I'm Simone Marie-Elise.
Before diving into what makes our 200YTT (200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training) unique, it's important to know why and how it was brought into this world.
I'm Simone Marie-Elise — the Founder, Creator, and Lead Teacher Trainer of the award-winning modality YOGkiSOMA, on a mission to completely transform Yoga in the West. YOGkiSOMA is now a Registered Yoga School blending Energetics and Somatics with Asana — but it was originally birthed through me. Early on in my 200YTT back in 2018, I saw myself leading Yoga Teacher Trainings as the one who holds space for the emotional process happening throughout.
Then, beginning in late 2021, I spent an entire year bawling every single time I stepped onto my Yoga mat — in all four studios I taught at.
At first I thought it was just the intense energy of Scorpio Season. When that passed, I thought it was my Karuna Holy Fire Reiki Masters activations, or being initiated into Sadhguru's Shambavi MahaMudra Kriya… nope.
I kept pushing through debilitating left hip pain and calf spasms, giving my all in every Vinyasa, Hatha, and Yin class I took. My Body started breaking down in an effort to get me to slow down and learn to listen to it.
What it revealed was so much deeper than frustration that my physical asana practice wasn't where I wanted it to be.
I was seeking validation… from mySELF. Yet, the entire time, I was searching for it from my Teachers — only to dismiss any compliment they'd give me.
I can remember the class when it all hit me:
I was standing in tadasana, looking at myself in the mirror with tears falling down my face, when I heard this voice: "Students don't need to see a Teacher breaking down like this in every class. Just do your practice at home and come to the studios to teach."
I immediately recognized it as my ego — and then I heard another voice: "Actually, Students DO need to see this. This is part of the process, too. You may be giving them the permission slip they didn't even know they needed."
I left that class lighter. Seen.
I got the message right away: I needed to go into another Yoga Teacher Training, so I could better INNERstand what was actually happening in my System. That 300YTT became a whole season of seeking, learning and assimilating. From 2022 to 2025, I found myself in two Somatic Facilitator Trainings totaling over 500 hours, various subconscious reprogram trainings, Classical Kundalini Tantra Yoga and Yoga Nidra, just to name a few. I dove even deeper into human psychology and conditioning, shadow work, neurology, fascia, meridians, and energetics.
Ironically, all of it deepened my personal home practice, too.
It was there, in the Studio of Self & Life, that I surrendered into being fully guided by my Soul and my Body.
Everything truly began to transform.
I stopped forcing my Body to do what I wanted it to do and I let it direct me. I explored, emoted, moved, danced, and expressed — freely and fully.
My Body finally trusted me again. My intuition strengthened. My confidence shattered my limiting beliefs. My truest, most authentic and expressed Self no longer hid in the shadows.
As a Student, I finally listened to my Body's cues more than I forced my Body to do what the Teacher was cuing. As a Teacher, I began to lead with so much more grace and compassion — instead of strict, disciplinary, "my way or the highway" energy.
My cues went from regurgitated statements I'd learned from books and my mentors to fully embodied — because the personal process I went on gave me a point of reference for what my Students are experiencing.
After supporting over a dozen Yoga Teacher Trainings, leading my own Continuing Education Programs, holding the role of Lead of Teacher Development at the largest studio chain in Las Vegas, and being a devoted Student of Life — I saw a massive gap in the Yoga industry in the West.
And the vision I'd had in my 2018 200YTT finally made sense.
