What a certified teacher must be able to demonstrate. Not how long they sat in a room — what they can actually do. Published in full, before you enroll, and readable by anyone deciding whether to hire you.
The standard defines what a Yoga.org certified teacher must know, produce, and demonstrate in observed teaching. It is public so candidates, reviewers, studios, and students can read the same requirements.
Your path is built from the competencies you can't yet demonstrate, you receive credit for the ones you can already meet, and certification means a named human confirmed you meet the complete standard. The standard is the product. The modules are how you get there.
Every competency below is assessed in one of three ways, marked on each line:
You are certified when every competency is met. Most candidates take about twelve weekly cycles; an experienced practitioner may take less, and someone who needs longer takes longer without penalty.
The observed competencies are assessed from a recording, not a live video call — so the class happens in your own room, on your own schedule, with your own students. Precisely:
Still being finalized with faculty: minimum class length, minimum number of students, reviewer turnaround time, and how many resubmissions are included. These are published in full before any deposit is taken — you will never be asked for money against a rule we haven't shown you.
Twelve competencies can only be met by a named faculty member watching you teach and deciding you meet the standard. They cannot be tested out of, automated, or bought. If someone tells you their certification is equivalent, ask them how many of their requirements a human being personally verified.
No to both, and you deserve a straight answer about what that means.
Yoga Alliance is a private US trade association that maintains a registry of schools and teachers who pay it annual dues. It is not a government accreditor and it does not examine individual teachers. Its 200-hour standard is a curriculum-hours framework: schools submit a syllabus showing hours allocated across categories.
We deliberately don't fit that framework, because it counts the wrong thing. But you should know the practical consequences before you enroll:
Our bet is that a published standard with named human review, that a studio owner can actually read, is worth more over time than a number that describes attendance. That's a bet, and you're entitled to weigh it. If Yoga Alliance registration is essential for your specific plan, take a registered program — that's the honest advice, even though it costs us the sale.
Version 0.1, drafted and published before faculty sign-off so it can be argued with while it still can be changed. Competencies will be added, cut, and reworded as our faculty review it. When it's approved, this page will carry the names and dates of the people who approved it, and every subsequent change will be logged here.
If you teach yoga and think something here is wrong or missing, we'd genuinely like to hear it.
