“The teachers are truly committed to this work on such a deep level, and you can tell that from the way they are in the world.

I am awed by how ahead of their time they are in this work, and think it is really groundbreaking.”

Tui Williams

We believe in excellence in Yoga teacher training. For us and our students, this is far beyond teaching asana.

Contemporary Yoga is a truly holistic programme that offers a transformational experience for students that explores deep into the yoga tradition and modern movement theory to build skills that support and enhance a beautiful life of teaching.

You won’t learn rigid shapes, cues or patterns here. Your highly experienced and respected teachers will take you on an enlightening and experiential journey of movement and yoga that creates stability and ease, and can be applied to every yoga style.

The 200+ hours of Yoga teaching training is truly to an exceptional high quality standard of teaching. The guidance and support during my training with you all has been a once in a lifetime experience.
Vicki Beatty 2022

… diverse, enlightening and empowering. The course exceeded my highest expectations and has equipped me with a toolbox of yoga teachings that I could apply in many circumstances to a wide variety of students.
Cam McLeay, 2021

Whether it whispers to deepen your practice or exclaims to share with others, we invite you to hear your inner calling and come explore.

Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training dives into the foundations of anatomy, alignment and movement in a way that is safe, stable, easeful and empowering.

With every breath and movement, you’ll be supported to find your own feet, resource your strength from within, and give voice to the passion that calls you.

Our next 200 hour trainings

Part One - Diving into Practice
Yoga immersion - for Yoga lovers
13th - 21st July
(break day 17th July)

Part Two - Emerging to Teach
Immersion & teacher training with certification
(must be taken with part one)
28th Sept - 6th Oct
(break day 2nd October)

Course Investment

Part One only: $1,750
Deposit $300

Part One and Two: $3,475
Deposit $500

Immersion & 200 hour Trainings 2025/2026

2 x 9 days 2025
Dates to be confirmed
(approximately July & October).

January 2026
Approximately 18 days from early January.

Inquiries and expressions of interest welcome: info@yogateachertraining.nz

Payment plans available.

This training includes 40+ hours of teacher directed and supported online learning

Most days are 7.30am - 6.30pm, but there will be some days where we finish earlier, and break times scheduled where home study will be invited.

Location: The St Heliers Centre
St Heliers Bay Road, Auckland

For any enquiries please don’t hesitate to contact Sandy on info@yogateachertraining.nz

Investment: $3475
$500 deposit. Payment plans possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Graduates of the 200-hour training are empowered to:

Understand essential anatomy and physiology hands-on
Investigate and enrich their understanding and practice of yoga
Embody natural, functional movement
Grow their own sustainable and nourishing practice
Explore traditional yoga philosophy and history in a relevant way
Apply principles of biomechanics and developmental movement patterns to healthy, easeful and steady movement in the wider yoga tradition
Inquire, discuss, challenge, investigate, experience and try all learnings themselves in a safe environment, supported by their tutors and peers
Develop a full and authentic approach to yoga, asana and meditation

Deepen their personal journey, transformation and spiritual practice
Have a clear sense of their own unique offering
Give voice and confidence to their inner teacher
Embrace yoga and movement as a lifelong study
Build personal resilience and wellbeing
Teach safely, confidently and creatively in their community
Gain international recognition and accreditation to teach professionally worldwide

Choose Your Format

Our 200-hour Yoga teacher training offering comes in different formats.

All our 200 hour trainings now include a number of online modules and lessons (over Zoom, pre-recorded videos and written reflections and assignments).

2 x Intensives 2024

Location: St Heliers Centre, Auckland

Part 1: 13th - 21st July (break day 17th)
Part 2: 28th Sept - 6th Oct (break day 2nd Oct)

2 x Intensives 2025

January 2026

Location: St Heliers Centre, Auckland

Dates to be confirmed
Expressions of interest welcome

Bookings coming soon

Let’s Break It Down

Our 200-hour yoga teacher training course content can be broken down into several parts.

