Paris yoga studios cut ties with teacher after misconduct allegations

Two Paris yoga studios ended their ties with a teacher after allegations of inappropriate adjustments, unwanted touching and a toxic climate, after a trainer gathered a dozen testimonies that led to an informal probe. The case lands at a sensitive fault line for studios: hands-on assists are part of the craft, but they also place unusual authority, and physical access, in the instructor’s hands.

That is why the allegations have resonated beyond one room in Paris. In yoga, consent is not an abstract principle. It plays out in real time, on the mat, when a student is told to relax, trust, or receive an adjustment from someone presented as the expert. When that power is abused, the harm can be hard to name at first and even harder to challenge. Studios that take this seriously need clear opt-in rules for touch, an easy way to refuse adjustments without embarrassment, and a complaints process that does not route every concern back through the teacher in question.

The Paris case also sits inside a wider reckoning in France and abroad. In late November 2023, French authorities arrested Gregorian Bivolaru, the Romanian founder of the Atman Yoga Federation, and 40 others on suspicion of sexual exploitation. French reporting said 26 women were freed during the police operation, and investigators later identified 56 women as potentially victimized. By December 2, 2023, 15 people had been indicted in the Paris yoga sect case and six had been jailed.

Outside France, the same patterns have surfaced again and again. A 2021 report in The Independent said harassment and discrimination in the United Kingdom’s yoga sector were serious enough that teachers formed their first union, with union officials warning that many instructors lacked basic workers’ rights. KQED has also noted the long history of sexual misconduct and abuse-of-power situations in yoga communities. The common thread is not a single bad actor, but a structure that can reward devotion, silence dissent and blur the line between guidance and control.

France’s High Authority on Equality has repeatedly warned that sexism remains at alarming levels, a reminder that yoga studios do not operate outside the culture around them. For Paris practitioners, the lesson is immediate: if a studio cannot explain exactly how it handles touch, consent and complaints, the atmosphere may already be part of the problem.