How can I build a teaching and yoga therapy role?

[Ponderingcareer]

I’m after some advice, really. I’ve never had a career as such, more a series of jobs which fitted what I needed at the time. Now I can see what I want to do, but it’s less clear to me quite how I get there.

i have most experience in teaching. I’ve worked in KS2, 3, 4, and 5, most recently in post-16 and SEND (anxiety and autism mostly). I qualified in 2007 but have been part time since 2011.
Currently I work in an FE college. I also teach yoga as a sideline, and have been a self employed tutor to top up my income, though I don’t have any tutees right now. I am qualified to teach 4 subjects but ideally I would like to stay with post-16.

I’ve also recently qualified as a yoga therapist. I’m registered with the CNHC and have additional training so I can work with under-18s. I would really like to combine teaching with yoga therapy and think it could be incredibly useful in schools and colleges given the mental health crisis among young people.

My boss is supportive verbally about using me in a therapeutic role (we have other therapist in our place, speech & language, occupational, psychological, so I’d be joining an existing team), but nothing has happened towards that in months, in fact I haven’t even seen her to talk to for months. This is frustrating but it’s not unusual for the college I work in. It took them 5 months to actually allow me to start work there (their slow processes, nothing about me).
I have met the AP for SEN recently and she was curious about how yoga therapy could support students and staff, but again it’s all very vague and not at all concrete.

I’ve also recently found out that my teaching pay (which is by the hour) is less than £20/hour and I’m gobsmacked at how miserly they are. We are only paid for contact hours and that’s the rate! Postgrad qual and almost 20 years experience, it feels insulting. Gyms pay closer to £30/hr for a yoga teacher with 200 hours training!

A job has come up back on main pay scale and I will apply (a friend sent it to me, I didn’t look for it), but can anyone advise me on how to create opportunities for my therapeutic work and whether I should start actively looking for other work, or if I should give the college more time?

If you’ve done a degree, postgraduate qualification and have been a teacher since 2007, it’s not really true that you haven’t had a career! You’ve been a teacher for nearly 20 years.

Pay in colleges is notoriously crappy but do you want to go into MPS at a school-teaching is pretty dreadful at the moment.

£30 an hour sounds good for that other role but presume you’d need other overheads-room hire, insurance etc which would affect that.

What about writing to local schools/ SENCos with some prices for what you offer therapeutically?

I have written to all the specialist settings locally as well as mainstream schools, only one even replied and that was to say they had no money.

I see what you mean about career but I suppose in my head a career implies an upward trajectory where you en up in a more secure or financially rewarding situation, but I’ve sort of Dodgem’ed around sideways and backwards, earning steadily less! I really need to increase my earnings and main teaching pay scale would be about 50% more than I get at the college for a similar time commitment each week. If I can offer a subject that’s mainly in sixth form, and avoid the KS3 classes, I’d probably cope with that.

Right, it sounds like that’s a bit of a non-starter then unless you can get into the home-ending circuit? Though that could be risky financially. Good luck going back into mainstream-I’ve just left as it was so awful, hopefully there are some good schools near to you.

What about businesses with all their wellbeing initiatives?

I’m not sure where to start with that- any tips?