Policies Yoga Teacher Training
Code of Conduct – Purpose Statement
The purpose of our Code of Conduct is to help our teachers serve in their purest spirit and to protect our students and community.
Code of Conduct – Financial Practices
Teachers will discuss all fees and financial arrangements in a straightforward professional manner. Teachers will manage their business affairs according to recognised standard business and accounting practices. Teachers are encouraged to render services to individual or groups in need without regard to financial remuneration. Teachers will neither receive nor pay a commission for referral of a student.
Code of Conduct – Professional Growth and Continuing Education
Teachers shall maintain the integrity, competency, and high standards of the yoga profession by continuously striving to improve their skills through keeping current in new developments in yoga practice and by participating in continuing educational programs.
Code of Conduct – Teacher-Student Relationships
Teachers shall demonstrate high regard for the moral, social, and religious standards of their students. Teachers shall avoid imposing their personal beliefs on their students, although they may express them when appropriate in the class and in a sensitive and careful manner.
Teachers recognise the trust placed in them by students and the unique power of the student-teacher relationship. Teachers shall avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of students. Teachers shall avoid dual relationships with students (e.g. business, close personal or sexual relationships) that may impair their judgment, compromise the integrity of the teachings and/or use the relationship for their personal gain. Teachers shall not engage in harassment, abusive words or actions, or exploit students.
Teachers recognise that the teacher-student relationship involves a power imbalance and shall exercise caution if the teacher chooses to get into a personal relationship with a student.
Code of Conduct – Integrity
Teachers shall commit to the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. Teachers shall ensure that their behaviour does not give even the appearance of professional impropriety. Any actions which may benefit the teacher to the detriment of the yoga community, or an individual student must be avoided to not erode the public trust in the integrity of yoga. Teachers shall dedicate themselves to studying, teaching, and promoting the art, science and philosophy of yoga and to maintaining high standards of professional competence and integrity.
Code of Conduct – Scope of Practice
Teachers shall not abandon or neglect their students. If teachers are unable (or unwilling for appropriate reasons) to provide professional help or continue a professional relationship, they should make every reasonable effort to arrange for instruction for that student with another teacher. Teachers should avoid giving any personal advice concerning a student’s personal life. Teachers shall not give medical advice. Teachers shall not prescribe a treatment or suggest rejecting a physician’s advice. Teachers shall refer their students to medical doctors or complimentary licensed professionals when appropriate.
Code of Conduct – Confidential Information
Teachers shall keep all personal information disclosed by their students or clients strictly confidential. A teacher who receives personal information from a student or client may not disclose such information unless it obtains the written consent of the student or client. All discussions among teachers concerning students or clients shall be conducted in secure, non-public environments.
Code of Conduct – Inter-Professional Relationships
Teachers are part of the well-being community and should strive to develop and maintain relationships within the community for the benefit of their students and their own professional development. Teachers shall practice tolerance toward other teachers, schools, and traditions. Teachers shall not undermine a student’s trust in teachings they have received from other traditions, schools or teachers by criticising such teachings without reasonable cause. If a teacher hears such criticism being made by students or colleagues, he or she must act with the utmost discretion and professionalism in voicing their view on the matter.
Code of Conduct – Advertising and Public Communications
A teacher shall accurately represent his or her professional qualifications and certifications along with his or her affiliations with any organisation(s). Announcements and brochures promoting classes or workshops shall describe them with accuracy and grace. These principles are designed to uphold the quality of our teachings and shall be in compliance with legal guidelines for appropriate representation of our services.
Code of Conduct – Yoga Equity
Teachers are encouraged to make yoga accessible and available to everyone.
Teachers are encouraged to create integrated accessible yoga classes where all students can practice together. Teachers are encouraged to have an awareness and a commitment to making yoga more equitable, inclusive, accessible, and diverse. This includes the ways that yoga practice can be modified to suit students with disabilities, physical challenges, chronic illness, seniors, and anyone who may not feel comfortable in a regular class. It also includes making classes welcoming to everyone and approaching students in a trauma-informed way.
Teachers are encouraged to obtain appropriate training to offer accessible yoga classes.
Anti-Harassment
We do not permit managers, employees, teachers, independent contractors, students, or others in the workplace to harass any other person because of age, gender (including pregnancy), race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, genetic information, or any other basis proscribed by law.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
We do not tolerate sexual harassment in our studio. Sexual harassment refers to any unwelcome sexual attention, sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and other verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature when the conduct harms the person’s employment or working environment.
Sexual Misconduct
We prohibit sexual misconduct in our studio. Sexual misconduct is any unsolicited and unwelcome sexual advance including requests for sexual favours, sexual touching, and verbal, visual, or physical conduct that creates a sexually hostile environment in a yoga class or studio. Teachers may not use sexually suggestive language (including sexual jokes and degrading comments), gestures, movements, or images in their classes, in their studios, on their websites, or in their social media platform.
