I also have a Masters’ degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and over 17 years experience in the human services field working primarily with adolescents and young adults. This experience has assisted me in providing more of a holistic approach to healing when working with my students.
I truly believe that yoga is therapeutic for the mind, body and spirit.
I began practicing yoga in 1999 after I got a promotion at work and felt my stress level increase drastically. I knew I needed to find a way to effectively deal with my stress so it would not eventually impact my health. I immediately fell in love with yoga and wanted to learn more. After four years of practice I took my first teacher training to become a certified instructor. I have known for years that yoga is my therapy on many levels. I truly believe that yoga is therapeutic for the mind, body and spirit. After doing some research about what I could do as a yoga teacher to share this practice with more people, I discovered Integrative Yoga Therapy and went on to get certified as a Professional Yoga Therapist. Integrative Yoga Therapy promotes health and healing at a physical, emotional and spiritual level. It provides an experiential approach utilizing all the tools of yoga: asana, pranayama, mantra, mudra, yoga nidra and meditation. This is what I love about Integrative Yoga Therapy. It allows students of all levels the opportunity for personal growth through their journey to well-being. My love for learning and yoga continued through other studies. I have over 200 hours of study in Anusara yoga, an alignment based practice, which I believe is the safest for the body, therefore potentially healing. I have used yoga to help heal my own body, most recently to rehabilitate after knee surgery.While studying yoga, I discovered Ayurveda
and realized I wanted to learn more about this ancient science. Ayurveda is connected to and naturally aligns with yoga, so it made sense to continue to study this and eventually work toward bringing them together as an offering. I studied a great deal of Ayurveda though my studies with Integrative Yoga Therapy and then went on to complete my practitioner certification through New World Ayurveda. I believe that Ayurveda is a great adjunct to Western medicine. Especially for those who want to be proactive in preventing illness and heal using natural remedies.