Yoga & Meditation Teacher Training with 16 Masterclasses (Dubai)

This yoga teacher training in Dubai brings classical yoga and meditation together in a single course, leading toward 200-hour and 300-hour Yoga Alliance certification. It is for people who want to guide others or lead a community and would rather study yoga as a whole practice than as poses alone. Lead teacher Manish Pole and co-founder Rana Abihayla guide the program, which is based at Keyani Wellness in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and sixteen teachers from ten nationalities join the faculty.

What to Expect

The training is hybrid. It begins with one to three months online, then moves to a ten-day in-person immersion in Dubai. The online phase includes a daily class in yoga, pranayama and meditation, study of twenty-one modules covering philosophy, anatomy, chakras and more, and a weekly live call with Manish Pole and Rana Abihayla on practice and learning.

The yoga curriculum covers hatha, vinyasa and yin asana, classical pranayama, mudra and bandha, Sanskrit mantra chanting, yoga nidra and the shat kriyas, the classical cleansing practices. Asana is taught with the aim of sitting in stillness. Meditation ranges from vipassana, zen, metta and walking meditation to dynamic meditation, laughter and gibberish practices, gratitude work and chakra kriyas. The learning side takes in Indian philosophy and the Yoga Sutras, Ayurveda, psychology, functional anatomy and the neuroscience of meditation. Teaching skills include class design, voice, holding space without cultural appropriation, presentation, and designing workshops and retreats.

Weekdays during the immersion run in two blocks. From 6:00 to 9:00 am come the neti and trataka kriyas, pranayama with mudra and bandha, classical hatha-vinyasa, Om and mantra chanting, vipassana and loving-kindness meditation, and sessions on yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda, anatomy and the nervous system. From 6:00 to 9:00 pm there is an asana workshop, teaching skills, dynamic meditation with art and music, yin yoga, yoga nidra, a community sharing circle and journaling. The in-person days also include one-to-one teaching mentorship, art therapy and dance expression.

The weekend of masterclasses runs from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm, with sixteen ninety-minute sessions from the full faculty. Topics include yin yoga, kundalini yoga, elemental flow and sacred sound, embodied vinyasa, restorative yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine meridian-based yoga, a gong and sound journey, the 5 Rhythms, and psychology for mental health. These masterclasses are also open to practitioners and teachers beyond the enrolled cohort who want to upskill.

Assessment is practical and spoken. Each trainee teaches a complete 60-minute class with pranayama and yoga nidra, scripts and guides a meditation, and speaks on philosophy and anatomy topics.

About Manish Pole

Manish Pole has been a yoga and meditation educator since 2003 and has trained teachers for more than twenty years. He graduated in Psychology, Literature and Journalism in 2002, then lived, trained and taught from 2003 to 2010 with Bharat Thakur, described by TIME Magazine as "the Living Himalayan Master". From 2010 to 2020 he was a co-founder of Total Yoga, which operated in India, the USA, the UK, the UAE, Singapore and New Zealand. Since 2023 he has co-founded the Awaken School with Rana Abihayla. He has given keynotes at World Expo 2020 and at wellness conferences. Past students describe his ability to connect yoga philosophy with practice, so the reasons behind each technique are clear.

About Rana Abihayla

Rana Abihayla is a teacher, life coach and author, and co-founder of Awaken Wellness. She leads the weekly online calls alongside Manish Pole and teaches the restorative yoga masterclass.

The Setting

In-person training takes place at Keyani Wellness in Dubai. Linda Sakr, a holistic psychologist and the founder of Keyani Wellness, also teaches the psychology masterclass.

Before You Go

The program is taught in English. No prerequisites are listed; the full training leads toward teaching certification, and the masterclasses suit practitioners and teachers alike. Included are the online modules with daily practice, the twenty-one study units, the weekly live calls, the ten-day immersion, one-to-one mentorship, both examinations and the sixteen masterclasses.