Yoga Consultation Form Template
Midway through a first class, a student mentions — almost in passing — that they had knee surgery two years ago. The teacher adjusts on the spot, but the moment carries a lesson: whatever else yoga is, teaching begins with knowing who’s on the mat. Students rarely volunteer their history; not from secrecy, but because nobody asked at a moment when they had time to answer properly. A consultation form, sent before the first session, asks those questions when they can be answered thoughtfully — and turns the answers into a practice that fits the actual person.
The Body’s History, Told in Advance
The injury section is the form’s center of gravity, and it deserves more than a yes/no:
- What happened, and when — a long text prompt inviting the story: the old ankle fracture, the recurring low back episode, the shoulder that’s never been the same. Dates matter; a six-month-old injury and a twelve-year-old one live under different rules
- Current status — healed and strong, managed but present, or actively hurting? The distinction decides whether the teacher modifies, avoids, or builds around it
- Ongoing conditions — arthritis, hypermobility, pregnancy, high or low blood pressure, anything a doctor is managing. Not to practice medicine — to practice around reality
- What flares it — students often know precisely which movements aggravate their body; asking costs one question and prevents weeks of quiet suffering in class
A teacher holding this information before class one sequences differently: the student with the wrist issue never gets surprise weight-bearing, the one with the back history gets the modification offered privately rather than announced publicly.
How They Move, How They Live
Beyond injuries, the intake sketches the student’s physical life:
- Movement background — athlete, desk-bound, new to exercise entirely, returning after years away. A marathon runner’s hips and an office worker’s hips need different opening, whatever the pose list says
- Where they feel stuck — self-described tightness, weakness, or imbalance, in their own words. Students describe their bodies more accurately than any form can presume
- Experience with yoga itself — total newcomer, gym-yoga veteran, lapsed practitioner, trained teacher. The honest self-assessment shapes pacing from the first breath
What They’re Actually Looking For
Two students can attend the same class wanting opposite things. Ask directly:
- The goal behind the goal — flexibility and strength are the usual answers, but the follow-up matters: what would change in your life if you had them? Sleep, patience, a golf swing, climbing stairs without wincing — the real answer is what the teaching serves
- Preferred intensity — an opinion scale from gentle and restorative to physically demanding. Students who feel safe saying I want to be challenged get challenged; students who quietly wanted calm get it
- The timeline in their head — some students want a decade’s practice; some want to touch their toes by a wedding. Neither is wrong, but they’re taught differently
The Life Around the Practice
Yoga meets students where their week actually is, so the intake takes a quick read of it: sleep quality, stress load, the desk hours, the sport seasons, the meditation history. A student sleeping four hours and running on coffee needs a different first month than the one arriving rested and curious — and the teacher who knows adjusts before burnout or injury teaches the lesson first.
From Intake to Teaching
The answers become the practice plan:
- Review the submission before the first session and sequence the opening weeks around the findings — modifications chosen, pacing set, expectations calibrated
- Repeat the same short check-in each month — how the body feels, how the practice feels — so progress gets tracked in the student’s own terms
- Pre-fill returning students’ details so a re-assessment starts from their history rather than a blank page
- Duplicate the form as a quarterly review version for long-term students whose bodies and goals evolve
Private and semi-private teaching lives and dies on this knowledge — and for the sessions themselves, the booking form collection handles the scheduling side.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far back should I ask about injuries?
All the way — with dates. Old injuries resurface in practice more often than students expect, and it was twenty years ago doesn’t tell you how it presents on the mat today. The date plus the current status gives you the working picture: what’s history, what’s management, what’s active.
Should a student get medical clearance before starting?
For healthy students beginning gently, usually not. Where red flags appear on the intake — recent surgery, unmanaged cardiovascular conditions, pregnancy with complications — the right move is requesting a doctor’s note before vigorous practice. Write the condition into the form as a question rather than hoping it comes up in conversation.
Is this form for class students or just private clients?
Both, at different depths. Private clients deserve the full intake — the teaching is individual, so the knowledge must be too. For studio classes, a condensed version (injuries, conditions, experience, goals) gives every teacher covering a class the safety essentials without burdening the front desk with essays.
How often should a student's consultation be refreshed?
Annually as a full re-assessment, plus whenever something changes — a new injury, a pregnancy, a shift in goals. Bodies and lives move; an intake from three years ago is a portrait of someone who partly no longer exists. The duplicate feature makes refreshing painless enough to actually happen.
What if a student discloses something I'm not qualified to handle?
Then the form has earned its keep. Some disclosures — acute pain without diagnosis, cardiac histories, recent psychological crises — mean recommending medical input before or alongside practice, and saying so plainly. A teacher who refers appropriately is trusted more, not less; students read the referral as proof that everything else you say about safety can be believed.