Most yoga teachers have done more than a few professional development courses. A 20-hour module here, a 50-hour immersion there. Trauma-informed Yoga, Yin, Restorative, Sequencing workshops. Sound familiar?
And yet, despite the stack of certificates, many yoga teachers still feel like they don’t have enough skills.
If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Many experienced Yoga teachers find themselves on a kind of professional treadmill: constantly learning, constantly teaching – but not really getting anywhere new. The work can start to feel repetitive. You know there’s more to Yoga than teaching another class with a creative new twist. But what is that “more”?
Over the past few decades, I have talked to thousands of yoga teachers at every stage of their yoga teaching journey – from recently graduated teachers to yoga teachers with decades of experience.
I have found that in spite of all the training they have done and all the certificates they have earned, that they often still lack confidence in their ability to teach students with a range of ages, abilities, injuries and health conditions.
I speak to yoga teachers who are struggling with their yoga teaching because they –
- Want to work therapeutically
- Work one to one
- Help people with health conditions
- Work in clinical settings.
But they feel out of their depth. They may be afraid of causing harm or suffering from imposter syndrome. They want to be confident to help students with challenging health conditions.
Short training courses don’t generally equip you with these skills.
The Illusion of Progress
There has been an explosion in Continuing Professional Development courses for yoga teachers. The post covid world has led to increased accessibility via online platforms. Yoga teacher trainers, with varying degrees of expertise, the world over are offering ongoing professional development courses online. Yoga teachers are spoilt for choice. It is exciting! Yoga teachers love to learn. Some Yoga teachers are driven to keep learning as they feel that they don’t know enough.
Short courses promise new tools, niche skills, and clever techniques. And while they might be interesting or even helpful in the short term, they rarely create real transformation for yoga teachers or their students.
In addition, often short continuing professional development courses don’t properly assess the new skills yoga teachers are learning. So after the training, the yoga teacher tries to apply and integrate the new skills into their work but they can find it challenging, especially if there is nowhere to turn to for ongoing support.
During our yoga therapy training, we find many of our trainees have undertaken a variety of yoga training courses but the learning from these courses isn’t always integrated into their teaching.
Sue Livingston, one of our experienced yoga therapy educators, has a background in education. She observed, “When learning new skills the students’ need repetition to make the learning ‘stick.’ They also need to link the new knowledge to existing knowledge.”
I often talk to yoga teachers who feel frustrated because they have spent so much time and money doing further training but in spite of this, they still lack real skills to help their students.
Why? Because these courses are usually designed to add more content, not more depth.
They teach another style of yoga or another creative sequence.
Most yoga teachers don’t need more tools. They don’t need to accumulate more teaching styles or more sequences. No amount of Yin, restorative or trauma informed training is going to teach them the skills they need.
What they need is a comprehensive course that provides more depth. They need training that integrates the new skills and knowledge into their work. As Sue Livingston observes, “New knowledge dissipates unless you use it. The application of the skills is what makes the learning stick.”
This is where Yoga therapy training comes in.
The Value of Depth Over Quantity
Yoga therapy isn’t just “more training” – it’s a different paradigm. It goes beyond adding another tool to the tool kit. Yoga therapy offers an entirely new way of sharing the benefits of Yoga while staying true to the way Yoga was originally taught.
It trains you to individualise for the client’s needs. You’re not just leading a class – you’re collaborating with a client to support long-term transformation in their health and wellbeing.
Throughout our Accredited Yoga Therapy Certification students apply the new skills and practice them repeatedly throughout the course. Trainees build on the foundational skills they learn in the earlier modules. Once they complete the training, they have access to ongoing mentoring with the faculty.
For Yoga teachers who want more impact, more confidence, and a more sustainable career, this depth is where everything changes.
Instead of spending more time and money on short continuing professional development courses, consider investing in a comprehensive accredited yoga therapy training. This is a faster pathway to a better outcome. Yoga therapy training leads to a more sustainable and meaningful career as a yoga teacher.
Invest time and money where it will truly make a difference to your yoga teaching career.
Sure it seems like yoga therapy training is a big investment of time and money. It might seem easier to do another 50 hour training or short course. I get it. But consider are you really getting value out of all these training courses? Evaluate the training you have done and see if you have been able to integrate the new skills into your work. Are you one step closer to being able to help students with injuries and illnesses, work one to one or to having the confidence to work in a clinical setting?
Most short yoga training courses are designed to offer more content and more breadth to your training. They are not designed to offer more depth.
If you want more confidence, to help students with challenging health conditions and injuries safely and effectively, and you want to gain confidence to work in clinical settings, consider yoga therapy training instead.
Even if you don’t want to work as a yoga therapist and you prefer to teach yoga classes, yoga therapy training will help you become a better yoga teacher.
Victoria Sutton is a Yoga Therapy Institute graduate. She says, “Since completing yoga therapy training, my confidence has increased so much as a teacher, but in a really humble way. I feel very at home in any class environment, no matter how many students there are and no matter what they present with.”
The Bottom Line
You don’t need another 50 hour training course. You need a path forward.
If it feels like there’s something missing, it’s probably not because you haven’t done enough training. Instead, you may be ready for the next level – one that offers both personal fulfilment and professional evolution.
Is Yoga Therapy your next step?
It might be the training that changes everything.
Find out more HERE>
Author:
Trina Bawden-Smith is the founder and director of the Yoga Therapy Institute, which has trained over 420 Yoga therapists. She has been overseeing the development of the Yoga Therapy Institute’s Accredited Yoga Therapy Certification since 2012, has conducted 8 Yoga therapy conferences and directed numerous professional development programs for Yoga therapists and Yoga teachers since 2003.