Another gem fro my friend J. Brown of the Abhyasa Yoga Center…
Flipping through the catalog for a big name yoga and retreat center, I was shocked to notice that they advertised their yoga teacher training programs as “Yoga Alliance Approved.” Misrepresentations like this are the dirty little secret of the yoga industry. No one really wants to admit there is no accreditation for Yoga.
Anyone who claims to be “approved,” “certified” or “licensed” by the YA is either grossly uninformed or disingenuous. The YA maintains a registry of yoga teachers and training programs. In filling out the paperwork and paying the fees, yoga teachers and training programs purport to follow a vague set of curriculum guidelines that are posted on the YA website and assume a service mark of RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) or RYS (Registered Yoga School.)
What no one ever seems to acknowledge or mention is that the YA provides no oversight whatsoever. No one checks to see if anyone is actually doing what they say. Everyone is on the “honor” system. Consequently, the registry amounts to a digital rubber stamp or paid advertising. Not to mention, the YA does not disclose what they do with the money they collect from the Yoga community.
Even if everyone is being true to their word, referring to the YA guidelines as “standards” is quite a stretch. For example, being registered at the 200 hr level is said to have 20 hours of yoga philosophy. Generally, this entails a cursory reading of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra’s and a written test, kind of like reading the chapter and answering the summary questions in my 9th grade social studies class…
I wrote two blogs on this with the same view just in case ya’ll are lookin’ for an “amen” :) The first was written before I had met IYEA: http://yogatampabay.com/why-i-am-not-yoga-alliance-certified-or-care-if-you-are/
and the second one was after: http://yogatampabay.com/on-personal-freedom/
I’d felt harmed and snookered by an E-RYT 500 teacher who seemed to drink that Kool-Aid …
As a student, “Certification” does not work for ME!
Beyond that, I will say, “No comment”
couldnt agree more. did an informal survey awhile back, toted up all the money those folks have collected world wide from individuals and schools, came to about 3.5 mil as in million. and to what end? where’s the beef? if they assumed a leading role in improving the quality of training programs in this country, then maybe we could accept their existence. but i searched their website in vain for something they did other than collect money. the word scam occurs to me, but i’d never say it out loud, tres un-yogic. at least if they’re going to establish standards, why not bring them more into line with the tradition? 100 hours of asana out of 200 total? that gives a seeming importance to a practice that it never had in the old days and simply reinforces the West’s misperception that yoga = asana. i dont know if this makes sense, but we need to take a step back to move forward now, we’ve pretty much picked as many nits as we can with asana. but they have us backed into a corner now. many prospective students nowadays believe that in order to find a gig as a teacher they need those YA initials on their resume. so they naturally gravitate toward programs marching in lock step with YA. the suggestion that you’re ready to teach yoga after “training” for 200 hours, no matter how expert the training, is ludicrous. incidentally that guy over there on the left side of this page, whats he holding up?
Thanks for the great comment, Richard. The image on the left is a drawing of me holding up my logo. It represents the movements of prana and apana towards each other.I call it “Atlas Breath.”
I am glad you are bringing this up and hope that other big names in the yoga world will contribute to the conversation. I attended the Yoga Alliance conference in Indian Wells and heard a lot of similar criticism of the organization. I am sure that you know that your book was being sold at the conference. In fact, there was a whole booth there that seemed like it represented you. Because of that, I assumed that you were supportive of Yoga Alliance.
Far from being a supporter of YA, I begged them not to even come into existence after I resigned from the ad hoc committee that came up with the standards in the first place. For more info, go to: iyea.us
My yogaanatomy.net booth at the conference was there to sell my online course to the attendees, not to support the Alliance.
and my two rupees on the subject:
http://lindasyoga.com/2011/10/06/yoga-in-omerika-what-95-buys/
p.s. unfortunately, prospective students in a TT have been scammed into believing that RYT is good, no RYT is bad. many teachers have told me that they think the YA is BS, but in order to attract students to their TT programs, they’ve joined because “are you YA registered?” is the first question out of their mouths.
when I was certified 10 yrs ago, the studio was not a YA recognized school — he later became one because he said students started asking him about it….and he was one of the first yoga studios in Chicago in the mid-80s.
What I have encountered here in Canada at least is that if you want to be hired as a yoga teacher in a studio the first thing they look for is some official body accreditation like from the YA. Even if the studio doesn’t believe in that, their hands are tied because the insurance company will ask that your teachers are accredited in order for you to insure your studio. I don’t believe a 200 hour YA certification means much but as a studio owner this has been a real difficult issue for me. I have the privilege of working with a teacher who has over 32 years of practice, has studied indepth with the likes of Iyengar and others, and continually educates herself but does not have any official “certification” despite over 20 years of teaching and a dedicated student base. This is an insurance block for the studio and even for herself should she decide to personally pursue insurance. There are others I know who are similar but come from an era and mindset that don’t believe in this YA thing. I agree with them but YA or RYT equaling insurance is an issue for studios.
Well said. I developed a 200 hour yoga alliance “approved” teacher training and as the only registered teacher at my studio was supposed to be the one to sign off. My studio co-owner decided to take all the money for herself and not pay me for my time leaving me out of the loop on our graduates. When I called to tell yoga alliance that the requirements were not being met by their supposed standards they would not even respond as they don’t really care if they are followed or not as long as the cheque is in the mail. So what is the point? Being screwed over by greed was the only thing taught in this teacher training.
I agree YA ‘standards’ leave much to be desired. But then I think the same of the UN, the legal system, and government too. In a time where anyone can call themselves a ‘yoga teacher’, some attempt to set a quality standard is better than no attempt at all. I think the more productive questions are ‘how to reform YA so that it does mean something to be registered?’ or ‘how to introduce more integrity and quality to the system – so it isn’t merely a toothless digital rubber stamping sham?’ I don’t have the answers to these questions.. but I think it’s a conversation worth having.
When I lived in Wilmington, NC, there was a yoga teacher who had her teacher training program shut down by the police. She was falsely advertising that her program qualified for RYT certification. She was told to refund the money and never run teacher training again. The other teachers at her school were the ones who notified the cops what was happening.
This woman was listed as a RYT certified teacher on the Alliance website. Several teachers in our area, including me, contacted the Alliance about their fraudulent use of their name, which was documented in police records, but the Alliance refused to take her name off the list. If people think that the registry will prevent unqualified teachers from swindling students, they need to look at the fact that this organization would not even protect their own reputation.
I think there is nothing wrong with certifications, and having a set of guidelines is important. Whether they are followed up is another thing for another time. Frankly though, I can tell the difference most times on who has and has not been through a 200 hour program.
Thank you very much for your courage to write about this. I was going to pay for the high fees to YA but now after reading this, I will rethink about it.