Written by Joseph Berridge, Founder of Joga Yoga
Hands-on adjustments require consent every time, and most teachers ask for it the wrong way round. Announcing “let me know if you’d rather not be touched” isn’t consent. It’s an assumption with an opt-out attached.
This is written for newly qualified teachers, because that’s when the temptation to adjust is highest and the judgement is thinnest. The short version: adjust much less than your training may have led you to expect, and change how you ask.
Opt-In and Opt-Out Are Not the Same Thing
Two ways to raise it at the start of class. They look similar and they aren’t.
| What the teacher says | What it actually does | |
|---|---|---|
| Opt-out | “I’ll be offering adjustments. If you’d rather not be touched, turn your palms up.” | Assumes the whole room consents. Makes declining a visible act that singles you out. |
| Opt-in | “If you’d like adjustments today, raise a hand in the first Child’s Pose.” | Silence means no. Nobody has to identify themselves to decline. |
The difference matters because of who carries the burden. Under opt-out, the person who least wants to be touched has to perform a small public refusal in a room of strangers, often while the teacher is watching. Plenty of people won’t. Social obligation quietly produces compliance that isn’t consent.
Teachers who work on this consistently recommend the opt-in framing for exactly that reason: it creates an atmosphere where declining costs nothing, because declining is the default.
Further reading: Yoga Journal on consent practice.
Ask privately
Child’s Pose is the standard moment for a reason. Everyone’s head is down, nobody can see who signalled and who didn’t, and the teacher can scan the room without anyone feeling observed.
Consent cards or tokens at the top of the mat work even better, because the decision is made before class starts and no signal is required at all. If your studio doesn’t use them, they cost almost nothing to introduce.
Blanket Permission Isn’t Informed Consent
Here’s the part most guidance skips. Even done as opt-in, asking once at the start of class doesn’t tell the student what they’ve agreed to.
Agreed to what, exactly? Any body part? Any amount of force? Any pose, including the one at the end of a sequence where they’re already at their limit? Unless you’ve demonstrated the adjustment or described the intent and the force involved, which is close to impossible mid-flow, they don’t know what they said yes to.
Read accounts from experienced practitioners and the pattern is consistent: people who had consented in general terms then received something they would never have agreed to specifically. A teacher settling into a squat on top of someone in Wheel Pose and continuing to teach from there. Weeks of back pain from having a foot and head pressed together in Dancer, in a class that hadn’t prepared for it.
Both of those students had said yes at the start of class.
Both accounts are recounted in Yoga Journal’s piece on whether teachers should adjust at all, which makes the informed-consent argument in more detail.
The practical fix: treat the start-of-class question as permission to approach, not permission to adjust. Then confirm at the moment, quietly and specifically. “Can I take your hip back here?” takes three seconds and turns a general yes into an actual one. People also change their minds between poses, which a single question at the start can’t capture.
Why New Teachers Should Adjust Less
The uncomfortable position, and the one we hold: most newly qualified teachers adjust more than they should.
A 200-hour training introduces hands-on work. It doesn’t give you the years of watching bodies that make touch reliably safe. And there’s a live debate among senior teachers about whether deepening a student’s range is a yoga teacher’s job at all. Jules Mitchell, an E-RYT 500 with a master’s in the field, argues that pushing a student further into range sits outside a yoga teacher’s scope entirely.
Her position, and a useful account of how consent practice changed after 2017, is set out at Yoga Teacher Journey.
That’s a defensible position, and it’s close to ours. It follows directly from the limits of what a 200-hour teaches.
What to reach for first
Almost everything new teachers use touch to fix has a hands-off solution:
- Cue again, differently. If a cue didn’t land, the usual problem is the wording, not the student’s hearing. Say it a second way before you move.
- Demonstrate. Showing the shape reaches the whole room rather than one person, and it costs nothing.
- Cue that student specifically, verbally. “Front knee tracking over the ankle” said to the room fixes it without singling anyone out.
- Offer a prop. A block under the hand solves more alignment problems than a hand on the back.
- Let it go. Not every imperfect shape needs fixing. A grounded pose that isn’t symmetrical is better than a symmetrical one the student is straining into.
Approach only when you’ve tried those, the student has opted in, and something genuinely looks unsafe rather than merely untidy.
The Question to Ask Yourself First
Before any adjustment: am I making this safer, or making it look better?
Chasing shapes is the failure mode of the last decade of yoga, and adjustments are where it shows most. Pressing someone deeper so the pose resembles a photograph serves the photograph. Function beats form, and an imperfect pose that lets the person breathe is worth more than a tidy one that doesn’t.
If the honest answer is “it would look more advanced,” don’t touch them.
Don’t adjust when:
- They haven’t opted in, or you can’t remember whether they did
- You can’t see their face, so you can’t read discomfort
- They’re at loaded end range, where a small push has a large effect
- They’ve disclosed an injury you haven’t been trained to work with
- Their eyes are closed and you’d be arriving unannounced
- You feel resistance of any kind, physical or otherwise
- You’re adjusting to deepen rather than to protect
Any one of these is a reason to stay on your own mat.
Insurance and the Legal Side
Written consent isn’t generally a legal requirement for hands-on work in a yoga class, but informed consent in some form is standard professional practice, and the specifics vary considerably by country and by insurer.
Two things worth doing rather than assuming. Read what your own policy says about physical contact, because some are more prescriptive than teachers realise. And check what the studio you teach at requires, since house policy may be stricter than your insurance.
Note: guidance on this is published by both Yoga Alliance and by Yoga Alliance Professionals, which are separate and unaffiliated organisations with similar names. Check which one applies to your registration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do yoga teachers need consent for hands-on adjustments?
Ethically, yes, every time. Legally it varies. Written consent isn’t generally a legal requirement, but informed consent in some form is standard professional practice, and requirements differ by country and by what your insurance policy specifies. Check your own policy rather than assuming.
What is the difference between opt-in and opt-out consent?
Opt-out means telling the room you’ll be adjusting and asking anyone who objects to signal. That assumes consent and forces the person who declines to single themselves out. Opt-in means asking students to actively signal that they do want adjustments, so silence means no. Opt-in is the version that’s actually consent.
Is asking once at the start of class enough?
No. Blanket permission at the start of class isn’t informed consent, because the student has no idea what they’re agreeing to. Any body part, any amount of force, any pose. People also change their mind between poses. Confirm before the adjustment itself, not once at the beginning.
Should new yoga teachers give hands-on adjustments at all?
Far fewer than most newly qualified teachers give. A 200-hour training covers the basics of touch, not the years of observation that make adjustments reliably safe. Verbal cues, demonstration and props solve most of what a new teacher reaches for touch to fix.
How should I ask for consent without making it awkward?
Ask privately rather than in front of the room. A common method is asking students to signal during the first Child’s Pose, when nobody is watching anyone else. Some studios use consent cards or tokens placed at the top of the mat, which removes the social pressure entirely.
When should I never adjust a student?
When they haven’t opted in, when you can’t see their face, when they’re in a loaded end-range position, when they’ve disclosed an injury you haven’t been trained to work with, when you’re trying to deepen a shape rather than improve their safety, and when you feel any resistance, physical or otherwise.
Learn to Teach, Not Just to Practise
Our Yoga Alliance-certified trainings in Canggu, Bali cover consent, scope of practice and hands-off alternatives as part of teaching methodology.
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