Code of Ethics
This code seeks to assist and support practitioners to deliver appropriate, effective services within an ethical framework.
Practitioners have a professional responsibility to be familiar with this code and to apply the guidance it contains.
Membership of Yoga Therapy Association is conditional on acceptance and adhering to this code of ethics.
Statement of Purpose
The members of Yoga Therapy Association recognise the nature of the client-therapist relationship. The Code of Ethics offers guidance in accepting the responsibility of the Yoga Therapist to treat all people with respect, dignity and equanimity, and to ensure a safe and nurturing environment. In such an environment a client can grow toward physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.
This Code seeks to assist and support Certified Yoga Therapists, trainee Yoga Therapists, faculty members and owners of Yoga Therapy training schools and other interested and relevant applicants (e.g. healthcare professionals and specialist yoga teachers) to deliver effective regulated health services within an ethical framework.
Practitioners have a duty to make the care of clients their first concern and to practise safely and effectively. Maintaining a high level of professional competence and conduct is essential for good care.
The Code contains important standards for practitioner behaviour in relation to:
Providing good care
Minimising risk
Maintaining professional performance
Defining professional best practice and ethical conduct
At a time where risk of spread of infection from the global pandemic Covid 19 impacts on all lives, a Yoga Therapist will also exercise the highest levels of protection to ensure all precautions necessary to reduce risk of infection. Underpinning this Code is the assumption that practitioners will exercise their professional judgement to deliver the best possible outcome for their clients.
Yoga Therapy Association members accept and apply the following principles:
General Principles: Professional values and qualities
While individual practitioners have their own personal beliefs and values, there are certain professional values on which all practitioners are expected to base their practice. These professional values apply to the practitioner’s conduct regardless of the setting, including in person and electronically, e.g., social media, e-health etc.
Practitioners have a duty to display a standard of behaviour that warrants the trust and respect of the community and to make the care of clients their first concern:
To adhere to the Yoga Therapy Association Code of Ethics (this document).
To practise safely and effectively. To protect and support the client in the therapeutic relationship.
To be committed to her/his own personal Sadhana (yoga practice) and the principles of the Yamas and Niyamas (Yogic attitudes and behaviours towards others and self).
In all professional matters, to maintain therapeutic procedures and practices which advance the profession.
To deal respectfully and ethically with information about clients that has been obtained in the course of the therapeutic consultation process.
To work within the regulatory requirements relating to Work Health and Safety (WHS), Duty of Care, Equal Opportunity, Freedom of Information, Confidentiality and Privacy and, in more recent times, Government laws regarding social isolation and social distancing.
To provide Yoga Therapy treatment/guidance within the scope of her/his/their skills, knowledge and competencies.
To maintain up to date professional certification in first aid at work.
To ensure CPD (continual professional development) according to the individual’s qualifications.
To practice with humanity and humility, and with no discrimination based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Professional Practices
Effective communication in all forms underpins every aspect of good practice. The Yoga Therapist is committed:
To deal ethically in relation to the charging of fees and receiving of payments for services, in accord with the Yamas and legislative requirements
To maintain and store business and client records in accordance with legislative requirements
To treat colleagues, employees and trainees in a fair and respectful manner, in accord with the Yamas, as well as legislative and industrial requirements
To operate with financial and business integrity To maintain client information in accord with accepted confidentiality and privacy guidelines (GPDR) embodies all the qualities described here and includes self-awareness and self-reflection
Client Relationships
Relationships based on openness, trust and good communication will enable practitioners to work in partnership with their clients. An important part of the practitioner–client relationship is effective communication, in all forms, including in person, written and electronic.
The duty of care to clients is to:
Treat all communications from clients with professional confidence
Treat clients in a fair and respectful manner in accord with the Yamas
Establish and maintain appropriate professional relationship boundaries, including the recognition of avoiding dual relationships that could compromise the integrity of the therapeutic relationship
Maintain the support of clients through continued provision of professional services or referral to other practitioners, when requested to do so by clients
Honestly and fairly represent the benefits of Yoga Therapy to clients
Comply with Equal Opportunity requirements, in particular to show sensitive regard for the moral, social, and religious standards of clients
Respect the trust placed in her/him/them by clients
Obtain informed consent from clients before audio and/or video tape recording or permitting third party observation of their sessions
Contribute to the efficacy and effectiveness of the healthcare system
Maintain and develop a practitioner's knowledge, skills and professional behaviour as core aspects of good practice
Minimise the risk to clients. This is a fundamental component of good practice and involves understanding and applying the key principles of risk minimisation and management to all aspects of the client experience
Managing Professional Boundaries
Professional boundaries are integral to a good practitioner–patient/client relationship. They promote good care for patients or clients and protect both parties.
Boundaries in client care are physical and emotional limits of the therapeutic relationship between the client and the Yoga Therapist. The Yoga Therapist’s responsibility is always to act in the client’s best interest and to manage the boundaries within the therapeutic relationship.
When managing the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship, the Yoga Therapist must:
Recognise that each client’s boundaries will be unique to their own experiences, including their culture, age, values or experiences of trauma
Be sensitive to the practice setting, especially when providing care in an informal environment, such as a patient’s home
Respond appropriately when a professional boundary is breached. This involves identifying the breach, correcting the inappropriate behaviour, and documenting the actions taken to address the breach in the patient’s record
Never using a professional position to establish or pursue a sexual, exploitive or otherwise inappropriate relationship with anybody under a practitioner’s care; this includes the client as well as those close to the client, such as their carer, guardian, spouse or the parent of a child patient or client
Recognising that sexual and other personal relationships with people who have previously been a practitioner’s clients are inappropriate, depending on the extent of the professional relationship and the vulnerability of a previous patient or client, and
Avoiding the expression of personal beliefs to patients or clients in ways that exploit their vulnerability or that are likely to cause them distress
Peer Relationships
To extend the ethical principles of treating all people with respect, dignity an equanimity in peer relationships:
To treat and refer to colleagues or other professionals in a respectful manner
To cooperate with colleagues and other professionals with respect to the needs of clients
To act collegially with peers with respect to the fair representation of Yoga Therapy
YTA Code of Ethics V1.0 June 2022