Ryan Stanley, RYT 500, CYT- L2

Owner and Executive Director of the Soul of Yoga

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American Yoga Council Profile

Ryan Stanley is the Owner and Executive Director of the Soul of Yoga in Encinitas, California, where he helps guide a yoga studio and institute spanning foundational teacher training, advanced study, yoga therapy, and graduate-level learning. A yoga teacher, sound healer, and conscious business leader, Ryan brings an unusual combination of contemplative practice and operational experience to the work of building organizations that serve people.

Ryan earned an accounting degree from the University of San Diego and began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. During more than fifteen years in finance and corporate leadership, his work expanded into mergers-and-acquisitions integration, organizational transformation, and the human side of change. His move into yoga education did not discard that background; it gave it a different purpose. At Soul of Yoga, he applies his love for technological innovation, analytical rigor, practical leadership, and a service-centered approach to the systems that support students, faculty, and community.

His first yoga teacher training was through Mark Whitwell’s Heart of Yoga. That tradition’s emphasis on participation in life, rather than striving toward a future state, continues to shape Ryan’s teaching and leadership.

At Soul of Yoga he also co-founded the Soul of Yoga Sound Institute, active from 2018 through 2024, helping bring respected sound-healing teachers into the school. Through years of classes, trainings, sound baths, and private experiences, he developed a grounded approach to sound that values direct experience, nervous-system awareness, musical listening, and humility about what can and cannot yet be explained.

Ryan and his spouse, Catrina Stanley, also opened Sacred Sound of the Soul in 2018, an Encinitas studio and showroom devoted to alchemy crystal singing bowls, individual guidance for sound instruments, and sound education.

As a writer, Ryan works at the intersection of yoga education, sound healing, integration of self-realization into leadership as well as family, and evidence-minded inquiry. His 2025 research series examined more than 7,500 Yoga Alliance school listings to help prospective students compare training options with better information. Whether he is writing, teaching, or leading a business, his aim is consistent: make meaningful practices clearer, more accessible, and more useful in everyday life.