Welcome to the June 2026 YTT Cohort! Please Share Introductions!

Hi Everyone! I'm Michelle and I am based in Linthicum, MD.  I am a lawyer, currently practicing immigration and criminal law.  I was a public defender for most of my 25+ years so I've spent a lot of time in jails and prisons, working with folks deeply affected by trauma, addiction and racial/societal injustice.  It's always been my dream to find a way to bring yoga to the justice impacted community and I am so excited to have found the Prison Yoga Project and this training.  Yoga and meditation are the only things keeping me sane these days so I look forward to progressing in my personal journey but mostly I hope to finally have the tools I need to bring these important practices to the community of folks I care about so much.

Looking forward to connecting and learning with you all!

~Michelle

Hi, all! I'm Stacey and live in Yardley, PA. I spend the summers in Chincoteague, VA, so I'll start the course there. I've practiced yoga for many years, and it has been a gift, helping me connect to my body and the present moment. It's been hard work and so rewarding!

In 2022, my world turned upside down, and, without sharing too much since the matter is still unresolved, I had a front-row seat to the criminal justice system. I have so much to say, but I'll keep this short: shining a light on the goodness in all people and sharing the practice of yoga are my driving forces and why I signed up for the training. 

I'm an accountant and have a small tax practice in Hamilton, NJ. 

Michelle, for a semester in college I interned with the DC public defender service. I really admire the work you do!

Stacey

Hi everyone 👋🏽

My name is Alejandro, and I’m really excited and grateful to be part of this cohort as the Teaching Assistant for this training.

I’m originally from Puerto Rico and currently based in Texas. I originally discovered yoga and meditation over 11yrs ago, and those practices became a huge part of my healing journey and reconnecting with myself.

Today, I work as a mindfulness and wellness coach, meditation teacher, trauma-informed yoga instructor, and peer mentor. I feel especially called to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated communities, LGBTQIA+ communities, men navigating emotional healing, and people carrying generational or systemic trauma.

Really grateful to be here and looking forward to learning alongside all of you over the coming months!

Hi everyone,

My name is Melissa and I am nervous and excited to be here. I have been practicing yoga for over 20 years and have really found it helpful in dealing with my  own personal life experiences. I found this program through another lady at my local yoga studio and decided to give it a shot because I am interested in the trauma informed aspect of it.

I am a single mom to a 12 year old who is very supportive of me taking this course. 

I have worked for a law enforcement agency here in Ontario, Canada since 2010. Currently I process Freedom of Information requests, including body worn camera requests, so I have seen and heard a lot. I have also worked within the Records department processing local police record checks. I have seen how the justice system works from the backend as well as personally, because I was a victim of a serious crime in 2022. The case went the trial in 2023 and the offender was found guilty. The experience changed me profoundly.

Ideally, I would like to help others to experience the benefits of yoga, especially those who may have never had the opportunity to try yoga. It really has changed how I live my life. I am trying my best to remain present, breathe and live day by day. This was literally how I saved my own life from destruction, through yoga. I believe it can help many others who have experienced trauma or circumstances outside of their control which have altered the course of their lives. It grounds me and I find the movement helps to calm my anxiety.

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Melissa 🙂

Hi everyone! I'm Claire, joining from Brooklyn. I'm a documentary producer and community organizer. My work focuses on connecting nonfiction films with justice-impacted communities and supporting people in telling their own stories through film.

I came to yoga a few years ago through a pay-what-you-can studio in my neighborhood and found it gave me a way to move my own trauma through my body, which is so helpful a lot as someone who holds a lot of other people's stories professionally and carries my own as an international transracial adoptee.

Really glad to be here!

Hi! My name is Jenn, and I am so grateful to embark on this journey with Prison Yoga Project and everyone here in this cohort!

I live in the suburbs of Philly and am the Community Education Supervisor at a domestic violence agency. Before my current position, I worked as a Prevention Educator at a child advocacy center that supported children who had experienced physical or sexual abuse. During my time there, I got to teach a wonderful group of teenagers in our local juvenile detention center about human trafficking and recognizing red flags in relationships. That experience had a profound effect on me, and I still think about those kids to this day. My experience at a child advocacy center and domestic violence agency has shown me how greatly trauma can impact both the physical and mental well-being of individuals, and I truly believe our bodies hold on to that trauma.

In 2022, I was a victim of a crime. I was running on a busy street in Philly and was stabbed by a random man. Throughout these years of healing, one thing I constantly turn to is yoga. Yoga has been both a physical and mental release for my mind, body, and spirit. From personal experiences and hearing about the experiences of others, it's clear to see how transformative yoga can be, specifically when trauma is involved. 

