Yoga Therapist Career Guide: Salary, Certification, Private Practice And Career Outlook

Transcription

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(Music)

Dan: What if healing didn't come from a prescription, but from movement, breath and mindfulness? Today we're speaking with yoga therapists to uncover what it's really like. Let's find out if this path to wellness is the best career for you. Today on Time We Discuss I want to welcome Anna Taylor and it's time to discuss what it's like working as a yoga therapist. Anna, thank you for joining me today.

Anna Taylor: You're so welcome. It's great to be here.

Dan: I know next to nothing about yoga and I know even less about yoga therapy. So this is going to be a great conversation guaranteed. So let's start at the basics. What is different between yoga and yoga therapy? How does that all work?

Anna: The premise is the same. What you're teaching is yoga, which I would say in this day and age, particularly with the advent of social media can sometimes get a little bit misinterpreted as being like a practice that's about getting really bendy and about being super fit. You know, this is sort of the way that social media often presents yoga. But yoga really is a way of meeting ourselves, of learning how to see what we are as a person, where we're out of balance and ultimately feel calmer, you know, to calm our mind, to see more clearly, to feel more our true selves. And so in a yoga class, we may well find that we get that taste of it. We go to a yoga class and we come out feeling more grounded. We come out feeling more at ease and on a subtle level, we feel like, oh, I just feel much more regulated, much more consolidated and more me. So I'd say the difference is people often go to a yoga class because they want to do yoga. And of course they want to feel better, which is why we often go to yoga. But yoga therapy is a much more tailored approach. So I even have clients who don't really think I really want to practice yoga. They think I want to feel better. I've got this condition and actually I'm not feeling very good in myself. And how can I manage this condition or how can I feel more well within living with this condition? Whether that condition is physical, like having back pain, and then it might be what practices can I be given to help manage my back pain? Or whether it's emotional, like I'm feeling anxious or I'm feeling depressed and how can I use yoga to help me manage those difficulties? And I think what I love about yoga and yoga therapy is it's recognition that we're not just a body, we're not just a head, you know, we're not just a mind. It all interrelates. And we know if we've got back pain, we can feel pretty down. And if we're feeling low in our mind, it can often impact how we feel in our body. So this is where we love people calm and it's like, okay, let's look at who you are. Let's look at how this condition is playing out in you, how it's impacting your life. And then how can I fail or make a practice with you that you can take home and do on your own?

Dan: When you're working with someone in this capacity, do you typically see the same person for a period of time over, say, days or weeks or months or whatever? Or is it more like it's it's typically only for three weeks and then they kind of have the skills they need to do it all their own. What is that part of it like?

Anna: Yeah, I mean, I would say it varies from person to person. Generally, like with any therapy, you get better results if you work with somebody over a consistent period of time. That said, I have worked with some people who have had lower back pain and they've had one session, gone off, done their practice. Like five years later, I keep getting messages from this one lady I'm thinking of, keep doing your practice, keep sorting out my back, you know, job done, she's happy. But for a lot of people coming like every week, maybe initially, every month, maybe after a few weeks. And what I love about it is it's more I'm trying to give people agency to look after themselves. So I don't necessarily work with somebody for three years or ongoing. It can be more a case of working with people for a period of months or weeks and then saying, OK, let's now you take these practices out with you.

Dan: Talk to me about the education that goes along with this. Do you have to go and get a four year degree in like exercise science or something like that? Or is it certification? Talk to me about the education component.

Anna: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think there are different routes into yoga therapy. Largely you would need to train as a yoga teacher, which makes sense initially. So I trained as a yoga teacher and I did various sort of modules and components that had much more of a therapeutic context. And that that consolidates to me. This is the area that I want to go into. And then I did a yoga therapy diploma, you know, a very detailed diploma about how to work with people with different health conditions, how to hold space for people, because obviously everybody's different. So you can have somebody with exactly the same health condition, but one size doesn't fit all. So it's all this toolbox that you gather. So I did a yoga therapy diploma with an organization called Yoga Campus in the UK. Largely that's the route. You train as a yoga teacher, you have a few years of experience as a yoga teacher, and then go on to train as a yoga therapist. I know that there are some schools where you can actually be a psychotherapist. So you can come through the psychotherapy route where you are a psychotherapist, but then you train as a yoga therapist and it adds the yoga component to your skill sets. It's a different routes in.

