We have some such innovative and intelligent humans in the yoga industry space, and Michele Lawrence is one of them.

Michele is one of the original people to advocate for the pause in the 300-hour LHCP, Q-designation, from the International Association of Yoga Therapists. And she and I get into it about what we thought the IAYT was, what we hoped to see from them in the future, and where we hoped to go as a profession.
I love that we get the opportunity to talk to people who run schools for yoga therapists, so we can see what they are projecting about our industry in the future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

*It is true, most yoga therapists are not looking at hospital settings first and foremost.  Especially in the beginning, when your skillset is building the hospital doesn’t often seem like a likely place for us to land.  So why is there this focus on getting us into healthcare settings?
*Look, it is also undeniable that we seek some legitimacy within our profession.  I believe this is because in our cores we know the benefit of our work.  And it is normal and human for us to want to be taken seriously for that work.  But also…I do think that with that legitimacy leads to us making a living, if not thriving wage.  I have said this before–don’t conflate those two things.  Folks sell foot pics online for a lot of money, but it does not mean that “foot pic salesperson” is a respected profession.  Those two things are not necessarily connected.

*Portfolio careers are coming up again.  The reality of the industry as it stands right now is that you are either privileged to have another non-yoga income (a second job or a spouse, say) or you have to maintain a portfolio career.  Yoga therapists, even with our high level of training and experience, are required to do a lot of things.  A lot of us still teach yoga classes–I do, as much to test my material as anything, and we also see private clients, write, speak, train, travel, and run other businesses.  In order to make a living, many of us have to wear a lot of hats and do a lot of different kinds of work.

*OMG someone said it!!  There. Is. Enough. Work. For. Us. All.  We need to go fight for our work and spread the work amongst us.

*The IAYT has a responsibility to the professionals that it allegedly represents.  Sort of. Legally speaking, they actually have no responsibility to us, in spite of the fact they collect “membership dues” and have a “membership portal” on their website.  While they are walking like a membership organization duck, they are not legally defined that way.  Weird, huh?  

*What does member input in a yoga organization look like to you?  Other than the requisite “we are listening” posts and emails–how does an organization *Actually* listen?  What are some of your ideas?

*If the Q model goes forward, no matter what they call it, we need to call for a different model and organizational leadership to take charge of our industry.  Or, maybe we need to call for a real talk about the actual relevance of organizations in our industry.  

*Testimonials and the progress of your clients makes a difference.  Collect those if you can, because the best proof of being good at your job in this industry is when other people love your work well enough to say so, publicly. 

RESOURCES

Working In Yoga Website

Working In Yoga Newsletter

Michele’s Website