These remarks are based on my 17 years as an expert witness in yoga injury cases and yoga safety advocate. This is not legal advice nor counsel because I’m not an attorney, but reflects my understanding from working with attorneys as to what they look for and utilize in either defending or prosecuting a matter. These remarks also reveal my deep biases as a “recovering manual physio” and how yoga differs, at least philosophically, from other practices.
The Hot Topic of Touch and Consent in Yoga
If there ever was a veneer of “purity” around yoga teachers and gurus in yoga’s reemergence in the 20th century, it’s now long gone in the first part of the 21st century… and “good riddance”!
So much so, that touch and consent are now very popular topics in the yoga world. I won’t be covering the sordid details here. You can easily find them online. Rather, I want to spotlight the importance of both students and yoga professionals being clear how important having high standards around touch and consent are to making yoga inclusive.
Let’s briefly look at how they influence yoga inclusivity, some points to consider in developing your own standards/boundaries, and a few take-away action steps to consider. May this fuel many deeper conversations…
Touch & Inclusion: It Matters
On the surface (pun intended), touch and consent to touch in yoga seems straightforward:
Don’t do it unless you have consent and get consent every time so everyone is safe and feels welcome… both teachers and students.
Ah, that it should be so simple. The tangle of issues beneath the simple surface declaration invites the deeper exploration of these topics that are beyond our short word count here, but need your attention:
- What were the classical power dynamics around touch and how do those compare to your current culture and experience?
- What is the intention behind the request to touch? And might there be a better, safer way to achieve the same effect?
- Has touch ever been traumatic for the student or the teacher? It matters for both.
- Given today’s emerging science around trauma and identity, and consequently the who, what, where and why of touch, there are now many layers fraught with potential to misunderstand/violate and therefore generate exclusion from yoga. Can you think of some instances?
- What about the paradox of us group primates needing/craving touch and our individual/collective history of violence by inappropriate touch? How can we resolve or safely navigate that to keep ourselves or our students welcome and included?
- Legally the issues are knotted around issues such as: Is touch by you or your teacher even legal where you live? Is it regulated and if so, how? Are you or your teacher aware of the limits? And, what might have happened in the past that is exclusionary and that generated the need for current limitations?
- Make your policies and practices known in your marketing, at your point of service, and verbally during your service. Every time.
- Seek feedback from your current clients via surveys or group discussions.
- Reach out to past clients to ask if there were issues around touch and consent that caused them to stop attending.
- Join groups and opt in to receive updates around inclusion and accessibility in yoga as the topic is very fluid.
- Do your personal practice. Self-study, explore as a community, and then reflect/meditate… over and over.
Yoga Therapy as a Creative Response to Pain
Matthew J. Taylor. Foreword by John Kepner
Supporting yoga therapists to create a programme of care for those living with chronic pain, this guide brings pain science, creativity and yoga together for the first time. It includes the emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual in its definition of pain and acknowledges there that is no simple physical ‘fix’. Read more