My 12th year of opening my studio, and heart, to welcome participants of Sun Moon Yoga Study! Thank you to every student, teacher and visitor that has walked through the doors and into my life.

There's philosophy, ethics, politics (see RYT Facts below), but mostly, I'm old school. I believe in a time-honored approach to becoming a teacher. I intentionally do not use the words “teacher training,” in my marketing. Much more is required to making a career out of teaching yoga than a 200hour course! It can be however, a transformational first step. Sun Moon Yoga Study is a path to personal growth and self-development for mind, body and spirit. It begins with a passion that will drive you to a place you might have never been, to people you haven’t met, and to experience deep, authentic yoga experiences. Self-development experiences are the true bedrock of teaching.

Contemporary yoga, with brand name franchised studios, mass-produced teachers, standardized sequences, memorized dialogue and competitive marketing has changed the view of teacher. Studios or teachers may view classes as mechanisms for income. Individuals with minimal yoga experience decide they would like the job of yoga teacher. Having decided to teach, they seek a training to teach them WHAT to teach. They are short-changed as you can’t multi-task with yoga. There’s limited self-development when one is trying to figure out how to teach something while they are learning it.

Yoga teachers are life-long students. Embracing yoga study is a path to excellence in teaching. Sun Moon’s Yoga Study approach is to create group energy supportive of each individual’s success; then to dive deeply into yoga study. I invite you to come learn, experience, process, reflect, grow and develop yourself this Spring. Get real with yoga. It’s the first step on the true path.

Namasté, Mona

REGISTERED YOGA TEACHER TRAINING FACTS

Offered in the spirit of transparency, please email me if anything is incorrect. I will delete or correct.

• Yoga teacher training programs DO NOT provide RYT (registered yoga teacher) status for graduates. Once participants complete Yoga Alliance-approved programs they may apply for RYT by paying annual fees, and entering a voluntary business agreement with Yoga Alliance.

• Yoga Alliance, a non-profit organization (headquartered in Arlington, VA); founded in 1999, promotes minimum voluntary standards of training to teach yoga. The term “standards” refers to number of hours of instruction in required curriculum categories. YA teacher training programs fulfill a standardized curriculum.

• Sun Moon Yoga Study fulfills Yoga Alliance 200hour standards. Each program doing so offers the material with individual emphasis. Since within the yoga community, 200hours is considered a MINIMUM and not a CAREER standard of training, Sun Moon markets as a yoga-based self-development program. Consumers with a priority that their yoga training be licensed by state government are directed to Minnesota Career Licensure Schools.

• No Minnesota, or federal laws, require certification or regulation of yoga teacher’s training. There are no laws requiring individuals to pay annual fees, join non-profit organizations in order to teach yoga. All training, study and practice to teach yoga is voluntary.
  Webster’s online definition of “Voluntary”– Brought about by one’s own free choice.

• Minnesota Office of Higher Education requires 200hour Yoga Alliance approved programs marketing as “teacher training” to become State Licensed Career Schools. They pay yearly licensing fees; provide the state information (location of student records, financial records); websites are required to state in Disclosure Statement: “Licensure is not an endorsement of the institution.”

• 200hr Yoga Alliance approved programs choosing to market as “avocational,” instead of job training, are not licensed by the State as Career Schools (PDF).
  Webster’s online definition of “Avocation” – Activity engaged in outside of one’s main occupation; non-workplace activities that are true passions of life; a calling to a path of service, the arts, etc., for life enrichment.
  
  
• Sun Moon's Yoga Study prepares and inspires participants to share yoga purely avocationally as volunteers and recreationally, in schools, gyms and community education programs.