river

yoga INSTRUCTOR

Pronouns: They/Them

Teaching Style: Supportive, Nerdy, Compassionate

Favorite Pose: Lounge Lizard. This pose comes at the end of a back bending class in Forrest yoga. Its a beautiful resting side bend that eases your body out of the deep work of backbends, and the image of being a lounging lizard makes me laugh like a little kid!

Bio: I have been teaching yoga since completing my teacher training in Tempe, AZ in 2017. My time in the desert started a wave of change that still affects the ways I show up every day. After sustaining a neck injury in 2019, I had to rethink movement and consider self-care from a whole new starting place. My passion was sparked by diving into the anatomical aspects of yoga; so much so that I am currently enrolled at D’Youville College in Buffalo, NY for Chiropractic!

In 2020, I added Forrest Yoga into my regular practice after falling in love with the way it challenges me and asks me to trust myself. I experience immense healing from my yoga practice, especially as a means of easing my injuries, soothing and rebalancing my nervous system, and connecting more deeply to my spirit. My yoga practice has been an integral part of learning to take time for myself, learning how to take up space, and understanding that I am enough and I have enough time. Beyond this, I live for seeing the sweaty peacefulness and sense of internal focus in the faces of my students as they lie in Savasana. I want nothing more than to share the medicine and magic I have felt and learned throughout my studies, especially with the trans and queer communities that I am a part of.

As a teacher, I love guiding students to slow down and feel deeply in order to foster bodily awareness and a sense of belonging in their movement practice, with the added bonus of deepening connection to their core (the physical one and the emotional one). I am currently working toward balancing more play and lightness and deep dives into body work, muscle activation, and pose variations in my classes.

Sometimes we need a safe space to laugh just as bad as we need a safe space to cry!