Sita Severson, C-IAYT

Director of the Soul of Yoga Institute

International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)

Yoga Alliance Profile

American Yoga Council Profile

Sita Severson, C-IAYT, is the Director of the Soul of Yoga Institute, where she leads the school’s Yoga Alliance–registered teacher trainings, IAYT-accredited yoga therapy certification, and advanced study programs. A certified yoga therapist, Ayurvedic practitioner, and Vedic counselor with more than 25 years in the wellness field, Sita has spent her career translating the classical teachings of yoga and Ayurveda into practical tools for modern healthcare, education, and everyday life.

Long before stepping into the institute’s leadership, Sita was bringing contemplative practice into decidedly non-contemplative places. She taught meditation and mindful breathing to professors at Johns Hopkins University, then to the doctors and nurses of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s oncology unit, helping frontline clinicians work with burnout. She spent three years designing and teaching Ayurvedic lifestyle, yoga, and meditation curricula across the Baltimore County Department of Aging’s eighteen senior centers, and later served as meditation teacher for the research scientists of Dart NeuroScience in San Diego. In private practice since 2007, she has supported thousands of people through illness, recovery, grief, and major life transitions.

Sita’s relationship with the Soul of Yoga Institute began the way it does for most of our community: as a student. She completed the institute’s IAYT-accredited Yoga Therapy Training, earned her C-IAYT, joined the faculty, rose to direct its advanced programs, and today leads the institute itself — a full-circle path that shapes how she teaches and how she writes. Her training also spans Ayurveda (Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America), herbal medicine as a graduate of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine and member of the American Herbalist Guild, Kundalini yoga, and the Nia somatic movement technique.

Sita is a published author and a featured teacher on The Shift Network and Wisdom from North, and her work on trauma-informed yoga, nervous-system healing, and subtle energy has been featured on podcasts and media internationally. Her writing here on the Soul of Yoga blog is known for the same thing her teaching is: honest, grounded guidance that honors both the mysticism and the mechanics of these ancient practices.