Reiki Private Instruction

I have been a poet since I was a little girl. I have been a yogi since I was young woman; I took my first class in 1991 and began teaching in 1995. for a long time I thought these were separate endeavors. now they have unified; yoga is my poetry. in teaching I get to speak to people, to anyone who shows up, about being and bones, about guts and blood, breath and divinity. my poetry now consists of movement and stillness, silence and language, body and breath. it weaves and grows, takes place in and is fed by the consciousness of everyone who chooses to be present for it. I am absolutely grateful for the opportunity to serve the world in this way.

Yoga is an ancient and living oral tradition. It consists of many lineages. As a yogi, I steep myself in as many of these lineages as I can in order to expand my knowing and being. As a teacher, I draw from these varied traditions in order to create a practice that suits those present at the moment as fully as I can. I call this atha yoga. Union now, at this auspicious moment of transition.

Influences and training

My teaching is influenced by my study of yoga with Saul David Raye, Angela Farmer and Victor van Kooten, Sri Louise, and studies of Thai Yoga Massage, Reiki, and Vipassana meditation. My teaching is influenced by observation of my cats lolling in the afternoon sun, the fiddleheads of ferns unfurling in the yard, the redwood moving in the wind outside my studio, and the poetry of Mary Oliver and Rumi.

My desire to serve each student uniquely and well has led to extensive studies in various yogic traditions and therapeutic adaptations. My original studies were in the gentle, contemplative style of Integral Yoga; at their Institute I was trained throughout 1995 in their Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced formats. I have gone on to become a master teacher in this tradition; a teacher of teachers myself, and in this capacity I serve as a member of the IYI Teacher Training Faculty. Other trainings have included the vigorous, hands-on Astanga Primary series with David Swenson, Whole Birth Prenatal Yoga with Robin Sales, and Therapeutic Yoga for People with Multiple Sclerosis with Eric Small. As a graduate of Jnani Chapman, RN's rigorous Adaptive Yoga for People with Cancer program, I teach at UCSF Medical Center's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. I am a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 500) with the Yoga Alliance, a national organization which seeks to create standards of excellence in training and performance of teachers from within the yoga community.

There are also joyful studies in complementary disciplines. Dr. Eric Rubin is my Reiki teacher; I hold the title of Reiki Master and have begun to teach Reiki as well as offering healing sessions in this form of energy work. Studying Thai Yoga Massage with Saul David Raye has made new tools of my hands, feet, and elbows, and I now offer Thai Yoga Massage sessions.

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