OUR HANDPICKED TEACHERS
INSPIRE, LEAD AND CHALLENGE
YOU EVERY STRETCH OF THE WAY.
200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Glasgow
Become a Certified Yoga Teacher & Deepen Your Practice
Are you ready to deepen your yoga practice and learn to teach with confidence?
It’s no secret that we’re leaders in providing training to become a yoga teacher. We're even listed as number 1 in the UK's top 10 trainings here! Our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Glasgow is a comprehensive, month-by-month program designed to give you a strong foundation in yoga philosophy, anatomy, asana practice and teaching skills.
Running over 12 months, this training allows you to integrate your learning into daily life while receiving ongoing support from experienced teachers and a close-knit community. Whether you want to teach professionally or deepen your personal practice, this course offers a rich, immersive experience.
We are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment, actively encouraging critical thinking and discussion and to helping you achieve your full potential.
Why Choose Our Training?
✔ Flexible Learning | One weekend per month for 12 months - perfect for busy schedules.
✔ Expert Guidance | Led by experienced, passionate teachers dedicated to your growth.
✔ Small Group Setting | Personalised attention and a supportive learning environment.
✔ Established Program | Successfully training teachers in Glasgow since 2003.
✔ Yoga Alliance Certified | Upon completion, you’ll be eligible to register as an RYT-200.
Who Is This Training For?
This training is ideal for:
✦ Dedicated yoga practitioners ready to deepen their knowledge
✦ Those looking to transition into teaching yoga professionally
✦ Yoga teachers wanting to refine their skills and confidence
✦ Anyone passionate about exploring yoga beyond the physical postures
Download Our prospectus
Explore our prospectus and learn more about us, our comprehensive programme’s curriculum and requirements, and all the practical organisation too.
COURSE TUTORS
Our professional team of tutors have been practising and teaching yoga for a long time. They’re committed to sharing the practice of yoga in a meaningful and practical way. Their guidance and support of you as an individual will enable you to be the best teacher you can be when you stand in front of your own class.
JUDI FARRELL
Principal Teacher + Owner of MCY
+ Read about judi
Judi’s been teaching yoga since 2006 and training teachers since 2015.
What started as a class taken once a week in the local sports centre has become a passion and a way of life.
After starting a new job and enduring six months of sleepless nights, Judi was dragged along to her first yoga class by her Mum – an act of desperation on her part. In a very short time her weekly yoga class worked its magic, helping to alleviate stress and anxiety. And provide some much needed sleep too. Further workshops inspired Judi to seek to deepen her practice and understanding of yoga by enrolling in the Yoga Scotland Foundation Course.
Gradually yoga became more than just something to be done in a weekly class. On completion of the course Judi was so eager to continue her yoga journey she enrolled on the CYS Yoga Teacher Training programme with June Mitchell in 2005.
It was here Judi’s enthusiasm for Ashtanga yoga was ignited – the flow of breath and movement, the discipline of a challenging sequence and the respect and humility that comes from practising in an ancient tradition.
Judi owns and runs Merchant City Yoga and is the Principal Teacher on the CYS Glasgow Teacher Training Programme as well as Senior Tutor on both CYS Edinburgh/Perth and CYS Surrey. She’s been practising yoga since 1998; spent three months of practice and study at the KPJYRI in Mysore, India in 2012; completed Richard Freeman & Mary Taylor’s 200 hour Teachers’ Intensive in Boulder, Colorado in 2018 and has practised with David Keil every year (bar one!) since 2006.
JUNE MITCHELL
Course Director
+ read about june
CYS Yoga Teacher Training Course Director, June Mitchell has been teaching yoga full time since the early 1980s, running three very successful yoga centres in Perth, Scotland. She currently runs Perth Yoga Studio www.perthyogastudio.com.
As a young woman June qualified to teach in Sivananda Yoga in 1976/77 through her inspirational teacher and mentor, the late William Mowat Thomson. He was the founder of the Edinburgh-based Scottish Yoga Centre of the 1970s and is widely credited for bringing yoga to Scotland. He was Patron of CYS from its inception in 2003, giving it a lineage unique in the UK.
