Discontinue IAYT-Q Pathway

As someone who has had the opportunity to attend workshops and gotten to know their dedication I support these professionals. I became a yoga instructor in 2011 in a 200 hour training which was taught by highly professional and educated instructors. These instructors had ten plus years os study and teaching. Yoga therapy is about the experience with an individual not just a set outline.

8 months ago Featured

A 300-hour program barely scratches the surface of what yoga and yoga therapy encompass. When the standard training for non-therapeutic yoga teachers is already (a short) 200-500 hours, offering a “short-cut” to yoga therapy diminishes the depth, commitment, and professional integrity required of trained yoga therapists.

I’m writing as a concerned member who believes deeply in the mission of advancing yoga therapy as a recognized health profession. The proposed QIAYT pathway has caused stress and confusion for many of us who completed the full 800-hour training and earned the C-IAYT credential. A 300-hour pathway for medical professionals minimizes the depth, rigor, and embodied learning required in yoga therapy. It also risks confusing the public, weakening the standards of our field, and creating division rather than true collaboration with healthcare providers. I respectfully ask the board to stop the Q pathway and re-evaluate this decision with full transparency and with meaningful input from credentialed yoga therapists. Our voices and the years of training we’ve invested deserve to be centered in decisions that affect the identity and future of our profession.

To move into this field of study has been and continues to be one of huge commitment in order to find the best outcomes for my clients and I undertook the this depth of training especially to try and address what I saw as confusing and conflicting aspects in this area of work. I believed that by committing to C-IYAT training I was safe guarding my clients as best I can. I'm confused at any action that seems to reduce this level of care and confused by what feels like a huge contradiction in words and actions.

strongly oppose the creation of a 300-hour training track that would allow medical professionals to obtain the C-IAYT designation. As someone who has devoted more than a decade—eleven years—to extensive study, clinical practice, personal embodiment, and mentorship within the full scope of Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda, I can say with certainty that there is no comparison between the depth of a 1,000+ hour program and a condensed 300-hour option. Yoga Therapy is not simply an adjunct modality or a collection of tools. It is a complete system of understanding the mind, body, and spirit as an integrated whole. The philosophical and experiential foundations of yoga require immersion, embodiment, and time—qualities that cannot be replicated in a short program, even for highly educated medical professionals. Approaches rooted in a reductionist or “parts-based” view of the body do not translate seamlessly into the yogic worldview, which is relational, multidimensional, and grounded in a fundamentally different understanding of human potential and healing. How can someone trained primarily through a biomedical lens fully comprehend, integrate, and apply the rich philosophy of yoga—including ethics, koshas, gunas, doshas, pranayama, meditation, subtle anatomy, and therapeutic presence—within only 300 hours of study? How will they effectively guide clients in ways that honor the lineage, preserve the integrity of the practices, and ensure that yoga therapy is delivered safely and skillfully? Beyond the philosophical and educational concerns, this proposed pathway raises serious practical and ethical implications. Those of us who have invested years—financially, academically, professionally, and personally—to earn the C-IAYT credential stand to be displaced in the job market simply because we do not hold a state-issued license, despite having far more comprehensive yoga therapy training. Creating a fast-track exclusively for licensed medical practitioners not only devalues our

I share the concerns of my colleagues on maintaining the standards of Yoga Therapy as a unique therapy steeped in Yoga tradition.

As a CIAYT with past experience working in clinical neuropsychology prior to my 200ryt, 500ryt and CIAYT credentials. I strongly oppose the IAYT-Q pathway. While our previous training and experience in biomedicine can enhance our practice and scope as a CIAYT, it is not a replacement for the necessary hours of yoga philosophy and healing presence we need (and obtain via the current 800 hour standard) to practice competently as CIAYTs and to ensure that we are practicing cultural appreciation and not appropriation.

Yoga therapy training & credentials should not be shortened for anyone.

IAYT is taking from the hard work of others, and is working in greed to earn money off of yoga, which is supposed to be sacred.

The depth of yoga therapy requires a deep level of study. If one is not committed, they should not do it. This is not western medicine.

This is unacceptable. There is a path to integrating yoga therapy into healthcare but this is not it.

The IAYT-Q pathway undercuts the existing C-IAYT standard. IAYT should throw their support to help market and improve public awareness around the C-IAYT designation rather than muddy it further with this additional, FAR less substantial certificate.

There should not be short cuts in the schooling of yoga therapy

Let’s continue to support the field of yoga therapy. Build it. Have faith in the field. Grow it. Celebrate it. Nourish it. I ❤️ yoga therapy. May she live long and flourish.

Please honor the Yoga Therapists that have put all of their financial, physical, emotional, and mental resources towards whole person health. Continuing this program not only limits our ability to successfully work in our industry and provide stability for our families, but it displays how little IAYT respects our profession.

Please cancel the 300 hour Q for al the reasons mentioned. I hold IAYT to a high standard and trust that organizational ethics will lead you to remediate ans faithfully represent your members.

Don't devalue my yoga therapy training!

Current C-IAYT (completed in 2023) MS C-IAYT E-RYT-500 EP-C

300 hr certification is at least 500 hr less than the standard. Why are we bypassing the actual profession of yoga therapy as an integrative health

The Q designation is absolutely a threat to our profession! Try empowering yoga therapists, creating a real billing code that providers can actually use, educating providers through outreach efforts, and helping to make this a viable profession versus creating more competition and confusion. It's a no brainer. I refuse to renew my IAYT membership until something is done to empower the existing yoga therapists. I've invested a lot into my education and experience and I believe in this profession, but I'm extremely disappointed by the lack of communication, transparency, and respect we were shown in this process by the governing board, especially because we were investing in you, in us, only to feel betrayed.