Certified 200-HR Holy Yoga Instructor Training

East Coast  —  9 Sessions  —  Sep 2024 – Feb 2025

For over 16 years, Holy Yoga has equipped 5,000+ Instructors around the globe through our world-class yoga training.

However, if you’ve been around Holy Yoga for any length of time, you’ve probably heard us say that, “It’s not just about the yoga.” Our programs offer a holistic, Christ-centered approach, focusing on the complete wellbeing of our students — body, mind, soul, and strength — because we believe that it is only through experiencing Divine transformation that we can learn and live a life’s journey of inspiration, fellowship and spirituality.

Our 200 Hour Instructor Training invites individuals into the Holy Yoga family to receive expert yoga training as well as Christ-centered spiritual development. Upon completion of the program, our Instructors remain committed to holding space for others in their community to walk with God and do life together, regardless of whether or not they decide to teach yoga.

Sessions Schedule

Session 1 | September 6—7
Session 2 | October 4—5
Session 3 | October 25—26
Session 4 | November 8—9
Session 5 | November 22—23
Session 6 | December 6—7
Session 7 | January 10—11
Session 8 | January 24—25
Session 9 | February 7—8

Friday sessions are 4:309:00 pm
Saturday sessions are 9:005:00 pm

There are fewer sessions in the holiday months for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Housing is available for out of town folks.

Holy Yoga Instructor Training Coming Soon

FAQs

So how does it work?

We will meet 9 weekends to go over each session, but in-between, you will be connected to an online training center for homework, quizzes, and community.

What will be covered in the nine sessions to complete the training and certification?

Session 1: Introduction, Expectations, Bible Study, Yoga Philosophy, and Religion
Session 2: Bible Study, Introduction to Energy
Session 3: Bible Study, Breath, Meditation, Weaving the Word, Seated Poses
Session 4: Bible Study, Planes of Body, Student Props, Cueing, Standing Poses
Session 5: Bible Study, Sequencing, Balancing Poses
Session 6: Bible Study, Core, Pelvic Girdle, Arm Balances, Inversions
Session 7: Bible Study, Shoulder Anatomy, Sequencing, Back Bends
Session 8: Bible Study, Lymphatic System, Touch & Assists, Forward Folds, Twists
Session 9: Bible Study, Business of Yoga, Special Populations, Restorative Poses

Notice a pattern in the sessions?
Focusing on God’s Word and scriptures allows us to completely lean into our purpose and calling of who God has created us to be. Bible study draws us near, keeps us close, and enables us to go out and be ambassadors, ministers, and disciples of Christ.

What are the dates for the community life group meetings over Zoom?

All life group meetings will occur on Monday evenings 7-9pm EST. The dates will be:

The dates will be announced soon.

A link will be provided before the first meeting.

Do you have testimonials from last year’s attendees?

Yes!

My mom is the one who introduced me to Holy Yoga. She had called me on a Thursday, inviting me to go to a yoga class with her after we had gotten off work. To which I replied, “Since when do you do yoga?”. But I, of course, had always enjoyed yoga and unhesitatingly agreed to join her. We attended the restorative session guided by Chelsea at The Cottage located in the Shenandoah Valley. It has since then become a weekly practice my mother and I do together. I soon found out about the 200 hour Instructor Training Course and just as soon, signed up. I can’t give all the credit to my mom,though. God was the one who encouraged me to continue with Holy Yoga.

A month or so after starting the Instructor training, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Something as simple as walking became strained and difficult, and balancing on one leg was no exception. Unable to get into a ‘proper’ tree pose, or any standing-balancing pose, I became discouraged. I messaged my instructor, Doran, and implied that I was considering dropping out of the training course. She encouraged me to stay in the program and ensured me that it was still practical for me to become an instructor. And I’m glad I did.
The Holy Yoga community has been so uplifting and welcoming. The teachings for the Instructor Course goes beyond just yoga. It magnificently incorporates God into the practice. Yes, you learn the poses and the chakras and the anatomy; but, you also learn about God and his Word. Learning with and through God enhances, not only your experience, but also the experience you share with others when you become a certified instructor. I am very much looking forward to my future with God and with Holy Yoga.
Meghan Judy

My love of Holy Yoga is what brought me up to the offer of taking the Holy Yoga instructor class. I have to admit I was a little skeptical that could stick with it, learn the material, and after all that said and done, actually teach a class. I’m not one to want to be in front of people, I’m more of a ‘worker bee.’

After learning a couple years ago, that God can work with you through friends, I’ve realized the friend that was nudging me along to sign up for the class was probably just that: God sending his message through my friend to me that I AM capable. So I stepped out of my comfort zone, signed up tor the class, paid the fee, gathered the material to start studying.

