Yoga Teacher Trainings

Richard Freeman, Teacher’s Intensive, Nov. 2001

RF, Advanced Teacher’s Intensive (Kena Upanishad) Nov. 2003

Rodney Yee Teacher Trainings (weeklong), 2002, 2005, 2006

Trish O’ Reilly and Brian Dorfman, Year Apprenticeship in Viniyoga- 2000

OM Yoga Teacher Training, 1999 (200hr)

Teaching Path—The Highlights

The Beginnings

I began teaching in NYC at Park Slope Yoga Center among other studios, right after my teacher training at OM Yoga, 1999.  Shortly thereafter, hungry for more training I returned to my original yoga teachers, Trish O’Rielly and Brian Dorfman for a one-on-one apprenticeship in Viniyoga. I worked directly with Brian and Trish observing yoga privates and bodywork clients, participating in sessions (Brian would work on one side, I would work on other), studying the sutras, and learning about the traditional model of a teacher/student relationship.  I worked with about 10 yoga therapy students and was under direct supervision, with Brian or Trish looking over my sequences and observing sessions.  I worked with cases ranging from depression to MS to unexplainable joint pain and stiffness to whiplash.  This experience is what stoked the fire for me to go to Rolfing school.  I saw that my yoga students really needed quality bodywork.  When they received good bodywork, the power of the yoga increased immensely and their symptoms were relieved a lot faster.

Rolfing was the most powerful method of bodywork that I had received so when I learned that Rolfing school was in the same town as Richard Freeman, there was nothing holding me back.  Upon completing my year apprenticeship and resolving my caseload, I moved to Boulder, CO in late 2001.

Boulder- the Training Ground Continues

I began studying at Richard Freeman’s, the Yoga Workshop, daily.  I spread my Rolfing training out in a way that I could take the month long Teacher’s Intensive, which included a weekend of silence and cadaver labs. (Both were great)  Over the five years that I lived in Boulder (broken up by trips to India and Brazil), I assisted Richard on a weekly basis for over a year and then in Mysore classes on occasion.  I taught at the Yoga Workshop for 3 years.  I also taught from 4-6 classes a week at a Boulder studio called Studio Be, a studio dedicated to following internal rhythms, leading to an exploratory and organic practice. I was in heaven! A perfect combination- teaching at the Yoga Workshop where I chanted Vedas, taught classical philosophy and internal (and external!!) forms of Ashtanga yoga and then at Studio Be, where my creativity and feminine energy as well as my Feldenkrais explorations could evolve.

Brazil Chapter

When I moved from Boulder to Brazil, the form of my teaching changed. I taught in a retreat setting where people came for a healthy vacation and yoga was slipped in the back door.  It was unexpectedly another incredibly rewarding teaching experience. People came afraid of yoga, and left with yoga as one of their favorite parts of the program.  I loved guiding people through a 6 day transformational journey of discovery of Ilha Grande and Paraty, two Brazilian paradises, and the inward terrain that they did  not often have time to tend to in their busy daily lives.  I was able to usher many people onto the path of yoga practice.

A move to Rio de Janeiro for the birth of my daughter brought more changes- namely teaching in Portuguese.  Beyond challenging and very humbling. I taught weekly classes at Blyss Yoga.  I taught segments of teacher trainings at Blyss Yoga in Ipanema and at Shiva Studio in Laranjeiras.

Teaching Teachers

The next milestone was this year.  On my tenth anniversary of teaching yoga, I co-led a teacher training with my dear friend and respected yogini, Sara Stover, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  We led 20 students through a 30 day residential teacher training at the 200- hr. level.  It was a fascinating and intense journey requiring tremendous presence and honesty.  It was exhilarating to explain how I observe what I observe, how I teach what I teach- to demystify the magic without losing the magic.

Brazil Chapter Reopened

Will keep you posted, but it for sure includes :

• Celebrating Sacred Femininity- workshops for women that include yoga, movement, writing, eating, playing and laughing together,
• Teacher Trainings, Birth Support,
• Yoga Intensives, and
• Collaborating to bring incredible teachers to Rio.

Related Yoga Study Experience

Assist both Rodney Yee and Richard Freeman at Yoga Journal conferences (Estes Park, CO, and San Francisco)

Assisted Richard weekly for one year (Sunday level 1 class)

Annual workshops with Gabriella Giubilaro

Influential teachings from Erich Schiffman and Kofi Busia

Jivamukti (1998)—daily practice

Bodywork Training

Guild for Structural Integration- the work of Ida P. Rolf

Certification April 2002 – Boulder, CO

Practitioning with David Davis and Jeff Linn

Auditing with Peter Melchior and Liz Stewart

Formal University Study

University of Denver

Elementary Teaching Certificate, 2006

Northwestern University

Valedictiorian BS, Social Policy/ African-American Studies, 1997

Brown University

1991-1993