Not finding Yoga Anatomy Academy courses listed on YACEP? Here’s Why.
As the founder and primary teacher at Yoga Anatomy Academy, one question that I occasionally receive is “You aren’t listed under Yoga Alliance’s YACEP. How can your courses qualify for continuing education credits?”
This post is meant to answer that question and to explain what YACEP (“Yoga Alliance Continuing Educational Provider“) is, what it is not, and to offer a bit of interesting yoga history in the process.
YACEP is a Directory, Not a Designation
The YACEP directory was created by Yoga Alliance in July 2016, 17 years after Yoga Alliance itself was formalized (1999), and approximately 17 years after the creation of the following designations:
- RYT 200 (Registered Yoga Teacher who has completed a Yoga Alliance recognized 200 hour training program)
- E-RYT 200 (Registered Yoga Teacher who has completed a Yoga Alliance recognized 200 hour training program, 1,000+ hours of yoga teaching, and 2+ years of teaching experience).
- RYT 500 (Registered Yoga Teacher who has completed a Yoga Alliance recognized 200 hour training program)
- E-RYT 500 (Registered Yoga Teacher who has completed a Yoga Alliance recognized 200 hour training program, 1,000+ hours of yoga teaching, and 2+ years of teaching experience)
Yoga Alliance, as you likely know, is a widely recognized professional organization that created minimum standards for the profession of teaching yoga across the hugely variable yoga landscape nearly 3 decades ago.
YACEP itself is a paid directory created and monitored by Yoga Alliance.
YACEP is not a designation or a credential, like “E-RYT 500”.
“YACEP” is not a post-nominal and does not belong after someone’s name on their business card. The YACEP directory does not encompass all of the continuing education considered acceptable by Yoga Alliance.
The intention of the YACEP directory is two-part:
1) to facilitate registered yoga teachers (RYTs) of all levels in finding continuing education courses that claims to meet Yoga Alliance standards, and
2) to facilitate RYTs in documenting their continuing education.
Those are the two roles of YACEP.
What are the requirements to offer Continuing Education to Yoga Alliance members?
If a registered yoga teacher has completed the second level of Yoga Alliance’s professional recognition tier, i.e. has earned experience (two years of teaching / 1000 hours), they are qualified to be a continuing education provider for other yoga teachers, and to register their name and / or course(s) on YACEP.
If a yoga teacher has completed the highest level of Yoga Alliance’s four tier system, E-RYT 500, they are qualified to be the lead trainer in a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School (presumably the highest form of continuing education). (According to YA’s 2025 Standards for Registered Yoga School credentials – retrieved 5/3/2026).
There is room for expertise outside of the registered yoga teacher world as well. The following is pasted directly from the Yoga Alliance website (retrieved 5/3/2026):
An individual is qualified through Yoga Alliance to offer Continuing Education (CE) if they meet one of the criteria below:
- They hold the Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP) credential
- They hold the Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT) credential
- They are a professional with significant experience and education* in a subject related to at least one of the Four Educational Categories. See related article: “What are the Educational Categories for Continuing Education?“
*Significant experience means a minimum of 500 hours of teaching in the subject, and/or the equivalent of two years of relevant experience in that subject. Significant education means having a relevant degree, certification, or equivalent. (If an individual meets the significant experience requirement, they do not need to hold a Yoga Alliance credential).
My Qualifications
As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I have professional and significant experience and education in the educational category of ‘Anatomy and Physiology’. That makes me qualified through Yoga Alliance to offer continuing education to Registered Yoga Teachers without additional registration or sign up to the directory.
Additionally, I have been eligible to be registered as “E-RYT 200” since 2003, and as “E-RYT 500” since 2013.
Why I am not listed in the YACEP Directory
I started teaching yoga in 2001, when Yoga Alliance registration was brand new. More than 10 years into teaching yoga, and a few years after completing my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in 2011, I stopped renewing my Yoga Alliance registration.
(Side note: there have always been criticisms of the value of registering or not registering with Yoga Alliance. This post is not intending to contribute to those criticisms).
Here’s the simple reason why: as someone with two careers (teaching yoga, physical therapy), I found that the costs of maintaining two professional associations on top of two kinds of continuing education were annoying. One was mandatory, so I stuck with that.
