Teach Yoga Nidra
How to become a Yoga Nidra teacher
In the Satyananda tradition, Yoga Nidra is taught by people who practise it. At Shankar Prasad Ashram the path runs from your own practice, through the Foundation and Advanced courses, to the 250-hour Yoga Nidra Teacher Training with Swami Yogaratna Saraswati.
Step by step
The path
- 1. Practise. The training asks for one to two years of steady Yoga Nidra practice without a recording.
- 2. Yoga Nidra Foundation Course: 5 days, online or at the ashram. Suggested donation ₹5,000, or US$150 for foreign nationals, NRI and OCI.
- 3. Advanced Yoga Nidra: 5 days, Foundation Course required. ₹7,000, or US$200.
- 4. Read the two required texts by Swami Satyananda Saraswati: Yoga Nidra, and A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Practices of Yoga and Kriya.
- 5. Interview with Swami Yogaratna. Acceptance into the training is by interview.
- 6. The 250-hour Yoga Nidra Teacher Training: theory online or at the ashram, then a two-week residency near Gokarna.
The training
Inside the 250-hour training
- Mechanics and theory: the subconscious, neurophysiology, the stress response and the tantric origins of the practice.
- Instruction: voice, rotation scripts, the sankalpa, and managing group energy.
- Applications: Yoga Nidra for relaxation, healing and advanced psychic-sleep techniques.
- Yogic lifestyle: daily asana, pranayama, chanting, Meditations from the Tantras and an hour of karma yoga.
- Practice teaching: you lead a live five-day Foundation Course for real students during the residency.
- Online check-ins on Tuesdays, 8 to 9 pm IST, during the theory phase.
Certificate and cost
What you get, and the suggested donation
- A Yoga Nidra Teacher Certificate from Shankar Prasad Ashram, on completing all assignments and the practicum.
- Suggested donation from ₹64,000; it depends on the room. Foreign nationals, NRI and OCI: ask the ashram for the international rate.
- Included: tuition, 14 nights at the ashram, three vegetarian meals a day, course materials, personal mentoring, and the group shuttle from Goa airport at set times.
- Not included: airfare, visa, health and travel insurance (mandatory), personal travel.
The next residency, 8 to 22 February 2027, is fully booked. Join the waitlist on the teacher training page, or start now with the Foundation Course.
Course dates
Teacher trainings
Certification
Yoga Nidra Teacher Training
A professional certification in Yoga Nidra as a therapeutic tool, for yoga teachers, therapists and clinical professionals, combining online intensives with a two-week ashram residency and ongoing mentoring. You need to have completed the Yoga Nidra Foundation course — not necessarily Yoga Nidra as Therapy — and to have been practising regularly, with and without recordings, for one to two years, familiar with reaching and exploring your own subconscious. A certificate is given on completion of all the assignments.
Read more →300 hours
Yoga Nidra as Therapy Teachers Training
As the Yoga Nidra Teachers Training, with a further section on teaching Yoga Nidra as Therapy. Three hundred hours. Dates on request.
Read more →Questions about teaching Yoga Nidra
Do you need a qualification to teach Yoga Nidra?
To teach the full practice with confidence you need training and your own steady practice. In this tradition that means the Foundation Course, then the 250-hour Teacher Training.
Can I train fully online?
No. The theory can be done online, live or by recording, but the two-week residency at the ashram is mandatory.
Who can enrol?
People who have done the 5-day Foundation Course with Swami Yogaratna or a Bihar School teacher, or have long-term practice in another meditation tradition, subject to an interview.
How long does the training take?
250 hours: a theory phase online or at the ashram, then two weeks in residence.
Who teaches it?
Swami Yogaratna Saraswati, a sannyasin in the Satyananda lineage for over 40 years, known for her work with Yoga Nidra in therapy.
What if the training is full?
Join the waitlist on the teacher training page. Meanwhile the Foundation Course runs most months, online or at the ashram.