I teach Iyengar yoga private and public classes.

I specialize in prenatal and postnatal yoga.

I teach classes and workshops in Hypnobirthing for couples. (Hypnobirthing)

More About Me

People often ask me how I became interested in yoga. A boy friend at the time had known I was going through a lot of stress in my life and suggested I seek a yoga class out to help me relax.  At that time, in 1976 you could find classes here and there but it was nothing like these days.  Luckily I found this amazing teacher at the YWCA. After my first class it felt as though my body/mind had been rung out of all tension.  I could not remember feeling so good.  I was so happy to have finally found something, which could ease my stress levels.  I continued to take classes with this teacher and was amazed at how young and supple her body looked.  I remember her face being so relaxed and calm and it was very difficult to tell how old she actually was.  In my mind she was ageless.  I would do yoga at home by myself just rolling around the floor for what seemed like hours.  I would just start with a pose and keep going from there, letting my body/mind lead the way. This was my therapy, my savior. 

About a year later I met another teacher in my hometown in Massachusetts, Sue Luby. A young women myself at the age of 23, I had a lot of flexibility, very hyper extended knees and a strong sway back. During those years Iyengar yoga was getting more and more popular in the US, and the added teaching of alignment, strength building and props, along with the already deep relaxation benefits was what my body/mind really needed.  She taught me how to align my body and introduced me to many of the Iyengar adjustments and actions.  This all felt so good for me not only physically but my body image greatly improved. I was more in control of my emotions and a better-adjusted young woman.  Shortly afterward I became interested in nutrition and other methods of healing myself.  I had just begun a long journey towards transforming into a healthier and much happier person.  With in 3 years of yoga practice I had decided to move to California.  My teacher had told me about a wonderful school in San Francisco called the Institute for Yoga Teachers Education, Later being renamed the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco.   I thought I should check it out once I had settled in.  I soon did and loved the classes and program.  My most favorite teacher there was Judith lasater.  She is such a great teacher in many ways. She has technique, attitude, down to earth, and a very good sense of humor.  Perhaps that's why she is so famous today.  I feel she's balanced. Something I had always strived for. I studied with her for many years as well as Manuso Manas, Felicity Green, Mary Dun, Melinda Pearle and others.  I worked and lived in San Francisco and completed the 2-year program (which took me 3-years) graduating in 1982.  Later I moved to Berkeley and studied for many years with Donald Moyer at “The Yoga Room”.  I also took classes for quite a while with Aadil Palkhivala who taught at the Yoga Room during those years. 

I was very interested in Meditation and learned some eastern approaches, all pleasant and helpful but non-getting down to the mental release I was in search of.  I remember asking my teacher Judith once, “Why can’t I still my mind? There is so much turmoil confusion inside”. She said “too much Citta Vrtteh”, or movement in the consciousness.  I knew she was right and I proceeded to search a form of meditation to help me with this.  I found a local healing group that taught a meditation class called running energy.  Sometimes called these days’ energy work, energy medicine, and energy therapy.  This is what I was looking for.  It emptied out tremendous buildup in side my mind.  It gave me the tools to clear and center consciousness.  I stayed with this group for over sixteen years, becoming ordained as a minister, a trained clairvoyant reader, energy healer and teacher.  Over these years I continued my yoga practice and sometimes taught yoga privately and to small groups within the community.  I also trained as a hypnotherapist.

After over 22 years of intense introspection, meditation, spiritual training and deep healing I finally experienced a sense of peace and grounding inside.  I feel I have cleared consciousness and have the tools to maintain this.  Praise the lord! I understood my sensitivity levels and am able to finally heal myself.  I had felt like a puzzle whose pieces were coming together.  At the same time some parts of my life were falling apart.  My marriage did not last past 7 years. I had one child at this point. At 41 years old I was again on my own but this time as a single mother starting all over again in the bay area.  

It’s been challenging.  I started teaching yoga at the club at the Claremont Resort and shortly after that began teaching public yoga classes in Berkeley. I developed an affinity in pre and post natal yoga. I was already trained as a hypnotherapist and soon later a hypnobirther.  My training in healing and meditation bolstered my classes in restorative yoga.  

I presently teach yoga and hypnobirthing at several studio’s and private venues in the east bay.  I continue to study with my original teachers when I can.  I also studied with Ramamand Patel for 3 years; I was able to attend the Iyengar convention with Getta Iyenger in 2001.  This greatly supported my continued practice in the Iyengar tradition.  When I can, I drop in at the Iyengar Institute and take classes with my dear friend and well-established Iyengar yoga teacher Janet MacLeod.

To me yoga means a collecting up of oneself.  This has been my experience.  It has given me a practice for self-integration. For unfoldment, growth at my own pace and transformation.  A true spiritual practice where one learns about oneself on all levels.  Body, mind and soul. A discovery of self-care, self-love and self-knowing.  The Quote “Man Know thy Self” got resolved for me through this practice. I know myself and how to find that peacefulness within, within heart and mind and soul.  It’s all in the practice. Learning to care for oneself in this holistic way is such a blessing. I believe this is our birthright and purpose in life. Relationships become more clear and harmonious.  Because you know yourself, you are able to better understand others, help others, or if need be, move on from others.  Your space in and around your body becomes defined.  You are your ordinary self.

I am a family person.  Longing to have my own and have many children.  I knew from experience how difficult it could be in this day and age to maintain a good relationship and have children.  Life is much faster paced.  I always wanted to help others in a deep way and then the universe opened up working with pregnant women.  I had not consciously decided to do this, but opportunities appeared so I accepted.  This has been an effortless and blossoming pleasure to be a part of.  I love working with pregnant women.  They’re going through the process of opening up literally. There is no ego involved, no acrobatic goals to achieve.  They mostly want to relieve their discomforts, to increase their circulation, stretch, strengthen, and learn healthy and wholesome ways to get through their pregnancy. To find a space of peace and rest, and to be around other women in the same boat who are going through this amazing transformation of becoming a mother. Yoga is a perfect companion for comforting pregnancy.  

All you have to do is begin the practice and in some area you’ll see results.  It can be as simple as feeling healthier or stronger or more flexible.  Or as deep and transforming as you decide to take it.   Just keep practicing.  Finding the right teacher during the right time is very individual.  We are all at such different places in our soul’s evolution, and change being the only thing that’s consistent, can bring us to more than one teacher while on our yogic path.  Be wise and listen to your inner voice.  Seek the right teacher for you always. 

Little did I know back then I was starving to say hello to myself.  I had never done anything like yoga.  I was always comfortable with being physical. I did gymnastics and kick ball in high school.  Softball after college.  Loved to jog and do thi chi. But yoga really took me inside and squeezed away the rest of the world.  I found peace and quiet.  Being a sensitive young woman I craved this.  It became my therapy, my love, and my time with me, and has been ever since.

My hope is that as you do yoga, you will feel.... relaxed, calm, healed, at home in your body and mind, more accepting of yourself and others. The more you find peace inside your self, your world, the more your energy will radiate this to others and they too will seek this for themselves.  Then, someday, as we continue to evolve, we may have peace on earth.

My teachers and loved ones, I thank from the bottom of my heart. You have all helped bring me to this place of peace, comfort and resolution inside.

Namaste’

Deborah

This little poem sums it up for me.

“A Great Yogi”

In my travels I have spent time with a great yogi. Once he said to me,
“Become so still you hear the blood flowing through your veins.”
One night I sat in quiet,
I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast
I know it is the source of all of us.