Treetop 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

Established 2026

View program registration

Treetop Yoga

Program Instances

Hybrid

Dates: TBD

200 hours • TBD

Led by

Erin McKay

CYT-L2

Inquire

See up-front pricing

Purpose

We grow thoughtful, confident, and compassionate yoga teachers who honor yoga's philosophy and cultural roots while creating safe, inclusive, and meaningful experiences for everyBODY. Trainees don't study philosophy as theory — they examine how each teaching lands in their own life first, then learn to build classes where their future students can do that same work for themselves.

What to expect

The training runs over in-person weekends from January through May, with evening Zoom sessions in between. Weekends run Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, moving between practice, discussion, lab work, and teaching each other from the very first weekend.

It's for practitioners who want to understand yoga, not just perform it — and who are willing to be beginners again in order to teach well.

There is special emphasis on:

Sequencing with real reasoning behind every choice
Functional alignment for the body actually in front of you
Teaching the beginning student, and using props at every level
Consent, trauma-aware language, and hands-on assists offered rather than imposed
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita
Sanskrit, mantra and chanting
Pranayama, meditation, and the subtle body
Restorative practice and nervous system regulation
Teaching everyBODY — chair, kids, prenatal, older adults, health considerations
Cueing, themes, and finding your own voice
The business of teaching yoga

Trainees also complete a separate 30-hour anatomy course by David Keil, author ofFunctional Anatomy of Yoga, and log practicum hours in Treetop classes, observing and assisting alongside working teachers. Guest instructors lead sessions in trauma-informed teaching, breathwork, meditation, and diversity and inclusion.

What sets this training apart is that it isn't one teacher's method handed down. Four core teachers lead it, each trained differently, so trainees hear more than one way and learn to choose for themselves.

We also expect trainees to turn every teaching on themselves first. After each area of study, they write about what surprised them, what challenged them, how it will change the way they teach, and how it might change the way they live. Understanding shifts with what is happening within and around you, and trainees learn to offer students that same open invitation rather than a fixed conclusion.

Style/Lineage

Yoga means union, and at Treetop we take that seriously — the union of mind, body and soul. Our students don't simply strike a pose in class. They learn to be good movers for the rest of their lives, so they can keep doing the activities that bring their lives meaning, and along the way they learn to know themselves more honestly. That's what our teacher training is built to pass on.

The program teaches alignment-based vinyasa flow alongside restorative yoga and applied yoga philosophy. Its classical roots run through the Krishnamacharya lineage, with an alignment sensibility owed to Iyengar and a flowing methodology descended from Ashtanga. Trainees study functional alignment and the eight limbs together, including breathwork, mindfulness and philosophy, because we don't think those belong in separate rooms.

What shapes this training most is that it isn't one teacher's transmission. Treetop's program is led by four core teachers who trained in different programs, under different mentors, in different corners of this practice. What we share was arrived at rather than inherited: a commitment to reasoning over memorization, to instruction grounded in current research on movement and meditation, and to crediting yoga's South Asian and Hindu roots specifically rather than vaguely. Trainees learn why a pose sits where it does, not simply that it does.

Two frameworks carry the work. The TREE Method gives trainees a developmental structure built on the idea that knowledge becomes wisdom only when it's lived. Growth Rings runs structured self-inquiry through the whole program.

Four pillars hold it together. Teach thoughtfully, not dogmatically. Honor tradition. Stay curious. Welcome everyBODY.

Additional Information

Prerequisites. A consistent personal practice of at least six months. No prior credential required. Minimum age 16, with written parental permission for anyone under 18.

Tuition. $2,800 paid in full for the first five registrants, $3,200 thereafter. A payment plan is available at $3,350 across four payments. A deposit reserves your place.

Materials. Every trainee receives The Treetop Teacher, a manual written specifically for this program. A reading list is provided at registration; required texts will be confirmed before the training begins.

Anatomy. Trainees complete a separate 30-hour anatomy course developed by David Keil, author of Functional Anatomy of Yoga — 20 hours of online study plus 10 contact hours in the classroom. Some of this coursework is assigned before the first weekend.

Practicum. Beyond the contact weekends, trainees log hours in Treetop classes observing and offering hands-on assists alongside working teachers.

Attendance. Full attendance is expected. Make-up options for missed content are arranged individually.