I was paying annually to renew an entirely optional yoga teacher registration, and tracking yoga continuing education (pre-YACEP – at the time I was studying with a yoga school that had much higher standards than Yoga Alliance’s standards), while also paying for a non-negotiable physical therapy license renewal and strict oversight of the continuing education required to maintain my healthcare license.
When Yoga Alliance Banned the word “Therapy”
Additionally, some time around 2013 or 2014, Yoga Alliance’s website also disallowed the words “therapy” or “therapist” from any yoga teacher profiles.
Their intention was reasonable: to make sure they were not stepping on the toes of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, which was developing a more formal registration process around that time. Additionally, they did not want to participate in the rather muddy territory of yoga teachers occasionally dispensing unqualified medical advice.
But I was no longer able to include that I was a physical therapist or a Doctor of Physical Therapy in my profile online with Yoga Alliance.
That was beyond disappointing.
So I stopped paying to be registered as an E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance. As an “E-RYT 500”, the costs were on par with my physical therapy license renewals, and I did not personally see the additional benefit. Neither did I see any meaningful oversight represented on Yoga Alliance’s registry. Registered Yoga Schools of questionable quality were popping up left and right.
My clinical doctorate and practicing physical therapy a license, held to legal standards, was rigorous, tangible, and a massive accomplishment that surpassed the scale of yoga trainings. So I leaned into it to streamline my own life.
Also: the YACEP directory simply did not exist at the time I let my Yoga Alliance registration lapse.
How Yoga Alliance Allows Professionals (in addition to E-RYTs) to Provide Continuing Education
To be clear: Yoga Alliance does recognize continuing education, whether or not the provider or the course is listed in YACEP.
Having a teacher or a course listed in YACEP is not the only way to provide continuing education compliant with Yoga Alliance standards.
The teacher must have either significant professional experience and education in the following subject areas or be an “E-RYT” either at the 200 or 500 hour level.
- Techniques, Training, and Practice
- Teaching Methodology
- Anatomy and Physiology
- Yoga Philosophy, Lifestyle, and Ethics
The ONLY distinction between an experienced registered yoga teacher or a professional with relevant experience in one of those categories not listed on YACEP vs. listed on the YACEP directory is that those not listed did not pay an extra fee to Yoga Alliance (in addition to their registration fees) in order to be listed.
YACEP registry is optional.
YACEP is a marketing mechanism.
While there is nothing wrong with the honest marketing of something that people need, it is unfortunate that this simple fact is not made more clear to the customers of yoga continuing education.
(And to digress for a moment: I also found it personally frustrating after being registered with Yoga Alliance for years and meeting the highest level of Yoga Alliance standards of teaching (E-RYT 500) that yet another fee was needed for yet another kind of recognition in YACEP (which was also available to those with much less experience and qualification)).
Holding Ourselves to a Higher Standard: Yoga Anatomy Academy’s Continuing Education Standards
Another side note: Yoga Anatomy Academy’s continuing education offerings are almost entirely provided by yoga teachers who:
- additionally have a rigorous educational background (healthcare license and degree, PhD, etc)
- are willing to use respected published scientific studies to support their teachings.
This combination is rare, and we are selective about both who we allow on our faculty, and how course content is supported by published literature. (Interested in teaching with Yoga Anatomy Academy? Read more by scrolling down to “Present with Us” here ).
How to Document Continuing Education Hours with Yoga Alliance from Courses and Providers who are not listed on YACEP
Luckly, documenting your continuing education hours with Yoga Alliance with courses and providers not listed on YACEP is easy:
- Be sure to get a certificate of completion for your course (Yoga Anatomy Academy offers certificates for all of its educational courses).
- Log on to Yoga Alliance and manually enter the trainer’s name, the school name (if relevant), the course hours, etc.
So, although extremely unlikely, if you ever have difficulty getting Yoga Alliance recognition åfter completing any of Yoga Anatomy Academy’s continuing education courses, never hesitate to reach out and we will be happy help you get credit for all hours and content you studied.
Thanks for reading! Are you registered with YACEP or Yoga Alliance? Why or why not? Feel free to share in the comments below.