Mark Stephens' yoga teacher training was amazing. He has what seems like an encycolpedic knowledge of yoga philosophy, history, anatomy, methodology, technique and practice, yet he shares it with a humility that supports what he often says: there is no end to what you can learn as a yoga teacher, so there's no such things as mastery, and therefore no such thing as a master. This speaks volumes about Mark's commitment to learning and to guiding his students in their learning.

With his prior background in education (he taught high school, college, and university), Mark presents everything in a way that designed for learners to learn, starting with excellent lectures, readings, power point presentations and facilitated group discussions. He gets that we all learn in different ways, so he addresses that with diffeent ways of presenting all the material - sound, sight, touch, practice, reflection, and more.

Mark is friendly and accessible. He goes out of his way to check in with every participant every day, even in our group of 25. He clearly loves his work and cares about bringing others along in keeping with their own goals and intentions.

If you want to really learn how to become a great yoga teacher, or if you're already a teacher and want to become a far better teacher, I most highly recommend Mark's teacher training.

Also: This was my third yoga teacher training program and by far the best. The first one was with a large yoga chain that offered great promise but in the end was only as good as the competent but pretty limited teacher they sent to do the training. This is a complaint I've since heard from a lot of others who've taken their YTT from one of the big corporate yoga businesses.

The second one I give high marks for inspiration and fostering community while on a yoga retreat along the Caribbean in Mexico, but we never learned the fundamentals of asanas, pranayama and meditation.I loved connecting with other in the training and made some great friends. However, in the end we never covered the fundamentals (or the deeper questions and practices) that are important in teaching yoga.