How to Find the Right Yoga Teacher (For You): 5 Essential Questions to Ask
So, you’re looking for a new yoga teacher. Maybe your favorite studio closed or your teacher moved on. Maybe you’re re-starting your practice after some time or with a new intention.
These days, yoga studios, online classes, and teachers are everywhere. But finding someone who truly supports your practice—someone who helps you feel grounded, connected, and cared for—is something else entirely.
Recently, I found myself going deeper with a new teacher, and it made me reflect on how important it is to find someone who truly supports your practice, especially if you plan to study with them regularly. The last thing you want is to be all geared up, running a hundred miles an hour… in the wrong direction.
Here are five questions I ask when choosing a teacher. Maybe they’ll be helpful to you, too.
1. Are they practicing and studying?
And, more importantly, are they still practicing and studying?
Contemplative teachings aren’t something you study once and complete. As your body, mind, heart, and circumstances shift, the practices should stretch and fill those spaces with new understanding. I personally wouldn’t study with someone who isn’t actively engaged in their own learning and exploration.
Be cautious of anyone who claims they’ve “mastered” yoga or presents themselves as a finished product. In my experience, this often signals a closed door rather than an open one. Mark Stephens says it better than I could:
“In teaching yoga, we are very lucky when advanced students come to our classes. Rather than the acrobatically talented athlete with a flashy practice on display for all to admire or envy, the most seriously advanced yoga student is the one who shows up regularly in his or her practice with an attitude of beginner’s mind. Practicing each day as though it is the first time, the advanced student appreciates that there is always something new to learn when doing yoga. Unattached to the outcome of the practice, he or she is fully present to the experience of doing yoga as a process through which to learn more about oneself while remaining open to changing in conscious ways that bring about greater freedom and happiness in life. Approached in this way, the yoga path is endless; there is no final asana or experience one attains and then says, ‘I’m done,’ or, ‘Now I’m a yoga master.’ Given that there is nothing to master, but rather everything to endlessly explore, there is no such thing as a yoga master.” ---Mark Stephens
2. Where is their focus during class?
Are they centered on themselves—processing their own stuff, performing—or are they focused on you, the student?
Notice how they speak about their classes. Is it about what they offer you and how you’ll be supported? Or is it more about their credentials and how they look? Pay attention to where the spotlight lands.
3. What’s their primary intention—and does it align with yours?
Take some time to feel into this. What is the teacher really offering? And is it what you need right now?
For example, if you’re seeking rest and ease, and the teacher is focused on physical fitness and perfecting form, you may find yourself feeling less at ease—during and after class. Relaxation is an acceptance. Mastery is a striving. Some teachers balance both, but tune in to how you feel afterward. Does it support where you’re going?
Yoga offers tools. Tools can build, or they can break. They can construct or they can destruct. The intelligent practice, and where I think things get very interesting, is when you can apply the right tool for the job. Then there is a sort of expansion that happens, not only during the practice but as you go about your life.
(Confession: I’ll be transparent and say it–I think asana [the postures of yoga] are overused as tools. I have experienced asana and see it often used in a way that bolsters egoic striving. This feels precariously at odds with most of the goals of yoga, as articulated by the ancient sages. And I’ve seen it be downright harmful.)
4. Are there options—and are they offered with respect?
Do they leave space for different experiences, different bodies, different intentions? Are variations presented without judgment?
Yoga isn’t a dogmatic tradition. The wisdom we seek is already within us. The practice helps us listen more deeply. Teachers who offer rigid prescriptions or present a singular “right way” can unintentionally close the door on your own inner knowing.
Judgment can be subtle. It might sound like, “If you can’t do this, then…” or show up in rigid alignment cues that ignore different body types. It can even extend to prescribing diets, supplements, or rejecting Western medicine and science.
When a teacher holds too tightly to control, it may offer them safety from criticism or vulnerability—but it can take essential realization away from the student—and even deny them their own power.
(There is a caveat here, which is that if you’re doing a certain type of fitness-based asana practice where not understanding a certain aspect of physical alignment can be downright dangerous. If you’re practicing poses where there is a possibility of you breaking your neck, dislocating your hip, or shredding your shoulders, for example, I do think you need to listen carefully to a competent trainer who has a vast and accurate understanding of human kinesthetics. I will say, in transparency, that I question the purpose and inclusion of such postures in the practices of most people and certainly anyone looking to yoga as a vehicle for relaxation.)
5. What are the effects of the practice?
Not just in the moment, but over time. How do you feel after class? What about in your daily life, weeks later? Are you more open, more curious, more kind?
Your own wisdom is your best guide. You might also check in with trusted people: How do they experience you as you continue this practice?
In Closing
I hope these reflections are helpful as you consider your own path. What questions guide you when choosing a teacher? What are you looking for in a teacher in this stage of your practice? I’d love to hear.