Ep 115: Mindset, Impostor Syndrome, and Your Scope of Practice

Yoga teacher impostor syndrome keeps qualified teachers from working with students who have pain and injuries. If you've ever avoided a student with an injury because you thought "I'm not a physical therapist" or "I don't know enough anatomy," this episode addresses the real barrier: not your scope of practice, but the belief that you're not enough. Learn why the thoughts keeping you stuck are impostor syndrome, not the truth. Discover the unique value you bring that no physical therapist can replicate, and understand why you don't need the expertise you think you need. This episode is for yoga teachers who care about accessibility and inclusion but feel paralyzed by fear and comparison when students with pain want to take their classes.

Understand why "is this within my scope?" is often not really a scope question at all, it's impostor syndrome disguised as professional caution. Learn to recognize the thoughts that keep you stuck: comparing yourself to physical therapists, believing you need to know everything about anatomy, fearing you'll make things worse, and thinking everyone else is more confident than you. These beliefs aren't protecting your students; they're keeping you from serving the ones who need you.

• Discover the fundamental difference between clinical expertise (what PTs have) and teaching expertise (what you have). 
• Learn why you can't build confidence by taking more courses or waiting to feel ready; you build it through practice with real students.
• Understand what students with pain are really seeking when they come to your class.
• Address the fear that paralyzes more yoga teachers than anything else: "What if I hurt someone?"

Understand the critical mindset shift from trying to be an expert who fixes people to being a skilled facilitator who creates safe environments for exploration. 

Related Episodes:

• Ep 114: How to Teach Yoga to Students with Lower Back Pain
• Ep 66: Staying Within Your Scope of Practice

Free Resources:

• 10 Questions to Ask Injured Students 
• Sequencing for Students with Injuries

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Transcript

4:00

Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together.

