Dr. Stephen Parker (Stoma) was initiated in the Himalayan Yoga Tradition by Swami Veda Bharati and was given the initiate name Stoma
in 1971
Among the first teachers certified by the Himalayan International Teachers’ Association, H.I.T.A., he began teaching hatha-yoga in
1974. During that time he also studied Sanskrit with Swami Veda and South Asian languages and culture for his B.A. at the University
of Minnesota. Stoma is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level of the Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 500).
A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, he serves on the faculties of the Meditation Center in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA, and the Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) in Rishikesh, India. He is also a senior faculty member of the Himalayan
Yoga Tradition Teachers’ Training Program (HYT-TTP). He has lectured on yoga, meditation, yoga psychology and spiritual practice in
the USA and Canada as well as in Caribbean countries, Holland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, South Africa, Korea, Hong Kong
and India.
In 2004 he helped originate and teach the first course on yoga in an American medical school at the University of Minnesota Academic
Medical Center. In 2007 he received preliminary vows of renunciation from Swami Veda and the Shankaracharya of Karvirapitha. Dr.
Parker has been a licensed psychologist in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 1985. He also serves as Adjunct Assistant
School Professor of Counseling and Psychological Services at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Adjunct Assistant Professor in
the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN.
He teaches on the faculty of the Introductory Workshops of the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis. In addition to authoring
journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Parker edited volume two of Swami Veda’s definitive scholarly work on the Yoga-sutras of
Patanjali, and he has been a peer review editor for the Journal of Men’s Studies, the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, the
International Journal of Yoga Therapists and Yoga Mimamsa. Stoma is also a mantra initiator and a member of the AHYMSIN Adhyatma
Samiti, or Spiritual Committee.