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Santosha Yoga Institute: 50-Hour Online Meditation Teacher Training

Santosha Yoga Institute with Piera Maria

A self-paced meditation teacher training grounded in yogic philosophy and trauma-sensitive teaching. Covers the origins of meditation, the subtle body, personal practice, guiding techniques, and how to structure classes, workshops, and retreats. Earns YACEP continuing-education hours with Yoga Alliance for existing RYTs.

Modules: 6 Modules
Duration: 50h
Certification: CE credits, certificate of completion
Format: self-paced
Skill level: beginner, intermediate
Career pathway: training

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Course program

The 50-Hour Online Meditation Teacher Training by Santosha Yoga Institute is a self-paced program that prepares students to guide meditation in classes, workshops, and retreats. It draws on yogic philosophy, Buddhist and Zen practices, mantra and sound, and the study of the subtle body.

This training is for all experience levels, including existing yoga teachers seeking a meditation specialization, bodyworkers, life coaches, wellness practitioners who want to teach meditation, and students with no teaching ambitions who want to deepen their personal practice and understanding of meditation.

The curriculum is organized across six modules. The first introduces meditation’s origins, the science behind sustained practice, and how to overcome the common barriers that stop beginners. The second covers yoga philosophy — the eight limbs, the monkey mind, samsara, and the ancient texts that inform contemplative practice. The third module studies the subtle body, including Kundalini, the chakras, and the five elements theory.

The fourth and fifth modules move into practice and technique. Students develop their own daily meditation and then explore the major schools of practice — mantra-based meditation, Buddhist and Zen traditions, and yoga nidra. The training also addresses meditation for stress and anxiety reduction, trauma-sensitive teaching, and the nervous-system considerations that shape safe guidance.

The sixth module is dedicated to teaching. Students learn to structure sessions, guide groups with clarity and presence, and approach meditation as a profession — including the practical side of running classes, workshops, and retreats.

The training is led by Piera Maria, an RYT-500 certified yoga instructor with Santosha and a background as an Exercise Educator specializing in anatomy and physiology. Her teaching combines personal meditation practice with training in mindfulness and Reiki massage therapy, with a focus on guiding students toward their own healing capacity through movement, lifestyle, and stillness.

The format is fully self-paced. Core content is delivered through pre-recorded video lessons, with a comprehensive downloadable manual and lifetime access to all materials. Live online mentoring is available for support throughout the course. The course can be completed in as few as 14 intensive days or stretched over a longer period to suit personal schedules. Assessment is a single short practical teaching video, filmed on any device, with direct feedback from the Santosha team.

Meet your teacher

Piera Maria

Piera Maria is an RYT-500 yoga instructor with Santosha Yoga Institute and an Exercise Educator specializing in anatomy and physiology. She holds additional training in meditation, mindfulness, and Reiki massage therapy, and teaches with a focus on healing through movement, lifestyle, and stillness.

Host reviews

Lyn Russell

Verified user

I held my workshop on Saturday afternoon. It was a practice run through with my husband to see how the format went and how I went! I absolutely loved it, and so did my husband. Overall, doing the practice run through was great as I now feel confident to advertise and run the workshop for a small group of people! Thank you so much for sharing all of your experience, knowledge and wisdom. I would never have had the confidence or the knowledge to pursue this without you.
Elisa Santamaria

Verified user

The online material was so thorough and informative that I never felt I was lost or missing something. Learning via online was easy with Santosha because their online platform was well organized. It took the doubt of online learning completely away. The teachers were also amazing! My experience of training with Santosha gave me a whole different understanding of yoga. The mental, spiritual, meditative side of yoga was so beneficial to my life and especially in these crazy times we are in currently.
Héloïse Lambert

Verified user

I never thought I could feel such a strong sense of community, love and passion through my laptop! The courses are well organized and very complete. I have learned so much. The challenging part for me was to deconstruct what I had learned in my own yoga practice, in order to teach in a safe way for my future students. My life has been turned upside down with the COVID crisis. This training not only gave me new future perspectives, it also helped me go through a difficult time and listen to myself. I can only recommend!
Melanie Ceveri

Verified user

I'm so grateful that this opportunity came up and I was able to learn from the most wonderful and knowledgeable instructors from around the world. There is so much to learn and I have been fully supported both during the course and ongoing. I've come away with such amazement at what I learnt as yoga is really so much more than I thought. I'm so happy to have found answers and I want to share my love for yoga with all.