Monica 5:09

Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. Here's what I really want you to know about me. I have been exactly where you are. I felt super unsure when a student told me that they had an injury, and I've had that little voice in my head telling me that I'm not qualified enough. I'm not educated enough, I'm not experienced enough, and I've compared myself to physical therapists and doctors, and I felt like I had no business helping people with pain. So I've been there, right? I've let students slip away because. I was too scared to say, yes, I can work with you. And I've also worked through that fear and built a practice where students with injuries specifically seek me out because they know I'll create a safe environment for them. Not because I became a physical therapist, not because I learned everything about every condition, but because I shifted my mindset about what I'm actually doing And what value I can actually bring. So here's what we are going to cover today. I am gonna help you identify the specific thoughts and beliefs that are keeping you stuck in imposter syndrome. We're going to examine what expertise actually means and why you don't need the kind of expertise you think you need. And most importantly, I'm gonna help you see the unique value you bring that no physical therapist or doctor can replicate. By the end of this episode, you are going to have a completely different understanding of your role and your worth. I've recorded an episode before about scope of practice and what's legally and professionally within your role as a yoga teacher. If you haven't listened to that, it's episode number 66, and I'll link it in the show notes below. So after you listen to this episode, go listen to that one. But today I wanna talk about something a little bit deeper because what I've realized is that over the years with working with yoga teachers, The question is this, within my scope is often not really about scope at all. It's a disguise for a much more vulnerable question, which is, am I enough when you say I cannot work with injured students because it's outside of my scope? What you're often really saying is, I don't feel qualified. I don't think I know enough. I'm afraid I'll hurt someone and it will be my fault. I'm afraid I'll look uneducated if I don't have all the answers. I'm not a real expert like a physical therapist, so who am I to help these people? That's not a scope of practice question. That's. Imposter syndrome and imposter syndrome is insidious because it disguises itself as humility or appropriate caution. You tell yourself you're being responsible by staying in your lane. You tell yourself you're protecting students by referring them elsewhere. You tell yourself, you're being realistic about your limitations, but what's really happening is you are allowing fear to make your decisions for you. You're letting the belief that you're not enough keep you from serving people who specifically need what you have to offer. And here's what's so heartbreaking about all of this. While you're sitting there thinking, I'm not qualified, there's a student out there who's been told by their physical therapist to find a yoga class, and they're scared because they think yoga teachers won't know how to work with them. They think they're too broken, too complicated, too much, and they're staying home. They're getting more deconditioned. They're more fearful of movement and they're finding themselves more and more isolated. You are not helping them by playing small. You are not protecting them by saying no. You're confirming what They already fear that they don't belong in movement spaces, and this is so not true. Let me name some of the specific thoughts I hear from teachers all the time and see if any of these sound like something you've said to yourself. Number one, I'm not a physical therapist. This is huge because you compare yourself to PTs and think, well, they went to graduate school. They know so much more than me and I have no business working with injuries when they are the real experts. Thought number two is. I don't know enough anatomy you think if you just learn more anatomy, took more courses, studied more, then you would feel ready. But somehow, no matter how much you learn, it never feels like enough. Okay. How about this thought? What if I make it worse? That's a big one. You are terrified that you'll give someone a cue or a modification and they'll get hurt and it will be your fault. You play out worst case scenarios in your mind, and they paralyze you and keep you from progressing. Have you ever said this? I should refer them to someone more qualified. You tell yourself the responsible thing is to send them to a physical therapist or a specialized yoga therapist, someone who really knows what they're doing or what about this thought. They need real medical help, not yoga. You think their pain is too serious, too complicated, too medical for something as simple as yoga to help with. And finally this thought. Everyone else seems to know what they're doing except me. You look at other yoga teachers who confidently work with injured students and you think they must know something that you don't. Or they must have some training that you're missing or possess some quality that you lack. Do any of these sound familiar? Because these are the thoughts that will most definitely keep you stuck. These are the beliefs that make you say no repeatedly when you could shift to say yes. These are the stories that you tell yourself about why you're not ready yet, and I wanna challenge every single one of them. Let's start with the comparison to physical therapists, because this is where I see teachers get most. Stuck. Yes. Physical therapists have extensive education in anatomy, biomechanics, maybe pathology and rehabilitation. That's their training and that's their scope. But here's what I want you to understand. You are not trying to be a physical therapist. You are trying to be a really good yoga teacher who understands modern pain science, the nervous system, and how to help students continue to move within their limitations on a regular and