Yoga teachers shape experiences that can either support healing or inadvertently cause harm—yet most yoga teacher trainings still leave graduates profoundly unprepared. In this episode, Certified by Unprepared: The Dangerous Gaps in Yoga Teacher Trainings, I sit down with my friend and colleague Michelle Lehrman to pull back the curtain on why so many YTT programs miss the mark.

Despite teaching yoga for more than 25 years, I’m asked almost daily to recommend a solid teacher training—and the truth is complicated. Programs vary dramatically, evolve constantly, and too often reinforce outdated, unsafe, or shame-based approaches. Michelle and I explore some of the most troubling patterns, including:

• Forced hands-on adjustments and the pressure to accept physical touch
• Shaming or silencing students and teachers who think or move differently
• Rigid, one-way interpretations of an ancient and inherently adaptable practice
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Michelle is a certified 200-hour and trauma-informed yoga instructor who has taught in New York City since 2016, currently at Crunch (yoga and spin), Sacred Space Astoria, Lionheart Health, and with private clients. I first met her through the Three and a Half Acres Yoga Trauma-Informed Teacher Training, where she began to unlearn harmful norms and rebuild her teaching from a place of choice, agency, and compassion.

If you’ve ever left a YTT feeling unprepared, overwhelmed, or unsure how to support students with real-world bodies and histories, you’re not alone—and there is a better way. Join my Trauma-Informed YTT this January 24th-25th. Details HERE!