RYA training programs focus our immersive curriculum through a therapeutic lens, and support perpetual refinement through further education and experience in the field. We encourage respectful communication and collaboration between all styles and methods of yoga.

Our faculty and graduates form a global community of passionate educators dedicated to transforming ourselves and serving others, that we may together bring more light into our world.

Simply put, we teach to heal.

Welcome to Raja Yoga Academy, where your most influential teacher stands before you in the mirror. We invite you to fulfill your highest potential and lead others toward that same realization.

Alone, we can do much. Together, we can do anything. The future begins with what we do now.

Craig Villani

DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL TEACHER

Throughout the last twenty years, Craig Villani has guided thousands of yoga instructors to achieve professional certification in the Original 26&2. He served for nearly a decade as International Director of Education and Teacher Training for the Bikram Yoga College of India, resigning from his position in 2008.

Craig leads events throughout the world, focusing on hatha and raja yoga, breath work, meditation, mind training, personal transformation, consciousness, connection, and integrative health. He has been mentoring teachers in transformational leadership and yoga therapy since 1999.

A big fan of Maui sunsets and lazy Sundays, he's pretty confident that Self-realization rests in a shady hammock on a warm beach with an old guitar, a cool drink, and a good friend. He sees the practice of yoga as an invaluable tool to expand our awareness and elevate the adventure of being alive.

Honoring purpose, compassion, courage, and connection, Craig and the RYA faculty intend to provide a safe and welcoming space for our community to grow, share, and realize a better future together.

Service

Pure Action

Our goal is to see yoga used as therapy in our national and global healthcare system:

#yogaismedicine

pureaction.org

St. Jude's

Finding cures. Saving children. The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment:

stjude.org

Uprising Yoga

brings the healing benefits of yoga to incarcerated youth and underserved communities that need it most:

uprisingyoga.org

Plan International USA

is committed to improve the quality of education for all children of the developing world.

planusa.org

A Glimmer of Hope

lifts women and children out of extreme poverty through health and education.

glimmer.org

Though honest and respectful communication, we hope to inspire ethical, compassionate, and confident leaders.

Raja Yoga Academy is supported by a vast international community of established yoga schools and exceptional yoga instructors. We are officially recognized as a Registered Yoga School by Yoga Alliance.

Beyond brand, method, and location, your RYA certification is designed to help open doors for you anywhere in the world,. Your RYA education will prepare you to step inside the door and teach.

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About RYA

There’s always room for more love

RYA training programs focus our immersive curriculum through a therapeutic lens, and support perpetual refinement through further education and experience in the field. We encourage respectful communication and collaboration between all styles and methods of yoga.

Our faculty and graduates form a global community of passionate educators dedicated to transforming ourselves and serving others, that we may together bring more light into our world.

Simply put, we teach to heal.

Welcome to Raja Yoga Academy, where your most influential teacher stands before you in the mirror. We invite you to fulfill your highest potential and lead others toward that same realization.

Alone, we can do much. Together, we can do anything. The future begins with what we do now.

The facilitators, staff, and visiting teachers were life changing.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget.

It’s fun, and it’s hard, and it’s amazing. You think you’re coming to do yoga and learn how to teach yoga, and it’s really about who you are and how you’re going to change other people’s lives and help those around you. It’s not what you expect- it’s so much more.

Cate Reese - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Craig Villani

International Faculty

Community of Courage, Compassion, and Connection

Service