Core competencies

By the end of this program, graduates will be able to…

Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics	Describe the key muscles and joint actions involved in the postures taught in this program by explaining their role in creating and stabilizing movement in asana. Apply knowledge of skeletal variation to alignment cueing by explaining why a given pose looks different in different bodies, and adjusting instruction accordingly rather than correcting toward a single ideal shape. Explain the relationship between breath and the autonomic nervous system by describing how breath ratio, pace, and retention shift a student between sympathetic and parasympathetic states. Identify common contraindications and risk factors in the postures taught in this program by naming the structure at risk and offering an appropriate modification. Evaluate a commonly repeated alignment or safety cue by determining whether a specific, measurable mechanism supports it, and naming honestly when a caution is tradition rather than evidence.
Business Skills	describe the practical requirements of working as a professional yoga teacher including liability insurance, waivers, independent contractor versus employee status, and basic tax considerations. Create a professional resume, teaching bio, and class description that represent their training and voice accurately, without overstating credentials. Develop a plan for a sustainable teaching schedule that accounts for travel, preparation time, personal practice, and realistic income expectations. Explain subbing etiquette and studio communication norms including how and when to accept, decline, and hand off classes responsibly.
Lifestyle & Ethics	Discuss each of the yamas and niyamas by defining all ten and describing how at least one has shown up concretely in their own life and practice. Design a class that offers students an entry point into a yogic ethical principle by weaving it through theme, cueing, and closing words without prescribing what students should conclude. Apply ethical guidelines in the classroom through consent-based touch, inclusive language, clear professional boundaries, and appropriate scope of practice. Establish professional communication boundaries by identifying which channels they will use, when they will respond, and how they will handle requests that fall outside teaching hours. Explain yoga's south asian and hindu origins and the history of its transmission to the west by crediting traditions specifically by name and describing the difference between respectful practice and appropriation. Reflect on how the practices in this program have changed them by documenting what surprised them, what challenged them, and how their teaching and daily life have shifted as a result.
Practice Skills	Practice the foundational postures in the program curriculum with sound alignment, appropriate risk mitigation, and safe, effective use of props. Demonstrate the pranayama techniques taught in this program with accurate technique and pacing, and an understanding of when each is appropriate and who should modify or skip it. Practice the meditation methods taught in this program sustaining focused attention from a stable seat, with steady breath awareness. Create and document a consistent personal practice that integrates asana, pranayama, and meditation, sustained across the length of the training. Describe how their personal practice has changed over the course of the training including shifts in their physical, mental, and emotional experience.
Teaching Skills	Develop a full-length restorative class with appropriate prop set-up, hold times, and pacing. Guide students through a complete asana practice cueing clearly and confidently, naming poses in sanskrit and english, and using breath to pace movement. Adapt a planned sequence in real time by reading the energy and ability of the room and revising pacing, poses, or approach accordingly. Teach the beginning student by breaking down foundational postures into accessible steps and offering entry points without condescension. Apply trauma-aware teaching practices through invitational language, consent for hands-on assists, predictable pacing, and thoughtful use of the room. Modify a class for students with differing needs including chair-based practice, prenatal students, older adults, and students with common health considerations, or referring beyond scope where appropriate. Observe students in practice by identifying common postural deviations and offering a verbal or prop-based option that addresses what they see. Critique a peer's class by identifying what worked, what could be clearer, and one specific, actionable adjustment. Create a full-length vinyasa class built toward a peak pose including appropriate warm-up, logical progression, safe transitions, and adequate integration time.
Yoga History & Theory	Discuss patanjali's eight limbs by defining each limb and explaining why asana is one of eight rather than the whole path. Compare the yoga sutras and the bhagavad gita by explaining the central aim of each text and how each informs a teacher's daily choices. Describe subtle body theory including the chakras, nadis, koshas, and bandhas, and how each maps onto a practice a teacher might actually lead. Describe the historical development of yoga from its earliest textual sources to modern postural practice including key texts, figures, and the influence of colonialism on how yoga reached the west. Teach an assigned section of patanjali's yoga sutras to their peers by explaining the core idea in plain language, illustrating it with an example from their own practice or life, and leading a discussion that invites other interpretations rather than delivering a single conclusion. Develop a class themed around a philosophical concep that offers students an experience of the idea through sequencing and cueing rather than a lecture about it. Evaluate a modern claim made about a traditional teaching by distinguishing what the source tradition actually says from what has been added or assumed later.

AYC allows each school to state and evaluate the competencies each student acquires. Students rate how well the program delivered them.

Program Emphasis

Evaluation methods

Program evaluations

Group Project Or Presentation
Written Exam
Graded Demonstration
Other
Solo Project Or Presentation
Written Submission
Direct Observation
Graded Skill Demonstration

Students are evaluated continuously rather than at a single endpoint, so that gaps surface early enough to address.

Quizzes throughout the accompanying 30-hour anatomy course check comprehension and give students real-time feedback on what they need to review.

Monthly Sutra lessons require students to peer teach a section of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to their cohort, explaining the idea in their own words and leading discussion.

Practice teaching begins in the first weekend and continues throughout, in both solo and small-group form. Students learn as much from watching each other as from teaching — seeing how cueing lands, how alignment reads across differing body proportions, and how the same instruction produces different results in different bodies. Faculty and peers give structured feedback each time.

Practicum hours in live Treetop classes are observed by the teaching faculty, with students assisting alongside working teachers.

Growth Rings, the self-reflection questions closing each area of study, ask students to evaluate how the teachings apply to their own lives and teaching.

The program concludes with a final written exam and a final teaching assessment, in which each student leads a full class.

Did you graduate from this program?

Verify your credential

Program Faculty

Featured Faculty

Erin McKay

Erin McKay has been a member of the Treetop Yoga community for over a decade, and she purchased the studio in 2018. As an instructor, Erin likes to tie in alignment based instruction with philosophy and storytelling.

Www.treetopyoga.com

Gloucester, MA, US