Face-to-face and heart-to-heart

Up to 150 hours are spent directly with your tutors where you will:

Fully explore how developmental movement patterns grow into naturally-aligned asana.
Discuss groundbreaking research into human anatomy & physiology and its relevance to Yoga .
Get hands-on with bones and muscles and how they work together in asana.
Investigate yoga biomechanics with a focus on containment and stability.
Understand postural analysis, using Yoga to restore natural balance and full range of motion.
Work with the subtle energies of the body (such as Chakras) to purify the nadis and touch the natural mind.
Learn the fundamentals of Restorative Yoga and how to guide yourself and your students into deep, restful relaxation.
Discover how the Yoga tradition is about meeting each moment with presence and openness.
Experience how Yoga philosophy has the power to reshape your daily life.
Gain confidence in your teaching skills and teaching practice.

Some of the techniques and methodologies:

You will learn valuable techniques to enhance your own Yoga practice and gain the skills to teach Contemporary Yoga principles in a safe and relaxed environment:

Experiencing and investigating functional yoga
Spinal awareness and practices for spinal and joint health
Discover an embodied fluid support
Breath and Vinyasa flow from the inside out
Get creative with teaching and practicing Sun Salutations
Finding your ground and foundations in all the standing postures – yielding, gravity and breath in theory and in practice
Exploring stability, balance and neutrality in natural and easeful movement and Yoga asana
Discover a breathing, supportive and balanced core
Learn to give sensitive and intuitive adjustments that empower your students
Learn effective and empowering cueing which speaks to each individual in your class
There will be plenty of time to practice teaching and receive valuable feedback from your peers and from the senior faculty
and much much more!

Flexible learning and home study

Up to 30 hours of online learning with our bespoke philosophy course developed by Sam Loe. Note: Philosophy is also woven throughout the face-to-face training.
Approximately 30 hours of home study: Develop your own inquiry-based journal reflecting on your learning throughout the course.
We encourage you to start your journal prior to training and to develop your own format – either “by hand” or digitally. You may like to:
- Use various writing genres: descriptive, reflective, critical, poetry, etc…
- Incorporate different visual media: photographs, drawings, video etc…
- Reflect on and record moments of your learning: What surprises me? Why? What and how am I learning? How do I feel about what I am learning? How is my Yoga evolving?
- Use your journal as a resource document where you store ideas, plans, links to websites and playlists.

Note: You will use your journal to inform your final assessments which is a reflection on your journey from the beginning (or pre) course to the end.

Training resources

A fulsome course printed manual and pdf copy (beautifully designed, regularly updated and currently well over 300 pages)
Tutors’ sharing of resources – virtual and real including: books, playlists etc…

A day in the life of a Yoga student …

An example of our daily schedule …

7:45-9.00am Asana class with a key focus for the day

9:00-9:30am Breakfast

9:30-11:30am Yoga philosophy and applied Yoga

11:30-1:30pm Asana and movement principles

1:30-2:30pm Lunch

2:30-4:30pm Anatomy & physiology

4:30-6:30pm Practical applications & teaching skills

Plus regular opportunities for tea and discussion with your teachers and fellow students.

Our next 200-hour courses:

2 x Intensives 2024
Part 1: 13th - 21st July
(break day 17th)

Part 2: 28th Sept - 6th Oct
(break day 2nd Oct)

2 x Intensives 2025
Dates to be confirmed
Expressions of interest welcome

January 2026
Dates to be confirmed
Expressions of interest welcome

The 200 hour trainings includes up to 40 hours of teacher directed and supported online learning.

Early Bird: $3475
Regular full price: $3875

Frequently Asked Questions

You’re In Good Hands

Your senior teachers have many decades of Yoga experience and teaching between them. We’ve practiced it all, and offer you an investigative and a transformational approach to movement, teaching and self-development that you’ll carry far beyond the course.

Each of us teach with love and care, and our passion is to strengthen and shine light on your inner resources as a confident, skilled and soulful human, practitioner and teacher.

Our core faculty members are out there in the community teaching classes, please feel welcome to attend a class or a course to get a feel for our approach.

Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal are senior teachers with Donna Farhi on her internationally acclaimed yoga training programs. They are recognised within the New Zealand Yoga community as leaders in Restorative Yoga and in innovative, safe movement practices.

