Traditionally, the path to becoming a yoga teacher was to study under a teacher, a guru, to sit at their feet and practice under their guidance, to absorb their wisdom and be their apprentice until that teacher determined that the student was ready to be a teacher themselves. There was no set curriculum, no determined number of hours. The teacher passed on the wisdom of their teacher, and of their teacher before that. A lineage of ancestral wisdom carried on and on.
The global spread and proliferation of yoga, especially in the west, largely decentralized this path from student to teacher. These days the established path to becoming a yoga teacher is the completion of a 200hr training. Most 200hr teacher training programs will include aspects of history, philosophy, and anatomy. Many include some education on the subtle body, sanskrit, and some practice teaching. But the particularities and details, the assignment of hours, and the tracking of student progress can be freely determined by the school, studio, and teacher who offer the training.
There are, of course, benefits and liabilities to this freedom. Yoga, with its rich history, vast system of knowledge, and diverse traditions cannot be boiled down into 200 hours of education, and so the curriculum of any given training can vary widely from one training to another.
So what is the Foundational 200hr Yoga Teacher Training at PYP?
The 2027 PYP Foundational YTT is the 8th iteration of our 200hr yoga teacher training. Every year is a little different insofar as it is shaped by the cohort of students who participate. But our curriculum and the intentions behind that curriculum have remained consistent —to honor the history of yoga while preparing students to confidently teach contemporary postural yoga classes that integrate movement, breathwork, meditation, and philosophy.
From day one, one of the defining features of PYP’s 200hr hour YTT is our inclusion of modules like Queer and Trans Ahimsa, and teaching philosophy through a decolonial lens. We do our best to take a justice-oriented approach to developing yoga teachers, in hopes of addressing the inherent harms of white supremacy and colonialism that infiltrate our biases not just as yoga teachers, but as humans. Many of the teachers who joined the first training continue to participate every year. They are not only excellent teachers, but skilled facilitators.
Most importantly, our teachers are students who are committed to their own practice.
Where our 2027 YTT is different from our previous years is that we are including small group mentorship as a part of how some of the curriculum is delivered. Students will have opportunities to receive more dedicated attention from our teachers, to learn in smaller groups, and to study more closely together in addition to the larger format lectures, discussion, and practices.
Our training is specifically for vinyasa and hatha teaching techniques, and we hold space for the personal variations of how students bring their individual voices, personalities, and values to how they want to teach while holding standards for what we deem to be an effective, safe, and welcoming way to teach yoga in a studio environment.
We’ve been thrilled to bring some of our previous 200 hr YTT grads onto our teaching roster over the years (Hi Alyssa, Eddie, Kelsey, Natasha!) and sub list (Hi Emily, Alex, Alexa, Kalli, Rachael, Emma!). It’s part of our commitment to stay in relationship with the graduates who want to continue their teaching journey with us, to offer professional development and mentorship to them and to all of our teachers. It’s our way of honoring the teacher-student relationship. Not just churning out teachers, but staying in relationship with them.
If you think you might be interested in starting your teaching journey with PYP, check out the details here. Send us your application. Ask your questions. We’d love to chat!
Written by: Lauren Znachko
