Giovanna Schender

Die Yoga-Institution in Bonn.

Giovanna may have good intentions, and when it comes to physical practice and training, she knows what she's doing. At the same time, in my opinion, she didn't integrate the spiritual dimension of yoga into her personality at all. By that I mean concretely that I hardly noticed any sympathy for their fellow human beings, in this case for me. I did not have the feeling that she was even halfway right with herself - keyword body, mind and soul. But that is exactly what makes an extremely important component of yoga for me - and a good teacher. Over time, I have found that less certificates play a role with high-ranking teachers / gurus etc., but to what extent a teacher is really able to engage with himself and his fellow human beings. In the entire scene there are unfortunately not a few teachers who consider themselves to be particularly spiritual / developed or whatever, but unfortunately the whole thing is often more "spiritual bypassing", which is expressed in guru quotes / calendar sayings and has hardly any truth Substance. In addition, after only a few hours of training as a complete beginner, I should be persuaded by another teacher there to do a shoulder stand - at that time I did not know that doing it right at the beginning was absolutely negligent, simply because of the risk of injury. Fortunately, I listened to my intuition and said no, which is not so easy when you should stand up for yourself within a group, and quasi against the teacher and his repeated pressure. In addition, I had booked a beginner's course on prior advice from the school. I was assured that I would be in good hands there - in the end, however, all possible participants with some 10+ years of experience cavorted in this "beginner course" - in my opinion, a very unfavorable constellation if you learn yoga "from scratch" would like to. Another very unpleasant incident was when Giovanna snapped at me because I was supposed to have chewing gum in my mouth (I had just received new braces). At the same time, she spoke to me in an impossible, absolutely intrusive tone, as if I was a small child. Absolutely no-go from today's perspective - at that time, as a young woman, I unfortunately didn't have the courage to stand up for myself. In the meantime I have had experiences with other yoga studios and I am glad that there is another way and I did not let myself be chased by this experience. Especially if you only start with yoga and then have such experiences, of course, that is very unfortunate. So if you have been doing yoga for years and already know how to do it, you can definitely have a good time there. However, I would not advise every beginner and anyone who values ​​a self-confident, empathetic teacher in the best sense to go to this studio.

The rooms of the school are beautifully located in an old building. Unfortunately I did not feel supported by the teacher Giovanna at all. When an exercise was not clear to me and I could not perform it, I asked accordingly and got the answer that the other students had been coming to her for 10 or 15 years. I found that unhelpful. (A course advertised as health insurance and 'restorative'). Unfortunately, later on, I did not get any answers to my questions, instead I received an incomprehensible quote from a guru (?). There was no willingness to engage in the dialogue. I thought that was a pity. I had to drop out of the course because of the lack of confidence in those circumstances and I was afraid of hurting myself. At least partial reimbursement of course and annual fees did not exist (although I had to cancel after 3 times)