June then had the benefit in the 1980s and 90s of many trainings with the best yoga teachers in the UK through the British Wheel of Yoga plus inspirational Iyengar yoga teachers. In 2003 she further qualified in Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga with Certified Ashtanga yoga teacher, Paul Dallaghan’s Centred Yoga on Koh Samui in Thailand and in 2004 was a direct student of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India.
She is dedicated to the traditional teachings of yoga and has been Scotland’s, and one of the UK’s, leading yoga teachers for very many years. She has taught and inspired a large number of highly successful yoga teachers who are now taking classes and running their own yoga centres and charities throughout Scotland, the South of England, Europe, the USA, South America and even as far as Australia – hello Harry and Allison in Townsville!
In 2003 June co-founded and was Course Director of CYS Scotland, then called the Chi Yoga School, as an independent yoga school offering the highest standards in yoga teacher training. In 2006 CYS expanded into the South of England and the training courses have continued to thrive since 2010 when June took over as sole owner and Course Director of CYS, now known as the Classical Yoga School.
TUTORING TEAM
Our tutors bring real breadth and depth to the course.
+ read about them
Practising and teaching yoga comes from the heart and when you take one of our yoga training courses you’ll learn how to teach in a range of different styles. Learn from our tutors and you’ll become skilled in teaching yoga for different classes and levels in your own style.
SENIOR TUTORS
Alanna Dearden has been a Senior Tutor on CYS Glasgow since 2015, regularly covers for Judi & Rose Ann here at MCY and teaches on a recovery programme as part of MCY’s yoga outreach commitment. She’s been practising Ashtanga since 2003 and teaching since 2009.
Rose Ann McKean teaches our morning Mysore programme here at MCY. She’s been practising Ashtanga since 2005 and is dedicated to sharing the traditional teachings in an approachable and down to earth way.
Ana Costa graduated CYS Glasgow in 2015 and has been teaching our Vinyasa Flow class ever since. She has a PhD in heart research (2019), a master’s in Exercise Science (2013) and a BSc (Hons) in Physiology (2012).
GUEST TUTORS
Sue Barclay – Alexander Technique
James Boag – Yoga Philosophy – Kirtan
Judy Cameron – Scaravelli style Yoga
Siobhan Fitzgerald – Pranayama
Gareth Magee – Anatomy & Physiology
Emma McGurn – Iyengar Yoga
Alex Woodward – Myers Briggs
Tony Young – Narad – Nadis & Chakras / Meditation / Music & Kirtan
Sheila Croken – Mindfulness Meditation
Emma Thornton MSc (RNutr) - Nutrition
What You’ll Learn
Yoga Teacher Training Course Structure
Our well rounded and comprehensive curriculum offers much more than learning to practise and teach yoga postures. It provides a comprehensive education in yoga and prepares you to become a confident and effective yoga teacher.
The first half of the course is focused on developing your own yoga practice and deepening your understanding of yoga. Then during the second half of the programme, while we're still helping you with your own practice, the focus starts to shift as you begin to practise sharing what it is that you know.
The programme has both theoretical and practical components including lectures, discussions, demonstrations, practise teaching and experiential learning activities. You’ll also have the opportunity to observe and assist in live yoga classes.
This Yoga Alliance-registered training blends traditional yoga wisdom with modern teaching techniques, covering:
✧ Asana Practice - Develop a strong, safe and sustainable practice.
✧ Anatomy & Physiology - Understand how the body moves and how to support different bodies and abilities.
✧ Yoga Philosophy & History - Explore the ancient texts and teachings that shape modern yoga.
✧ Teaching Methodology - Understand effective communication, sequencing and adjustments.
✧ Pranayama & Meditation - Cultivate breath awareness and mindfulness in practice and teaching.
✧ The Business of Yoga - Gain insights into how to start teaching and find your voice as a teacher.
