Yoga as Transformation Permanent Access Pass – Here Are Your Saturday AM Sessions

Click on the Title Link or Cover Picture of Each Session

Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., P.T. – All Alone By Myself: Developing a Home Practice in the Midst of a Busy Life

For most yoga practitioners, no matter how much we love our practice, establishing a regular home practice can be a challenge for people with busy schedules. In this interview, Judith Hanson Lasater discusses points that will help you discover what keeps you from the mat, as well as practical ideas for getting you there with enthusiasm.

Judith Hanson Lasater has been a yoga teacher for more than 40 years. She holds a doctorate in East West Psychology, is a physical therapist and the author of eight books including Relax and Renew, 30 Essential Yoga Poses, Living Your Yoga, and Yoga Body: Anatomy Kinesiology, and Asana. Judith has been a leading presence in shaping how yoga is taught and credentialed in the US, and she is much loved for the depth of knowledge she embodies.

John Schumacher – Prana and the Transformative Power of Yoga

Most anyone practicing yoga regularly over a period of time has felt their lives touched in profound ways by their practice. But from where does yoga derive its power to shift, change, and transform our lives – not only in terms of our physical health, but also our mental-emotional and even spiritual well-being? In this interview, renowned Iyengar yoga teacher John Schumacher of D.C.- based Unity Woods Yoga Center explores the concept of Prana, the life force that energizes every aspect of our existence. In our yoga practice we access Prana in numerous ways, says John, and we become more sensitive to the movements of Prana in our bodies. Through this practice, we tap into a profound transformational power and begin to uncover our own inner light.

John Schumacher is the founder and director of Unity Woods Yoga Center, Washington’s premier yoga studio. He has practiced yoga for more than 40 years and has taught in the Washington area since 1973. John continues to study in India with B.K.S. Iyengar, the world’s foremost Yoga teacher, and is a certified advanced Iyengar Yoga teacher, one of only 13 teachers in the U.S. to hold that level of certification. John’s clear, precise style and his engaging sense of humor have made him one of the country’s leading yoga teachers. Yoga Journal described him as “one of 25 originals shaping yoga in America.” He has written for or appeared in U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, The Washington Times, PBS, Yoga Journal, and many others.

Richard Miller: Pathways to Peace – How Yoga Builds Strength, Resilience and Courage

While some people are born with great resilience in the face of stress, it is also a quality that can developed. In this interview, Richard discusses the role yoga has to play in culturing resilience, strength, and courage. Richard also talks about his iRest® (Integrative Restoration) Yoga Nidra program, a technique to help release negative emotions, calm our nervous system, and develop positive self-care skills for meeting any and all of our life circumstances.

Richard C. Miller, PhD is a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, yogic scholar and spiritual teacher, whose teachings integrate the wisdom of Eastern and Western spirituality, psychology and philosophy. Richard is president of the Integrative Restoration Institute, co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapy, past president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology and a senior advisor to the Baumann Foundation. Author of The iRest Program for Healing PTSD (New Harbinger), Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga (Sounds True) and iRest Meditation: Restorative Practices for Health, Resiliency and Well-Being(Sounds True). 

Julie Gudmestad: Yoga and the American Body: It’s Not One Size Fits All

While ads and magazines would have us believe that everyone coming to yoga is as thin and flexible as a wet noodle, most beginning yoga students face physical challenges. In this talk, Julie overviews common muscular limitations (areas of weakness and tightness) as well as areas vulnerable to injury, and how to identify them, so that our students are able to safely access the benefits they’ve come to yoga for.

Julie Gudmestad has devoted her professional life to integrating the healing benefits of yoga with her medical training as a physical therapist. Her decades of patient care experience and 40 years of yoga teaching give her a unique teaching style that often focuses on the anatomy of asana or therapeutic applications of yoga. She owns a combined PT and Yoga studio in Portland, Oregon, teaches worldwide, and has published over 45 articles and columns in publications such as Yoga Journal and Yoga International.

Claudine Beeson: Give and Receive – Recharge and Restore with Hasta Mudra

This 60-minute practice with Claudine Beeson is about the delicate balance of giving of ourselves to those around us and receiving self-care, rest and time to restore. Hasta Mudra is the gesture or mudra in which we recycle our energy in order to be able to both give and receive without feeling depleted on either end. This class will warm the body through a series of sun salutations and then slow down so that we may find rest and release in longer held poses.

Claudine Beeson is the owner and director of the highly successful yoga studio Living Yoga in Aurora, and is known and loved among her students for her ability to make yoga equally accessible to every body. Claudine’s passion and true appreciation for the healing benefits of yoga is evident in her teaching. While she instructs with a strong sense of alignment, strength, and flexibility, she hopes to communicate most, the joy of yoga.