when holding a posture for a long time. Living in Portugal near the coast has brought all of that full circle for me.

Connect and learn more.

Did you enjoy this interview? Connect with Trish and learn more about her Anatomy Course, Teacher Trainings and upcoming events.

WEBSITE: https://www.trishcorley.com

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@trishcorley_yoga_anatomy

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/drtrishcorley/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/trishcorley

Trish Corley, Personal Branding Photoshoot, Lisbon, Portugal | Photo: Lucie Kirchnerová