Karla Brodie co-ordinates and teaches within the Contemporary Yoga Centre in Remuera. She facilitates corporate wellness programmes (through Hum), workshops and residential retreats.
karlabrodie.co.nz
contemporaryyoga.nz
humbalance.co.nz

Neal Ghoshal teaches weekly classes and Restorative Yoga events on Waiheke, as well as workshops and retreats around New Zealand. His website is sacredmoves.com

Haidee Stairmand brings her passion, knowledge and experience of teaching Yoga and movement to all her classes and training sessions. Find her at revelyoga.co.nz

Sam Loe travels up from her home base in Nelson to share her expertise and experience gained over many years of teaching. Like Karla and Neal, her primary teacher is Donna Farhi. Like Neal and Sandra, Sam is also a certified iRest teacher. Sam’s website is samloe.yoga

Sandra Palmer brings her wisdom and experience as a psychologist to share how to teach sensitively and be trauma aware. Find Sandra at integrativetherapy.co.nz

Vanessa Bailey, with her nearly 20 years experience in cutting edge marketing, will share how to grow your Yoga business. Vanessa co-runs Hum (humbalance.co.nz) with Karla, which brings breath and movement programmes to businesses in New Zealand.

Each are experts in their field and have the common goal of delivering excellence in every class, course and workshop.

New initiatives run alongside the trainings, including professional development workshops, private tuition and year-long mentoring. We are here to support you through your whole yoga journey.

Karla Brodie

Core Faculty / Programme Director

Intuitive, honest, attentive, creative, joyful and full of expression — there’s something about Karla that speaks directly to your insides, and suddenly you realise you have a newfound conversation with your inner world as well as you gain a deeper understanding of balanced posture and integrated movement.
Read more >>

Neal Ghoshal

Core Faculty / Programme Director

When someone loves what they do with all of their heart, it emanates to everyone they work with. Neal is one of these people.

His teaching focuses on exploring and refining natural movement and alignment principles, and to embody these in a way that takes our spiritual practice into our everyday lives.
Read more >>

Haidee Stairmand

Core Faculty

Haidee brings a pragmatic approach to her teaching and offers students a clear, approachable and understandable way to develop their Yoga through self-sensing, and awareness.

She is passionate about making yoga accessible for all, enabling an individualistic approach.

She has a unique ability to connect to others in a simple but profound way and sees Yoga as a holistic therapeutic modality that encompasses traditional and contemporary approaches to the Practice.
Read more >>

Sam Loe

Core Faculty

Sam’s Yoga practice and teaching come from a somatic place of listening deeply within. She is passionate about sharing Yoga in a way that empowers and gives agency to her students through creating safe learning environments, invitational and choice based practices and ultimately supporting people to develop their own self-practice.

Sam is a certified iRest Teacher and in addition shares functional, therapeutic and restorative practices in her community, via classes, workshops and retreats.
Read more >>

Vanessa Bailey

Core Faculty

Vanessa Bailey has worked in marketing and communications for 18 years and held senior roles in New Zealand, Australia and England.

Vanessa has accrued wide experience and in-depth knowledge of customer-driven marketing communications and branding with specialist knowledge of how to bring brands and communications to life in the physical space.

Suzanne Day

Guest faculty | Marketing & visual communication

I often wonder about stars. About trees. About the mysteries of the universe; about creativity, beauty, the gossamer web of a spider, a single drop of dew.

This sense of wonderment has enticed me along many paths: from an aspiring art student, to studying graphic design, working in advertising as an illustrator then art director, a sojourn as a jeweller, an immersion in painting, a return to design, a foray into creative writing, studying astrology, tarot, plant medicine, alchemy, and magic.
Read more >>

Yoga Teacher Registration Pathway

We are delighted and proud to be registered with two major Yoga organisations – Yoga New Zealand and Yoga Alliance.

You’ll also get our own Contemporary Yoga certificate!

Full details on Yoga New Zealand and Yoga Alliance Registration >>

Be inspired where you learn

Our 200-hour teacher training campus is in beautiful St Heliers, one of Auckland’s picturesque seaside suburbs.

With upmarket shops and cafes, a perfect swimming beach and an easy walk to the training venue, it’s a haven that’s the perfect place to immerse yourself into a Yoga training.

