Media & Press
Magnolia Zuniga, C.A.S. is a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, yoga educator, and one of the most distinctive voices on power, accountability, and embodied harm in wellness culture. Thirty years inside yoga’s most demanding lineages, and the clinical framework to explain what those lineages do to the body.
magnolia@magnoliazuniga.com | magnoliazuniga.com | Albuquerque, New Mexico
About
Magnolia Zuniga spent 30 years inside yoga’s most demanding lineages — including Bikram, Ashtanga, and Satyananda — studying in India and becoming one of only 20 women worldwide authorized to teach Ashtanga yoga. In 2017, during the MeToo accountability movement, she walked away from that authorization after witnessing institutional failures and offering public testimony — for which she experienced significant professional retaliation.
She is now a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist in private practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, operating a thriving clinical practice and ABQ Yoga Lab — a personalized yoga program based on constitutional assessment rather than standardized methodology. She is a survivor of multiple high control spiritual environments.
“I didn’t leave because I had the language for it. I left because I knew it was wrong before I could name why. MeToo gave me the language. Motherhood radicalized me. The rest followed.”
Her work sits at a unique intersection: 30 years of embodied experience inside high control yoga lineages, five years of clinical Ayurvedic practice, and a somatic framework for understanding how these systems recruit and retain members through constitutional dysregulation, not just psychological manipulation.
Topics & Expertise
She speaks and writes on:
- Institutional failure & survivor testimony
- High control groups in yoga & wellness
- What cults do to the body constitutionally
- Power & accountability in spiritual communities
- The somatic mechanics of cult retention
- Ethical frameworks for yoga teachers
- Clinical Ayurveda & nervous system care
- Predatory teacher-student dynamics
Media Appearances
- A Little Bit Culty — March 2026 Discussing high control dynamics across multiple yoga lineages, the body’s role in cult retention, and her Spiritual Autopsy framework.
- Was I In A Cult? — December 2025 Personal testimony spanning multiple high control spiritual environments and the clinical framework she built from surviving them.
- Spiritual Autopsy: I Don’t Take Spiritual Advice From Men – Magnolia’s Podcast. Ongoing Host. Covering Ayurvedic medicine, yoga accountability, ethical practice, and embodied wellness.
Credentials & Background
- Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist (C.A.S.) in Albuquerque, New Mexico
- 30 years teaching across multiple yoga lineages including Ashtanga, Bikram, and Satyananda | Study in India across multiple lineages
- One of 20 women worldwide certified to teach Ashtanga yoga. Certification relinquished 2017 on principle
Current Work
- Podcast: Spiritual Autopsy: I Don’t Take Spiritual Advice From Men — A course and developing framework examining the constitutional and somatic mechanics of high control group membership.
- Courses: Ethical Literacy for Yoga Teachers and Students — A course addressing the structural conditions that make yoga culture a high-risk environment for grooming and control.
- YouTube: Magnolia Sez So — Ongoing accountability series including “The Men of Ashtanga Yoga” and “Dear Mags: Honest Advice for a Culture That’s Lost the Plot.”
Available for interviews, panels, and editorial contributions. magnolia@magnoliazuniga.com