Register with the Yoga Alliance - There is a great negative side also!

"Yoga Alliance registers both individual yoga teachers and yoga teacher training programs (schools) who have complied with minimum educational standards established by the organization."

Yoga Alliance

This organization can devalue quality yoga teachers and has an effect of rendering your Yoga teacher training certificate worthless unless you also update your yoga alliance certificate.

Mark Giubarelli

Questions
Why is there a "valid until date" on your 200 hour registered certification?

Does this mean everything you have learned and were qualified for is no longer valid after this date?

The truth is once you are qualified as a 200 hour certified yoga teacher this does not change so why does yoga alliance pull the plug on your certificate after 2 years?

It is another way to continually get an income from yoga teachers? A way to continue to profit as an organization and to say your qualification means nothing unless you do not continue to pay us. They will tell you it is to encourage a continued education. But the truth is once you have completed a 200 hour course that knowledge does not just disappear.

Story of 2 highly qualified yoga teachers and their interaction with Yoga alliance.

I was all for something that came around and encouraged a better standard of training in the yoga world. So that people could not just do a short course or read a small book and decide with a deep passion that they wanted to teach and then go out the next day and teach after knowing little or nothing about the subject, which was what was happening in many different ways, so naturally when the Yoga Alliance was formed many people were very happy including myself.

I was asked to work for a small not very busy yoga studio in about 2005. It wasn't very nice, nothing special and not important to me. They were the first ones to ask me for a 200 hour Yoga alliance certification.

By this time I had taught some 4000 yoga classes all in professional environments where professional conduct, mistakes and injuries would not have gone unnoticed. Before this I had practiced for 2 years, as the old scriptures in yoga had stated, with my Guru Yogi Ramesh Padney.

Guru Yogi Ramesh Padney had taught all his life in India and in the US with many great teachers such as B.K.S Iyengar and more. One of the true yoga practitioners and Gurus in this day and age. All he did was teach Yoga and live Yoga which I had observed while under his guidance. He had done Yoga since the age of 4 and was now in his 50's.

It wasn't my intention to teach but naturally I had to fill in for him every time he couldn't teach. Each time I would have a line of people at the end of class asking me where I taught yoga to which I replied, "nowhere I enjoy practicing too much".

In 1999 I left Los Angeles where I had faithfully studied under my Guru and run a mortgage company which sickened me with all the greed I had observed around me, something that has likely contributed to this terrible economic situation in America.

I went to Denver where I could find no other job but teaching yoga. There were few teachers that taught in the way Guru Yoga Ramesh had taught me and there was a great interest in the style of flow. Thousands and thousands of yoga classes passed in which my skills were polished and my delivery of the message of yoga became sound and complete. It was about then that Yoga Alliance was beginning to build momentum even though it was formed in 1999.

So it was in this little Yoga studio that was just forming that had asked for a Yoga alliance 200 hour certification. I was always happy to get various certificates that people had requested so that small hurdles in the way of teaching Yoga could be overcome.

Here is what I submitted to them.

Proof of 2 years learning under a Guru.

Proof of 4000 classes taught.

Proof of work Published. But wait you got to see this.

This included designing and publishing one of the biggest yoga posture resources in the world. Time to do so about 1500 hours. CLICK TO VIEW

Publishing all of Patanjalis yoga sutras and chanting them so that others could listen to them and know how to pronounce them correctly (all are available for free to download). Time taken to do this at least 800 hours.

These were just a few of the things I had done for the world of yoga. I had been hired by one of the largest health clubs in the world to help construct a safe and professional yoga program. 600 HOURS at least. I had taken various short courses in Yoga and had certificates, completed a DVD, completed Safety courses in group exercise environments and all kinds of trainings that are well worth mentioning if I didn't want to bore you to death..

So what did the Yoga alliance award me? Their 500 hour certification? Perhaps.

No? I did not meet the 500 Hour Standards for Yoga Alliance. Perhaps they were not the best at math. After all it had taken probably longer than this to learn to chant the first chapter of the yoga sutras (there are 4).

