The Yoga Regulation Fight

A week or so ago i wrote about efforts to regulate yoga teacher training and the launch of IYEA – Independent Yoga Educators of America.This is an issue that is already affecting many who offer yoga teacher training in America and the push back is being taken up in different parts of the country at a local level as well as the IYEA.

Below are extracts and links to two recent articles on this issue that are worth bringing to you attention.

From the NY Times

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ten years ago, with yoga transforming into a ubiquitous pop culture phenomenon from a niche pursuit, yoga teachers banded together to create a voluntary online registry of schools meeting new standards for training instructors.

But that list — which now includes nearly 1,000 yoga schools nationwide, many of them tiny — is being put to a use for which it was never intended. It is the key document in a crackdown that pits free-spirited yogis against lumbering state governments, which, unlike those they are trying to regulate, are not always known for their flexibility.

Citing laws that govern vocational schools, like those for hairdressers and truck drivers, regulators have begun to require licenses for yoga schools that train instructors, with all the fees, inspections and paperwork that entails. While confrontations have played out differently in different states, threats of shutdowns and fines have, in some cases, been met with accusations of power grabs and religious infringement — disputes that seem far removed from the meditative world yoga calls to mind."

From Yoga Dork

"Last Wednesday, the Yoga Association of New York (YANY) was officially ratified at its second official meeting, held at OM Yoga in Manhattan. All in attendance agreed on a working mission statement that had been meticulously combed over by member lawyers. Now the fledgling organization can go forward with incorporating—and fighting for justice for yoga studios everywhere (in New York state).

Following the meeting, on Friday, the New York Times published an article on the controversy of the state trying to license yoga teacher training programs not just in New York, but in the whole country (states such as Wisconsin and Virginia and others have targeted yoga studios as well): Yoga Faces Regulation, and Firmly Pushes Back.

The Times article presented the important angles of the issue, several key voices, and also seemingly distorted a quote from Sybil Killian of OM Yoga (taken from a private email—that caused hubbub on the listserv). But ultimately it was sympathetic. It showed yoga centers and teachers objecting to the huge new fees and lots more red tape that studios are currently facing. (really, $50,000 is nothing to sniff at when you’re a tiny business.)"

Have you been effected, can you see how you could be affected by this issue? Who will  next, meditation schools? What do you think.

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