Dan: Now, what are the hours typically like for someone that is a yoga therapist or a yoga teacher? I mean, is it possible you can be doing this for eight hours a day or is it, oh, no, no, no, it's more like a four hour. What is that like?

Anna: I think like a lot of these jobs, there's two different sides. There's the public presenting side of teaching, and then there is the backend side of actually running your own business. So while you might only be seeing clients or you might only be teaching for two, three hours a day or two, three, four hours a day, there is work to be done around that. So there's time on the computer, there is time marketing, there is time answering emails. Certainly, for me, the way that I do, I teach yoga, I teach training courses, I've written a book. Lots of different modalities to what I offer, albeit in the same field of work. Funnily enough, I had a conversation with somebody this morning, I was giving a talk and they said, are you more busy or less busy than when you had a normal job? I said, in reality, I'm probably more busy. I probably work harder because it's my own business, but I really love what I do. The level of how much you choose to work, obviously, is dependent on your capacity to work, when you're available, how you want your business to be shaped. Some yoga therapists may well be working with the NHS or in a setting where they're teaching groups within organizations. I tend to see private clients, so I slot my private clients into the times that I have to see private clients. You can bend it towards your availability and your working structure. Yoga therapists, they do have these different roles, potentially, being a yoga teacher, seeing private people, running courses, running retreats.

Dan: Talk to me about more of the private clients that you have. Do you need a studio space for that? Do you go to their dwelling? Do they come to yours? Any of that, all of that. What do people typically do if they have their private clients?

Anna: Yeah, so a combination. I go to some people's houses, if that's what they prefer. I've been very lucky to have a space at home that people come to, and I see people at home. And for many people, that can feel like a peaceful space outside of their everyday setting, for a bit of a refuge to go to. If you had asked me before the pandemic whether this would work online, I would have said, I don't think so. And actually, I was so delighted to see how a very authentic therapeutic connection can be made online that still feels like you're very much in the same space as somebody. So I also work with people online, which means you're seeing people from all over the UK or further afield.

Dan: What is that like now in 2026, as far as percentage-wise? Do you see most of your people virtually, most of them in person, a healthy balance? Is there a trend with that? What are you seeing with that?

Anna: It's less around that bit. Well, this is just my personal experience. I think if you have the capacity to see somebody face-to-face, I think a lot of people really are welcoming that. But at the same time, particularly if people have got medical conditions that make it harder to leave the house, I think that the capacity to have sessions online has actually opened up a whole range of options for people that may feel only able to do it in their home, more comfortable doing it within the privacy of their own home. So for me, it's about, I don't see a trend with who comes to me. It seems to be like if someone gets referred to me and they can't see me face-to-face, then we go online and it works well. I would say if somebody has the option to go face-to-face, quite a lot of people prefer it.

Dan: Yeah, that makes complete sense. Okay. Yeah, I get that. Talking before about being a yoga instructor and then you went on to get your certification to be a yoga therapist. Does that, and I realize this is going to depend on a lot of factors, but just generally speaking, does it open a lot more doors if someone goes and gets that additional certification? Does it give them the opportunity, I mean, it's going to give them the opportunity to have more clients, of course. But I mean, generally speaking, for most people that are already yoga instructors, is that a good avenue of growth, do you think?

Anna: I think it is. I don't think it's the only avenue. For example, if you were a yoga teacher and you felt like, "I really want to work with clients who are living with cancer who are undergoing cancer treatment," I think you can go through brilliant CPD courses, which will equip you incredibly well to work with people who are living with cancer. Same goes for lots of different conditions. I know that there are many highly experienced yoga teachers who work incredibly therapeutically with their clients because of the in-depth training they've done, but they can't call themselves a yoga therapist because they haven't done an official yoga therapy training.

