Looking for a yoga teacher training in San Francisco? Since the 1960’s, alternative healing modalities have been flourishing in SF and yoga is one of the main techniques being used that has now become as mainstream as your local coffee shop. People from all over the world flock to this great city because they know the teachers in this community are some of the best. Below are a list of schools offering San Francisco yoga teacher training courses:
Not too far from San Francisco, the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm is located in the beautiful foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sivananda’s Teacher Training Course (TTC) is primarily a classical Yoga spiritual development course, carefully developed by Swami Vishnu-devananda. This course is meant to be intensive, immersing the students in a day long balanced program of theory and practices. The students come from different backgrounds and cultures and live harmoniously together in a spiritual community under the guidance of swamis and teachers.
Graduates of TTC receive the title Yoga Siromani, keeper of the jewel of yoga, and an internationally recognized certification. TTC is certified by Yoga Alliance for the 200 hours standard for Registered Yoga Schools. Since 1969, more than 29,000 yoga teachers have been trained through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers’ TTC program.
To learn more visit Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm
Yoga Garden of San Francisco (or YGSF) offers teacher training programs and caters to the tastes of many different yogis. Their extensive schedule includes classes in Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Iyengar, and Hatha just to name the major styles. Other classes such as prenatal and restorative are also on the schedule. Their mission entails safe teaching, grounded experiences, keeping yoga interesting, and community support and relations. Wellness services such as massage and reiki energy healing are also found within the studio.
The 200 Hr teacher trainees are trained primarily to teach Hatha, but since they are allowed unlimited classes at the studio during their SF yoga teacher training, they have the opportunity to build a diverse teaching style. Trainings are offered either as twelve-week evening/weekend sessions, or 28 day intensive (includes weekends, unlike several other intensives). In general there are two twelve-week trainings and three intensive programs. Both formats emphasize teacher preparation, whether trainees decide to teach or not.
Yoga Garden San Francisco also has a Yoga Alliance approved prenatal certification program and a kid’s training aptly titled “Mini Yogis Teacher Training” (not eligible through Yoga Alliance). The workshops at the studio are not all specifically for [aspiring or trained] teachers, but with workshops like “Beginning with The Heart” and “The Yoga of Words: Yoga and Meditation Techniques to Deepen and Illuminate Your Writing” there are many opportunities for people interested to find unique ways to deepen their practices.
To learn more please visit Yoga Garden
While this school is not located right in San Francisco, for most people Lake Tahoe is not too far off and Sadhana Yoga Chi is well worth the extra drive. Doug Swenson’s name has been around for a while. He has taught yoga for over 40 years, and he has authored several books including Power Yoga for Dummies and Mastering the Secrets of Flow Yoga. Because Swenson is in such high demand, he does not conduct workshops and teacher trainings in just one place. Sadhana Yoga Chi is not a studio, per se, it’s Swenson’s approach to yoga, workshops and teacher trainings.
Sadhana Yoga Chi’s Yoga Alliance approved teacher trainings take place in South Lake Tahoe, California. The trainings are called 200 and 500 Hr “Ultimate Holistic Yoga Teacher Trainings,” and they are rigorous and enriching. Sadhana Yoga Chi is described as “an evolution of Vinyasa Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Yin Yoga, Power Yoga and Restorative Yoga,” but is its own complete system. Swenson has a unique approach to training, and he emphasizes both hard (muscle resistance based Vinyasa) and soft (less challenging, without muscle based Vinyasa) styles. Swenson teaches most of the trainings himself, and the other teachers that he brings in are often specialists at the top of their fields.
Sadhana Yoga Chi also hosts workshops around the world, mostly in the US. For more information, follow the individual studio’s link under Sadhana Yoga Chi’s schedule.
To learn more please visit Sadhana Yoga Chi
If you would like to browse all of the schools offering teacher training programs please visit our Yoga School Directory. Or if you are not ready to jump in quite yet you can always see what yoga retreats are being offered where many of them run immersion trainings for students who are just testing the waters of becoming a yoga teacher.
Please check back later as we are in the process of updating this page on yoga teacher training in San Francisco. If you have any questions about becoming a yoga teacher make sure to check out our student resources section (on the right) where you can find articles on what it takes to teach yoga.
