My training and teachings combine a variety of hatha yoga styles including Ashtanga, Iyengar, Tibetan Heart, Vinyasa, Sivananda, White Lotus, Tripsichore, Yoga Tune Up®, Smart Flow®, and Pranakriya. These varying styles have differing approaches and qualities to be combined and explored to create rich classes. Depending on circumstance, you must to be able to assess the body, mind, and spirit to determine the best application of this knowledge. So, like a well-stocked toolbox, when faced with a task at hand you want to draw on the most appropriate tool to effectively create desired outcomes. I use this breadth of tools and human-development technology to craft unique public classes and focused private sessions.
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Taoist internal martial arts and qi cultivation practices are at the foundation of my Path. These centering methods set the groundwork for a profound exploration of the self and our relationships with life. My martial arts education and teaching combine schools of thought from Taoist qigong, Ma Family Northern Cannon Boxing, Yiquan, Zhaobao Taijiquan, Baguazhang, including practices with long staff and jian/straight sword. Despite common misconceptions, I teach these practices as artful methods of self-cultivation. Aspects of personal protection may be drawn on when required, but the teachings spiral around the notion of Wude, which holds virtue and morality supreme.
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Whether in public or private format, I look to what is best for students in the moment. Even if I arrive with a plan, I recognize we must be able to adapt to circumstance. This is the way of living in simple and easy harmony with our days; though this does not imply that all will be easy. As a teacher I must be warden of tradition and knowledge, and steward of the student(s). So I wisely adapt, knowing when to challenge or instead draw back before overextension. I hope that my transmissions only help and heal, opening the door for you to travel your personal Path.
Challenges with body, mind, heart and spirit continually crop up on our Paths - these are some of the wonders of life that provide opportunity for continual growth. But that does not mean we should settle for suffering. Whether traumatic or chronic in nature, my skill set allows me to draw from multiple modalities to address injury, stagnation, or insufficiency. Working together, we can tailor a practical path to lead you towards R & R, Rehabilitation and Remediation. R & R will either empower with tools to address the dis-ease and relieve the discomforting stressors, or entirely eradicate them and restore you to the level of life mobility, stability, peace and comfort you desire. Example areas for R & R include but are not limited to:
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| Studio | Location | Class times |
|---|---|---|
| Bala Yoga | Kirkland | Mondays 9:30-10:45am |
| Sutra Yoga | Wallingford | Mondays and Fridays 5:30-6:45pm |
| Shefayoga | Roosevelt | Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:45am Tuesdays and Fridays Noon-1:00pm |
*see appropriate websites for studio and class specifics
Private sessions, typically in home or another adequate space, are tailored to the individual(s), and draw on all of my experience and instructional modalities to address needs and desired areas of exploration or education. Price structure can range from $85-$150 per session based on number of students involved, travel time, session length, content, and frequency. Do not hesitate to contact me to discuss individual situations.
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Current Workshop Offerings (can be custom tailored to Studio, Corporate, Athletic, and Private settings, including adjustment in time and content)
1. Save Your Wrists, Save the World - A Yoga Workshop for Shoulder to Wrist Health
Addressing anatomy and techniques to empower individuals to remediate and improve shoulder girdle to fingertip functionality, and get a handle on nagging pain. Give yourself solid healthy shoulders, tempered arms, and wrists of steel. Give up not knowing what to do, and suffer no more. Free yourself to focus on being the change. Save Your Wrists, Save the World. Customizable: 30min to 2-2.5 hrs
2. Love Your Body, Love Everybody - A Therapy Workshop in Fascia Release and Self Massage from the Yoga Tune Up System
Exploring self therapy in both upper and lower body anatomies, includes breathwork, varying approaches to different structural areas, and personal injuries. 2 hrs (includes a set of therapy balls)
3. Uddiyana - Where did she go? How do I find her?
Uncovering Uddiyana Bandha, methods for finding "it", its anatomical relation to the pelvis, diaphragm, back, and how it connects the tubular core (and dantians) and energetically affects the limbs (and almost all asana); pranayama techniques and influence, bellows breathing, false thoracic breath (tagadi mudra), and more... 2-2.5 hrs
4. Cultivating Sat Guru - Developing and Refining an Intimate Personal Practice
Delving deep into the motivation for practice and how to tap Sat Guru (your "inner teacher"). Workshop will help define personal needs/interests, how to form a weekly routine, personalized sequencing, intuitive flow, and tracking progress. Requires a 2+ year diligent yoga practice. The point being to fill the gaps when class times are not right, you're traveling, or when your body/mind/spirit needs to just go it's own way when advanced practice is achieved (and defining what that really means). 2-2.5 hrs
5. Connecting to Your Personal Grace - Finesse Your Flow and Make it Your Own
Teaching connected engagement of your body to free, align, and tap its fascial networks and energy channels (meridians/nadis). Will cover fine details in pranayama and body manipulation, movement timing, the dance of body coordination, footwork, hasta/pada bandha (hand and foot participation), personal and spiritual freedom, and how they all influence a conscious mobility practice and more. 2-2.5 hrs
6. Warrior of Light - A Yoga Workshop for the Heroic Human
An amalgam of brave and daring approaches to life, drawing on multiple traditions and philosophies (Yogic, Taoist, and contemporary), and including a intro to The Wind Horse Way. 2-2.5 hrs
7. Intro to Yoga Tune Up
Workshops for asana/body therapy. Conducted as either a general introduction to the YTU system or with functional area-specific design. These would be taught as Yoga Tune Up by me as a certified Yoga Tune Up teacher. 2-2.5hrs
8. The Wind Horse Way - A Melding of Conscious Mobility Arts
Bringing the essences of Hatha Yoga asana/pranayama and Taoist Qigong and Neijia (internal) Martial Arts (ie. Taiji, Bagua, and Xingyi) together in a unique mind-body mobility practice. Includes Wind Horse Way base sequences, original Wind Horse Way mobility series flows, and teachings on the varying approaches of these philosophical and spiritual traditions. From one to series workshops, 2-2.5 hrs each.