How to Find the Right Yoga Teacher Training
- Jun 5, 2025
- 5 min read
A values-based guide from Kristin Schultz, Founder & Director of Leadership at Zia Yoga & Wellness
One of the most common questions we receive at Zia Yoga & Wellness is:
“Do you offer a yoga teacher training?”
The honest answer is: we have — many times — and we may again.
Over the years, Zia has offered a variety of trainings, immersions, and extended study opportunities. These experiences have been meaningful, impactful, and deeply aligned with our values.
At the same time, full 200-hour yoga teacher trainings are complex and demanding to offer within a studio setting. They require significant financial investment, large blocks of time, and long-term adjustments to the regular class schedule for many months at a time. Perhaps most importantly, they require an enormous commitment from our leadership team, which can pull energy away from the heart of our mission: providing consistent, accessible, high-quality yoga and wellness offerings to our broader community.
Rather than offering a training simply because it’s expected, we choose to be intentional. We believe that teacher training should be held with depth, care, and full presence and when we can’t offer it in a way that honors those standards and our community, we don’t offer it at all.
That said, we care deeply about supporting students who feel called to go deeper whether that means teaching someday or simply understanding the practice more fully. Yoga teacher training is a meaningful, often life-altering experience, and choosing the right one matters more than most people realize.
This guide is here to help you make an informed, aligned choice and to share the values we hold at Zia when we seek out and support our teaching staff.
Yoga Is a Lifelong Practice — Teaching Is Too
Yoga has been part of my life for over 25 years, carrying me through seasons of joy, grief, growth, and transformation. Since completing my first 200-hour training, I have logged 2,000+ additional hours of study with a variety of teachers and lineages.
What I’ve learned, again and again, is this: being a yoga teacher is not a destination. It’s a lifelong practice of learning, humility, and devotion.
Two Things to Know Before Choosing a Training
Before enrolling in any yoga teacher training, there are two essential truths to keep in mind:
1. All yoga teacher trainings are not created equally.
2. A 200-hour training is only the beginning.
A 200-hour YTT will barely scratch the surface of yoga. That doesn’t diminish its value — it simply means it’s an entry point, not a completion.
Most 200-hour programs lean heavily toward asana (physical postures). This is true of many trainings currently offered in our region. While physical practice is an important part of yoga, it is only one piece of a much larger, richer tradition.
Yoga Is Not Just a Workout
Yoga is a spiritual practice with a deep and storied lineage rooted in South and Southeast Asia. In much of modern Western yoga, that lineage has been minimized or omitted altogether.
At Zia, we believe deeply that:
Yoga is not fitness
Yoga is not performance
Yoga is not separate from ethics, philosophy, or inner inquiry
Any teacher training truly worth your time should include:
Yoga philosophy and history
Meditation and pranayama
Ethical frameworks (the yamas and niyamas)
Space for self-study, reflection, and integration
This depth is especially important if you hope to teach, or to work with vulnerable populations, where care, humility, and ethical grounding are essential.
Questions to Ask Before You Commit
Before choosing a training, take time to reflect on the following:
What aspects of yoga are you most drawn to? (Asana, meditation, philosophy, spirituality, service, healing, or something else?)
Do you prefer self-paced learning or live, guided instruction?
Are you seeking an in-person or online training — and why?
There are no right or wrong answers here. What matters is choosing a program that aligns with your intentions, capacity, and learning style.
A Note on Online & Self-Paced Trainings
There are very few fully self-paced programs we recommend. Yoga is meant to be practiced in relationship and in community, and that experiential, relational element is difficult to replicate alone.
That said, some online programs do an excellent job creating connection through live sessions, mentorship, and dialogue. When evaluating virtual trainings, look for:
Live or interactive components
Opportunities for feedback and practice teaching
Strong ethical and philosophical grounding
A Few Trainings Students Often Ask About
Because we don’t currently offer a full 200-hour teacher training, students sometimes ask if there are programs we suggest exploring. While every student’s needs, learning style, and intentions are different, the following trainings are ones that many of our teachers have taken in the past, frequently come up in conversation or that we are aware of through the broader yoga community.
To be clear: listing these programs is not an endorsement, partnership, or guarantee of experience or outcome. We strongly encourage you to do your own research, ask thoughtful questions, and trust your discernment when choosing any training.
Local/ In-Person Trainings:
Three Queens offers an immersive, full-spectrum training experience, as well as a 50-hour summer immersion for students who may not be ready to commit to a full 200-hour program. Their offerings emphasize in-person learning and community-based study, which many students find supportive at the beginning of their teaching journey.
Virtual/ Online Trainings:
Ayurvedic Yoga is rooted in the Himalayan tradition to offer a holistic and therapeutic approach to Ayurveda and Yoga for inner peace and well-being. Offering a grounded, authentic initiation in the path of teaching Yoga their trainings build a solid base to deepen your own personal practice, and discover your unique voice as a teacher.
This program is often mentioned by students seeking a training that places strong emphasis on yoga’s historical, ethical, and cultural roots. While fully online, Embody Yoga’s Roots is designed to foster connection, dialogue, and reflective learning alongside structured study.
The Samudra School of Living Yoga (also known as Samudra Global School for Living Yoga) is an online platform and tradition founded by Shiva Rea, offering dynamic, creative Prana Flow yoga rooted in Krishnamacharya's teachings, Tantra, Ayurveda, and somatic practices, anbd focusing on breath-led movement and universal life energy (prana).
Cultivating equity in yoga through ancient wisdom & modern practice, Accessible Yoga School offers high-quality online education and action on accessibility and equity in yoga.
What We Look for in Zia Teachers
While we don’t currently offer a YTT, we do hold clear values when inviting teachers into our community.
We look for teachers who:
Demonstrate alignment with our studio's mission to make yoga more accessible, honor it's roots as a spiritual practice, and and inspiring a movement toward equitable wellness for everyone
Understand yoga as a whole, integrated practice
Have an active personal practice
Continue studying beyond their initial 200 hours
Teach from lived experience rather than performance
Are trauma-informed, inclusive, and culturally aware
Honor lineage while meeting students where they are
Lead with humility, curiosity, and care
We often hire teachers who are are newer to their teaching journey.
More hours do not automatically make a better teacher. Ongoing study, self-reflection, and ethical grounding do.
Trust the Slow Path
If you’re feeling called toward teacher training, trust that call and also trust that you don’t need to rush. The right training will challenge you, expand you, and invite you into a deeper relationship with yourself and the practice.
If you ever want to talk through options, intentions, or next steps, we’re always happy to have that conversation.
Yoga works, not because it’s fast, but because it’s honest.
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