Mark Stephens


Mark Stephens is a dedicated yoga student whose personal experience of yoga’s promise to make life better inspires him to share the practice through teaching and scholarly writing.

Described by Yoga Journal as “the teacher’s teacher,” Stephens, a certified yoga therapist and member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, is the author of the international best sellers Teaching Yoga, Yoga Sequencing, and Yoga Adjustments, which have been published in nine languages.

From deep study of yoga history and philosophy, human anatomy and physiology, social and interpersonal dynamics, and Eastern and Western theories of being and consciousness, Stephens brings a nondogmatic, accessible, and integrated perspective to yoga therapy that makes yoga a more refined resource for healthy living.

Practicing yoga daily for more than twenty-five years and teaching for more than twenty years, Stephens draws from his prior years in academia, as an education consultant, and as a progressive social change activist to create practical resources for yoga teachers and therapists. In 1997 he founded Yoga Inside Foundation—establishing therapeutic yoga programs in more than 300 schools, treatment centers, and prisons across North America—for which he received Yoga Journal’s first annual Karma Yoga Award.

Stephens lives in Santa Cruz, California, and teaches globally.