long-term basis. Those are two different things with two different roles, and both are valuable. A physical therapist's role is to assess, diagnose, and create individualized treatment plans for specific conditions. They work one-on-one. They're trained in manual therapy and specific rehabilitation protocols, and they're helping people recover from acute injuries or manage chronic conditions. Your role as a yoga teacher is to create group environments where people can explore movements safely, build body awareness, develop confidence, and experience the benefits of the yoga practice. You're not assessing or diagnosing, you're facilitating exploration. And here's what's interesting. There are things you can offer that a physical therapist can't. You create community, you offer ongoing practice over months and years, not just a few weeks of treatment. You integrate mindfulness and breath work and nervous system regulation in ways that most physical therapy clinics do not. You create spaces where people can experience joy and movement, not just functional rehabilitation. A student who's been to physical therapy and learned some exercises might come to your yoga class because they wanna continue moving in a supportive environment. They want community. They wanna feel normal, not like a patient. They want the holistic experience that yoga offers. So you are not competing with physical therapists, you're complimenting them. And your value doesn't depend on having the same expertise that they have. So when that little voice in your head says, I'm not a physical therapist, you should respond with your right. And that's exactly why you have something unique to offer. Now let's talk about the, I don't know enough anatomy thought because this one keeps so many teachers trapped in perpetual. Student mode. Here's the truth, you will never know everything about anatomy. New research is constantly emerging. Our understanding is constantly evolving. If you're waiting to know everything before you feel ready, You are going to be waiting forever. But here's the other truth. You don't need to know everything about anatomy To work with students who have pain, you need to understand modern pain science, which tells us that pain is a protective output from the brain, not just a structural problem in tissues. This means that anatomical details of someone's disc bulge or meniscus tear or rotator cuff issues are actually less important than understanding how their nervous system is responding and how to create environments where they feel safe to explore movement. I'm not saying anatomy doesn't matter, I'm saying it's not the barrier that you think it is. Most students don't need you to explain the mechanics of their injury. They need you to help them build confidence that movement can be safe. They need you to use language that reduces threat. They need you to offer options without making them feel broken. And you can do all of that with a foundational understanding of how pain works and how to create safe learning environments. You don't need a doctorate in anatomy, and actually sometimes knowing too much anatomy can get in the way if it makes you overly focused on structural problems rather than the person's experience and their nervous system's response. The teachers I see who are most effective with injured students are not the ones who know the most anatomy. They are the ones who understand pain science, who are comfortable with uncertainty, and who creates safety through their presence and their language. Now, let's address the fear that I find paralyzes more teachers than anything else, and it's, what if I make it worse? I do understand this fear. It comes from a good place. You care about your students and you don't want to cause them harm, but I want to reframe how you're thinking about this. First, remember that pain is not the same as damage. Someone can experience pain during a movement and not be damaging tissue. Their nervous system might be protective, might perceive a threat, might produce pain as a warning. But experiencing pain doesn't mean that you've harmed them. Your job isn't to ensure no one ever feels any discomfort. That's impossible, and it's not even desirable. Your job is to create environments where students can safely explore, where they have autonomy to make choices, and where pain is treated as information rather than a big disaster. If a student tries a movement and feels pain and they choose to modify or rest, that's actually successful teaching. That's them beginning to listen to their body and making a choice. In their response, they learned something about their current capacity, what they can and cannot tolerate on any given day, and that's not failure. That's exactly what we want. Second, you need to trust your students more. They're adults, they have agency. They know their own bodies better than you ever will. When you give them options, invite exploration, and remind them that they can modify or rest. Anytime in class, you are empowering them to take care of themselves. In the yoga world, we've gotten really comfortable with quote unquote right. Alignment and what a pose should look like, and we need to move towards helping students realize that what they're feeling is important too. I mean, this can make or break a student's overall feeling towards the yoga practice. They could frame it as, that's a practice where I cannot deviate from a certain alignment, but it hurts to do that alignment, and that's huge. You shouldn't be forcing anyone into positions. You shouldn't be demanding that they push through pain. You should be creating a collaborative environment where there are active participants in their own safety. The way you make things worse isn't by offering a yoga class where someone has choices and autonomy. The way you make things worse is by using fear-based language that reinforces the idea that their body is fragile, or by prescribing specific modifications in a way that takes away their agency or by making them feel like they're not good enough to be in a normal class. And here's the thing about your worst. Case scenario fear. If you create a safe