Yoga Alliance

A non-profit organization, Yoga Alliance maintains a nationwide Yoga Teacher's Registry to promote and recognize trained yoga teachers and meets their standards. Yoga teachers who are registered with the organization are authorized to make use of the "RYT" (Registered Yoga Teacher) initials, or the "E-RYT" (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher) for those teachers who have significant experience in teaching yoga besides training.

The Yoga Alliance also issues logos or registry marks for registered teachers that they can use with resumes, business, or advertising endeavors. It also upholds a Registry of Yoga Schools to distinguish training programs of yoga teachers that have as a minimum two-hundred to five-hundred hours of training. Schools that are registered are likewise allowed to use "RYS" (Registered Yoga School) initials, as well as receive registry marks and certificates of registration. The registered schools (RYS) graduates are automatically qualified to register with the organization as RYT's.

The Yoga Alliance's registries are promoted and advertised to the public, organizations who review the credentials of yoga teachers such as health insurance, hospitals, and governmental organizations, as well as organizations that hire yoga teachers such as athletic clubs, Park and recreation Departments, and YMCA's.

The organization registers both training programs for yoga teachers (schools) and individual yoga teachers, who have met the minimum educational standards recognized by the Yoga Alliance. Its vision is to support the yoga teachers and yoga's integrity and diversity. The organization's mission is to set standards, provide resources, foster integrity, preserve the yoga teachings, and lead the yoga community.

The Yoga Alliance was created through a 1999 merger with Unity of Yoga, a group which sponsored and organized international and national yoga conferences from 1982 till 1995, and the Ad Hoc Yoga Alliance. In September of 1999, the newly founded Yoga Alliance established its nationwide Yoga Teacher's Registry, promoting and recognizing training that met their minimum standards of training. In 2005, the organization began to recognize and register yoga teachers with noteworthy training experience aside from training.

The Yoga Alliance also supports Yoga Day in the United States, which is a yearly national yoga celebration created by yoga schools, studios, and teachers. Although the organization does not claim to represent yoga in the US, they do represent their members and support every yoga teacher, whether they are registered or not with the organization. The Yoga Alliance has upheld the vocation of yoga teaching, as well as offered a good approach for yoga teachers to preserve the depth of their chosen profession.