New Standards for Registered Yoga Teacher Trainers, Yoga Teachers and Yoga Schools
We begin a new chapter in the world of yoga for teachers and students as Yoga Alliance begins to implement their new standards. It is a timely follow-up to last month’s article Empowered or Overpowered, and a start toward protecting ourselves and our students. It is the first phase of educating students and teachers what is expected as ethical behavior from a yoga teacher, and teachers are expected to abide by these ethics.
Yoga Alliance now requires all registered yoga teachers and schools to abide by an Ethical Commitment. This includes taking a course in ethics and abiding by their Code of Conduct, Scope of Practice, and Equity policies.
The new standards can be reviewed here. Registered schools and teachers will all meet these new standards by February 2022. You will be able to trust then, that all Lead Trainers for teacher training programs will have their E-RYT500 certification. To become an E-RYT500 (Experienced 500 hour teacher), a teacher has a minimum of 2000 hours of teaching and four years of experience. 200 hour registered yoga teachers who lead a yoga teacher training will need to upgrade from E-RYT200 to E-RYT500 and expand their education, knowledge and skills of yoga beyond the foundations.
Are you are a Lead Trainer who needs to upgrade, or a passionate yoga instructor who wants to learn more beyond the basics? Then consider our upcoming 300 Hour Professional Yoga Teacher Training. This is being offered in four locations over these next two years.
Not everyone may be thrilled about these new standards, but they are well overdue and arrived at through a very thorough process of input from numerous sources. The new standards reflect what the majority asked for. And one of the most important result of these will be a safer environment for our teachers and students.
I believe in life-long learning! Since yoga has been my path since 1973, I can honestly say that the more I learn, the more there is to learn. Yoga is full of layers that you can only comprehend as you continue to study and practice (like it is with any science). Studying yoga and expanding our knowledge base isn’t just about meeting standards, its about our yoga journey, our life-long path in yoga.
Mugs McConnell, E-RYT500 and co-founder of SOYA, has been practicing yoga for 47 years, teaching for 42, and training yoga teachers for 25 year. She is the author of Letters from the Yoga Masters, a book rich with classical techniques and rich stories shared with her from her teacher, Dr Hari Dickman.
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