Should teachers adjust students in Yin Yoga classes?

Check this forum for suggestions on Yin Yoga flows, sequences and postures, as well as HOW to practice Yin Yoga.
Post Reply
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Should teachers adjust students in Yin Yoga classes?

Post by Bernie »

Recently I received the following question re doing adjustments on students while in a Yin Yoga class:
  • I did Yin training and I teach Yin on a regular basis. Personally, I never do hands-on adjustments in Yin because it doesn’t feel safe to me, but I’m wondering what your opinion is about this. If the muscles have been softened and released, the joints will obviously be vulnerable, so I feel that hands-on adjustments could be quite dangerous. Plus, I love the meditative aspect of a Yin practice and if I’m walking around touching people, I think it takes them out of their meditative Yin space and into their Yang mind. Not only that, but many students will tense their muscles when they are touched, so they’re moving into Yang and out of Yin. Someone adjusted me in caterpillar once and I nearly screamed. I really love the paschimottanasa adjustment in Yang yoga, but, to me, it feels unsafe to be forcing someone deeper into a Yin pose when it should be a passive stretch. Personally, I also think that students should be feeling their poses and finding their edge on their own – their pose may not look like someone else’s pose, but maybe that’s where they’ve found their edge. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, is my intuition correct?


Never is never right and always is always wrong. So, is it correct to say we should always adjust students in a Yin Yoga class? I would say “no" - there are many reasons to not adjust students while they are in a yin posture, and you listed many of those reasons quite articulately. Should we never adjust people, however? I would again say “no”. Many teachers are also yoga therapists or massage therapists and know very well how to apply external pressure to a body in a safe, nurturing way. To say we should never be adjusted in a yoga class is akin to saying we should never get a massage. However, massage therapists work one-on-one with their clients and in a yoga class setting that is hard to emulate. It might be taken amiss by some students if they saw other students getting nice massaging adjustments but they did not get one themselves. In a small class, as often found in a yoga therapy class, it may be possible to attend equally to every student, but this may not be possible in a class of 10 or more students.

I stopped doing adjustment in my yoga classes for several reasons: 1) the classes are too large to be able to give equal attention to every student; 2) My X-ray glasses have broken and I do not know what the condition of my student’s body is --- the wrong adjustment may be quite dangerous for some students; 3) I realized that my intention for the students is not to get them to some magical or aesthetically pleasing posture, but rather to invite them to reach the place where they have appropriate sensations in the targeted areas. Occasionally, when a student is not feeling the pose as deeply as he/she would like, I may lay a hand on them and invite them to move into my hand by saying “push here,” but I refrain from pushing them myself. My touch is more directive than compelling. They push me, I don’t push them. And even then, I do not do this at all in Yin Yoga classes, only in Hatha (yang) classes. In Yin, the approach is allowing, not forcing. Allow the body to open with time. No need to rush or force.

Having said all that, who doesn’t like it when a gentle, sensitive and experienced yoga teacher presses down on our sacrum in Child’s Pose? It can feel heavenly. Of course we can use props and sandbags to also help us get a little more sensation than we can reach by ourselves, and that is okay as long as the student is in control and is monitoring how much sensation she/he is experiencing and if it is the right kind of sensation. As always, it comes down to intention: yours and your students.

If you do offer adjustments, it should never be a surprise. It is always a good idea to ask the student’s permission before giving an unexpected adjustment so they are not jarred by the physical contact of the teacher. In some class settings (like Ashtanga) permission is not necessary to seek because it is part of the practice and culture to give and get adjustments, but even then it is a good idea to state at the start, “If anyone does not want adjustments today, please let me know either before class or when I come up to you in class.” That way everyone is on the same page.

I hope this helps. If others have comments and opinions on this topic, please share them with us!

Bernie
Post Reply