Should We Be Mandated Reporters When a YOGA Teacher is Unsafe?
Guest Blog Post By Sarah Hudson
Should we be mandated reporters when a teacher is unsafe?
There is no real governance in the yoga/wellness/spirituality spaces…
So it’s up to US to help shepherd and safe guard our community.
It’s that very desire for safe community that keeps us from making ‘waves’.
I haven’t wanted to make waves.
The fear of community loss is very deeply rooted. Keeping me in a place that ranges from fawn to freeze.
Through somatic therapy I’ve finally hit the stage of mobilization. An energy coming to life, rising to fight. A healthy expression to keep me and hopefully others safe.
My former teacher Katie Silcox is not safe.
There are many that agree with me.
Safety is not restored in the community when the teacher:
creates hierarchy with her students
places value only on the participants that add value to her (youth, beauty, power)
interactions are transactional
does not live in professional alignment with her teachings
in competition with her students
steals the work of others
Safety is restored in a community of women when the teacher:
is honest
has the ability to listen and receive truth
has self-awareness
demonstrates humility
is not judgemental
keeps her word
I've been silent for years. Primarily from fear. It was a slow and gradual reveal, the way my teacher taught us that questioning her, let alone crossing her would result in expulsion and humiliation. I began studying with Katie Silcox in person and in one on one mentorship shortly after she returned to the East Coast circa 2014/15. I attended live trainings, weekend workshops, and became a full-time student assisting at trainings and eventually guest teaching at 50 hour modules within her program. There were of course red flags over the years that I was conditioned to ignore through her teachings which suggested anything coming up that wasn't just a pulsation of love was coming from me not at me. These were not just yoga trainings, they were heavily scaled to focus on self-development/healing where a distorted view of boundaries and responsibilities were taught. Today isn't the day I tell my whole story, but I intend to do so in the near future.
This post is because Katie is offering a free 'Restoring Safety' course next week and to be frank, it's just pushed me beyond my ability to stand by silently. As a more mature and wise teacher has shared with me, we must be very careful who we receive meditations, teachings, and transmissions from because they transmit to us much more than just words, they transmit the depth or lack of their own practice and convictions. And so while there is a chance there will be some correct words in this workshop I think it's overall impact has the potential to cause harm. This is a teacher who I've witnessed tear down other women in front of the group, make fun of her students, flirt with her students, use personal information to make examples of people in painful ways, and co-opt her colleagues' work. This to me, is not a safe teacher to learn about how to restore safety.
To my knowledge, I'm the first to speak out. Sisters, trust me when I say, I understand why you slipped away and stay quiet. If this has happened to you, regardless of the teacher, I'm asking you to share this post and/or your own and use #WellnessMeToo so that we may collectively raise awareness about spiritual abuse.
Resources
What is Spiritual Abuse of Power in Yoga?
Abuse of Spiritual Power: My Story
Journey Into Yoga Cults Podcast
Please know I’m not saying yoga is a cult. Merely, exposing how unsafe people can use cult-like dynamics to build power and disempower people