Inner Peace Town Hall re: IAYT QHP Initiative (which has just been paused)

[Michele Lawrence]

Dear Inner Peace Yoga Therapy students & alum,

If you are on social media, you are likely aware of a controversy that has been taking place regarding the IAYT’s new QHP (Qualified Health Professional) Initiative. Today, the IAYT just issued a pause on this initiative, which was needed. (See attached email below.)

In order to provide you with information on the QHP Program, I will be holding a Town Hall for Inner Peace Yoga Therapy and Sundara Yoga Therapy students/alum and faculty only. This Inner Peace Town Hall will take place on Sunday, Sept 29 at 5pm MT, the Zoom link to register is below. 

During this Inner Peace Town Hall, I will be providing you with information on what I understand about the QHP program, as well as my involvement with requesting this pause. (You can view a timeline of events that took place earlier this year, documented here.) Most importantly I will be taking your questions. 

Additionally, the IAYT is holding their own QHP Town Hall on Weds, Oct 2. Details about that are included in the attached email. i encourage you to attend both Town Halls, although I recognize that the IAYT Town Hall is taking place on Rosh Hashanah and some of our Jewish friends may not be able to attend.

I will be recording our Town Hall and will make the recording available in case you can’t attend live. Unfortunately, I likely won’t have the bandwidth to answer individual emails or hold 1:1 calls about this topic and I hope to see you on Sept 29.

Committed to supporting the future of Yoga Therapy.

Warmly,

Michele

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom meeting. 

When: Sep 29, 2024 05:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) 

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcuCorjMqGNX7dJb8ifErxDqr4tko5n94 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

[Michele Lawrence]

Looking forward to conneting today at 5 MT.

<Pausing IAYT's Foundations of Therapeutic Yoga Principles Initiative.eml>

[Michele Lawrence]

Hello all, 

I wanted to share some follow up with you. Currently, IAYT’s QHP Initiative is on pause while it is undergoing a full evaluation and review.  

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, here is the recording from Town Hall I held with Inner Peace students/faculty/alum on Sept 29. (Passcode: #M=#X5%4), which gives you insight into what the QHP Initiative is and how it came about.

And here is the recording from the Town Hall that IAYT held last Wednesday, October 2. As stated by the IAYT: The town hall format, which was structured to combine a listening session for short comments and as much Q and A as possible, did not fully align with the current needs and expectations. I would agree. The recording is available for 2 weeks, a link to the chat transcript is also available here.

Some of you may be aware that there are many conversations taking place on the Future of Yoga Therapy Facebook group about how we can move forward, as a community, to further the field of Yoga Therapy. There are many great ideas being shared, and yet not everyone (like myself) has the energy or capacity to engage fully on social media. Outside of social media, I’ll be talking with Amy Wheeler next week on my podcast to highlight the ideas that have come forth publicly and privately on how we can move our field forward with integrity into the future. I’m looking forward to that conversation!

Meanwhile, I want to remind you of some great opportunities to connect with your Inner Peace community to support each other and the profession. Katie Pine, C-IAYT and Inner Peace alum, hosts our monthly Inner Peace Sangha. She has guest speakers come to the monthly meetings and she also holds space for great conversations on how to work as a Yoga Therapist today. Next month, on November 11 @ 4:30 MT, Katie has invited me to be a guest speaker at the Sangha meeting to talk about how I’ve been utilizing grants to provide no-cost Yoga Therapy classes in my community in Durango, CO (we currently have 5 weekly grant-based classes that are 100% free to the populations they serve). I’d love to share with you how I’ve done this and how you might look locally to do the same. If you are not getting the monthly invitations to the Inner Peace Sangha and want to, please let me know and we’ll add you to the email list.

Lastly (for now), here is a free recording from a workshop we did with Laura Kupperman a couple of years ago entitled Owning your Value as a Yoga Therapist. Lots of great ideas and tips were shared on how to position yourself and get clear on your value. I hope this offers just a little inspiration.

In the coming month, I’ll be collecting and building resources like these and more to continue to support you as we move forward. I’ll also keep you apprised of any important updates as it pertains to the IAYT.

Hope you have a good weekend,

Michele

On Sep 18, 2024, at 11:52 AM, Michele Lawrence <innerpeace...@gmail.com> wrote: