Marianne Wells Yoga School
Reviews and Complaints

MOST HORRIFIC EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. THIS IS FALSE ADVERTISING. It has taken me 3 years to write this review as I'm still scared by the experience.

Getting price out of the way. Charging $4000 dollars for this training where the accommodation is approximately $20 a night is the first shocker.

Marianne and Ron are the most horrific teachers I've ever encountered. I'm not even sure Ron is a qualified Yoga Teacher and is ‘teaching' anatomy fraudulently. They spend the whole time speaking about their family and the death of their son. Offloading their problems to anybody that will listen.

Ron is a perverted human being that is sexually inappropriate with women on the training and in turn when Marianne sees this she is vicious to the women he pays attention to. They have belittled people on the training and think it's great to constantly point out and humiliate students on their insecurities.

Let's get to the actual training? What training. It's a book that you have to pay for. And you go through it in 15 days. You then read the sutras together as part of your philosophy and seem fixated on any sexual aspect

They have ‘chanting' circles to Hindu hymns yet tell people to move to the rhythm like they're in a club and not informing anyone around the religious aspect. They referred to Hindu Gods as cartoon characters and figments of people's imagination

They didn't teach you how to teach a class, sequence a class or anything like that

What it was was you paying to listen to Marianne speak about her learnings and her bad mouthing as many people along the way.

The fact they made 3 of their TAs cry on regular basis sums it up

They're keen to increase popularity so only include people with larger Instagram followings to get involved with their photo ops.

Oh and they stand you in line and tell you what dosha they think you are which is them ranking yoj from skinniest to largest 🤢

Most horrific experience of my life. Waste of money and instead spent $3000 to do another training to actually learn

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

I knew going into this experience that it was school and not vacation. I expected the experience to be challenging and slightly ridged, (time management, homework projects etc.) but I never expected it to be the way it REALLY was. I am writing this review to prepare people for what they are signing up for. I read reviews and was mislead. I would have never signed up with Marianne and Ron Wells. Ill say the good and then the bad. Unfortunately there was more bad then good.
THE GOOD:
Goddess Garden was beautiful; the staff was helpful, happy and pure. The food was amazing! I'm not a vegetarian at home and I didn't miss meat for a second! It was DELICIOUS! Jackie, the owner of Goddess Garden, made every effort to accommodate for every food allergy present in our group and she did successfully! We had fresh food and juice daily. It was very beautiful and serene; we were the only guests in the Goddess Garden so it was amazing! The masseuse (John) was great, worth every penny! He even pulls a spirit messenger card, I went twice and both were spot on what I needed to hear, AMAZING! The life lessons I learned in my yoga teacher training were indescribable. The people I met during this training were some of the most amazing, interesting people I've ever had the opportunity to talk with. Some of the people I met were the people that helped me learn these unforgettable life lessons. We also helped each other through this difficult, yet meaningful experience. Honestly, if it weren't for the people I met, I think I would have been on a flight home by Day 4. Unfortunately, I can't give much credit to the two teachers, Marianne and Ron Wells for helping me learn these amazing life lessons that I learned. On the positive side, these lessons I learned, will truly stay with me for the rest of my life. This experience was life changing. I can't say I regret it because I would have never met the girls that I can now call life long friends. (But if I didn't have these girls I would have 100% regretted it) Part of me does regret having these people as my teachers but I feel I really took the positive way of looking at this situation. I used them, their anger and harshness as a learning tool to practice the sutras on them and practice evolving myself into a better person overall. I attempted to not let them affect my happiness and way of trying to think positively (even though it was nearly impossible at times).
THE BAD:
SO! To not get into the nitty gritty of the two weeks, Marianne and Ron were unprofessional, hurtful, offensive, and down right RUDE. They were condescending and cold. They had no consideration for what other thought or had to say. They are some of the biggest egotistical hypocrites I've ever met. I was expecting it to be strict but they were simply rude and demeaning. We got yelled at daily and came to simply expect it as apart of our daily routine. Marianne and Ron were especially rude to students whose English was not their first language. They were disrespectful to the owner of Goddess Garden and the students in the program. We QUICKLY learned to KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT if you didn't want to be humiliated. Don't ask questions, don't add comments and certainly don't add personal stories. They would talk about pointless things such as their grandchildren, their past, they talked inappropriately about past students and even their sex life. It was uncomfortable because we were not in a light hearted learning environment where you could open up and share your story too, it was unprofessional and awkward. It felt like this experience was for them and not for us. They would argue during class and waste "precious time" but if any student had the courage to speak up and share a personal story (or even a thought) or related topic they would interrupt mid sentence and say the most ridiculous things like "when we go to lunch at 2:30 its because of YOU!" seriously yelling at people! Honestly, what the other students had to add was more interesting and related then hearing about unrelated things Marianne and Ron had to say. This teaching style made it very difficult for me to learn because not only was I legitimately scared but I couldn't ask questions. After a few days I realized I was only hurting myself by being scared to ask questions so…I asked the teacher assistant. She was positively critical and stern yet friendly, open and very helpful.in my opinion she was the most enlightened person there and she should have been the teacher. Marianne and Ron were extremely hypocritical, Marianne would say almost daily, "do as I say, not as I do" Marianne and Ron were toxic to my learning experience. I learned a lot about myself, self-control and how to positively perceive situations as best as possible. The only good thing I can think of to say about Marianne and Ron is that by them being so brutal I could practice my sutras on them. I learned so much about myself but I could have learned so much more about yoga if I had different teachers. They made fun of people ruthlessly and would bring up personal things you have said in the past against you. All criticism was in front of everyone and it was not effective criticism, they were insulting people every chance they had. Something specific I loved about the TA, she wouldn't hold back what she thought but she would criticize you in a helpful way. She would tell you what your doing wrong but she wouldn't insult you, it was helpful criticism! I wouldn't suggest these teachers to ANYONE, I would suggest everyone to do a yoga teacher training if your interested because it truly is life changing but for the sake of your mental well being and experience, do not attend these teachers teacher training. It was the most outrageous, false advertising, baffling experience of my life. I don't know how it's possible for these teachers to be so cold, ruthless and truly inconsiderate and heartless in this line of work. It took me some time to realize how to explain this experience to my friends and family without sounding crazy and I came up with that this was the best, worst experience of my life. I could go on for pages of examples of how Ron and Marianne were inappropriate sexually, professionally, and instructively. All the students discussed their inappropriate, outrageous behavior in private; I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Some quick examples of things that happened include, Marianne asking a girl if she was dyslexic in front of everyone because of a simple mistake, Rons commentary on women and flirting a little with students which in turn caused Marianne to personally attack those people ron showed specific interest in. (She even told us to "SHUT UP!" A room of adults!) How Marianne and Ron pointed out the people that English was not their first language (everyone there was speaking good English, you could understand everyone, sometimes they would use the wrong word and Marianne would laugh and point it out.) During "pool school" we were not allowed to look at or point out any wild life, like monkeys and amazing views! Yoga is about living in the present moment and let me tell you, they DID NOT live by the sutras. They talked down to the TA, they would yell at us about things and then go do it themselves (like looking at your phone, or being late) They also OFTEN talked badly about other yoga companies and organizations including (but not limited to) yoga alliance. The examples are endless! My family of girls, us having each other was honestly the only reason we were able to stay there the whole two weeks. Together, we learned all the lessons we had gone there to learn, through each other's love and wisdom we learned more about ourselves and what is important in life then anyone could ever teach us. This experience was unforgettable