environment with clear options and invitational language, and a student still experiences increased pain, they'll tell you, and then you'll have a conversation and you'll help them find what feels better. But you'll be doing that together and you might suggest that they also check in with their healthcare provider. You and your student adjust and you learn together. That's not catastrophe. This should be normal teaching. Every teacher has students whose needs evolve or who need different support than a group class can provide. And that doesn't mean that you have failed. It means you're human and they are too. Let's talk about looking at other teachers and thinking they have it all figured out when you don't. Here's what I can promise you. Every teacher you admire has felt uncertain. Every teacher who confidently works with injured students has had moments of doubt. Every teacher who seems to know what they're doing has made mistakes and learned from them. The difference between teachers who work with injured students and teachers who don't, is not that some teachers were born confident and knowledgeable. It's that some teachers decided to start before they felt ready. They learned through doing. They built confidence through practice, and they were willing to be uncomfortable while they figured it out. You know what I see when I watch teachers who are great with injured students, I see teachers who are comfortable saying, I don't know. Let's figure this out together. I see teachers who frame themselves as facilitators rather than fixers. I see teachers who trust the process of exploration rather than needing to have all the answers. You do not need to be the expert who knows everything. You need to be the guide who creates safety and invites exploration, and actually being too confident can be a problem. The teachers who I question are the ones who think they can fix everyone who make promises about outcomes, who prescribe specific movements as solutions. Those teachers are operating from an old model for recovery. The teachers I trust are the ones who understand the limits of what they can offer, who are humble about what they don't know, and who prioritize creating safety over demonstrating expertise. So if you're thinking I'm not confident enough to work with injured students, what if the question isn't about building more confidence, but it's about getting more comfortable with uncertainty. I wanted to tell you something really important. There's something you can offer that no physical therapist, no doctor, no specialist can replace. You can offer regular, ongoing community-based movement practice over months and years. Think about what physical therapy looks like. Someone has an injury. They go to PT for six to 12 weeks. They learn some exercises and then their discharge. The PT did their job. They helped with the acute issue, but then what? That person still needs to move. They still need community. They still need supportive environments where they can continue exploring movement and building capacity. This is where you come in. You offer the sustainability piece. You offer the community. You offer the integration of movement with breath and mindfulness and nervous system regulation. You offer a space where people can show up week after week and build a relationship with their body over time. This is incredibly valuable and it's something that you as a yoga teacher, creating ongoing classes can provide. But you can only provide it if you're willing to let students with injuries into your classes. If you keep saying that's outside of my scope and turning them away, they don't get access to this ongoing supportive practice. And what happens to people when they don't have access to ongoing movement practice? They get more deconditioned. They're more fearful, they're more isolated. Their capacity decreases. Their nervous system stays protective. and their pain often gets worse over time. You staying small doesn't help them. You stepping into your value does. Here's something I wish someone had told me years ago. You don't need to know everything before you start. You are allowed to learn alongside your students. Some of the most beautiful teaching moments I've had were when a student asked me a question I didn't know the answer to, and instead of pretending I knew or deflecting, I said, that's a great question, and I honestly don't know the answer to that. So let me do some research and we can explore this together next week if that's okay. That vulnerability, that honesty, that willingness to be a co-learner rather than an all knowing expert. Students respect that it creates trust, it creates partnership. You are allowed to say, I'm not sure. Let's try a few things and see what feels okay for you. You are allowed to say, I haven't worked with someone with your specific situation before, but I'm happy to explore together. If you're willing, you are allowed to say, let me think about this and get back to you. You are not supposed to have every answer. You're supposed to be present, curious, caring, and willing to figure things out. And actually the process of learning alongside students makes you a better teacher. Every student teaches you something. Every situation you navigate builds your capacity and your confidence, but you can't learn if you never start. You can't build confidence if you keep saying no. At some point. You have to be willing to be a beginner at something. You have to be willing to feel uncertain. You have to trust that you have enough to start, even if you feel like you're starting from square one. So how do you actually build confidence? Not by taking more courses or reading more books, or waiting until you feel ready. You build confidence by practicing. Start small. Maybe the first student with an injury who asks to take your class. You say, yes, you have the initial conversation. You offer options during class. You check in afterwards. That's it. That's the first step. And maybe it's a little uncomfortable. Maybe you're not sure you did everything perfectly, but you did it. You showed up. You created space for someone who needed it. Then the next