University of New Mexico Taos

We offer a combination of Zoom and Face-to-Face classes on the semester schedule. Students who are available to take our classes in either modality can finish our program in 1 academic year.

We are rotating the classes we offer by Zoom, so students who can only attend class remotely would be able to complete our curriculum over the course of two academic years.

At UNM Taos, we prioritize safe, mindful movement, accessibility, and attention to the history of yoga. Experienced teacher trainers emphasize anatomy and physiology to prepare new instructors to work confidently with a wide range of students. Our yoga program, which began in 2011, was ranked #1 by College Magazine in 2015. Classes take place at our Civic Plaza campus, downtown in beautiful Taos, New Mexico.

Our program consists of 5 3-credit classes, each meeting once/week for 2.5 hours, which students often take over two semesters.  However, enrollment is flexible: students may begin their yoga studies in the fall or the spring semester. And they are welcome to take as long as they need to complete our required 15 credits, taking courses at the pace that works for them.

Class sizes are small (often 15 students or fewer) and tuition is affordable: around $1,500 for in-state applicants. (As is true throughout the university system, out-of-state students pay more for both Zoom and face-to-face classes.) General tuition rates are here, but because tuition depends on a variety of factors--such as how many classes students choose to take at a time--the best way to find the cost of our program for your educational goals is to contact admissions.

ABOUT OUR CLASSES

Dr. Kirstie Segarra, structural integrator, yoga instructor, and author of Myofascial Yoga, teaches Yoga and Anatomy Trains, which takes a fascial and functional approach to yoga.

Amber Burke, Yoga International writer, teaches Yoga for Common Conditions, based on the eponymous book she co-authored, which prepares students to adapt yoga for those with injuries or pathologies. She teaches Hatha Yoga, which includes ethics and asana and takes a close look at Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and Iyengar's Light on Yoga. She also teaches Yoga Styles and Safety, which acquaints trainees with principles of cuing and sequencing as well as the key expectations of Hatha, vinyasa, gentle, and restorative approaches, encouraging students to find their own teaching style.

Kari Malen teaches Yoga and Psychology of the Chakras, which delves into emotional wellbeing and the individualized anatomical alignment that best supports us at the level of each chakra. She follows the Jungian approach to the chakras set forth in Anodea Judith's Eastern Body, Western Mind.

Find out more about our faculty here.

Students may choose to apply their 200-hour yoga teacher training to the Holistic Health and Healing Arts Certificate, a 30-credit certificate requiring an additional 5 classes in courses like Nutrition, Meditation, Ayurveda, Reiki, and Tai Chi. UNM Taos also has a Medical Massage program and, now, a Structural Integration program, the first of its kind at a state institution.

What our students are saying:

I learned a lot from this program, and I am very grateful for this opportunity to have taken my yoga knowledge to the next level. I have learned that yoga isn't this militant, strict, right- or-wrong sort of movement.  It is a sacred flow that looks and feels different in every body type, an intuitive dance that whimsically plays out on our mats.

The knowledge I gained from this class has made me more confident in myself as a yogi.  You taught me to let people and myself explore in their bodies and to have fun.  This brought peace into my practice and personal life. Combining the yogic philosophy with the physical asana practice was beautiful and positive.

--Anne Smith, YTT student, 2021

The various modifications that are available to me and to all yoga practitioners for various yoga poses, which I'm so thrilled to be learning about in our discussions, readings, and shared  practices, are benefitting me so much in my own practice, but also while thinking about teaching/sharing yoga with others .... Yoga IS accessible to ALL (which I did know, but sometimes struggled to demonstrate in real life), and I'm learning so much about how to share  it in a way that reveals this accessibility to so many others. I just want to keep learning more and more.... always a student....

Jessica Lucas, YTT Student, 2021

The lessons I learned during the student presentations of the yamas and niyamas provided some incredibly deep and insightful interpretations and perspectives that I hadn't fully grasped or thought of in my independent studies. I think, in general, learning from peers who are learning right alongside me and who come from a diverse variety of backgrounds offers lively opportunity to stay open and free of rigidity in the non-linear aspects of yoga and the philosophy that goes along with it.

--Madeline Gustafson, Yoga Student, 2021

In my yoga practice, my body tells me how I am doing, where I need to focus my attention and what issues are going on that I need to address. The body is communicating my mental and emotional state, and honoring that during yoga now is key to my well being.

--Ashlie Swensrud, YTT Student, 2021