Yoga Alliance is the largest non-profit organization dedicated to representing the yoga community. Over 7,000 Yoga Studios and 100,000 Yoga Instructors from all over the world are registered with them and that includes us, Indian Yoga School. However, there is often misunderstanding about what Yoga Alliance is and whether or not joining is truly beneficial.

Almost every new yoga teacher wonders, “Should I join Yoga Alliance?” In this article, we examine some of the frequently raised benefits of Yoga Alliance Certification.

What Is The Yoga Alliance?

Yoga Alliance, established in the United States in 1999 as a voluntary registry for yoga teachers and yoga schools that met their standards, is a great resource for students looking for yoga teachers in their area or for those trying to locate yoga schools. Yoga instructors can also find additional Yoga Teacher Training and Continuing Education opportunities to expand their knowledge and develop their teaching niches.

Yoga Alliance promotes the protection of the yoga community from unfair or unnecessarily burdensome patents, taxation, or government regulation, and it also seeks to encourage accountability by means of a feedback system. In a nutshell, Yoga Alliance’s mission is to encourage and sustain yoga instruction that is of a consistently high standard of excellence, safety, openness, and fairness.

Joining the Yoga Alliance

Yoga instructors can join Yoga Alliance if they have paid the application fee and have completed training at a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School like India Yoga School.

In order to become a member of Yoga Alliance, yoga schools must provide Yoga Teacher Trainings that adhere to certain standards. Once accepted, Registered Yoga Schools can remain so for as long as they continue to pay the required fees.

The Benefits of Joining Yoga Alliance

  • Members of Yoga Alliance have access to a number of benefits, including inclusion in a searchable registry of yoga teachers and yoga schools, which can be helpful for new teachers just starting out.
  • Yoga Alliance hosts events for yoga teachers to encourage networking, professional development, and socialization; the YA Community is a members-only online space for yoga professionals to do the same.
  • The Yoga Alliance has been around for over twenty years, so its reputation has grown in the health and fitness world and among yoga’s more enlightened students and practitioners. Teachers of yoga may benefit from being associated with Yoga Alliance, and yoga studios may want to become Yoga Alliance-affiliated so that their students have access to the organization in the future.
  • Yoga teachers who want to run Yoga Teacher Trainings can get useful feedback from Yoga Alliance on how to structure the course and hone in on the course’s intended outcomes. Some yoga instructors who have gone this route praised the experience as a valuable opportunity to have their teaching methods evaluated by their peers.
  • Yoga Alliance also helps establish yoga as a legitimate field.
  • Yoga Alliance membership is not required to obtain liability insurance, contrary to popular belief among yoga instructors.

Also Read: A Life-Changing Yoga Retreat in India

Should You Join The Yoga Alliance?

Joining Yoga Alliance is a personal choice that should be made after careful consideration of how joining will affect your specific situation, professional trajectory, and long-term goals as a yoga teacher or yoga teacher trainer.