Yoga therapy is an exciting field full of opportunity—if you know where to find it and how to get it. My name is Anna Passalacqua, and I’ve spent many years working as a yoga therapist and educating others to become yoga therapists. I’ve seen students go on to work in private practices, hospitals, physical therapy centers, chiropractors’ offices, addiction centers, mental health departments, wellness centers, school districts, and more. Whether you want to make a living as a yoga therapist or add yoga therapy’s arsenal of techniques to your toolkit, the first step is to complete yoga therapy training. The next step is to create an excellent yoga therapist resume.
If you need help with the first step, take a look at the yoga therapy training that we offer. If you’re ready for the next step, keep reading to see my expert tips on creating an effective yoga therapist resume, including an example resume to help you get started.
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Follow these 8 tips to make sure your resume stands out from the crowd:
Keep reading for more information about each tip, or click the tip above you’d like to learn more about.
When writing your resume, aligning it with the organization and job description at hand can make a substantial difference. To resonate with your potential employer, echo relevant words, phrases, and ideas that they use in their posting. For instance, if they stress the need for experience with a particular demographic or technique, be sure to highlight your interest and experience in them.
Many companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and matching the job description closely can help ensure your resume is moved forward. And once it does reach a human, they will appreciate that you mirror their requirements and values.
Experience is the most important factor of a yoga therapist’s resume. If you’re just starting out as a yoga therapist and are worried about lack of experience, jump ahead to our FAQ on what to do.
Experiences to showcase include:
To truly stand out, you’ll want to expand on your experiences and achievements with specific results in your resume. Examples include:
When listing skills on your resume, remember to add both hard and soft skills to create a well-rounded image of your capabilities.
Examples of valuable hard skills to list include:
Examples of valuable soft skills to list include:
Share basic information about your education and training, adding more detail where relevant. Some positions require a Bachelor’s degree, even if it’s not in a relevant field, so always be sure to list any college education.
Include any yoga therapy training or education, which tends to be more important than other sorts of education, as you might expect. You may want to go into a little more detail here, listing specific modules you’ve taken that are relevant to the position. You can also mention yoga conferences, workshops, or continuing education you’ve received. Yoga teacher training can be included as well but is not essential.
Remember to mention any CPR or First Aid training you’ve received, as this can be beneficial for a yoga therapist, particularly when working with certain populations.
For yoga therapists, certification through the International Association of Yoga Therapists indicates advanced study that may help you secure a job. If you’ve earned it, you should absolutely display it on your yoga therapist resume. However, it isn’t necessary to have your C-IAYT to find a job as a yoga therapist or to advance your career in another healthcare job by adding yoga therapy to your repertoire.
Yoga teacher certifications are not usually relevant or important for getting a yoga therapy job. But if you have them, feel free to list them.
In your objective or summary, you want to come across as passionate yet professional in just a few sentences. Perhaps you’ve been inspired to work with elderly communities or have a strong interest in the intersection between yoga and mental health. Indicating your specific interests and areas of specialization helps potential employers align you with the opportunities and values of their organization.
Referrals, recommendations, testimonials, and endorsements can significantly boost the credibility of your resume. A glowing statement from a past employer, coworker, teacher, client, student, or respected peer in the yoga community can carry great weight. Choose people or statements that best align with the job description and requirements.
Below you’ll find an example resume for a fictional yoga therapist. Feel free to use it for inspiration! Click the resume to download the PDF.
Working in the industry as long as I have, I’ve seen yoga therapists make some of the same mistakes again and again when looking for jobs. Keep in mind these 4 mistakes to avoid in your yoga therapist resume:
Keep reading for more information about each mistake, or click the mistake above you’d like to learn more about.
Choose a layout that’s clean, visually appealing, and easy to understand. Recruiters often glance at resumes initially, so use bold headings, bullet points, and appropriate spacing to guide them through yours efficiently. Stay consistent with your font choices, typically one for headers and another for body text, and keep font sizes readable. You’ll have the opportunity to showcase your personality more if you get to an interview—don’t try to put too much of it into your resume at the expense of professionalism or clear organization.
While personal stories can be compelling, they need to be contained and support your professional narrative. Provide just enough context to show your journey and passion for yoga without delving into detail that might distract from your qualifications and fit for the position. For example, you can mention having kids if it’s relevant, but avoid the temptation to go into long details about your journey to becoming a parent.
On your resume, ensure that every piece of information you include serves to enhance your candidacy for the role at hand. Irrelevant experience, while potentially interesting, can lead employers to question your suitability or genuine interest. If an experience or skill doesn’t relate to the job you’re applying for, consider omitting it or minimizing its prominence.
For instance, a past job in an unrelated field might only merit a mention if it provided you with transferable skills like communication or leadership that are applicable to your career in yoga therapy. If you’re a Reiki master, for example, that might be relevant to mention when applying for a hospice job but not for a physical therapy office.
To present yourself as a professional worker, your resume should be free of typos and grammatical errors. Errors can imply carelessness or a lack of attention to detail. Always proofread your resume several times, employing different strategies each time: read it aloud, read it backward, or take a break and revisit it with fresh eyes. You might also ask a friend or use a proofreading tool to look it over. These might seem like small details, but they go a long way toward creating a positive first impression that focuses on your experiences and skills.
Check out these additional frequently asked questions for more advice, or contact us if you have a question we haven’t answered here.
Keep reading for more information about each FAQ, or click the FAQ above you’d like to learn more about.
This is a common problem, both for yoga therapists and other professions. If you haven’t gotten a job in your field yet, then how can you make a resume that is compelling enough to land you a job in your field? Fortunately, many yoga therapists go through this, and there are strategies you can use to position yourself as a strong candidate even without work experience.
Emphasize your education, training, and what you’ve learned. Mention specific training, lessons, or modules you’ve taken that are relevant to the job at hand. Talk about your practicum as well and any results you achieved with that work. For example, if you’re applying for a job working with cancer patients, you can highlight any cancer-specific training you received or work you did with this demographic in your practicum. You can also add more referrals, recommendations, testimonials, and endorsements.
At Breathing Deeply, we recognize this common issue and work to set our graduates up for success in the job market. Our yoga therapy students gain 165 hours of work with real people under our supervision, building their clinical practice and resume while still in training. Even if you’re coming from another program, feel free to contact us if you’re interested in getting more supervised experience.
In the objective or summary of your resume, succinctly state your career goals and the type of job you aspire to have. Include 2 or 3 of the most relevant skills or experiences of yours that align with the job, like working with a specific demographic or with specific health conditions.
Briefly mention your passion for yoga’s healing potential and how you aim to contribute to the employer’s organization. When speaking about your inspiration and journey, for example, it’s enough just to say something like, “I’ve personally gone through breast cancer treatment and am passionate about working with this population.”
While some specific positions may require certification, many do not. Plenty of our students get jobs in yoga therapy without certification!
I hope these insights have been helpful to you in your job search! If you would like our help becoming a stronger job candidate, our yoga therapy school offers foundational training, advanced training, and supervised experience. Not only that, but we give students, graduates, and teachers lifetime access to an online community where you can learn and network throughout your career.
Apply today or contact us if you have further questions!
Brandt talks about common questions applicants have about the Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy Program. Tune in to get the full program details.