Becoming a Yoga Professional
Yoga Australia’s competency-based curriculum spans four milestone levels of a yoga teacher’s career, from Provisional at 200 hours to Level 3 (Senior) Teacher at 1,000.
200hours
Provisional Teacher
Provisional
350hours
Registered Level 1 Teacher
Level 1
500hours
Registered Level 2 Teacher
Level 2
1000hours
Registered Level 3 (Senior) Teacher
Level 3
Specialisations
Provisional members may train and be assessed, and their competencies bank toward future upgrades. Badge and directory listing awarded only when teachers reach Level 1 or beyond.
Yoga Therapy
650 hours · from Level 1
Yoga Therapy is the personalised application of yoga to health, wellbeing, and participation in life. A Yoga Therapist tailors practice to the person and cultivates self-awareness, self-regulation, resilience, and the innate capacity for healing.
Mentoring
Level 3 (Senior)
Mentoring is a modern word gesturing toward the yogic tradition of guru-śisya. A Registered Mentor is a Level 3 Senior Member who shares wisdom and experience through clear goals, development plans, and teaching observation.
Private Health
Level 2 and above
Private health insurance in Australia recognises yoga as a natural therapy. A Private Health Approved Provider is a Level 2 or Level 3 teacher whose sessions are claimed against the student’s private health cover.
Meditation
100 hours · from Level 1
Meditation is active contemplative practice within a yogic framework oriented toward enhanced concentration and expanded awareness. A Meditation Teacher is informed by an established personal practice and introduces meditation gradually to prepared students.
Prānāyāma
100 hours · from Level 1
Prānāyāma is the expansion of the life force, the practice of growing the breath long and the person large. A Prānāyāma Teacher teaches it as a graduated developmental practice paced to the individual student.
Prenatal
85 hours · from Level 1
Prenatal yoga adapts practice to a changing body through pregnancy, birth, and the return to practice. A Prenatal Yoga Teacher paces practice to what the body can do at each stage.
Kids Yoga
95 hours · from Level 1
Children’s yoga is tailored to be age-appropriate and stage-aligned. A Children’s Yoga Teacher is a skilled and qualified professional whose classes for children and teens are safe and engaging.
Curriculum
The practices a teacher delivers are traceable to Indic yogic tradition, actively undertaken by the student, and oriented toward expanded awareness.
The curriculum accommodates every lineage and modality by design. Its language is deliberately general, so a school teaching Vedic chanting, bhakti yoga, yoga nidrā, or practices from the Upaniṣads can develop a recognised qualification under the framework as readily as a school teaching power vinyāsa in a heated room. The competencies measure what a graduate can do and what they understand, and they are agnostic on style.
Above the curriculum sits the levelling system, tracing a teaching career the way paramparā does, through accumulation.
Come with your 200 hours
The framework is more nuanced and more elaborate than the 200-hour model promoted internationally, and it stays fully compatible with that model, so a teacher trained anywhere in the world can enter and climb.
If you trained outside a Yoga Australia registered course, your training can still be recognised through a curriculum review at application. Your level reflects your training, practice and teaching experience. Recognition of Prior Learning is assessed with supporting documentation.
