240-Hour Yoga Teacher Training

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Yoga Alliance-Certified 200-Hour Programs

Explore in-person upcoming teacher training programs

Find dates, times, and locations info

6-month program

Lakeville Green Lotus

start January 2025 - find out more
 
 
 

Apply to any of our teacher training programs here and now

Application deadlines: we accept students into our programs up until training orientation where homework assignments are given

Learn about our teacher training in a Zoom info session

Sign up online or by phone: 651-319-9525

 

Attend one of our Zoom info sessions, meet Amy Dirksen, graduate of our 200-hour program and faculty member. You’ll learn about all our options: 200-hour training formats at all our locations and yoga study options including weekend trainings, weekday and virtual options, and book-club style courses. If you are on a path to teach, if you are a student who wants to dive deep, or if you are a teacher seeking to expand your class repertoire - we have options uniquely suited to you and your life.

 

Can’t attend an info session? Email us your questions or request a one-on-one chat.

The 3 Modules of Green Lotus 240-Hour Training Programs

The 3 modules of original content make up each of our 240-hour teacher training programs. They create a solid foundation whether you’re on the path of personal deep yoga study or are preparing to teach.

Module One - The Beginning Foundation

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  • Basic evolution, history, and philosophy of yoga

  • Pranayama and the use of breath as a transformative tool

  • Yoga lifestyle

  • Art of meditation - developing deeper levels of awareness

Module Two- The Asanas

  • Knowledge of basic and advanced asanas (postures)

  • Basic human physical and energy-based anatomy and physiology

  • The asanas: alignment, healthy and safe movement patterns, benefits, contraindications

  • How to read bodies - physically and energetically

  • Verbal and physical adjustments

Module Three- The Teacher

  • Development of a safe and respectful community in your class

  • Teaching techniques and learning styles

  • Verbal and physical adjustments

  • Development and communication of a balanced and well-sequenced class that teaches and inspires

  • Ethics of the yoga teacher

  • The business of yoga

  • What does it mean to earn a living as a yoga teacher? Open your own studio? Invest in a studio? marketing tools and models to assist you?

  • Practice teaching

  • Apprenticeship - learn by watching and assisting certified teachers

  • Peer teaching - lots of teaching in a supportive environment

 

I highly recommend this program for anyone working on self-development with or without a desire to teach yoga. I almost wish it was called, "Self Discovery with a Yoga Teacher Certification".
~ Andrea, 2024 graduate

 

200-Hour Teacher-Training Faculty

Featured
Merry Beth Freienmuth, E-RYT 500, YACEP
Merry Beth Freienmuth, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Merry Beth is director of Green Lotus' Yoga Alliance-certified school and a senior faculty member. She has been practicing yoga since 2000. She found the physical asana practice to be the perfect transition for her aging body that could no longer tolerate a classical ballet practice. She taught ballet for more than 15 years, then she began teaching Body Flow, Pilates, and yoga in 2002. Merry Beth also has experienced the more subtle benefits of yoga; it has given her the strength and balance to navigate a full-time career in corporate America and to raise her children into adulthood. Now the sole owner of Green Lotus, she devotes her time to teaching and supporting the business. 

Marcia Appel, E-RYT 500, YACEP
Marcia Appel, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Marcia, senior faculty member of Green Lotus's school, says yoga deepens her connection to herself and to others. Marcia encourages all students to try many class styles and deeply believes that yoga asana (poses) are an extension and beautiful expression of breath and meditation. In May 2013, she completed a two-year study of the integration of yoga and mindfulness meditation at Spirit Rock Retreat Center in California. The faculty included Dr. Richard Miller, Anne Cushman, Janice Gates, Mark Coleman, and Phillip Moffett. Her other certifications include Judith Lasater’s Relax & Renew® (restorative yoga), Baptiste Power Vinyasa (Level One), and iRest ® Level One (Yoga Nidra).

Dawn Schaefer Stumpf, BS, MS, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP, IAYT
Dawn Schaefer Stumpf, BS, MS, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP, IAYT

Dawn (she/her) began practicing yoga more than 30 years ago at Saint Olaf College where it couldn’t be called yoga. How times have changed! She earned her 200- and first 500-hour certifications at Green Lotus. She believes in the power of cultivating joy and lives by the mantra, lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu, which translates as, “May all beings be happy and free and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way.” Her advanced training includes Yoga Therapy (under mentorship), and she is a certified LifeForce Yoga for Anxiety and Depression instructor and Yoga Calm for Children instructor. Dawn teaches yoga history, philosophy, and pranayama in Green Lotus’s 240-hour teacher-training program.

Elizabeth Heffernan, E-RYT 500, YACEP
Elizabeth Heffernan, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Elizabeth discovered the gentleness, grace, and ease of yoga after retiring from the dance world due to an injury. Yoga provided the ideal transition from rigorous training to a gentle and desirable style of physical movement within a discipline that brought sustenance not only to her body, but also to her heart and soul. Liz teaches all styles of yoga at Green Lotus and is also available for private instruction.

Christine Quam, E-RYT 200, RYT 500
Christine Quam, E-RYT 200, RYT 500

Christine Quam has been practicing yoga for more than 20 years. She received a Master’s of Art in Psychology from Duquesne University. The philosophical studies she encountered there eventually led her to complete the teacher training program at Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Center in 2016. Christine’s passion for physical movement combined with meditation have led her to complete additional yoga training in Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga, Kids Yoga, East Meets West Anatomy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Ayurveda. Possessing this broad yoga foundation allows Christine to offer vibrant, focused, safe, fun, and creative yoga classes within varying environments and to a variety of demographics.

