
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training

Donna Farhi, Evolving Towards Simplicity, Auckland, April 2026

Experienced Passionate Faculty

Professional Development Trainings

Restorative Yoga Training

Pregnancy Yoga Training

Yoga History and Philosophy

Your Questions Answered

Supporting Our Students
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 life of Yoga practice and Yoga teaching.
The amount of knowledge and understanding, experience and love that has gone into the teacher training is truly epic and has enabled such a deep and rich learning experience.
Caroline Bindon
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
Our next 200-hour course:
Immersion & 200 hour Training 2026
Part 1: 11th - 19th July (break day 15th)
Part 2: July - September (40 hours self-study)
Part 3: 26th September - 4th October (break day 30th Sept)
Venue: Meadowbank, Auckland
Course Investment: $4,895
Deposit: $1000
Inquiries and expressions of interest welcome: info@yogateachertraining.nz
Are you interested in deepening your understanding and experience of Yoga practice and teaching?
Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training is in its 12th year of offering teacher trainings. We have a passionate and experienced faculty and a curriculum that encompasses the many facets of practice and teaching Yoga here in Aotearoa and beyond.
Many of our students join us to deepen their understanding of all aspects of Yoga not necessarily to teach. Although, often through the process of training, students change their mind and want to teach - sometimes beginning with their family, friends and then community.
A number of our graduates have gone on to open Yoga centres or to further specialise in movement, meditation and therapeutic disciplines.
Enrolment numbers
There will be a maximum of eight participants on training and a minimum of six.
Who this training is for?
Community of any age and agility with a passion for Yoga and learning in an in-depth, co-created, supportive environment. It is also for those committed to developing and sustaining a life-long everyday Yoga practice, and those with a keen interest in developing a teaching practice.
The 200 hour training includes in-person training blocks, supported online learning, an inquiry project, one-on-one mentorship, and opportunities to understudy core faculty classes.
Certification
To obtain your Contemporary Yoga Teaching 200 hour certificate you must successfully complete ALL components of the training including all in-person hours, the online history and philosophy module and the inquiry project as well as practicum to the satisfaction of the faculty. This training certificate is recognised by both YogaNZ and Yoga Alliance.
Part One: Diving into Practice
11th - 19th July 2026
(break day 15th)
Part Two: Philosophy, History and Inquiry
July - September 2026
(40 hours self-study, including online modules and inquiry project)
Part Three: Emerging to Teach
26th September - 4th October 2026
(break day 30th Sept)
Course Investment: $4,895
Deposit: $1000
(paid on registration – holds your place on training)
The first block of in-person training - Diving into Practice – is where you will be immersed in the principles and practices of Yoga including essential anatomy and guidance on developing a personalised self practice.
It will introduce you to elements of yogic philosophy, pranayama, and pedagogy. These are all the ingredients to develop and enhance understanding and experience of Yoga as a sustaining and deepening life practice.
The second block of training – Philosophy, History and Inquiry – is self-paced and with support. You will complete an online module on the history and philosophy of Yoga with lots of rich resources to engage with.
You will also develop your own inquiry project on a topic of choice – guidance and support will be provided. This feeds into your practicum work and the final part of training. This block of training is designed to be consolidating, enriching and thought-provoking.
The third block is your second in-person training called Emerging to Teach.
This is a practical, in-depth immersion into Yoga pedagogy, the ethics of teaching, developing effective and inspiring class plans, anatomy and physiology, teaching skills, te ao Māori principles and Contemporary Yoga principles.
You will also learn about creating a brand, undertake safe and supportive teaching practicums, and you will be introduced to somatics, iRest Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga and more.
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
Everyone should take this course! It is such a unique course and experience that you will not find anywhere else.
Ruru Yang
Contemporary Yoga …

Go Beyond Asana
Understand and experience the very foundation of natural, functional movement.
Each posture, transition and philosophy is a process that you’re lovingly and personally guided through to discover ease, stability, clarity and joy.
You’ll take profound life skills away with you, along with a personal resilience to support every part of your life.

Passionate Teachers
It’s our greatest joy to offer you the decades of experience between us.
We honour and encourage the process of curiosity, enquiry and discovery, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. Each of us brings a highly specialist background and a whole lot of soul.
And we can’t wait to meet you!

Be Moved
We’ll take you deep into essential anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and postural analysis, and uncover how our natural developmental movement patterns grow into naturally aligned and easeful asana.
Get ready to go inward.
You’ll rediscover how you were meant to move and breathe in the most balanced and enjoyable way.

