Section 1: Ethical Guidelines
General Ethical Guidelines
(a) Tantra Alliance teachers understand and appreciate that teaching Tantra or facilitating a Tantra workshop/retreat is a noble and ennobling endeavor that aligns them with a long line of honorable teachers.
(b) The teachers are committed to maintaining impeccable standards of professional competence and integrity.
(c) The teachers are committed to promoting the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well‐being of their students.
(d) The teachers abstain from giving medical advice unless they have the necessary medical qualifications. Additionally, they never force their own opinions on students.
(e) The teachers avoid any discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin.
(f) The teachers avoid speaking negatively about other teachers, schools, traditions, and health modalities. Additionally, they treat other teachers and colleagues in a respectful manner.
(g) The teachers obtain consent from students before photographing, audio or video tape recording, or permitting third party observation of Tantra sessions. They ask students’ permission before adding any photo or video on any social media platform.
Section 2: Competence
Personal Problems and Conflicts
(a) The teachers refrain from initiating an activity when they know or should know that there is a substantial likelihood that their personal problems will prevent them from performing their work-related activities in a competent manner.
(b) The teachers become aware of personal problems that may interfere with their performing work-related duties adequately; they take appropriate measures, obtaining professional supervision, to determine whether they should limit, suspend, or terminate their work-related duties. Professional supervision is consultation of the teacher with another experienced teacher, and who is uninvolved in the matters for which the teacher seeks professional counsel.
Drug and Alcohol Use
The teachers never provide professional services while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If taking prescribed medication, it is the responsibility of the teacher to consult with their medical physician regarding any side effects that could potentially impair their functioning or judgment in their professional duties.
Section 3: Student-Teacher Relationships
Tantra teachers, like all health practitioners, are in a unique relationship of trust with their students. The professional relationship is an unequal relationship, which results in a power imbalance.
This imbalance is due to the teacher’s position of authority and specialized knowledge in relation to the student’s own health. A student’s desire to improve his/her own health leads to a need to establish trust in the professional much more quickly and completely than he/she might do otherwise. If the teacher uses this position of power to violate boundaries, the teacher is abusing his/her power.
When boundaries relating to personal dignity, privacy, control, and professional detachment are breached, it can lead to or be perceived as sexual abuse. The teachers are responsible for setting and managing boundaries to ensure that the trust a student has placed in the teacher is not betrayed.
In setting boundaries, teachers need to work to ensure that the student is progressing in a helpful direction and that their words and actions will not be misinterpreted by the student.
Sexual Behaviour with Current Students
Teachers do not engage in sexual behaviour with current students. Sexual behaviour is defined, but not limited to, all forms of overt or covert seductive speech, gestures, and behaviour as well as physical contact of a sexual kind.
Sexual Behaviour with Former Students
(a) Once the teacher-student relationship has been explicitly terminated and three months have passed, the teacher and student may choose to engage in sexual behaviour, providing no ethics have been violated under this code.
(b) Meeting the appropriate waiting periods before engaging in sexual behaviour with students may not alone meet the standards for an ethical relationship.
Punitive Teaching Methods
It is never appropriate for the teachers to use punitive measures in their teaching methodology. Verbal abuse, in which demeaning language or humiliation is used or inappropriate references to a student’s anatomy are made, is unethical. Other unethical teaching methodologies include, but are not limited to, slapping, hitting, grabbing, pulling, pushing, hair-pulling, stepping on feet, or threatening violence for non-compliance.
Section 4: Privacy and Confidentiality
These guidelines are meant to protect the student’s personal information and provide a basis for developing trust between the teacher and the student.
Maintaining Confidentiality
The teachers have a primary obligation and take reasonable precautions to protect confidential information obtained through or stored in any medium, recognizing that the extent and limits of confidentiality may be regulated by law or established by institutional rules or professional relationships.
Disclosures
(a) The teachers may disclose confidential information with written consent of the student or another legally authorized person on behalf of the student unless prohibited by law.
(b) The teachers may disclose confidential information without the consent of the individual only as mandated by law, or where permitted by law for a valid purpose such as to (1) provide needed professional services; (2) obtain appropriate professional supervision; (3) protect the student, Tantra teacher, or others from harm; or (4) obtain payment for services from a student, in which instance the disclosure is limited to the minimum that is necessary to achieve the purpose.
Non-Solicitation
Teachers agree not to solicit or accept personal business from school students without the express permission of the school they represent.
