Our Story
The Birth of a School
During the years of COVID, as the world slowed and cracked open, Sierra created a 50-hour online yoga teacher training to support students navigating uncertainty and isolation.
That training quickly grew into 100 hours, and soon into a full 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
From that organic expansion, Soul School Yoga was born.
Soul School was never about poses alone.
It was a school dedicated to teaching what it truly means to eat, sleep, breathe, and live as a yogi.
Over the years, Soul School hosted trainings and retreats from Bali to Peru, guiding hundreds of students through trauma awareness, embodiment, leadership, and integration. Many graduates went on to become top instructors in their fields, leaders in their niches, and carriers of the torch into studios, retreats, and communities around the world.
The Turning Point
But all plants eventually outgrow their pots.
As Soul School matured, its founders felt called in different directions. For Sierra, a deeper reckoning emerged.
She began to see the cultural appropriation embedded throughout modern yoga, including spaces she herself had once inhabited. The further she went, the more she felt drawn not toward trend, performance, or photogenic poses — but toward tradition, language, lineage, and subtle wisdom.
She felt a responsibility to return yoga to its roots.
Not as nostalgia.
As integrity.
She wanted to reclaim Sanskrit, explore the subtle body, understand energetic anatomy, and teach yoga as a living philosophy — not a commodified aesthetic.
Atman Academy is an ever-growing community rooted in devotion, integrity, and embodiment.
But like all living things, it did not begin fully formed. It evolved.
Where It Began
The roots of Atman Academy trace back to 2016, when founder Sierra Madre opened Oblong Yoga House — a co-living, co-working yoga studio created by women, for women.
For seven years, over 30 women lived within the walls of Oblong.
Some arrived as newly certified teachers finding their footing.
Others came as lost souls in transition — between identities, careers, relationships, and versions of themselves.
The house was more than a studio.
It offered affordable, flexible housing, meaningful work, and a living ecosystem of emotional support. Women were not just taught yoga — they were supported in finding their voice, their confidence, and their place in the world.
Community wasn’t a buzzword.
It was lived, day by day.
The Evolution into Atman Academy
From that calling, Atman Academy was created.
Atman means soul — the true Self beyond roles, identities, and performance.
Atman Academy is the evolution of the school Sierra once founded, now brought back to its roots. It honours:
The original language of yoga
The depth of its philosophical teachings
The intelligence of the subtle body
The ethics and responsibility of teaching
Atman Academy exists to make authentic yogic education accessible without dilution.
Our Offerings & Commitment
Atman Academy provides:
Free community spaces hosted on the Skool platform
Free access to a 40-hour online yoga training, which forms part of the Academy’s 200-hour Yoga Alliance–qualified training
In-depth study of yogic philosophy, anatomy, mantras, kriyas, energetic anatomy, and embodiment
Pre-recorded classes, workshops, and live mentorship
Atman believes these teachings should be available to all, which is why it is one of the most affordable yoga schools available — without compromising depth, rigor, or integrity.
Affordable does not mean lesser.
On the contrary, Atman offers one of the most authentic and thoughtfully structured curriculums available today.
With over 100 students certified, trainings are intentionally capped at 10 participants, ensuring:
Individual attention
Personalized mentorship
True integration, not rushing
Students leaving with more than they came for
This is not about mastering poses.
It is about embodying truth.
And the journey continues.
Global Recognition
This isn’t just a business—it’s a reflection of what we believe in. We’re here to create work that matters, led by a shared commitment to quality and care.
Creating Sustainable Career Pathway
Soul School Yoga focused on women's economic empowerment addressed as a persistent challenge within the wellness industry. By providing comprehensive business development training alongside healing arts instruction, the organization helps graduates move beyond traditional employment models. Students learn to structure retreat offerings, develop pricing strategies, and build sustainable practices that generate reliable income. Atman Academy aims to do the same for all people equally.
The results appear in the documented outcomes of hundreds of graduates who have established independent wellness businesses. Several participants have progressed from initial enrollment to becoming certified instructors and retreat co-hosts within the network, illustrating how the mentorship model cultivates leadership at multiple levels. This progression creates a self-sustaining ecosystem where experienced graduates support newer students while continuing their own professional development.
What participants often describe as a sisterhood model extends beyond certification completion. The ongoing mentorship relationships and supportive network enable graduates to navigate challenges as they build their careers. This community-centered approach addresses the isolation that many wellness practitioners experience when launching independent practices, providing both emotional support and practical business guidance.
Measuring Impact and Future Direction
The organization's growth trajectory reflects increasing demand for integrative wellness education. Although Soul School has dissolved as a corporation, Atman Academy plans to d the same work with programming scheduled through 2026 and expanding international partnerships, Atman Academy continues refining its curriculum based on emerging research in neuroscience, trauma therapy, and holistic wellness practices. This commitment to evolution ensures the education remains relevant as the wellness industry develops.
The evaluation process that led to the Global Recognition Award examined performance across fifteen criteria, including vision implementation, ethical decision-making, and measurable community impact. The assessment positioned Soul School Yoga among highly rated organizations within a competitive field, validating its approach to combining traditional wisdom with contemporary pedagogical methods.
As wellness education continues evolving, organizations like Soul School Yoga and Atman Academy demonstrate how integrative approaches can prepare practitioners for multifaceted careers while addressing broader equity concerns within the industry. By creating accessible pathways for diverse voices to enter wellness instruction, Madre and Janelle have developed a model that other institutions now study, proving that comprehensive education can generate both individual transformation and meaningful industry-wide change.
When Sierra Madre launched Atman Academy (previously known as Soul School Yoga), she set out to solve a problem they had witnessed throughout their careers: yoga teacher training programs that taught poses and sequences but left graduates unprepared for the realities of building sustainable wellness practices. Her solution pairs traditional yoga instruction with energy healing, herbalism, and trauma-informed therapeutic techniques, creating a comprehensive education model that has attracted students from across North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The approach has earned Soul School Yoga a 2025 Global Recognition Award, following an evaluation process that measured performance across leadership, innovation, and community impact. More significantly, the organization has created pathways for women to establish independent careers in wellness, addressing both personal transformation and economic advancement within an industry that has historically struggled with accessibility and equity issues.
Soul School Yoga's programs combine Yoga Alliance-accredited 200-hour teacher training with leadership certifications, breathwork techniques, and somatic therapy methods. The curriculum rotates through international locations including Puerto Escondido, Tulum, and Peru's Sacred Valley, immersing students in environments where they can study healing traditions within their cultural contexts while developing cross-cultural competency.
Building Expertise Through Immersive Education
The faculty structure reflects the program's multidisciplinary focus. Madre and co. bring over 3,500 hours of specialized training, leading a team that includes Reiki masters, certified herbalists, and trauma-informed therapeutic mentors. This diversity of expertise allows students to explore multiple healing modalities while understanding how they interconnect and complement traditional yoga practice.
The destination-based model serves a practical purpose beyond cultural immersion. By conducting programs in locations with strong ties to ancient healing traditions, Atman Academy provides students with direct access to practices that have evolved over centuries. This geographical strategy also removes students from familiar environments, creating space for focused learning and personal reflection that many report as transformative.
Graduates consistently describe gaining confidence and professional competency that extends beyond technical skills. The program's emphasis on making wellness instruction accessible to individuals who might not initially see themselves as teachers has broadened the demographic profile of who enters the field. Many participants arrive uncertain about their capabilities and leave prepared to launch their own retreat offerings or establish wellness businesses.
The Living School— Atman Academy is not static.
It is alive.
It is a community of practitioners, teachers, seekers, and leaders devoted to remembering yoga as a way of being, not a brand.