TEACHING
PRACTICE
ESSENTIALS
• Practice teaching skills;
• Hands-on Skills for adjusting in postures;
• Guidance for Self-Practice, Personal Development & Accountability;
• Self reflection – how yoga ethics & yoga philosophy relate to your practice and teaching;
• Tutorials in Mindfulness, NLP, Alexander Technique and Nutrition to develop a sound holistic approach to yoga teaching;
• Myers Briggs Personality Profiling for building self-awareness to teach;
• The Business of Yoga including setting up your classes Marketing, Accounting & Insurance;
• A 6-hour Emergency First Aid Course will also be made available to all students out with the course hours.
CORE YOGA
PRACTICE
• History and context of yoga;
• Philosophical and Spiritual Study including Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras & The Bhagavad Gita;
• Asanas – For personal practice we are working with the Ashtanga Vinyasa Primary Series in addition to studying Hatha, Sivananda, Iyengar, Scaravelli-inspired, Yin and Vinyasa Flow styles;
• Anatomy and Physiology – covering all the body systems and understanding how yoga acts on them with additional tuition in Anatomy for Yoga;
• Pranayama – the science behind the breath;
• The Subtle Body – including Nadis, Chakras, Bandhas and Kriyas;
• Meditation – practice & understanding;
• Relaxation techniques;
• Kirtan and the use of music, mantras & chanting;
• Yoga for special circumstances (including back pain, pregnancy,children & seniors.
How Our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Works
Course Dates
Our specially structured course is divided into 12 modules, one module per month for 12 months. The course Classes are held on weekends (Friday evening, all day Saturday and the occasional Sunday morning) to accommodate your work and life responsibilities.
Our schedule allows you the space to put into practice what you’re learning and to complete assignments with adequate research and consideration, as well as fit around your other commitments.
+ 2024/2025
One module per month for 12 months:
2024
MODULE 1 - 13/14 September
MODULE 2 - 11/12 October
MODULE 3 - 8/9 November
MODULE 4 - 6/7 December
2025
MODULE 5 - 17/18 January
MODULE 6 - 14/15/16 February
MODULE 7 - 14/15 March
MODULE 8 - 11/12 April
MODULE 9 - 16/17 May
MODULE 10 - 13/14/15 June
MODULE 11 - 11/12 July
MODULE 12 - 8/9 August
Friday evenings: 6–9 pm Refreshments will be included
Saturdays: 8am–5pm Vegetarian lunch and refreshments will be included
Plus TWO Sunday mornings: 8am–12pm – February and June
+ 2025/2026
One module per month for 12 months:
2025
MODULE 1 - 12/13 September
MODULE 2 - 10/11 October
MODULE 3 - 7/8 November
MODULE 4 - 5/6 December
2026
MODULE 5 - 16/17 January
MODULE 6 - 13/14/15 February
MODULE 7 - 13/14 March
MODULE 8 - 17/18 April
MODULE 9 - 15/16 May
MODULE 10 - 12/13/14 June
MODULE 11 - 10/11 July
MODULE 12 - 7/8 August
Friday evenings: 6 – 9pm / Saturdays: 8am – 5pm
Plus TWO Sunday mornings: 8am til 12pm – February and June 2026
Fees
The CYS Glasgow Yoga Teacher Training course fees are made up of a deposit of £450 followed by 10 monthly instalments of £254 from the first month (September). The deposit is an advance payment for the last two instalments (July + August).
Total cost £2990.
These programme costs do not include the Emergency First Aid Course provided out-with the course hours. The first aid course is discounted for our CYS groups and usually costs around £50.
how TO APPLY
In the first instance email Judi with a paragraph or two talking about each of the following:
Tell us about your yoga practice;
Why would you like to do the Teacher Training?
What might you as an individual bring to the training?
We’ll then invite you to meet up for an informal chat and to take part in a class.
