Considerations when looking for a Yoga Teacher Training Program
Over the years I have met hundreds of folks who have done Yoga Teacher Training (YTT). Some have had wonderful experiences, and some have had awful experiences - I am in both those categories at the same time! My intention in writing this is to help you find the YTT that is a fit for you so that you have a wonderful experience.
Taking a yoga teacher training program is a few things:
Transformative and life-changing
A large investment of time, energy, and money
And if you pick a program that suits your needs - AWESOME!!!
I have been offering yoga teacher training in various communities in Ontario Canada since 2007, and taking teacher training all over the world since 2003. I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of teacher trainings – some amazing, and some less so.
I would like to share with you some considerations before you embark on your journey so that you can check ALL THREE items on the list above.
1. Are you interested in building your Yoga Community?
One of many things that happens in a YTT is the building of what I call “Yoga Family”. You have this incredible transformational experience that changes your life, and the people sharing YTT with you are going through the same thing at the same time… Talk about bonding!
A question to ask yourself is – do you want to have your “Yoga Family” nearby? To be able to meet your family members for tea, dinner, or regular yoga dates? If so, find a YTT that is close to home. It’s likely the others will be from your area and it will make it easier to stay connected.
If this isn’t a priority for you, then you can consider a destination YTT – like Costa Rica, India or Bali. At destination YTTs folks from all over come together and learn, and then go their separate ways back to their lives. With today’s technology, being geographically separate doesn’t mean you can’t stay in touch. We simply seem to be able to connect more readily when we are physically closer together.
2. Can you meet the Teacher Trainer before registering?
Let’s be honest, you are signing up to spend a couple of hundred hours with your Yoga Teacher Trainer(s). It is a lot of time to spend with someone. Where you can have a conversation first to see if they resonate with you and if their approach to yoga resonates with you, it is a worthwhile investment.
We offer free information sessions for this reason. We want to give potential participants the opportunity to meet the main teacher (me - Mona), to ask questions, and to make sure the teacher training we offer is a fit for the folks who come. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that when it’s not a fit, it is disappointing to everyone – the person who signed up, the group that loses a trainee, and the trainers too.
This is Bones. He is one of my favourite co-teachers!
3. Do you want a relationship with your Yoga Teacher Trainer?
Some YTTs use a small group format. The training I run tend to have not more than 15 participants per group. I have also attended YTTs that have 80 people in the group. Both approaches work, however, higher numbers means less likelihood of you developing a personal connection with the lead trainer. In some cases, the opportunity to actually meet the trainer will not be available.
If cultivating the student-teacher relationship is important to you, you will want to find a smaller YTT where you will actually get to know the lead trainer and they can get to know you. The benefit of knowing your teacher is that they can guide your practice specifically – being able to do this requires either great intuition, or actually having the opportunity to get to know someone and their practice.
If you are looking for a mentoring-type relationship with your teacher trainer, one where you could email with any questions and continue the conversation post-training, you will need to ask about how this works. Some YTTs do not support post-training contact - Once the course is done, access to the Trainer(s) is done. In other YTTs there are mentoring packages that you can purchase or continuing education options that you can enroll in.
4. Do you plan to teach in your community after your Yoga Teacher Training?
If the answer is yes, then there is something to be said about taking your YTT in the city where you plan to teach. Our YTT includes a 3-hour session on the business of yoga where we discuss business-based logistics that you will need in order to get your yoga teaching started – everything from how much you can expect to be paid to where to get teaching insurance. It is also likely that the yoga studios in the community will have some form of relationship with local teacher trainings, which can be very helpful in terms of references and getting an actual job.
Often folks want to use their YTT as a “retreat”. I understand the need to retreat, however taking Yoga Teacher Training isn’t a cakewalk; it’s a lot of work. If a retreat is what you need, go do that. If you want to become a yoga teacher it’s important to recognize that to truly benefit you will need to be able to integrate all the teachings (concepts, ideas, philosophies) into your everyday life. The practice of Yoga (for teachers in particular) is something we live, not something we do on weekends and when we have free time.
5. What about taking an online YTT?
This is a very relevant question in our current 2023 context of life.
A bit of history for anyone who is new to YogaLand. Prior to the pandemic, there was very little Yoga online anything. Some people had platforms with pre-recorded classes, some people ran workshops online, and some international programs had components that were live-streamed online. However, for the most part, Yoga was an in-person thing. The idea of an all-online training would have been, in all honesty, scoffed at.
Then the pandemic happened. And since a lot in the landscape of YogaLand has changed… including more openness to the online format.
Personally, I think that a lot can be done in the online format with great benefit to the student. For a 200-hour YTT, do I think that everything can and should be done online? I wouldn’t go that far… I think pieces are missing in an all-online format. Do I think someone can learn everything they need to with a fully pre-recorded no-trainer contact program? Absolutely not. Here’s the deal - you don’t know what you don’t know. And if you do a training without any trainer contact, you continue to know what you don’t know and this will eventually be problematic.
It is my personal experience that having a teacher is the most valuable piece of the progress puzzle. A good teacher will help you see your blind spots (the things you don’t even know that you don’t know) and will illumine these areas so that you can know what you don’t know. This is how you will make the most progress. Your teacher isn’t necessarily your friend. Their role is not to stoke your ego, it’s to help you make progress toward your desired goals on your path. I will get off my soap box now…
Having run many in-person YTTs and a few online live-streamed YTTs, I think there is a balance to be found. Our current 200-hour YTT program has all three components:
In-person for the components that are best learned together with other humans like hands-on-adjustments and getting to practice teaching a live in-person class.
Live-streamed to add convenience and the comfort of home for components like philosophy that do need to be discussed as a group, yet in-person is not mandatory.
Pre-recorded asynchronous content for the components that require a lot of repetition (hearing, seeing, trying again and again). And pre-recorded content gets brought up, reviewed, and integrated during the in-person and live-streamed parts of the program to support a more complete understanding.
Most of the Yoga Teacher Training courses I have taken have added a multi-dimensionality to my life that I am eternally grateful for. And honestly, even the few that I did not enjoy gave me something (even if it was simply insight into my own psyche and preferences). I hope that you find the teacher training that will add richness and joy to your life. I wish you all the best on your journey.
Feel free to leave additional questions and comments below. I am happy to add to this conversation.