Live Well
Feel into the true depth of the Yoga tradition to develop skills that support and enhance your wellness as a human, and as a teacher.
This is a sustainable and nourishing training, designed to put you deeply in touch with inner resources that help you flourish on and off the mat.

Grow Your Yoga
Our vision is for you to leave confident to begin teaching safely and skillfully out in the community with a passionate sense of your own unique offering.
We’re registered with two major yoga communities - Yoga Alliance, and Yoga New Zealand.
Plus our specialised training programmes and mentorships are there to help advance you on your path.

Affordable and Flexible
This comprehensive Yoga training is designed to be within reach for students of all levels.
Choose from three formats of our 200 hour yoga teacher training throughout each year, and modules of your choice within our ongoing and specialised 300 hour training.
Payment plans are on offer for all programmes.
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training, Retreats and Events

Restorative Yoga Teacher Training 2026
Seven days of training over two extended weekends.
Part 1: 1st - 3rd May
Part 2: 21st - 24th May
What Our Graduates Say
(read more here)
From Our Blog Read All Articles >>
From Our Blog
Read All Articles >>
Graduate Interview: Shelley Fitness
This week’s interview is with Shelley Fitness. Shelly completed the CY 200-hour Teacher Training in 2022. She is a school principal who somehow finds time to teach two Yoga classes a week – one for pre-teens at her school, and the other for adults at Yoga and Oils Studio in Te Awamutu.
Teacher Interview: Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal talk about the powerful practice of Restorative Yoga
In this interview, Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal share their passion for Restorative Yoga with their fellow teacher and our Contemporary Yoga administrator, Sandy Farquhar.
Neal: In essence, Restorative Yoga is a well-being practice. Of course all Yoga may be about well-being. Restorative Yoga is distinguished by the conscious use of props such as Yoga bolsters, blankets, blocks and more, to support the physical body.
Exploring Yoga Language
A great passion of mine is the evocative use of language to inform Yoga movement and rest practices. A teacher’s use of words has the power to evoke embodied experiences that can be transformational for students.
The use of evocative language in yoga taps into the sensorial body: tasting, touching, feeling, sensing and seeing. Creative language used to innervate movement principles, concepts and anatomy means that a student’s yoga practice emerges from a deep and growing understanding of their bodily world.
Reflections on the evolution of a Yoga practice and teaching practice over two decades
Over the early years of teaching yoga I am often asked by students “Am I doing this right?”
I began to question what defined “right Yoga” and then in contrast what defined “wrong Yoga”. I feel it speaks to an ingrained cultural trajectory that values getting better or improving oneself – as if there is something at the beginning that even needs improving.
This self-improvement idea translates into Yoga practice as ‘better’ or ‘good’ by being defined by how complex or bendy one can be and is often accompanied by what one looks like while preforming Yoga postures.
Meeting the challenges of training under Covid, and our policies for upcoming teacher trainings
We want to let you know how Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training is meeting these challenging times, and about our policies around upcoming teacher trainings.
As with many trainings worldwide, we are in the process of pivoting a significant part of training to be offered online, with pre-recorded videos, assignments and reflections, as well as live-streamed lessons over Zoom.
Graduate Interview: Steph Le Gros
Steph Le Gros is a recent graduate of our 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training. Based in Nelson she is a trained health coach, personal trainer, reiki healer and now a qualified Yoga teacher. We put together some sentence beginnings and asked Steph to complete them.
To me Yoga is … the practice that reminded me I had a body. A sensing, feeling, alive body and all the delights that that can bring.
Graduate Interview: Lucy Tofield
This week’s interview is with Lucy Tofield, a passionate Yogi and Contemporary Yoga graduate. Lucy’s passion for yoga is evident – very recently she organised and facilitated a series of Saturday classes run by recent graduates of Contemporary Yoga at the Centre.
Yoga and Cacao: Part 3: Learning the Spirit of Cacao (conversations with Steph Le Gros)
Cacao helps us restore and remember our connection to nature, to earth, to the ancestors that have lived before us. And to the ancestors that we are yet to become.
I could write about the history of cacao, of traditions and legends told through lineages of Peruvian tribes. And yet I question whether it is my voice that should be speaking to it.
Yoga and Cacao: Part 2: We are the Ceremony: Practicing yoga with Cacao (conversations with Steph Le Gros)
A cacao infused poem
Inhaling her
aliveness infused through me.
Relief passed along synapses.
Senses awakening.
Present to being wholly here.
Home.
The first sip of the elixir beckoned
Tendrils (of gratitude)
from my pelvis (spine)
to root down into all that is below.
A wave of levity migrating up my spine,
reaching towards the vastness of space above.
Connectedness.