Dan: Okay, wow. Okay.

Anna: To call yourself a yoga therapist, and I'm accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists, you have to have fulfilled certain criteria, be trained with certain schools and met certain ethical guidelines. I think that's really good, a really good thing. But it doesn't mean that you can't access yoga teachers who are incredibly skilled and incredibly therapeutic in their fields, but they may not be called a yoga therapist.

Dan: That's really interesting going back. You talked about working with maybe cancer patients or something like that, and people who really focus on a particular niche, for lack of better words. How common is that? How many different opportunities are there for people that want to work with just these very specific individuals? What is that like?

Anna: Yeah, I think there are opportunities out there from charities and organizations that are working with particular client groups. Obviously, when you build your expertise in a certain area, then that can come both from a passion and a level of experience that this is the issue that I would enjoy supporting people with. I mean, I've found a lot of yoga therapists do end up specializing in certain areas potentially. My client group tends to be on the broader side, although a lot of my clients more are on the mental health side of things than coming because they're looking for a sports injury recovery. That's less what interests me and more. I use mindfulness and self-compassion a lot in my teaching. It's very much around nervous system regulation, stress reduction, and helping people access that ability to self-regulate when they feel thrown off.

Dan: Okay. All right. Now, sticking with starting the business or having your business, it seems like probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in starting the business from a financial perspective would be the education, the certifications, unless you need studio space as well. But talk to me about some of that. What are some of those maybe some hidden costs that go along with creating this type of business? Is it really just like any other? I mean, you're going to have your website, your marketing, of course, stuff like that. But what are some of those other things that are a little more specialized with this particular industry that people might not think of if they want to start a business like yours?

Anna: The training is a professional training, so a need to be invested in that financially. But also the challenge that comes with undertaking any in-depth training, whilst you're also trying to bring in an income, is the energy emotionally and time-wise. It's a commitment, as it should be with anything where you're training to work with vulnerable people in many ways. So the training, and then I would say the capacity to be able to see people in your own home, if you feel comfortable with that, is very helpful because obviously hiring spaces to see people is a cost. If you're working with Zoom, it's the usual Zoom online costs and the equipment that comes with doing anything online. And just updating your CPD, keeping updated in the training that you do.

Dan: I want you to go back and think about that first client you had as your own business. How did you make that transition? Were you already working for an organization in a studio? You were just an employee and you decided to do it on your own. How did you make that jump from something else to having your own business, your first client?