General Ethical Guidelines
(a) Tantra Alliance teachers understand and appreciate that teaching Tantra or facilitating a Tantra workshop/retreat is a noble and ennobling endeavor that aligns them with a long line of honorable teachers.
(b) The teachers are committed to maintaining impeccable standards of professional competence and integrity.
(c) The teachers are committed to promoting the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well‐being of their students.
(d) The teachers abstain from giving medical advice unless they have the necessary medical qualifications. Additionally, they never force their own opinions on students.
(e) The teachers avoid any discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin.
(f) The teachers avoid speaking negatively about other teachers, schools, traditions, and health modalities. Additionally, they treat other teachers and colleagues in a respectful manner.
(g) The teachers obtain consent from students before photographing, audio or video tape recording, or permitting third party observation of Tantra sessions. They ask students’ permission before adding any photo or video on any social media platform.
Section 2: Competence
Personal Problems and Conflicts
(a) The teachers refrain from initiating an activity when they know or should know that there is a substantial likelihood that their personal problems will prevent them from performing their work-related activities in a competent manner.
(b) The teachers become aware of personal problems that may interfere with their performing work-related duties adequately; they take appropriate measures, obtaining professional supervision, to determine whether they should limit, suspend, or terminate their work-related duties. Professional supervision is consultation of the teacher with another experienced teacher, and who is uninvolved in the matters for which the teacher seeks professional counsel.
Drug and Alcohol Use
The teachers never provide professional services while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If taking prescribed medication, it is the responsibility of the teacher to consult with their medical physician regarding any side effects that could potentially impair their functioning or judgment in their professional duties.
Section 3: Student-Teacher Relationships
Tantra teachers, like all health practitioners, are in a unique relationship of trust with their students. The professional relationship is an unequal relationship, which results in a power imbalance.
This imbalance is due to the teacher’s position of authority and specialized knowledge in relation to the student’s own health. A student’s desire to improve his/her own health leads to a need to establish trust in the professional much more quickly and completely than he/she might do otherwise. If the teacher uses this position of power to violate boundaries, the teacher is abusing his/her power.
When boundaries relating to personal dignity, privacy, control, and professional detachment are breached, it can lead to or be perceived as sexual abuse. The teachers are responsible for setting and managing boundaries to ensure that the trust a student has placed in the teacher is not betrayed.
In setting boundaries, teachers need to work to ensure that the student is progressing in a helpful direction and that their words and actions will not be misinterpreted by the student.
Sexual Behaviour with Current Students
Teachers do not engage in sexual behaviour with current students. Sexual behaviour is defined, but not limited to, all forms of overt or covert seductive speech, gestures, and behaviour as well as physical contact of a sexual kind.
Sexual Behaviour with Former Students
(a) Once the teacher-student relationship has been explicitly terminated and three months have passed, the teacher and student may choose to engage in sexual behaviour, providing no ethics have been violated under this code.
(b) Meeting the appropriate waiting periods before engaging in sexual behaviour with students may not alone meet the standards for an ethical relationship.
Punitive Teaching Methods
It is never appropriate for the teachers to use punitive measures in their teaching methodology. Verbal abuse, in which demeaning language or humiliation is used or inappropriate references to a student’s anatomy are made, is unethical. Other unethical teaching methodologies include, but are not limited to, slapping, hitting, grabbing, pulling, pushing, hair-pulling, stepping on feet, or threatening violence for non-compliance.
Section 4: Privacy and Confidentiality
These guidelines are meant to protect the student’s personal information and provide a basis for developing trust between the teacher and the student.
Maintaining Confidentiality
The teachers have a primary obligation and take reasonable precautions to protect confidential information obtained through or stored in any medium, recognizing that the extent and limits of confidentiality may be regulated by law or established by institutional rules or professional relationships.
Disclosures
(a) The teachers may disclose confidential information with written consent of the student or another legally authorized person on behalf of the student unless prohibited by law.
(b) The teachers may disclose confidential information without the consent of the individual only as mandated by law, or where permitted by law for a valid purpose such as to (1) provide needed professional services; (2) obtain appropriate professional supervision; (3) protect the student, Tantra teacher, or others from harm; or (4) obtain payment for services from a student, in which instance the disclosure is limited to the minimum that is necessary to achieve the purpose.
Non-Solicitation
Teachers agree not to solicit or accept personal business from school students without the express permission of the school they represent.