Amy Dirksen
Amy Dirksen

Amy Dirksen has combined her passion for wellness, for service to others, and for business by operating Green Lotus in Eden Prairie, Minnesota from 2015 - 2024. A former marketing executive for a national banking company, she also has many years of experience in teaching fitness and yoga classes in the Y system and at Green Lotus. She gives attention to students' individuals needs and is adept at adapting poses to make yoga accessible to as many people as possible. As a former owner of the Eden Prairie Green Lotus and our first license, Amy brings new insight and energy, laughter, and care to her current role as multi-center manager and to Green Lotus's its mission of integrated wellness. She lives in Eden Prairie with her wonderful husband and son (The Dude).

Jen Phillips, E-RYT 500, RCYT, RPYT, YACEP
Jen Phillips, E-RYT 500, RCYT, RPYT, YACEP

On her mat, Jen began a journey that was transformative and character-building. She found strength in the body through physical practice, strength in her breath through pranayama, and strength in her mind through meditation and yoga's teachings. She teaches a comprehensive list of yoga formats and meditation. Jen has been lecturing and leading 200- and 300-hour teacher trainings and continuing education in Chicago, Minneapolis, Orange County, and globally via Zoom since 2010.

Have a question for our faculty?

 

This is such a holistic and carefully thought-out program. You can feel the love and commitment the instructors have to this beautiful practice. I feel completely prepared to enter the world as a yoga teacher and safely lead folks in their own personal practices.
~ Maria, 2021 graduate

 

Application Process - 3 Easy Steps

  1. Attend a free teacher-training info session or schedule a one-on-one chat so we can learn more about you and your goals for training.

  2. Complete your application.

  3. Pay the teacher-training deposit.

pay your deposit now

Application deadlines: We accept students into our programs up until training orientation where homework assignments are given

Pricing and Payment Options

A $300 deposit is required to save your spot in the training.

Complete Series Investment - $3300*

Save $200 - pay $3100 in full 30 days before first day of training

Prices reflect cash, check, or ACH. An additional 3% will be added for credit card payments.

This price includes:

  • 240 hours of yoga training: 180 hours of in-classroom training (contact hours) and 60 hours of out-of-class study (non-contact hours)

  • 20% discount on retail during training sessions (10% books)

  • 10% discount on continuing education credit (CEC) classes post graduation

  • 16 free classes at Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Centers

  • Green Lotus Yoga Teacher Training Manual - with 400 pages of original content that works

  • Access to 100+ training videos that cover alignment, languaging, sequencing, and more

  • CPR certification

Payment Options

  • Pay in Full - save by paying 30 days or more before training starts: $3100; with less than 30 days: $3300

  • Automatic Monthly Payments - $300 deposit plus monthly payments auto-paid on the first of the month, total: $3300

    • 9-month program: $300 per month for 10 months

    • 6-month program: $500 per month for 6 months

    • Immersion programs: $1000 per month for 3 months

  • Pay by Module - $300 deposit plus three payments of $1000, total: $3300

    • If you attend the first module only, the fee is $1200.

*The price does not include required books other than copyrighted manual. Training may qualify for state-funded worker-retraining programs - contact the Minnesota Department of Human Services or a state unemployment office for assistance.

Required Books

  • Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by Stephen Cope

  • The Best Guide to Meditation by Victor N. Davich

  • The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book by Kelly Solloway and Samantha Stutzman

  • Devotion by Dani Shapiro

Our vision for our teacher-training programs:

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  • Green Lotus welcomes the student who wants to deepen her or his yoga practice for personal reasons,and the student whose ultimate goal is to teach yoga to others.

  • Green Lotus' teacher training guarantees you will receive personalized attention in a small-group setting. You’ll get to know the faculty well and form deep bonds with instructors and classmates alike. Each student is assigned one of the senior faculty members as a personal adviser to have a steady hand of support, a ready ear for listening.

  • Green Lotus’ curriculum is original, authentic, and easy to understand. It is designed to boost the student who learns by reading, the one who learns best “live and in person”, and the one who absorbs material by watching it over again and again like a good movie. Students use their manuals — a treasure trove of information painstakingly created by its faculty — for years after completing the training. When you complete this program, you will be equipped to teach multiple styles of yoga to multiple levels of students.

  • Green Lotus is committed to the success of every student, encouraging self-reflection, self-inquiry, and self-discovery culminating in personal transformation.

  • Green Lotus offers life-affirming, convenient options and various formats - all with the same great content and experience faculty. Graduating students will have completed 240 hours of study -- this includes 180 hours of in-classroom training (contact hours) and 60 hours of out-of-class study (non-contact hours).

Sign Up for a Life-Changing Event

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Green Lotus adapts to your needs by offering life-friendly unique programs. All of them fulfill the requirements of the Yoga Alliance 200-hour RYT certification and are licensed by the State of Minnesota Higher Education. Various program formats are offered. Same dynamic, deep content. Same dedicated, caring faculty. Same balance of rigor and encouragement. Become a yoga teacher, it will change your life.

Apply to any of our 200-hour programs here and now