More info on the venue

What Our Graduates Say (read more here)

Contemporary Yoga is not so much a style but an approach to movement that combines ancient wisdom and modern research. The depth of knowledge the teachers can give you is immeasurable, and you’ll never look at Yoga in the same way.

Victoria Kvasniak

Karla, Neal, Sam and Haidee offer such rich tools and concepts within this course. There’s a real consideration around feelings of safety and support which I appreciated so very much.

You will be offered the juiciest of fruits and from their it’s your turn to squeeze the juice out and into your palms. An incredibly self-empowering training offering an alternate approach to traditional forms of Yoga.

Holly Hepburn

I strongly recommend this training. It’s a life-changing experience. The way I see things, smell, feel and my energy have completely changed throughout the course consistently. Beyond expectation. Absolutely worth the investment after many long years I’ve finally met myself!

Simply, divine! Organic! Full of love!

Monica Yoon

An outstanding teacher training that integrated so much valuable information from truly knowledgeable, gentle, kind human beings.

The knowledge shared I will value for life, and continue to thread through my own teaching.

Fleur Easter

This training has been an incredible gift for me and I am excited to share the teachings with others.

Stephanie Leighton

My teacher training has empowered me. It has given me a wealth of knowledge while allowing me the freedom to explore. The beauty of the course was the balance between structure and self development.

The respect my teachers give to yoga, and the generosity to share their knowledge in a gentle safe environment, was humbling.

Michelle Watson

The level of care, creativity, and personalization that Contemporary Yoga brings to the practice is incredibly special.

Stephanie Leighton

This Yoga teacher training and experience completely exceeded my expectations. There is so much intentionality from the teachers from the course materials, resources, programming and delivery that the entire experience feels like a Masterclass in unity. Every single topic we learned was applicable and necessary to my journey, learning and development as an aspiring Yoga teacher.

Dianne Hollands

This was a really warm, exciting, encouraging and profound learning experience. The facilitation was awesome and there was such a wonderful sense of community amongst the practitioners. A beautiful balance of life-to-life and individual learning. I am so inspired to continue with the practice and to find ways to integrate it into other areas of my life and to share it with others.

Emma Willis

I am really glad I chose this training because it has given me tools to communicate with any kind of student as well as connecting my personal practice to a field of infinite potential. It offered a perspective of yoga that is deep yet accessible. The teachers have incredible knowledge and experience but most importantly creative ways of sharing their knowledge.

Chloé Lebee

Contemporary Yoga is connecting yoga back its roots in a very exciting, stimulating and open minded way.

Michaela Robinson

I have enjoyed it so much and feel I have taken so much away into my everyday life as well as my Yoga. Karla, Neal and Haidee are all unique and true to their core. I look forward to earning so much more from them.

Abbie Rose

Contemporary yoga training has been the ‘icing on the cake’ and if you are ‘stuck’ or need a nudge in the right direction don’t hesitate and sign up now! You will never regret it!

Fiona Ross

The learning I have gained from this course of really helped me find not only my yoga knowledge, but myself. I thank the team for the amazing work they put into this course, as I have come out of it with a new perspective.

As I leave the training I can confidently say that I have come closer to my true nature, and I’m able to come closer to this more and more every day.

Dea Bashota

All teachers bring to this amazing training a vast experience, each one of them with their own identity and authenticity.

The Contemporary Yoga approach is to truly explore Yoga as a discipline which includes movement principles, patterns, Yoga traditions, anatomy, physiology, and much more.

This is the training that you really need - it will change your everyday life.

Valentina Piantoni

Karla and Neal are incredible. They are truly exceptional teachers. They have such care, and hold such safe, honouring spaces, in a way I haven’t experienced with any other Yoga teachers.

Tui Williams

I am a physiotherapist and as well as gaining vital skills to teach yoga I have also gained insight and knowledge that I will apply in my physiotherapy career.

Sarah Diskin

This training offers so much for enriching your lifestyle as a whole. It has influenced how I approach my social, personal and professional life in ways I would never have envisioned.

Beautiful people sharing the beauty of life.