Anna: I mean, often as a yoga teacher, we have our own business throughout. We are a free... certainly in the UK, like I'm a freelancer. So I work for different studios, but when I started teaching yoga, I didn't work for studios. I set up my own classes, I hired spaces. People came to me. It was quite a different time. I mean, I've been teaching for 18, nearly 19 years. So this yoga studio concept wasn't such a big thing. So I just hired spaces, I ran classes, and then over time I worked in studios. Teaching private clients was an extension of classes. People start to say, "Would you teach me privately?" And be like, "Yeah, definitely." So I'd already had that notion of teaching one-to-one, but yoga therapy is different to teaching yoga one-to-one. Like I say, often one-to-one yoga is like, "Here is you. Here is how you're presenting today. What do you need? And I'm going to teach you for an hour according to what you need." Whereas yoga therapy is a bit more explorative and I would say collaborative. So me asking questions like, "Where do you feel that in your body? Like, how would you explain that feeling? Where does it sit in your body? How do you describe how it sits in your body?" There's more exploration together. And then it would be me often exploring really quite simple practices, but done with real intention. And I think this is what surprises a lot of people that it's not about big crazy shapes, you know, small but very deliberate practices with real intention to help someone therapeutically and be so powerful. So the shift came into yoga therapy was like, "Oh, this is a different way of working with clients. I'm used to working with private clients, but this is a slightly new way. It's more explorative. They're potentially opening up to me more about the layers of their life, which are a little bit more in depth. It might be talking about emotions, it might be talking about how difficult things have been." And so there's a real element of holding space for people. In some ways it wasn't any different, but there is always that like, "Oh, this, you know, I feel like I've got a responsibility to somebody who's having difficulty right now." Just as a little anecdote, I remember when I first trained as a yoga therapist, even though I'd been a yoga teacher for like eight, nine years, I had that natural imposter syndrome of like, "Oh my gosh, you know, I can't possibly call myself a yoga therapist." And there's a self-compassioned teacher called Paul Gilbert, who's, I really recommend you like he's an amazing person. And he talked about when he first qualified as a psychotherapist, having that imposter syndrome, and he decided to be the best inexperienced psychotherapist he could be. And I just loved that. I was like, "Okay, well, I don't know what my teachers know. I've done this training, but I'm going to try and be the best inexperienced yoga therapist that I could be." What I would say, I'd really like to say on this though, is that having supervision for me is essential. It's a non-negotiable. So I have a supervisor who is a psychotherapist, and she's there that when I'm working with people who are very vulnerable, maybe it's slightly outside my comfort zone, or it's quite within my comfort zone, but I just want to go, "Gosh, I'm working with this person. Can I check in?" To me as a yoga therapist, that's invaluable. Personally, I think as yoga teachers, we should also have that. Lots don't, and it can feel quite challenging to be working with people one-to-one without also being supported. So that would be, we need to be ongoing, being supported ourselves.

Dan: That's awesome. I love all that. I love having that mentor component, if you will, or that coach component that is awesome. I like that expression, being the best, I'm paraphrasing now, but the best imposter essentially that you can be. I absolutely love that. And one thing I did want to ask you, and I stumbled across this in my, and I did very, very little research because that's the way I roll over here. I came across something called somatic healing, somatic yoga, somatic movement. Is that a special type of yoga? Is that related to all the yoga therapy? Is it completely different? What is all that?

Anna: Yeah, I mean, it's a very interesting question because somatic has become quite a buzzword at the moment. So you hear like, "Oh, I'm a somatic therapist. I'm a somatic." It's like, "Well, what does that mean?" Somatic really just means the body. So in many ways, as a yoga therapist, I mean, I actually went to, I listened to somebody who was a somatic therapist or a somatic coach, and it was her terminology. And she took us through her practice and I was like, "This is what I do. This is what I do with people." So I think to a certain extent, it can be a matter of semantics. I would say with yoga therapy, we are working with the body, but we're also working with more than just the body. We're working with the mind and the heart and the spirit. When I say spirit, I know that can seem a bit woo-woo, but the way I see it is that we all have a sense of spirit. We know when our spirit is feeling uplifted, we know when our spirit is feeling deflated, the whole of us. So there are certain modalities like Feldenkrais, which are very much about somatic movement, the movement that we would take from birth upward, like movement patterns. It can mean a lot of different things. And I would say if you hear that, just check out what does that person mean by saying they are a somatic coach and maybe what are their qualifications just out of interest.

Dan: That is really, really good to know. Okay. All right. So going back to you, your job, art … uh, art therapist … [laughing] I was just editing a video for an art therapist the other day. So that's fresh in my head. [both laughing].

Anna: That's okay. [laughing]

Dan: Free plug to Sarah. I'll put a card up top and link in the description for her. When it comes to yoga therapy, I want you to think about it holistically. What is the absolute worst part of this job?

Anna: For me, marketing, I think a lot of people don't know what yoga therapy is. I don't think people don't know what it is. I would say because of what's happened with yoga in social media, when I started teaching 19 years ago, I would say, if you said to somebody the word yoga, they would say, "Oh, I think it makes you feel calm, doesn't it?" That was certainly my thing. I think if you said that's something now, they would say, "Oh, that's all about being bendy." So I would say the worst thing about being a yoga therapist is people misinterpreting what yoga is and so not understanding what yoga therapy is, how much it can support them, and maybe even feeling, "Yoga's not for me," because of what they've seen, what they perceive yoga to be.

