n 2002, I walked into a yoga class at my gym. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical that I’d get a good “workout” from doing yoga. Much to my surprise, I was struggling for balance in every pose. I found it astounding that yoga required so much strength! After each yoga class, I found myself having an incredible sense of peace and connection. But I didn’t know why.
As a field hockey and crew athlete in high school and college, I was so used to pushing myself; yoga was inviting me to balance that effort with ease, to soften, and to be compassionate with and accepting of myself. That was so novel to the hard-driving athlete in me. I was curious though, and I wanted to learn more. So I continued going to the yoga classes at my gym until I felt comfortable enough to enter an actual yoga studio. I continued to practice and explore various yoga traditions. I tried Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa flow, power yoga, hot yoga, aerial yoga, Bhakti yoga, and more. I learned something from each style and lineage. Over the years, I have studied with senior instructors, such as Doug Keller, Desiree Rumbaugh, Gary Kraftsow, Leslie Kaminoff, John Friend, Martin Kirk, Cat McCarthy, Lois Nesbitt and Mitchell Bleier.
My love for, and belief in the practice, grew to the point that, in 2015, I decided to leave my career in advertising to become a full-time yoga instructor. I completed my RYT® 200 yoga certification teacher training at Springs Yoga Studio (Atlanta, GA) in 2015. Since then, I have taught in various studios, corporate settings, private schools, and I also volunteer-teach at a mental health facility called Skyland Trail. In June of 2020, I completed a RYT® 500 yoga certification through Asheville Yoga Center in North Carolina. Even with these certifications, I feel I will be a student of yoga forever!
Through these years of practice and leading classes, I have developed a teaching style described as welcoming, safe, alignment-based, empowering, and challenging. When you take a yoga class with me, you can expect to link rhythmic breathing with movement, to be offered modifications to poses, if needed, and to move to great music. You may also learn something about anatomy and how yoga philosophy can help in your daily life