Patrick Lamrock

… diverse, enlightening and empowering. The course exceeded my highest expectations and has equipped me with a toolbox of yoga teachings that I could apply in many circumstances to a wide variety of students.

I was lucky enough to be part of two different cohorts and in both I was surrounded by a delightful collection of beautiful individuals from very different backgrounds and of vastly different ages.

Cam McLeay

Contemporary Yoga has given me more than what I’d expect from a teacher training course. All the teachers are truly experts in what they do and their passion is infectious.

Alana Chao

I could not be happier to have chosen this course. It has completely exceeded any expectations.

Rob Dawson

This training surpassed all expectations - challenging, inspiring, and deeply informative. It has opened my eyes to a whole new world of yoga!

Bridget McNamara

I feel exceptionally honoured to have spent time with Karla and Neal. Their passion and curiosity for movement and the authentic experience of self is inspiring and encouraging.

Jessica Dziwulska

The 200-hour teacher training was an amazing, immersive experience. The breadth of material was exceptional and I walked away with a new-found appreciation for all aspects of Yoga as a way of life as well as a wonderful practice … just brilliant.

Olivia Rysenbry

All the teachers are truly experts in what they do and their passion is infectious. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to do a yoga teachers training. It was much more than that, it was a life-changing, amazing experience.

Anne de Brouwer

Meditation practices were brilliant, as were the talks. A wealth of knowledge.

Melissa Gardiner

Exploring movement and asana in a refreshing way that deepened my self-discovery and personal physical understanding.

Anita Lucas

More than I could ever have asked for. The teachings were just so insightful. Even with not having English as my first language, it was so easy to follow the material and classes. Thank you for making it so fun and accessible.

Jessica Sterkel

I feel enriched on many levels… Yoga history, Somatics, anatomy, business aspects, understanding movement much more deeply and absorbing it into my body not just my head.

Excellent value for money. I will be forever grateful and am excited about the future once more.

Helèna Morgan

I would recommend this course to everyone, even those who are not into yoga or those who have not tried yoga before. This course is for everyone.

Kelly Rijnaarts

An outstanding teacher training that integrated so much valuable information from truly knowledgeable, gentle, kind human beings.

The knowledge shared I will value for life, and continue to thread through my own teaching.

Fleur Easter

The Contemporary approach to Yoga is so much more than how we move on the mat. It speaks to how we move through life. How we are in relationship to self and in relationship to others.

Thank you for an incredibly potent, immersive and all-round epic training.

Steph Le Gros

A journey of self discovery, guided by a group of genuinely caring professionals. I leave the course feeling enriched.

Donna Cheyne

I’ve learnt so much on this course about so many things: Yoga philosophy, anatomy, the body, how we move and how we can maintain or rediscover movement throughout our lives.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about yoga with an enquiry based approach in a kind and caring environment.

Glenda Ishmael

Contemporary yoga training has been the ‘icing on the cake’ and if you are ‘stuck’ or need a nudge in the right direction don’t hesitate and sign up now! You will never regret it!

Fiona Ross

I was amazed by the depth and breadth of yoga on the human mind and body that the teachers of this course have.

Sarah Diskin

Contemporary Yoga has given me more than what I’d expect from a teacher training course. All the teachers are truly experts in what they do and their passion is infectious.

Alana Chao

… a mindful journey to come back home, to your true “being”, of who you are, where you are, and how you are going forward. It’s the shortest and most easeful pathway to discover your true “being”.

Nanxi Chen

Victoria Kvasniak

Thank you! I feel so much gratitude to have participated in this teacher training. The teachers are so generous and open in their teaching and transmission of knowledge. A life-changing experience 🙂

Kay John

Not only has this training changed my whole perspective on the practice of yoga, but also within my life itself.

A truly transformational journey supported by wonderful teachers, and I look forward to sharing this knowledge and practice. Thank you to you all.

Charlotte Inglis

Four generous and vastly different teachers combine to offer something more unique and valuable than expected. It is beyond yoga as I knew it — it was an investment in the rest of my life.

Sarah Hart

Chloé Lebee

Dianne Hollands

Anne de Brouwer

The learning environment was so supportive, inclusive and warm. Being able to immerse in this process was so valuable for my learning and development.