We ask that our applicants have a regular yoga practice prior to commencing the course. During the course we ask you try and attend at least one class per week with your regular teacher (it doesn’t have to be here) and practice at home most other days. Here at MCY we offer current year trainees the concession rate on all classes.
Still have questions? Get in touch - we’d love to chat!
CYS CLASSICAL YOGA SCHOOL
CYS is a Yoga Alliance® accredited Registered Yoga School (RYS® 200) allowing graduate teachers to teach worldwide with their Certificate CYS/Yoga Alliance.
CYS Yoga Teacher Training is synonymous with high standards and is known as a centre for excellence in yoga teaching. Students coming out of the school with a CYS Yoga Alliance® Certificate will be seen to represent the above standards and should expect to finish their training confident, happy and ready to pass on their understanding and experience of yoga to their students.
Yoga is a lifetime’s study and this course should be seen as a sound foundation to build on while acquiring the wisdom to recognise new openings and pathways for learning as they occur over the years – which they will.
ACCREDITATION
Yoga Alliance® is a nonprofit association representing the international yoga community, helping to maintain and promote high standards across the sector. Yoga Alliance certification is recognised worldwide. As a Registered Yoga School (RYS®) offering a 200-hour programme, the CYS Yoga Teacher training program:
Meets Yoga Alliance’s standards.
Has been approved by Yoga Alliance.
Is up-to-date with annual registration fees.
You can find out more about the standards required by Yoga Alliance for a Registered Yoga School that offers a 200-hour program here.
ID No: 11350
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY
Our students are our best advert! They’ve been in the thick of it and have come out the other end. We asked them why they chose this course, what most surprised them during our time together and what they’re doing now that they’ve graduated. Here’s what they had to say.
FAQ – Yoga Teacher Training at Merchant City Yoga
When people come to chat with us about joining the Yoga Teacher Training programme, there are a few common questions that come up all the time. Judi, Principal Teacher on the course, answers these questions.
Is Yoga Teacher Training at MCY for You?
People who join our 200-hour yoga teacher training in Glasgow usually come for one of two reasons:
• Some are keen to teach yoga, whether in group classes, one-to-one settings or within their communities.
• Others want to deepen their practice and gain a broader understanding of yoga beyond the physical postures.
Either way, our training is structured to support you at every step. We guide you through asana, philosophy, breathwork and teaching methodology, ensuring you develop the confidence and knowledge to take your next steps—whether that’s teaching or personal growth.
✦ Want to hear more? I explain our approach and course structure in the video above.
What Are the Prerequisites for a 200-Hour Teacher Training?
If you’re wondering “Is my yoga practice good enough?” or “Do I know enough about yoga?” you’re not alone - these are some of the most common concerns people have before joining a yoga teacher training course.
Let me put your mind at ease.
Your ability to perform advanced yoga postures is not what we look for. Instead, we’re interested in your experience of yoga, your curiosity and your willingness to learn.
• You don’t need to be able to do handstands or deep backbends.
• You don’t need to know all the Sanskrit terms.
• You do need to have a committed personal practice and a desire to explore all aspects of yoga.
During the course, we focus on effort, progress and openness to learning. If you decide to teach after graduation, your unique practice will shape how you share yoga with others.
✦ I chat more about this and the role of Ashtanga yoga in our program in the video above.
How Is the Yoga Teacher Training Course Assessed?
One of the biggest concerns people have when they consider joining a yoga teacher training course is assessment - particularly the fear of a final exam or big practical test.
Let me reassure you: There’s no single final exam at MCY.
Instead, we use a continuous assessment approach across the 12 training modules.
• Each module includes practical and written assinments based on what we’ve covered that month.
• You’ll have time to absorb, reflect and apply what you’ve learned before submitting your work.
• Assgnments are reviewed with constructive feedback, not just graded - you’ll have the chance to resubmit if anything needs more depth or clarification.
This approach ensures that if you ever feel stuck or need extra support, we can address it during the course - rather than at the end.
✦ Want more details? I explain our assessment process in the video above.
TESTIMONIALS