time it's a little easier. You remember what worked you adjust, what didn't. You try something new, you build on your experience. Over time, weeks, months, years, you'll realize you've worked with dozens of students with different situations. You've navigated challenging conversations. you've figured out modifications that work instead of just. Offering child's pose to everyone. You've learned what language reduces fear and what language increases it. And one day a new teacher or a student will ask you, how did you get so confident working with injured students? And you realize you just started before you felt ready and you learned through doing. That's the only way this works. There's no amount of preparation that replaces actual practice with actual students. So if you're waiting to feel ready, here's your permission to start scared, uncertain, imperfect. It doesn't matter. Just start. So let's come back to the scope of practice question, but with a completely different frame. Instead of asking, is working with students within my scope, ask this. What kind of teacher do I wanna be? Do you wanna be the teacher who only works with young, flexible, injury free students who creates classes where anyone with limitations feels unwelcome? the teacher? Who reinforces the idea that yoga is only for certain students? Or do you wanna be the teacher who creates accessible spaces, who helps people build confidence in their bodies? Who understands that everybody has a history and every person deserves a supportive movement practice. The scope question isn't really about legal liability or professional boundaries. It's about values. It's about who you are and what you stand for. And if your values include accessibility, inclusion, and supporting people where they are, then learning how to work with students who have pain is not optional. It's essential. You don't have to become a yoga therapist if you don't want to. I found that yoga therapy courses don't even cover anatomy, pain and injuries anyway, but you do need an understanding of modern pain science. Learning how to create safe environments and getting comfortable with being a facilitator rather than a fixer. This is within every yoga teacher's capacity, including yours. So here is the truth that I really think that you need to hear the truth that this whole episode has been building towards. You are enough right now with the training you have. With the knowledge you have, with the experience you have, you don't need to become a physical therapist. You don't need to know everything about every condition. You need to understand that pain is a protective output from the brain. You need to know how to create environments where nervous systems feel safe. You need to use language that invites exploration rather than prescribes solutions. You need to offer options and trust students to make their own choices. And you can learn all of that. And once you understand those principles, you can work with students who have pain, not because you're fixing them or treating them or solving their medical problems, but because you're creating spaces where they can explore movement, build confidence and experience community. That's your scope, that's your value, that's your contribution, and the students who need you are waiting for you to step into this role. If what we talked about today resonates with you, if you're feeling that pull to shift from fear to confidence, From imposter syndrome to Embodied knowing, I always invite you to go deeper in my teaching. Students with Injuries, mentorship, we spend six months working on exactly this transformation, not just learning information about injuries and pain science, although we do do that, but actually shifting your mindset, building your confidence, and practicing these skills with real students. We work on the internal barriers, the thoughts that keep you stuck, the comparisons that make you feel small, the fears that make you say no. We practice having hard conversations. We look at your language and your teaching And help you create environments where students with pain feel welcome and you get personalized feedback. You get to ask about your specific students and your specific situations. This isn't just education, it's transformation, and you become the teacher that students with injuries specifically seek out because they know that you'll meet them where they are. You can learn more about the mentorship on my website. I'll link it below. And I also have a workshop called Within Your Scope that dives deeper into the scope of practice question and helps you get clear on what's truly your role. I'll also link that below. It's the Within Your Scope Workshop, and if you just wanna start with one small step, download my free Guide, the 10 Questions to Ask Yoga Students. it gives you ideas of what questions to ask that makes those initial interactions so much easier. Before we wrap up, I wanna leave you with this, your inner voice that says, who am I to help these people is the voice of imposter syndrome. And imposter syndrome is a liar. Let's just call it what it is. You are exactly who these students need, not because you know everything, not because you're perfect, but because you care enough to learn. You're willing to create safety, and you understand that people with pain deserve access to supportive movement practices. The the yoga world needs teachers who are willing to show up for the students who feel like they're broken or they don't belong, or they feel scared, or who feel like group classes are not for them. You can be that teacher. You already have what it takes. You just need to trust yourself enough to start. Thank you again for being here. Thank you for caring about your students enough to work through your own fears, and thank you for being willing to grow. If this episode helped you, please share it with another yoga teacher who might be struggling with the same doubts, and you could always send me a message on Instagram at Monica Cbr. I would love to hear what came up for you. I'll see you next week, and until then, remember, you are enough right now Exactly as you are. Okay, bye.