About Me
I was first drawn to yoga through watching Rodney Yee’s yoga VHS tapes (remember those?) during my grad school days at UC Santa Barbara. While I wasn’t very flexible or able to do complex poses like headstand or crow pose (I still struggle), yoga resonated with me.
Unlike other movement modalities that always felt to me more focused on sheer physicality (e.g. losing weight, “being swole”), yoga offered me a way to accept my body and mind as they are, at the moment, without judgment.
I still struggle with the “doing” of yoga, but it’s this struggle that’s motivated me both as a teacher and practitioner towards a deeper study of yoga’s traditions as well as the latest approaches to yoga sequencing, postural techniques, and anatomy.
In July 2022, I completed my 300-hr Yoga Teacher Certification with Jason Crandell, widely considered a “teacher’s teacher,” and “one of the teachers shaping the future of yoga,” by Yoga Journal. I am currently registered as an RYT-500 HR Yoga Teacher and an E-RYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher) with Yoga Alliance.
What I Offer
In-Studio Classes
Member of the YMCA? Take a class with me at the South Bay YMCA (Chula Vista, CA), or aat the Copley-Price YMCA (San Diego, CA). See my class schedule.
Private Classes
I offer individual and small group private lessons either in-person or via Zoom. Please email me for more information and to check for current availability and pricing.
Yoga Series and Workshops
I occasionally offer online and in-person yoga workshops and series. Subscribe to my newsletter and be the first to receive news on my latest offerings.
My Yoga Teaching Philosophy
Drawing on my extensive experience as a college professor, I bring to the teaching of yoga a commitment to offering yoga students updated and sensible approaches to yoga that draw upon a modern, accurate, and contemporary understanding of how bodies work.
I believe students learn best when presented with a consistent, methodical, and progressive teaching method. This “curriculum-based” focus is not simply about practicing asanas (poses), with one class rarely relating to another, but it’s an approach dedicated to cultivating mindfulness, skill, balance, and precision over time.
I strongly believe that “simple postures executed well” is much better than pushing oneself to execute difficult poses without care, awareness, or equanimity. That’s an unsustainable approach that will lead to burnout and disappointment.
Instead, we should use the practice of yoga as a vehicle for understanding the experience of being in our bodies, minds, and breath with greater awareness, clarity, and humility. That for me is what makes yoga yoga and not some other exercise or fitness regimen we might do to get “in-shape” or “be swole.”