Through my advocacy work and personal yoga practice, I hope to share these healing practices with the community I serve. Educating children has always been a passion of mine, so I hope to bring these practices to youth who have or are currently experiencing trauma in their life or their communities. 

On a side note - I've completed the foundational training with Prison Yoga Project, and it has completely shifted the way I view incarcerated people. It has allowed me to view individuals with more softness and grace. I can't wait to see how transformative this 200hr YTT is!

hi everyone! i'm christina from philly. after 12 years of regular yoga practice integrating my own hardships, i'm excited to deepen my own practice and work toward spreading the love to others.

i'm a psychologist and i focus on treatment of trauma, OCD, and eating disorders. in these populations, disconnection from the body is significant and it is easy to bump up against the limitations of talk therapy. i'm hopeful to bring the education from PYP to my work in the therapy room. previously, i worked at an inpatient psych hospital and in homeless services in philly. i'm imagining a future where i can bring yoga to these communities.

i'm excited and nervous, as many of you have shared. confronting my own traumas has been a valuable and challenging endeavor, and i know this will force open some boxes we would probably all rather keep closed. that said, i'm looking forward to doing this in a supportive community of like-minded values-aligned folks. excited to get to know you all.

xo, christina

(p.s. is anyone else having trouble filling out the initial forms in the welcome section? not sure if it's my computer or the forms glitching out - thanks for any help with this!)

Hey y'all - I'm Allison. I am currently living in Madison, Wisconsin. I am a social worker in our local county jail. My role in the jail is focused on supporting parents who are incarcerated on matters related to their children and families. I facilitate educational and cognitive behavioral group programs, provide individualized case management services, and create opportunities for parents to have contact visitation with their children while in custody. I also serve as a liaison for child protective services, family courts, K-12 schools, and other community-based agencies to assist parents navigating complex systems involving their minor children.

Our agency been partnered with Madison PYP facilitators for about 3 years now and I am finally taking the leap to get certified myself to continue expanding access to yoga and mindfulness practices for our jail population, as well as to WI corrections and reentry spaces more broadly. My work is my passion and my purpose. Supporting and empowering clients through their growth and witnessing their "wins"/breakthroughs keeps me inspired and coming back to work everyday. 

If I am not at work, you can find me in the gym, at a music festival, exploring new cities with my partner, trying a new ice cream flavor, or at home introverting out with my cat, Zola. My life is a carefully balanced blend of structured focus and spontaneous joy and whimsy. 

I am incredibly excited to grow my skill set, make new connections with like-minded individuals, and merge my passions for social justice and holistic wellness into a unified practice.

Grateful to be here,

Allison

Hi everyone! My name is Cloe, and I'm currently based out of Phoenix, AZ. I work in probation, which has definitely given me a firsthand look at the ways trauma, incarceration, and healing can intersect. I'm drawn to trauma-informed yoga because I'm interested in the approaches that support regulation and person-to-person connection. 

I'm originally from Washington, and spent a good chunk of my childhood outdoors, so when the weather is nice here (for 3 out of 12 months, haha) you'll find me outside hiking, camping, or dropping in on a sunrise yoga class! Through this training, I'm really hoping to deepen my practice of course, but also to deepen my understanding of trauma-informed practice, learn how to hold space more skillfully, and to explore how yoga can support healing within the justice community. I'm looking forward to learning alongside all of you 

~ Cloe 😊 

Hello, I am Jihye from South Korea. Came to USA 10 years ago and I am working at woman's maximum security correctional facility in NY as an x ray tech. 

It is so nice to see all of us have similar mindset and walking toward healing ourselves as well as our communities.

I strongly feel that this is the time for me to share my passion of yoga with people who are less fortunate than I am so that I can pay back what I had received when I needed help in my past. 

I was extremely emotional person, always up and down and I had difficulty to control myself. It affected all aspects of my life for a long time. I struggled to find the way to get out but I had no idea how. Yoga and Meditation was the big key for me and I believe anyone can transform their life if we can help them a little bit. 

I lived in many other countries. New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, and Czech republic and I love dancing (salsa, bachata, pole dance). My happy place is mountain with lots of birds. Nice to meet you everyone!

Hello All! I'm wondering if I am the last one to join this conversation or if there are more to follow....