Teachers should avoid making comments on their students’ appearance that could be perceived as sexually oriented or suggesting an attraction. Teachers should avoid making comments that idealise or assume a specific body type or image. If a student tells a teacher that any behaviour is unwelcome and the teacher repeats the behaviour, it may be considered harassment.
Romantic Relationships between Teachers & Students
Absolute Prohibition. Teachers shall not invite, respond to, or allow any sexual or romantic conduct with a student during the period of the teacher-student relationship. Sexual or romantic interactions that occur during the teacher-student relationship constitute sexual misconduct and are unethical. Sexual or romantic interactions detract from the goals of the teaching relationship, may exploit the vulnerability of the student, may obscure the teacher’s judgment concerning the student, may be detrimental to the student’s well-being and damage the reputation of the yoga community.
Yoga teachers must maintain professional boundaries in their relationships with students so that the best interests of the students are served. The interest of the teacher is not relevant: the art of teaching yoga is focused on serving the spiritual needs of the student. The teacher-student relationship involves an imbalance of power and any appearance that this imbalance has been exploited for the sexual purposes of the teacher is unethical. Even if the relationship is initiated by the student, it must still be avoided by the teacher.
If a teacher is becoming romantically involved with a student, the teacher should end the teaching relationship. The teacher must ensure that any behavior in dealing with students is always professional and not open to misunderstanding or misinterpretation. If a relationship begins to develop, the teacher should seek the guidance of school management.
Anti-Retaliation
We will not retaliate against any person for having reported or threatened to report harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or violations of our Code of Conduct or polices, or for participating in an investigation into any of the foregoing. Anyone who retaliates against a person will be subjected to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
We encourage any person — including employees, non-employees, and students — who believe they have been subject to retaliation to inform a supervisor or manager. We have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment or sexual misconduct. We encourage anyone who has been anyone who is subject to this behaviour to report it to the human resources department or school management. We will do everything possible to ensure that you are not retaliated against by anyone because you have reported misconduct.
Grievance
We encourage anyone who has been the subject of sexual misconduct or any other action that violates our policies and Code of Conduct to report the incident to our Ethics Committee, Human Resources department, or school management (henceforth referred to as the “reviewing body”).
The report should contain the following information:
- Your full name;
- Your email and phone number;
- The name of the person who the grievance is against;
- A description of the alleged policy violation;
- The date and location of the policy violation;
- Names and contact information of any witnesses with first-hand
- knowledge of the situation; and,
- Any other credible evidence that is available to support the grievance.
In the interest of fairness and privacy, all reports must be made by the person who has personally experienced the misconduct. We will not investigate a matter based upon a third-party report of misconduct.
All reports must be made in good faith based on information the person reporting the incident reasonably believes to be accurate. We may request additional information from the person reporting the incident throughout the course of review of the report.
We will take appropriate action to ensure compliance with our policies. The reviewing body will impose any sanctions that it feels are fair, just, and reasonable under all circumstances.
We will not allow anyone to retaliate against any person for making a report in good faith or providing information in connection with an investigation into an alleged violation.
Any information provided during a grievance report review will be treated on a confidential basis. Similarly, any actions that the taken in response to the report will also be confidential.
Tuition and Refund
Upon acceptance into the program, the applicant must pay a deposit of €1500,- to hold applicant’s place in the program. The tuition fee has to be paid in full before the program commences. Or the program and student may formulate discretionary instalments of the tuition fee.
If applicant cancels thirty (30) days or more before the start of the program, the applicant will forfeit €500,- of the deposit and the remaining balance will be refunded.
If applicant cancels 14-30 days before the start of the program, the applicant will forfeit €1500,- of the deposit and the remaining balance will be refunded.
The program tuition fees are non-refundable. If a student must withdraw from the program for special circumstances, the program may give a partial refund to the student in the exercise of its discretion.
The program will not give any refunds or credits after the training starts. The program reserves the right to cancel any training before it begins. In that case any payments applicants have made will be refunded in full.
Attendance
We require 100% attendance to graduate and receive a certificate of completion from our program. Class attendance will be taken throughout the training.
In the case of any emergency absences, please notify the program director immediately. If a student has planned absences that conflict with attendance in the program, please contact the program director to discuss options.
Each student is responsible for scheduling make-up time with the program director. Students must pay an additional cost for private make-up sessions with a teacher.
Each student is expected to be at each session 15 minutes before the start time in order to set up and so that the training may start on time. If the student is late more than 8 times, this will result in a deduction of 3 hours from their total contact hours.
A leave of absence from the program will be granted due to medical disability or other extraordinary circumstances at the discretion of the program director. In this case our refund policy will apply to unused tuition and the student must reapply for the next available session and pay the difference, if any, of any remaining tuition and/or any related administrative fees. If tuition is increased for the next available session, the student must pay the higher rate.