About Me
My work is informed by my own personal experiences with injury and rehabilitation. In each instance, I successfully used yoga asana, meditation, and philosophy, in combination with self myofascial release, to facilitate my own healing journey—both physical pain and mental/emotional suffering.
With my broken ankle, I had four surgeries, received six screws and a plate, and was unable to walk for over four months.
It was extremely humbling to lose the capacity to do basic tasks and movements I had taken for granted all my life. Ultimately, as I recovered, I gained greater confidence in my ability to persevere. I now feel a sense of empowerment knowing that I can heal through my own actions, informed by ancient wisdom together with contemporary therapies.
On a professional level, these injuries have been extremely informative to my work. Adaptive ways to do poses, new ideas about what yoga is truly about, and greater empathy and compassion for my students all emerged. My goal is to guide and assist my clients in their own empowerment and their capacity to heal themselves. My heartfelt intention is to develop my clients’ potential to experience greater confidence and contentment.
I have been practicing yoga for over 20 years and instructing for over a decade. I have over 2000 hours of training:
Student of Iyengar Yoga with an emphasis on Restoratives and Inversions (1997-2001)
Anusara/Hatha teacher training with former senior teacher, Katchie Ananda (2013-2014)
800-hour Yoga Therapy teacher training through the Niroga Institute (2015-2016)
Vippasana meditation retreats (2015-2016)
Buddhist and Hindu philosophy and Insight meditation with Will Kabat-Zinn and Sean Feit Oaks (2015-2019)
Partner yoga and Thai massage workshops and retreats with Alok Rocheleau and Anjeli Mahendra (2017-2018)
Thai Massage Training Level 1, Thai Massage School Shivagakomarpaj in Thailand (2019)
Thai Massage Training Level 1 and 2 Certification through Still Light Center (2020-2021)
Student of Morehouse, an intentional community focused on group living and self-awareness (ongoing)
The yoga therapy components of my yoga and meditation instruction are based on the IAYT, not derived from my status as an RYT® with Yoga Alliance Registry.
Through my journey toward self-understanding and self-care that I found with yoga, I am now experiencing living at my ideal weight. While weight loss is not my primary focus as a yoga instructor, I welcome the opportunity to work with those seeking a healthier relationship to food. I am inspired to offer guidance, support and accountability, working together with you to discern the difference between physical hunger and spiritual hunger.
As a child and young adult, I was overweight and struggled with my self-esteem. I used food as an anesthetic to self-soothe and cope with the stress of life. In my early twenties, at a doctor’s visit, I was shocked and scared when I was told that I was technically obese.
And then I found yoga. Every day in class was a new exploration of sensations that connected me more and more to myself. As my practice deepened I learned to appreciate my body and take better care of it. In my late twenties I found myself ready to make some big changes to my eating habits. Around that time I also began studying Buddhism and yogic philosophy. Moderation is a central principle of these philosophies. The Buddha called it the Middle Way – the path between the extremes of self-indulgence and the subjugation of appetites or desires by self-denial. Yoga Sutra II.38 says that a balanced life is characterized by moderation in all things.
I began listening to my body when it was full, eating smaller portions, and doing periodic cleanses. My body felt better, movement was easier, and my mental and physical health improved.
From there, my eating habits further evolved due to my observations about the state of the planet. In Buddhism and Hinduism, Ahimsa means respect for all living things and avoiding violence towards others. Along with the yoga postures, Ahimsa is part of the eight-limbed yoga path. For me, the decision to eat ethically means having a whole-foods, plant-based diet with almost no animal products.
All exercise, including yoga, can support weight loss if done in tandem with healthy eating habits. The gift of yoga is that it offers both a physical practice of exercise and guidelines for how to eat in ways that are healthy for ourselves, animals and the planet.