Teaching Pranayama with Mark Stephens (Online)

Teaching Pranayama is an online yoga workshop course with Mark Stephens, written for yoga teachers and dedicated practitioners who want to understand breathing practices more deeply and teach them with care. It brings together the history and philosophy of pranayama with the anatomy and physiology of respiration, and it takes place entirely online.

What to Expect

Pranayama is one of yoga's most profound practices, and a growing body of scientific research is now showing how breathing affects the body and mind. This course holds both sides of that conversation. You look at the historical and philosophical foundations of pranayama, then place them next to the way the respiratory system actually works.

Along the way, the course examines traditional ideas of prana, subtle anatomy, and energy, and considers how these relate to contemporary scientific understandings of breathing. The aim is not to settle the question in favor of one view, but to see where the old and new descriptions meet and where they differ.

The learning is practical as well as conceptual. Through guided practice and practical teaching applications, you explore foundational and advanced techniques, along with their effects, adaptations, and contraindications. The course emphasizes building a sustainable personal practice and teaching pranayama with knowledge, discernment, and sensitivity. That means knowing not only how to guide a technique, but also when to adapt it and when to leave it out.

About Mark Stephens

Mark Stephens is a yoga instructor and writer. His books include Teaching Yoga (second edition, 2024), Breathing (2026), and an audiobook edition of Yoga Sequencing. He also leads yoga teacher trainings, workshops, immersions, and retreats, both online and in person, and this course on teaching pranayama is part of that body of work.

Before You Go

The course is designed for yoga teachers and dedicated practitioners, so it suits people who already have a regular practice and want to go further into the study and teaching of breathwork. It is held online, which means you can take part from wherever you are.