My name is Iona and I will be joining you online from Brighton, England. I usually go to bed around the time these YTT sessions are starting, so this is going to be an interesting experience for me in many ways! I had thought my life was busy enough, but clearly not 😀

I currently have several jobs. I used to live in India and still write for a hotel group there. I teach English as a foreign language and I also teach yoga. I co-parent with my abusive ex husband and juggle work commitments so they fit in with my daughter's schooling.

I began practising yoga as a teenager in the 90s, when Madonna made power yoga fashionable! I qualified as a yoga teacher during Covid-19 and began by teaching my daughter and her pre-school friends online; giving them a chance to virtually meet when we were all locked down. Over the years, my own practice has changed considerably, as has my teaching. My classes currently include community yoga (pay what you can) sessions, which attract people from all walks of life, chair yoga for people with mobility issues (I started this class so my elderly mum had time and space for yoga, and could make new friends) - and most recently, embodied yoga classes and meditation. Joining PYP's YTT was a no-brainer for me. All paths have led me here. I am excited to see where they take me next.

That said, I am a little anxious that this YTT will trigger responses to my own personal traumas. I completed the YTT intro section earlier and experienced discomfort with some of the readings. 

With this YTT, I hope to take yoga to people who really need it but may not be able to access it right now: homeless populations - many of whom have drug addictions and criminal records - inmates of Lewes Prison, victims of domestic abuse, young offenders.... when I start to contemplate the scope, it is vast, overwhelming, exciting and carries a huge responsibility which I hope I can do justice to.

Enough now. I look forward to virtually meeting you all on Thursday!

Hi new family! I'm Anne, based in Denver, CO. I have been a public defender for 21 years. I semi-retired at the end of 2022 after my dad passed away. I had taken care of him for 7 years, and I had to step away from my litigation practice because I was absolutely destroyed by my work and my loss. I now work a contract with my old office on weekends which has allowed me the time to rest and heal. It took me 4 years to gather myself, and I'm ready to start living again. In that time, I got sober (YES!!!), got reconnected to yoga (YES!!!) and started working with a career coach to figure out a new direction. What I have discovered is: I love yoga, I absolutely love the community of people I have represented and walked with through some of the worst points in their lives, and it is really important that I stay connected to that community to hopefully create some joy, healing, and transformation. Less arguing, more love. 

Yoga has been integral in helping me move forward in grief and PTSD. I am excited to gain skills that may assist others in moving through their own pain and work towards a more balanced and peaceful existence. I really look forward to connecting with this amazing group and creating something spectacular!

I knew this program was sanctioned by my dad when I discovered the training started on June 11 - his death anniversary. I hope to make him proud - and I know he'll be walking with me through what I know will be a life changing experience for me and the people I will work with going forward. 

Love to you all - see you Thursday!

xo

Hello everyone, so lovely to read about all of you. I look forward to learning together, and being connected through this program. The range of backgrounds and common desire to have an impact is so special, and I feel grateful to be a part of this group. 

My name is Madeline, I am currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. After working for nearly 8 years in civil and human rights law, mostly within prison reform and gender advocacy, I found myself frustrated with the legal system and how individuals who had to navigate it were often very poorly supported. I loved working with clients, though, and after a few years of deep reflection and healing, realized that working to make mental and physical health accessible is what I am truly passionate about. I am currently in graduate school to become a therapist, and also teach Pilates, somatic movement, and functional mobility classes. I have found that the most profound moments of change and growth in my life have come at a combination of mental and physical work, so I am eager to learn as much as I can in both realms to help others. 

This program is a combination of all that I hope to be able to give to those I work with and the things I am deeply passionate about. I currently work with a local organization teaching somatic movement to refugees, and hope to be able to reach more groups including victims of domestic violence, youth in criminal justice systems, and incarcerated populations or those navigating the legal system. 

I catch myself in moments of deep gratitude lately, for feeling like I have finally found my path, and in acknowledging every individual and community that has helped me get here, I hope to give back to, and help others in a similar way. 

I can't wait to get to know all of you better. 

Hi My name is Michelle and I am located in San Marcos, Texas. I am so excited to be here, I have been practicing yoga for 10 years and am also a public health practitioner. I had been looking for a 200 hr YTT for years and had heard about PYP in the past. My mother is currently incarcerated and the timing just felt right to begin my journey of teaching yoga in incarceration settings. One of the most exciting pieces of this training is the trauma informed and social justice focus. I love that there is also a rehabillitation and reentry into society as I dont see much of that in the prison and jail systems. Looking forward to learning and meeting everyone.