Dianne Hollands

This is a truly unique Yoga Teacher Training. The wealth and depth of knowledge and experience of four exceptional teachers provides a foundation for students which inspires, empowers and transforms. Immense gratitude for a profound learning journey.

Kelly Watkin

Simply, divine! Organic! Full of love!

Monica Yoon

This training has awakened in me the huge possibility that awaits. Moving away from the scripted style of teaching a new found freedom has been found an an excitement and what awaits. Thank you.

Sophie Hartnell

I could not be happier to have chosen this course. It has completely exceeded any expectations.

Rob Dawson

Just completed the 200 hour teacher training … a very empowering experience.

The teachers were outstanding: each teach from their own unique perspective inside a carefully crafted, well-designed programme of studies … a great combination of practice and theory.

Sandy Farquhar

Neal and Karla are truly committed to this work on such a deep level, and you can tell that from the way they are in the world. I am awed by how ahead of their time they are in this work, and think it is really groundbreaking.

I haven’t found anyone doing it the way they are. I can’t wait for their book to come out!! I highly highly HIGHLY recommend working with them.

Tui Williams

I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to do Yoga teacher training. It is so much more than that – a life-changing, amazing experience.

Lutza Szabo

My Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training not only taught me to deepen my Yoga practice, it taught me to live a better life.

Spending 18 days around these teachers who live and breathe Yoga, exuding loving kindness and care in every moment, not to mention life-long friends I have made with my peers has made for me an experience I will never forget.

This training went above and beyond my expectations.

Leon Campbell

My teacher training has empowered me. It has given me a wealth of knowledge while allowing me the freedom to explore. The beauty of the course was the balance between structure and self development.

The respect my teachers give to yoga, and the generosity to share their knowledge in a gentle safe environment, was humbling.

Michelle Watson

Wonderful experience, wonderful people, beautiful outcomes!

Lal Busher

All teachers bring to this amazing training a vast experience, each one of them with their own identity and authenticity.

The Contemporary Yoga approach is to truly explore Yoga as a discipline which includes movement principles, patterns, Yoga traditions, anatomy, physiology, and much more.

This is the training that you really need – it will change your everyday life.

Valentina Piantoni

Karla and Neal have created a course that is completely inclusive and is infused with kindness, curiosity and wisdom. All are welcome in the practice of Contemporary Yoga.

At the end of this course I am more knowledgeable, more able, more confident and more authentic. I have been moved and changed through this journey.

Shelly Fitness

Abbie Rose

Those who are serious about where to invest their time and money in a Yoga Teacher Training, can rest assured that the Contemporary team deliver a comprehensive training which enables a solid foundation from which to grow. Highly recommended.

KeiShana Coursey

The training was such an amazing, exploratory journey of movement, anatomy, philosophy and so much more conveyed with enthusiasm, kindness, realness and acceptance.

I learned so much that I didn’t know I wanted to know and am excited to continue my Yoga journey.

Nadia Benton

This training has been an incredible gift for me and I am excited to share the teachings with others.

Stephanie Leighton

The Pregnancy Teacher Training provided me with all the tools necessary to safely and effectively guide women through a Yoga practice during their childbirth journey.

The incredible wisdom and knowledge shared by the facilitators, allowed me to step competently into teaching Pregnancy Yoga with confidence soon after completion of the training.

As an extra bonus I have also been able to weave the learning I absorbed during the teacher training into my role as a midwife.

Julie Edlin

Karla, Neal, Sam and Haidee offer such rich tools and concepts within this course. There’s a real consideration around feelings of safety and support which I appreciated so very much.

Holly Hepburn

All teachers bring to this amazing training a vast experience, each one of them with their own identity and authenticity.

The Contemporary Yoga approach is to truly explore Yoga as a discipline which includes movement principles, patterns, Yoga traditions, anatomy, physiology, and much more.

This is the training that you really need – it will change your everyday life.

Valentina Piantoni

Words can hardly express how grateful I am for what I learned with their guidance in just three weeks, the most important of which was connecting with myself and others in a truly authentic, supportive, caring and sustainable way that I can’t wait to pay forward as a teacher. Thank you!

Sarah Hart