200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Mark Stephens

This 200-hour yoga teacher training with Mark Stephens is a Yoga Alliance approved program for people who want to teach yoga, deepen a long-standing practice, or refine the skills of a working teacher. It is offered online with an optional in-person add-on at Santa Cruz Yoga in Santa Cruz, California. Graduates are eligible to register as RYT-200. The training draws on Hatha, Vedic, Yoga Sutra and Tantra traditions and is taught in English, at all levels.

How the Training Works

The curriculum unfolds in five modules, moving from foundations toward integration and application. Modules open every six weeks, and the program is designed to be completed in 9 to 12 months so that what you learn has time to settle. Each module includes 15 to 25 hours of video learning with Mark, three 4-hour live group sessions (with replays available), guided practice in asana, pranayama and meditation, practice teaching with direct feedback, and supplemental reading, journaling and quizzes.

There are three formats with the same curriculum. The Live Online Immersion adds bi-weekly 4-hour live Zoom sessions, small group practices and personalized feedback. The Santa Cruz Immersion Add-On includes all of that plus monthly 6-hour in-person immersions in Santa Cruz, along with free classes with Mark at Santa Cruz Yoga before the Saturday sessions. The Self-Paced Journey lets you begin anytime, from anywhere, with pre-recorded modules and a library of live monthly Q&A and practice sessions.

The modules cover:

- Foundations of Practice & Teaching: anatomy for yoga, taking the seat of the teacher, 27 standing poses, and sound (music, Aum, Gayatri).
- Cultivating Stability & Ease: subtle energy, Yoga Sutra essentials, core work, hand and arm-support poses, pranayama, mantra and guided chakra meditation.
- Cultivating Clarity & Inner Power: insights from the Bhagavad Gita, backbends, twists and Tantra.
- The Heart of Things: forward folds and hip openers, inversions, Surya Namaskara, and language, diversity and inclusiveness.
- For the Love of It All: pre- and postnatal teaching, sequencing, and the ethics and business of teaching.

Across the program you study more than 75 core poses with progressions, modifications and safe use of props, along with ten foundational breathing practices. Cueing, demonstration and working with injuries and special conditions are also covered. To complete the certification you submit six class observations, three class sequences and three 15-minute teaching videos, and you sit one certification exam. Ongoing mentoring with Mark continues after graduation.

About Mark Stephens

Mark Stephens is a yoga teacher and writer. He describes more than three decades of teaching and authorship of widely used yoga textbooks, and he leads the training directly, giving feedback on practice teaching and mentoring students through the program.

The Santa Cruz Immersions

The in-person sessions take place in Santa Cruz, California, on Saturdays from 1:30pm to 6:30pm, roughly once a month. They suit students in Northern and Central California or anyone able to travel monthly. Travel and lodging are not included.

Before You Go

Newcomers, current teachers, studio owners and retreat leaders have all taken this training, and no particular prerequisite is listed.

Included are the recorded video lectures, live Zoom sessions, practice teaching feedback, a syllabus, module checklists, PDF workbooks (67-page Anatomy, 100-page Asana, 38-page Sequencing), access to the online community forum, the Yoga Alliance approved 200-hour certificate, and one year of access to all materials.

Not included are the required books: T. Desikachar's The Heart of Yoga, Jo-Ann Staugaard-Jones's The Concise Anatomy of Yoga, and three titles by Mark Stephens. You will also need modeling clay for the anatomy section, a journal, a reliable internet connection and a device that can stream video.