ON YOGA ALLIANCE 'BASHING'

I try to stay neutral on topics political (even in yoga, there's 'political').  When I write in this blog, I avoid the words 'we' (as in 'we need to'), 'you' (as in 'you should . . .'), 'us' (as in 'it isn't good for us'), etc., etc. Why?  because this is a blog about MY experience, not our experience.

And, I am still a fan (or addict) of Facebook.  I belong to several groups, many are yoga-related.  Lately, it seems that the topic of choice for peoples' blogs and comments is Yoga Alliance (YA) - its purpose, benefits provided, the value of membership; many of these are negative.  It hit one of my 'hot' buttons last night, so I decided to go public, come out of the YA closet and share 'my' opinions/feelings/comments.

In each major group of professionals (doctors, lawyers, dentists, psychologists, etc.), there is an organization that oversees and, in many cases, mandates training to call oneself such a professional.

I joined Yoga Alliance when I began teaching yoga, because - coming out of the healthcare field - I was familiar with such organizations, and I do believe that credentials that speak to the quality/quantity of training are valuable.  I also wanted to be viewed as a professional, to demonstrate to students that I had completed a body of work to be able to have the initials "RYT" behind my name.

There are many school of training to become a yoga teacher.  I have personally heard of students trekking all the way to Costa Rica in order to take a teacher training (I believe the attraction of Costa Rica was the determining factor for that person; not the quality of the training.).  Their disappointment in the CR training was palpable, and I met them as they re-took their teacher training. (That's not to say that CR trainings are all bad; it's just to make the point that there needs to be some way of discerning which trainings are worth the money to enroll in, to travel to, and to pay for housing at; because, goodness knows, teacher trainings are NOT cheap.)

As a former studio owner (for 7 years), I saw that a valuable revenue stream for studios was the ability to offer teacher trainings. It is hard to survive the world of 'studio owner' while offering public classes alone.  Workshops, trainings, events make up a great percentage of income for successful studios. In my studio, I did not offer such trainings; not because I wouldn't have liked to, it just never happened. If I had offered such trainings, I would have registered for school status with Yoga Alliance.

My point is this:  to monitor the training being provided future teachers is a valuable piece of the matrix. Schools who provide teacher trainings ought to be accountable to someone.  The only 'someone' I see doing this is Yoga Alliance.  They're not perfect, but in the relative scheme of things, they are new to the game; the others have been at this a while.

One frequently-heard argument against them is 'they just take our money'.  Well, this is the case - I assure you - for all professional monitoring groups. They can't do their job and improve the outcomes (become better) without money.

When a student arrives in class, after reading biographies on a website, I'd like them to know that I not only received a Certification from the Anusara School of Hatha Yoga, but that that school submitted their credentials to and was granted license to designate their teacher training graduates with the RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) moniker.

Rather than complain or, worse, quit -- why not get in the game?  Work to make Yoga Alliance a good thing - an organization that filters training programs, eliminating the 'lunkers' while telling students and potential yoga teachers who the 'gems' are -- the schools who have jumped through the hoops and provided documentation to attain the RYS label.  Additionally, tell students who the teachers are that attended these schools and are proud to wear the label.  (I know, this sentence contains an implied 'you'.  But, I need to say it.)  

Enough.

Hope you all have a great Friday!