Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship [With CD]

This book speaks directly to the heart and soul of the yoga teacher. Where else can you find such honest anecdotes about the ethics involved with teaching yoga? This is an invaluable addition to a well-rounded yoga library.

This book is a must have for anyone who is a yoga teacher, yoga studio owner or anyone even considering becoming a yoga teacher. The advice is right on and invaluable. It will be required reading for all our teacher trainees in our teacher training program.

I have been unable to put this book down after two years teaching there is a lot that Donna talks about in this book which I have faced without the guidance and professionalism that I found in this book. It is exceptionally helpful and has helped me really think about the nature of teaching Yoga and how this impacts on the students and the world around me.

Anyone who is currently teaching yoga, or who has a desire to teach yoga, would greatly benefit from this beautifully written and most thorough work on the topic of teaching yoga. You will grow so much as a teacher and as person through these ethical inquiries. This book should be a required reading for teacher training programs. I also highly recommend all of Donna's books as well as her workshops and women's retreat. You can find her workshop schedule at www.donnafarhi.co.nz. Donna's books and workshops have been transformational. She has an amazing ability to make what were once abstract concepts become real and applicable to everyday life. Donna has touched so many lives. She has maintained the purity of yoga. Many western yoga teachers have lost this purity and it has become all about aquiring fame and fortune. Although Donna has aquired this fame, that has never been her goal. Her goal has always been to facilitate spiritual growth in her students. I am forever grateful to my beloved teacher.

When I went through my own teacher training program, the subject of ethics were only briefly touched on. Although I consider myself an ethical person, I found that once I started teaching for real, there were times where I felt unsure of how to deal with my students or other various situations. How do I deal with a studio that is unethical? What do I do if a student acts in a manner that is inappropriate? How much should I charge? How do I handle a complaint from a student in a respectful manner? How do I set a healthy boundary? "Teaching Yoga" by Donna Farhi attempts to answer these types of questions - and more. Farhi's book is thoughtful and well written. It is sprinkled throughout with verses from the Yoga Sutras as well as thought provoking "ethical inquires" that challenge the reader to explore their own feelings and ethics with various situations that other teachers have faced. Farhi covers every situation that you could think of: appropriate dress, foul language, when to send a student to another teacher, refunds, traning programs and more. I found myself recognizing situations that I have encountered and nodding in agreement with her solutions. With the abundance of new yoga teachers and aspiring teachers hitting the market, there are bound to be many with questions and issues. Although the Yoga Alliance (an organization that has "standards" for teachers and schools) claims to "support the diversity and integrity of yoga", I have found this to be untrue. There are many teacher training programs and teachers that do not practice the yamas and the niyamas - and the Yoga Alliance does nothing at all to enforce these so called "codes of conduct". In my own experience, I have been disappointed and confused by some of the people that are out there as role models in the yoga community when they are far from ethical. It is up to us as individual teachers to explore our own hearts, to truly live our yoga and guide our students in a way that is kind, compassionate, honest and positive. This book certainly has been more helpful to me than any other resource.