Yoga Training, Teacher Revival

How many people do you know who have completed a 200, 300, 500, or 800 hour yoga teacher or yoga therapist training program? My bet is more than a few. How many of those people are making a living solely through the work they do as a yoga teacher or yoga therapist? My bet is almost none. And yet, the premier offering of any respected teacher today tends to be a certificate training program. So what does this tell us? Either that both teachers and students have become complicit in exploiting the myth that certification is a first step towards career or that there are other, perhaps better, reasons that make participation in a yoga training program valuable.

There is a porous line between subtly perpetuating false assumptions about yoga teacher training and offering something authentic and transformative. Yet this is the murky zone that the yoga profession currently inhabits. For the many teachers of integrity who are genuinely in a position to be of service, whose gifts are worth every penny people spend towards them, the greatest obstacles to an honest exchange of value are conventional formats and accompanying expectations formed during a boom period that has long since ended. Fortunately, the pandemic-induced shift to online offerings has created new resources and possibilities for a much needed return to older ways and a re-imagining of yoga teacher training.

The asynchronous nature of online learning harks back to the days before standardization.

One of the unintended consequences of the migration to online yoga education is that hours-based certification has been exposed for the charade that it always has been. Anyone who has assumed the role of yoga teacher trainer likely knows the extent to which the number of hours a person spends in physical attendance is not necessarily any indication of understanding or competency. It is undeniable that there is a wide range of factors that play into where someone is in relation to yoga, and their ability to teach it effectively, that have nothing to do with fulfilling arbitrary time requirements. The once ongoing debate about whether or not online yoga learning was valid and should count as “in-person instruction” quickly evaporated when people’s livelihoods were at stake.

Now that so many have been utilizing internet technology to teach yoga for years, we can all see for ourselves that it can often be more effective than the intensive in-person sessions of the past that would sometimes last up to 8 hours a day so we could cram 200 hours into shorter periods and still be maintaining “standards.” And since online education can easily be recorded and viewed in one’s own time, requiring people to be in physical attendance at zoom video calls makes equally little sense. The result of these shifts is that people doing online yoga teacher training end up needing to take more responsibility for their own learning because “completion” no longer depends on attendance alone.

Transformative online yoga exchange requires flexible avenues of communication.

Divorced from physical spaces and larger overhead costs, those conducting yoga teacher training have greater freedom to focus more specifically on not only what but how they are communicating. Most teacher training consists of a combination of both lecture and discussion, the latter happening both in groups and individually. Embracing the “on demand” nature of the internet means identifying the material that is best delivered via recorded video and being open to any and all other forms of correspondence to facilitate the related discussions. Effective use of video conferencing, which is a skill in itself, has certainly become an essential element. However, overdependence on video conferencing can actually be counterproductive for many students who by sharing journal writing or email exchange can often lead to more in-depth learning.

One of the downfalls of hours-based standardized yoga teacher training is the loss of one-to-one relationships between teacher and student. As programs get scaled and larger groups of people are participating, it becomes increasingly impossible to have interpersonal exchange. This is particularly problematic when it comes to those online teacher trainings where there could be no limit to the capacity for attendance. Many who have purchased online training have been dismayed to feel isolated and lost in a sea of Brady Bunch video squares and a lack of any actual interaction with the teacher. Programs that limit the number of participants and set up multiple lines of communication between teacher and student make it possible for deeper connection and transformative experiences online.

The greatest obstacle to teaching yoga online is the conundrum of attempting to teach a form of embodiment through a medium that is inherently disembodied.

When everything seemed to be falling apart and so many of us were stranded in our homes, the need for a feeling of connection and community took hold in new and desperate ways. Yoga teachers and students took refuge together via zoom meetings and helped each other through an unprecedented period of isolation. Unfortunately, as time has worn on and our online worlds now exist in a strange hybrid with the remnants of what our in-person lives once were, the idea of connection and community has also become a selling point that no one can truly guarantee. No one truly believes that a video call is the same as being in the room with someone.

Fortunately, yoga is rooted in a consciousness/energy based reality that knows no bounds. And, by now, most practitioners have also had truly empowering and transformative experiences studying and practicing yoga online. We may not be in the same room but, in focusing our intentioned awareness in sync with one another, the felt experience can transcend the limitations of the medium. There is still plenty of hope for yoga teacher training to be more than just a marketing scheme and turn the liability of digital communications into a potential asset. When people are inspired to make a commitment to study yoga together, with a whole heart and a true intention, then our shared purpose taps a universal spirit in which obstacles are overcome.