Dan: Okay. And the other side of the coin, what is the absolute best part of this job?

Anna: The best part of this job, which I feel is such a privilege, is watching people create change in their lives, watching people come in feeling one way and to discover that they have the agency to feel calmer, to feel more connected, to reconnect with the side of themselves that they thought that they had lost. And it is just the greatest privilege to be able to witness a part for the facilitation of that.

Dan: That is really cool. And unfortunately, I am running out of time, but before I hand the floor over to you, I want to take a second and thank Bassanti for introducing us. Bassanti was in episode 70 as a yoga instructor, so everyone, please go check out that episode. The link is in the description. And this is the part of the show where I like to offer my guests the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, the cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.

Anna: Oh, thank you. That's really kind. I mean, my real passion is about supporting people, understanding how yoga, mindfulness and self-compassion can help us bring out the best in us. And certainly I wrote a book last year, which was about weaving mindfulness and compassion into yoga teaching, which is there essentially for yoga teachers to support them in teaching people more mindfully and compassionately. But I've actually had lots of everyday people buy the book and say, this book really helped me understand what mindfulness and compassion are, how they relate to yoga, what yoga really is outside of being bendy. And that is the message I would just love to spread more widely. And people can access me for the courses I do, the things I offer, my on-demand site, yeah, be kind to yourself is what I'd say.

Dan: And I absolutely love that. I absolutely love that. There was an expression that I heard once, but then it's like, be kind to yourself, there's only one you. It's something along those lines. And what you're saying just kind of rings true to that. I think that's just really, really awesome. Anna I'll make sure I get all those links from you. I'll put them in the show notes, they'll be in the description, they'll be on the website, they'll be all over the place. So when people are trying to find out information about you and your business and your book, they can easily find out all that information.

Anna: Great. It was a lovely chat to you.

Dan: Anna it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We discuss, we learned all about what it's like being a yoga therapist. So let's look at some of the highlights. For starters, if you're already a yoga teacher, moving on to be a yoga therapist seems like a pretty good option. It's just a little more schooling or certification getting, but generally speaking, it seems like it's going to open some good doors for you and an opportunity to earn some more money. So if you're already a yoga instructor, becoming a yoga therapist could be a good move. Also if you want to be a yoga therapist, it looks like you can work in a variety of places. You can work in schools, corporations, hospitals. You can have your own private practice, your own business. So there are a lot of opportunities. You can even go online. So you have the in-person component, but you also have the online component. So a lot of really great opportunities and flexibility, no pun intended, when it comes to being a yoga therapist. As with any entrepreneurship opportunity, running your own business has its own challenges. Anna talked about marketing and how that's her least favorite part of it. And you're gonna get that with any business unless you get large enough that you can outsource that to another person or an agency. So just bear in mind, if you want to do this as your own business, there are going to be those business components and you'll have to make up for your business shortcomings. And I've covered those in other episodes as well, whether it's marketing or social media or website, legal, there's all kinds of things that you'll need to learn or work with other professionals that can help you out as you run your own business. On the plus side, startup costs seem pretty negligible. You know, you have your education, your certification, if you have space already. Now if you want to utilize a studio space somewhere else, of course you're going to have to put up a cost for that. If you're doing this online, you probably already have the materials you need to at least get started. So startup costs, generally speaking, as far as other businesses go, startup costs aren't all that much, especially if you're already a yoga instructor. Now I did do a little more research when it comes to salaries, at least here in the United States. So when it comes to salaries, the average yoga therapist makes just under $60,000 a year. The lower 10% is in the low 50s and the upper 10% is above $67,000 a year, with some people reporting over $125,000 a year. So you can make decent money working as a yoga therapist, but it's going to boil down to your experience, your education, and your location. So what do you think? Some good things, some bad things? Is this the best job for you? Let's keep exploring and I'll see you next time on Time We Discuss.