My yoga training is comprehensive and includes many types of yoga. Styles I have studied include Vinyasa, Restorative, Yin, Yoga Therapeutics and Intentional Sequencing in addition to Ayurveda wisdom. This depth supports my passion to teach women how to use yoga to relieve stress, anxiety and feelings of overwhelm in every day life not just on their yoga mat.
Yoga Teacher Training Credentials
I have been practicing yoga for over 20 years. Much of my yoga teacher training happened through the generous instructors and programs at Five Pillars Yoga in New York City. My teachers and mentors included Olga Pallodino, Erika Mehiel, Karen Mehiel and David Marshall. I have also completed training with Lauren Harris, Stefanie Eris, Alana Layne Greenberg and Jason Crandell. I am forever a student! Other teachers that inspire me include: Judith Lasater, Cyndi Lee, Kia Miller, and Brett Larkin.
Now for some TMI...
Why? If I am going to be your yoga teacher I think it is helpful for you to get to know me a little bit better.
My Personal Yoga Story
My therapist (yup!) sent me to my first yoga class when I was in my twenties. The thoughts in my head were non-stop and extremely stressful.
She suggested I try yoga. I can still remember my first class and the relief I felt. Today I am in my 50's and the yoga has supported me through many life stages.
Life upheaval can bring about life changing lessons but we need to know how to find them.
My first major adult life change was having my children. Since I was sixteen I was always focused on my work and my career. I was pretty surprised when I found myself crying at my desk for over a year after my first child was born. Navigating this deep sadness took some deep soul searching, brutal honesty and the willingness to listen to and accept my own inner voice. At this point I began to hear my yoga teachers in a whole new way.
I got curious about slowing down. I decided to test the waters and see if in fact slowing down would ruin my life or maybe (I hoped) I would feel better and still be successful in my life.
When my second child was born I left my corporate job to be home with my two boys. What is important here is that I learned through yoga to trust my most inner desires even if they seemed impossible or against what everyone else wanted for me.
My Yoga practice taught me skills for daily life.
When I was 44 I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer after a routine mammogram.
This was not expected. I have no immediate family history. Over the next year, I underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. Of course I wish this had never happened. However, the gift was I had no choice but to slow down. After my surgery yoga classes were my haven away from a busy household with two children and a husband. I spent most of each class (which by the way were vinyasa flow classes not restorative) in childs pose or savasana. I did not know it at the time but this was incredibly healing and transformative.
Slowing down and practicing Yoga that was right for me gave me the inner strength to weather life's bigger challenges as well as feel good mentally and physically.
Just as I was coming out of recovery from breast cancer, my mom had a massive stroke. This event changed me and my life in deep, indescribable ways. Not only did I have to navigate losing my mom as I knew her after the most significant health challenge in my life, but I also became overseer of her affairs for five years until she passed.
This was the hardest thing I have ever gone through.
Life is messy. Which is why this zen proverb is one of my favorites.
"May we exist like a lotus at ease in the muddy water."
All of this is to say that I know what it's like when your priorities shift in profound and disorienting ways.
If you want to be in a stress-relieving, non-competitive space you are in the right place.
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