Regulating Yoga
The debate about the regulation of yoga has been going on in my own mind for years, so I was unsurprised to find out the debate has gotten some media attention over the last few months.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/nyregion/11yoga.html?em
It seems that state governments, strapped for cash are looking at yoga teacher trainings as taxable trade schools. I find this comical on many levels, the least of which is that I gave up welding (a traditional trade) for yoga teaching (really not a trade, so much). On another level, I now ride the line between being an acupuncturist (highly regulated and licensed) and a yoga instructor (mostly still under the radar).
These regulations will continue and we have only ourselves to blame. For two big reasons.
One: we’re good at what we do. A survey of the NCCAOM showed that people using yoga doubled from 2002 to 2007. The same survey showed that yoga is the most used CAM therapy in America. And why not. It’s now widely available, often dumbed down to be easily accessable (even if that makes it more dangerous). This growing popularity places us more and more in the limelight which, for all professions (even those with a spiritual calling) leads to government oversight.
Two: we’ve already accepted regulation in our hubris to seem more important. We’ve largely bought into the importance of the Yoga Alliance, who has paved the way for the government to approve and regulate us as they have. Why have we done this? Ego. It makes us seem more important even if our credentials (like E-RYT-500) make no sense to most people.
Though it seems inevitable, given the facts and circumstances, I am not in favor of any regulation. It is very difficult to credential safety and quality. It seems to have done very little for acupuncturists besides allowing us to take insurance and actually making what we do legal (acupuncture was illegal in california until the late 70’s). The former being a very mixed blessing. What regulation will largely do for yoga teachers is let more people put their fingers our pot. I often read and hear about yoga being a multi-billion dollar industry. Who’s making all this money? Not myself or any of the yoga teachers I know. Also, I believe we already pay enough in Self-Employment tax and receive no government representation for this (hmmm. sounds familiar: taxation without representation.)
The only solution I can see is union. By uniting under a qualified leadership perhaps we can create a yoga climate that is lucrative, equitable, and safe for the consumer. I’m not sure who could accomplish this, but I know it’s not the people creating overpriced conferences (who stand to benefit greatly from all the CEU’s we’d need to fulfill once regulated) or the yoga alliance that has already led us blindly down the path of regulation. Perhaps a grassroots movement of everyday yogis, like me, who love yoga, the job of yoga, and the yoga people it brings.
Are you out there?
Acupunkyoga's Blog 
October 30, 2009 at 6:03 am
so you would like to trade one form of oppression (the government) for another (your own)?
November 12, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Not exactly. My point is that either we accept regulation (which may or may not be a form of oppression) from the government or the Yoga Alliance which is already actively trying to regulate yoga. Ideally there is a third option: that we could collectively regulate ourselves in a way that reflects our own professional interests.
March 24, 2010 at 11:11 pm
This blog post was really what I wrote the response to below…
Thanks –
December 13, 2009 at 10:29 am
I highly enjoyed reading this post, keep up creating such exciting stuff!!
February 4, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Hello, Thanks for these thought provoking discussions. To avoid pronounced government interferance and phoney monitoring, it might be beneficial to create a professional organization designed to establish standards of care and which has the authority to monitor it’s members by instituting periodic office visits and subsequently issuing certificates of excellence. Sooner or later the public will demand supervision of your profession and the government will be well served to allow you to contrinue a practice of quality control that you initiated yourseves.
As a health care professional myself I agree that one needs to be weary of professional organizations which ostemsibly are created to serve the public, but are really to avoid government interferance.
March 24, 2010 at 7:29 pm
I AM OUT HERE!!!
Fed up with unfulfilled promises of Yoga Alliance!
Getting ready to de-regulate my school of 8 yrs.
OM NAMA SHIVAYA!
March 24, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Hey – How do you know a self regulated governing body in yoga would be “oppressive?” That is pure speculation and not based in fact. What we have now with Yoga Alliance and the popular forms of Yoga Media are the oppressors.
Yoga Alliance has not done anything because they are a 501c3 non-profit, and the Federal restrictions are very stringent. Yoga Alliance can ONLY suggest what a yoga teacher can do (and even then they only say “obey”). In order to “do” anything, they need to be a 501c6 Non-profit.
Recently, before he resigned, Yoga Alliance, CEO R. Mark Davis had conversations with State and Federal authorities, asserting that when they start taxing the yoga teachers and studios, that the government “should” use the guidelines that Yoga Alliance has set forth.
Any type of legitimate regulation isn’t going to come from Yoga Alliance, the sooner that the body of yoga recognizes that fact, the sooner yoga can come together as one governing and legitimate force that has the ability to guide yoga into an independently focused arena. Yoga Alliance pushed their own “comply and submit to the will of the government” chiefly to promote their own selfish greed and it has totally backfired on them.
The only hope that yoga has is to disband Yoga Alliance, and start a 501c6 non-profit that has more backbone, strength and can navigate yoga into the future.
Brian Castellani
Yoganomics.net
April 6, 2010 at 2:25 am
The Y.A is a non profit. Now you propose another non profit to start over. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting the same result. No, you are correct. It is not based on “fact”..unless you see that, as a fact, many are already discontented with the Y.A., a non profit which now you propose surfaces anew and…does what, per se?
You wonder why I speculate? Learn from history, Sherlock. It’s all about learning, not reacting. Your own awareness should teach you that in your practice, if you actually do practice at all.