Maybe they just didn't want to award you for outstanding inspirational work. Then again there is this mission statement on their site.

"Our mission is to lead the yoga community, set standards, foster integrity, provide resources, and uphold the teachings of yoga."

Their advanced training statements for a 500 hour certification needs.

• assures that all RYTs continue to strive for an ever-higher level of understanding of yoga and its spiritual tradition;
• refines teaching skills; "I had taught 4000 classes when applying"
• offers inspiration for teachers to pass on to their students by maintaining the creative edge in their own practice and teaching; "My work on Meditation, Pranayama, Yoga Sutras, Vinyasa, and postures. "
• advances each teacher's training as a professional. 10 teacher training taught. Some of these teachers were now members of the yoga Alliance doing their own teacher trainings it had been so long ago. Many have their own studios.

This is what I was awarded....

A 200 hour certification. I was confused. After all I had committed so many hours to yoga classes and literature. I only wanted the certification so that I could get over a little hurdle and teach in a little studio just starting up. Not many people would have even showed up for class anyway and I had so many Yoga related jobs I didn't really even need the job.

I had encouraged my Guru to do the same since I was sure he would qualify for their Grandfather certification where someone has taught more that 5000 hours before they formed. (Which he had done with ease.)

The response from the Yoga Alliance made me very sad for here was a proper Guru and life long yoga teacher with well over 5000 hours teaching, publishing, writing and more in the art of Hatha yoga.

What do you think they awarded him?

5000 hours grandfather teaching. Which I had assumed he would have been granted.
No!

500 hours qualified teacher.
No! mmm maybe math problems again.

200 HOURS QUALIFIED TEACHER. Oh my God!

I asked him if he filled out the forms correctly. What could have caused such harsh treatment?

To this day I don't know but my guess is he just didn't have proof of his past of wasn't able to state it well since English was his second language...Like always he didn't seem bothered, in fact nothing bothered him.

A sad feeling was left in my heart. Who was this self stated governing body that had suddenly decided to be the judge of all teachers and why was it suddenly growing in popularity?

A year later everybody was asking for those certifications. Every teacher training had to be submitted and revised by them. Every door you walked in was stamped with a demand for their certification.

So those that didn't choose to pay the Yoga Alliance were alienated. They were discriminated against. I shouldn't have cared because I had my 200 hour certification after all. That was all I needed to get over these imaginary hurdles tripping those who had chosen not to side with the yoga trends and fashions of certification.

I saw more and more quality teachers and programs either giving in and going with them or being devalued for the simple fact that they did not register their skills and experience that would only be partially recognized by them anyway.

I became more sad at this organization which was profiting from causing a devaluing of quality teachers and programs in their heart felt mission of making the world a safer and more qualified place for yoga. Which is a great cause.

Many places I had taught had asked me to do teacher trainings. I always declined because I could not be bothered putting in the 40 hours or more time it takes to give the yoga alliance the paper work they needed and to sculpt the text in a way that conformed with their views and perceptions of what a teacher training should be.

When it was time for me to renew I declined. No thanks! and now I am condemned as a lesser yoga teacher as a result. lol

I burned my outdated Yoga Alliance Certification while performing an ancient yoga puja curse.

For this hurdle was becoming a wall discriminating against all who didn't pay the fees to be judged.

A lot of good Yoga teachers and programs have been devalued and alienated as a result.

If you are a beginning yoga teacher it is a good idea to get the certification as it will get you in the door. It is worth the extra effort if your starting your new career but if you have been teaching for years or training teachers think twice about signing up or renewing. You may be damaging the movement more than helping it. What happened to having the information stating all the information you covered in your training. Those days have gone and it has been crumpled into a certification by an organization.

An organization that promotes discrimination in the yoga world. For if you are not with them doors will be shut in your face. Unless you have a great reputation as a teacher in which case nothing will stop you.

So Guru Yogi Ramesh who has been practicing every day for over forty years had been categorized as having the same experience as someone who had just started doing yoga and completed a 200 hour teacher training.

As for me I will always be immune to their influence and judgment in this virtual world.

Yoga alliance website ----- Guru Yogi Ramesh