Community Resources
Yale and New Haven offer a wealth of wellness resources. Below you will find Yale and New Haven-based centers, community spaces, and studios that span the spectrum of health and wellness therapies and wellness-based practices. Whether you are looking for a local sacred space, are interested in research being done at Yale, or need help finding a place to practice yoga, the list below is a good place to start.
Balanced Yoga
Located on Whalley Avenue, Balanced Yoga is a hot yoga studio offering a variety of yoga and meditation classes for the individual as well as the family.
Breathing Room Yoga Center
Breathing Room, located in downtown New Haven, offers a variety of classes ranging in level and focus, including candle-lit yoga, lotus flow vinyasa, form and flow, yin yoga, urban zen restorative yoga, max meditation, happy power hour +, and much more. Breathing Room also offers private yoga and reiki sessions. Special classes and workshops, such as Chocolate Chakra Yoga for Valentine’s Day, conscious breathing workshops, and meditation workshops, occur every month. Student drop-in and class card rates are available.
Elm City Wellness
Elm City Wellness is an independent health spa with a “focus on wellness, not beauty.” Services include a variety of massages, acupuncture and community acupuncture, reiki, and facials. Elm City Wellness practitioners will customize treatments to your need, and offer services specifically tailored for athletes, musicians, and students.
Fresh Yoga
With two locations in Erector Square and Ninth Square, Fresh Yoga offers a variety of drop-in and series classes for all levels. The studio also offers an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction series, in addition to national workshops with renowned guest instructors, in-depth workshops taught by Fresh Yoga Staff, and teacher training programs. Live-stream classes are also available for those wishing to participate in the comfort of their own space. Fresh Yoga offers special rates for students, including a class card student discount and a student drop-in rate. The studio’s Ninth Square location also offers $5 Community Flow classes on Mondays from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Local Sacred Spaces
For a list of sacred spaces near Yale’s campus, visit the Chaplain’s Office webpage below, which includes a map of all locations.
New Haven Insight
New Haven Insight is “a meditation community dedicated to the practice of mindful awareness and compassion, with the goal of decreasing (and ending) stress and suffering for all beings.” Open to students, faculty, and New Haven community members of all levels and experiences, the group practices meditation and offers Dharma Talks and Group Reflections. New Haven Insight meets on Monday and Thursday evenings in Dwight Chapel on Old Campus and also hosts occasional meditation retreats.
New Haven Shambhala Meditation Center
The Shambhala Meditation Center “is part of an international community of urban meditation and rural retreat centers” that offers practices derived from Shambhala Buddhism. The Center offers free meditation instruction on Sundays and Mondays, in addition to recurring programs and groups including “Queer Dharma” and “The Heart of Recovery” meditation and recovery group. The Center also offers a course of study on Shambhala Buddhism and meditation along with weekend workshops.
New Haven Zen Center
New Haven Zen Center, located on Mansfield Street, offers Zen meditation instruction to the public. Meditation sessions are free, but a donation to support the Center is appreciated. The Center also offers one-day retreats, residential practice, and kong-an teaching.
True Bikram Yoga
True Bikram Yoga’s New Haven branch, located at the corner of Elm and Orange, offers yoga in the bikram style: twenty-six postures and two breathing exercises practiced in a heated room. True Bikram Yoga “combine[s] the motivation of the personal training experience, the social experience of the gym and the stress relief and mental clarity that takes it from a fitness regime to a lifestyle of health and wellness.” Student rates are available with a valid student ID.
Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence “uses the power of emotions to create a healthier, effective and compassionate society.” Through its scientific research on the power of emotions, the Center teaches communities of students and adults about emotional intelligence and the skills they need to create meaningful relationships, make good decisions, and be effective in their daily lives. With research as a foundation, the Center’s focus is broken down into five categories: evaluation and assessment, teaching emotional intelligence, exploring emotions in everyday life, bullying, and cross-disciplinary explorations. The Center’s partners include the Born This Way Foundation, Facebook, TED, The Air Force Research Laboratory, and others.
Yale Community Open Meditation
Open meditation is offered every Tuesday afternoon during the academic year, from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m., in the Hall of Graduate Studies, Room 211. Meditation is open to Yale faculty, staff, and graduate students, and is led by Danielle Casioppo, MS, RYT, Health Educator for Being Well at Yale. Open meditation is free of charge.
Yale New Haven T’ai Chi Study Group
Yale New Haven T’ai Chi Study Group offers class once a week and practice sessions twice a week at Dwight Hall. Classes are open to the public, and beginners are welcome, especially during September. A monthly membership fee of $40 is charged starting in October, though classes are free for undergraduates.
Yale Stress Center
The Yale Stress Center performs interdisciplinary research on stress effects on the brain, mind, body, and behavior and on the resulting impact of stress on day-to-day functioning and health. Specific research focuses include stress effects on cognitive and executive function; interactions with alcohol, drugs, food and exercise; new therapies to reverse the negative effects of stress, increase individual capacity, and decrease the risk of disease; and stress-drug interactions. The Yale Stress Center also offers a variety of stress and wellness programs and trainings for individuals and organizations, including mindfulness-based stress reduction courses. Learn more about stress and the Center’s research by visiting the link below.