Spanda® Yoga Movement Therapy may accept transfer credits at the discretion of the program director toward completion of its IAYT accredited 800-hour yoga therapist training program.

TRANSFER APPLICATION PROCESS

To apply for transfer credit, please follow these steps:

1. Fill out and submit the application.
2. Send an email to symt@spandayoga.com with:
3. a copy of your RYT 200 and RYT 300 certificates, or RYT 5000 certificate, or a bullet point list
4. a request for a preliminary phone screening.​

After the above are successfully completed, you’ll be invited to fill out and return the Spanda® Transfer Credit Evaluation Tool. Please complete and submit it as soon as possible! Include a copy of any additional course outlines, syllabi or other information that illustrates the content and level of depth of relevant coursework you have already taken.

Once the information is evaluated, you’ll be contacted to discuss your evaluation and transfer status. This usually takes place within 2 weeks of your submission of the Evaluation Tool.

Credits may be accepted in full (up to 252 max.), conditionally, or are denied if content does not adequately match foundation year curricula. Transfer applicants may be invited to further demonstrate competency in a content area or areas, and/or respond to questions regarding aspects of understanding of concepts, practices and skills.

If credit hours are accepted conditionally, transfer applicants are required to agree to an individualized tutorial arrangement to ensure proficiency and ease of transition into the Advanced Level of the program.

A total of 252 hours of credit may be assigned. All transfer students must attend the Bridge Program regardless of past trainings, experience and transfer background.​​​

Space is very limited, so please apply early!

HOW STUDENTS MAKE APPLICATION

Potential students may apply for transfer credit and advanced placement, if they have completed a residential RYT500 yoga teacher training course, or a residential RYT 300 continuing course i.e. the 300-hr continuation of a 200-hr YTT, by following these steps as laid out on the Spanda website. The applicant:

1. Submits the advanced placement application
2. Emails copies of RYT 200 and RYT 300, or RYT 500 certificates
3. Requests and completes a preliminary phone consultation with the program director
4. After these steps are completed, if the applicant is deemed to proceeds, then the applicant:
5. Fills out and submits the Spanda® Transfer Credit Evaluation Tool, which is evaluated by the Program Director
6. Discusses credit evaluation with the program director

After the credit equivalency evaluation is completed, potential students are informed of their status and advised as to what they must do to join the program. A student’s credits for various content areas may be denied, accepted conditionally, or accepted fully. Transfer credits that are accepted in full require no additional coursework or fees and are treated as if students have completed these credit hours in house. All students are responsible for all content given in this program and are expected to be able to demonstrate competency both theoretically and practically. Upon the occasion some credit hours are accepted conditionally, the applicant in this case is required to agree to an individualized tutorial arrangement to ensure the course content knowledge and skill for these units has been adequately acquired. Once completed, the student can be given full credit for the units in question.

Transfer credit hours that are accepted count as sufficient credit for the same training hours as in the program. Students do not attend, complete assignments for, or pay fees for the credit hours they are assigned full credit.

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THE SCHOOL’S PROCESS

When a potential student makes an advanced placement application, they must also submit documentation that shows they have completed what amounts to RYT 500-hour yoga teacher training. Once this documentation is received, a phone consult is scheduled between the program director and the potential transfer student.

Transfer credit requests from RYT500 applicants with strong training who can sufficiently demonstrate their knowledge and whose past trainings teach content that sufficiently matches content in SYMT’s Foundation courses are considered.

After the documentation is reviewed and the phone consult is completed, potential students are either advised to continue with the application process or to begin at the entire program’s start.

All applicants advised to continue must submit the Spanda® Transfer Credit Evaluation Tool and review it with the program director, who assesses the hours, content, and depth of coverage of the content of the applicant’s past training(s) in comparison with the Foundational content of this training. This matching up process is then discussed with the applicant. Applicants also must attest to their 300RYT being residential.

Applicants who do not have enough similarity of training to cover the first-year content are invited to begin the program at its start in the next beginning cohort. Applicants from HI programs with content that adequately matches that of the Foundation Year content under the competencies listed below may have all 252 credits accepted. Applicants who have taken matching content, but who do not, during the review with the program director, demonstrate adequate understanding, may be given an oral or written exam or practical demonstration exam, or may be required to enter into a tutorial arrangement for placement in the program. Also, applicants may have credits accepted below the 252 mark, and may enter into a tutorial arrangement if sufficient understanding, experience, and skill can be demonstrated in other areas.

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Criteria for Accepting Transfer Credit

Only Foundation course credit is accepted, which is covered in roughly the first year of the training and up to 252 hours. Each content topic in each course is identified in terms of its fulfillment of specific competencies under the IAYT standards; the topics of which are identified in the Spanda® Transfer Evaluation Tool. In considering assigning credit for coursework completed in other trainings, the content of that coursework and its depth of coverage is considered and compared to the topics and depth of coverage of those in the Spanda® Yoga Movement Therapy Foundation curriculum to determine if each specific competency has been adequately met.

Each applicant’s background is assessed individually. Course credit may be accepted fully, conditionally, or denied. In the event of conditional acceptance of some credit, a tutorial program is designed for each student who works directly with the program director in person when possible, or through Zoom or Skype, to adequately complete course requirements for each topic within each competency as assessed. This work must be completed prior to entrance into the training. Applicants may as well be required to demonstrate proficiency or respond to exam questions as deemed appropriate by the program director on a case by case basis. All transfer students must attend the Bridge Program.

All transfer credit hours must directly apply to specific IAYT competencies as met through the content of this program to be accepted.

Transfer credit under these competencies may be assigned:

1.1 Yoga Teaching and Philosophy – up to 35 credit hours

1.2 Yoga and the Mind – up to 35 credit hours

1.3 Framework for Health and Disease – up to 10 credit hours

2.1 Anatomy and Physiology – up to 62 credit hours

2.5 Body and Mind Integration – up to 10 credit hours

3.1 Yoga Therapy Tools – up to 50 credit hours

3.3 Principles and Skills for Educating Clients/Students – up to 35 hours

3.4 Principles and Skills for Working with Groups – up to 5 hours

5.1 Ethical Principles – up to 10 hours

All transfer students, no matter how much education and background they may have in Himalayan Institute trainings, programs, teaching or other expertise, must attend the Bridge Program to properly orient to the therapeutic orientation and specifics of this approach.

Once completing the Bridge Program, and adequately completing any conditional assignments if applicable, transfer students must then attend all program hours, complete all assignments and pass all exams as expected for continuing class members with no exceptions.

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Application of Transfer Credit

Please Note: Students must attend 500 residential hours to complete program requirements.

Transfer credit is applied to each transfer student’s transcript as “Transfer Credit”. Once full credit is accepted, students are considered complete in that program requirement and are exempt from attending courses in which they’ve been assigned credit. They are however responsible for all program information and content, skill development, and commensurate proficiency.