Bikram Yoga Teacher Training
Coming Fall 2023!
Our Teachers and Experience
All instructors here are part of a direct and undiluted teaching lineage in the Calcutta tradition of Bishnu Ghosh and Bikram Choudhury. Our high teaching standards include a minimum of 500 practice hours before training, 500 hours of teacher training within the lineage, and a long-term apprenticeship with our school director, who is a Level 3 teacher registered with the Original Hot Yoga Association and a senior Certified Bikram Yoga instructor (BYTT ‘04).
Our standards for accepting trainees and apprenticing teachers are the highest in the state of Michigan, ensuring that all yoga students receive detailed attention on correct techniques and approaches.
Training Programs
Once accepted as a trainee, there are several components of training, including class observations, mentorship discussions, residential/immersive training, student-teaching at BYCA, and ongoing teacher mentorship courses.
We support the following training programs as part of the complete BYCA Training and Student-Teaching process:
Bikram Yoga Teacher Training
The original Bikram Yoga teacher training run by Bikram Choudhury and senior mentoring teachers from around the world. Held at various international locations once or twice per year for 9 consecutive weeks. 500+ hours, residential.
Yoga Is Medicine OHYA-Approved Training
Our OHYA-Approved, in-house training has four components:
A) Two Pre-Training weekend immersions
B) Teacher Training Completion
C) Internship
D) Mentorship Sessions
The Pre-Training weekend immersions are open to anyone with at least 50 classes practiced and are a prerequisite for acceptance into the Teacher Training Program.
The Teacher Training Completion requires 500 practice hours prior to the start of the first date of the program.
The Internship can be completed at Yoga is Medicine or at another OHYA Member studio.
The Mentorship sessions are held during the internship period.
Ghosh’s Yoga College Therapeutic Yoga Training
For those wishing to work with students one-on-one to prescribe therapeutic exercises in the Ghosh lineage, this 3-week study is directed by Muktamala Mitra, granddaughter of Bishnu Ghosh. Held at Ghosh’s Yoga College in Calcutta, India. Residential. This course does not prepare you to lead a group class but does deepen your knowledge and understanding of therapeutic indications. Detailed program information can be found here.
Teacher Training
One of our missions at BYCA is to raise the bar for yoga teaching, in order to retain and transmit the principles of 20th century therapeutic hatha yoga to the interested public, and in order to provide the maximum benefit to every level of yoga student.
While most yoga classes and studios in North America have shifted to a mix-and-match fitness class model, we retain and educate our students in the elements of a single lineage of therapeutic hatha yoga. This requires significant dedication and investment of practice and study on the part of every teacher.
Most yoga studios in the United States hold teacher trainings as a necessary part of their bottom line, and accept any and all interested students. Many teacher trainers at these programs are relatively new teachers themselves, often having less than 5 years of practice or teaching experience. These programs allow you to pay for use of the RYT designation with Yoga Alliance.
We do not participate in this business or affiliation model, as it quickly dilutes and weakens traditional practices and creates a competitive, unsustainable situation.
Instead we endeavor to selectively invite seasoned practitioners, leaders, and disciplined practitioners to carry on the lineage to the next generations. All of our teachers exceed the minimum training standards of the Original Hot Yoga Association, which themselves far exceed those set by Yoga Alliance.
For students who want to deepen their practice, we regularly hold continuing education programs, intermediate classes, Yoga Studies Immersions, and visiting teacher workshops.
Before being invited or recommended to train and apprentice as a teacher, we require the following:
- A minimum of 2 years of consistent, mindful practice at BYCA
- Exemplary discipline and positive leadership inside and outside of the yoga room: in practice, word, care of facilities, actions, and encouragement of others
- Commitment to maintain the integrity of the Ghosh-Bikram lineage and approaches
- Commitment to support and contribute positively to the BYCA community, in word and action
- Commitment to a long-term mentorship relationship with Ann and other senior lineage teachers, for the benefit of yoga students and integrity of the practice
- If desiring to expand the community of practitioners to another school, agreement to take it to an area no less than 25 miles from BYCA, in order to bring the yoga to those who do not yet have access