It’s been one to the best experiences to my life. Making new friends, challenging myself, and accomplishing a goal has been something that I think was needed in my life for a long time. It has prepared me to go out from here, knowing how to study the Word better, how to pray, meditate and journal, and knowing that I actually can accomplish more than I think I can – with God’s help.
Carol Smith

Back in 2001, I was drawn to movement and meditation with curiosity on how it could be weaved together with the Word of God. My tribe has the belief that all things are given by the one true God, our Creator, and that all things in nature call back to who He is and His power in our lives. We therefore then practice that all things have bearing on our spiritual journey through this world. With that background, I continued to pursue ways to marry together all parts of my spiritual walk with God. Yoga seemed to be the final piece in this puzzle, but I was not sure that the way it was being taught was the way God intended. I began searching for the movement that the Lord would have me use as part of my full body worship experience. I looked into whatever movement modalities that were available. God put it on my heart that He wanted to redeem His movement back to Himself, and He wanted me to become part of that reclamation endeavor.

I began doing yoga, changing the intentions and meditations in a way that glorified God. So, when I found Holy Yoga, it spoke to me in a special way. I was able to connect with Doran Richards in 2016, but never could quite get to a class. When I finally was able 3 years later, it ended up being a class for current yoga teachers. They allowed me to stay, and I ended up having the most Holy Spirit filled experience! I ended up in tears under my blanket, just enveloped in the Spirit. I began to pray into what God would have me do in order to become certified. Five years later, I was finally able to enroll to study and become a teacher.

Since then, I have had the most enriching time of reflection, deep transformation, and great conflict as well. The conflict being that of challenging myself to go further into the Word and understand even more about my life and purpose. Pushing past my spiritual and mental limits, stretching me to grow in ways that I had not known possible, have brought me so much closer to the Father. I finally feel complete and whole in my calling to do His will. “He says, be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10a Stop striving in all things but this one: Striving to be closer to the Lord. Stay in His presence, know that He is who He says He is. His Word never returns void. The practice of Holy Yoga allows me to focus on His presence in my life and bless others through the teaching and practice of this modality.

Sunita M. Torres

What is the cost of the licensed instructor training?
$2700.00 for all nine sessions.
$500.00 non-refundable deposit required before the first session.
Remaining can be paid in monthly increments, to be paid in full before the last session.
Online payment options available below. Please email me at doran@blessinggodsway.com if you need to arrange  an alternative to online payments.

Registration & Payment

Please email me at doran@blessinggodsway.com if you have any questions. Thank you!

Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.

John 13:34

The Message

We are called to be strong companions and clear mirrors to one another, to seek those who reflect with compassion and a keen eye how we are doing, whether we seem centered or off course … we need the nourishing company of others to create the circle needed for growth, freedom and healing.

Wayne Muller

Meet Your Licensed Instructor Trainer

Doran Richards

Doran Richards, Holy Yoga Training Instructor

Doran received her first Holy Yoga certification in May 2015. She also has certifications in C-HYI 200 (formerly 225), C-HYI 500, C-HYI Pre/Postnatal, C-HYI Trauma-Sensitive, C-HYI Leadership, C-HYI Touch, C-Yin 1, C-Yin 2.

She has been a Certified Professional Midwife, licensed under the Board of Medicine, serving women and families in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia since 2011 and as a birth worker since 2000. She is the founder and owner of Blessing God’s Way, LLC which is a ministry for women of all ages. 

Her passion and calling is to minister to women, build community, and spread the gospel through resources that educate, inspire and celebrate God’s design.

About Holy Yoga

Our Mission:

Holy Yoga® provides world-class programs where people experience a divine transformation and are equipped to live out the Gospel in their everyday lives.

Our Identity:

We are not a pretentious or small-minded group of thinkers, but a team of strong-minded experts, visionaries, and spiritual leaders. We are focused not only on the physical state of your body but the complete wellbeing of your soul. Our programs are not to be performed, but to be lived. And our Christ-centered philosophy doesn’t focus on what you have been, but about the person in Christ, you are becoming. Holy Yoga increases the kingdom of Jesus Christ by establishing, providing and maintaining authentic Christ-centered communities worldwide. Through our world-class programs, our graduates spread the gospel through the word of God and the word of their transformational testimony. Our passion drives our mission by creating space for a life-changing transformation. Through Holy Yoga will you learn and live a life’s journey of inspiration, fellowship and spirituality.

Statement of Faith:

Holy Yoga® believes that there is only one God, who exists for all eternity in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself to us both through His creation and Word, and He continues to reveal Himself to His people through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We believe that there is only one way to God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, and that God made forgiveness and redemption available to all who accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Also, that those who are His will be made known by their love for God and for all people. Finally, we stand on the Bible as absolute truth, being the divinely authored and authoritative Word of God and complete in its current canonical form.

Statement of Practice:

We know that yoga is a spiritual discipline much like fasting, meditation and prayer that cannot be owned by one specific religion. While yoga predates Hinduism, Hindus were the first to give yoga a written structure. Yoga postures were originally named in Sanskrit. Holy Yoga embraces the essential elements of yoga: breath work, meditation and physical postures. In all of these elements, Christ is the focus of our intention and worship.