Inner Divinity Yoga Blog

Q:  ”What is all this CYT and RYT stuff after yoga instructors names?”

A:  CYT stands for Certified Yoga Teacher and RYT stands for Registered Yoga Teacher.  This is a way of telling the public that the teacher has taken the “required” teacher training in order to be a safe instructor.  The idea for certification started years ago when some yoga instructors were concerned about untrained people teaching yoga to the public and risking injuring people. While this is a valid idea, it is still no guarantee that your teacher will be safe.  Many teacher training programs are hastily put together and some will even pass people through their program like a fast food restaurant.  Some programs will even accept people who have NO yoga experience.  The reason – yoga teacher training programs are extremely lucrative and a full program equals big bucks.

RYT means that you are registered with the Yoga Alliance.  What is the Yoga Alliance? It is a group of yoga teachers who are supposed to monitor other yoga teachers and make sure that ethics are “enforced”.  Do they actually do this?  In my experience, no.  There are plenty of questionable people on the Yoga Alliance roster and my opinion is that they (Yoga Alliance)  collect money and do little else.  You really can’t enforce anything in yoga nor can you truly organize it.  My question to those who want to “police” yoga is this: who is policing the police and what is the criteria to make sure those in charge are also following “ethical guidelines”?  Personally, I refuse to be a part of it.  But many beginning teachers find the lure of those little initials gives them credibility in the public’s eye (and perhaps confidence about their own abilities).

If you are searching for a yoga teacher, don’t be fooled by the those initials.  Ask the teacher about their experiences, how long they’ve been personally practicing yoga, who they’ve studied with, what their philosophy is and how they feel yoga benefits them.  Take a class in person and see if you are a good fit.  Ultimately, what matters most is how you feel about the teacher, not some fancy (or dubious) credentials.

Shanti,

Theresa

PS Although I refuse to be part of the Yoga Alliance, I do put the CYT (Certified Yoga Teacher) initials after my name (this has nothing to do with the Yoga Alliance) as a way to let those who need to see it know that I have had over 200 hours of training.  But my students usually don’t give a rip about that – all they seem to care about is getting their yoga on!  :)