Welcome to Yoga Teacher Training!

Happy Thursday everyone!

My name is Jennie Nestler and I currently reside in Santa Cruz, CA. My role/job currently is that I am a Deputy Director for a non-profit called "Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside out".  We deal with incarcerated veterans and formally incarcerated veterans (transitional housing) within California and soon-to-be Colorado prisons. I found this program through word of mouth and couldn't be more excited to start!! I would LOVE to be able to teach a class within our new Veterans Hub at Soledad State prison and bring yoga to all. 

I look forward to meeting every single one of you and sharing this experience!

See you in a week <3

Greetings! My name is Hannah and I'm currently based out of Los Angeles. I am so honored to be here so I can soak up everything I can and put it to use when I work with marginalized youth and serve my community. I'm currently volunteering at a continuation high school that are pushed out of high schools to get them on a track to graduate. I'm excited to put more faces to names in our live meeting next week. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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Hello, My name is Gail. I go by the pronouns she/they and I live and play on Dena’ina land, in Anchorage, Alaska. I enjoy being out in nature and recently had to put my dog Kima down, my hiking bud. I miss her very much. I facilitate rhythm and drumming circles as well as sound immersions(baths, meditations) in our marginalized communities here. I use to facilitate drumming circles in our women’s prison a few years before COVID. At the end of the month I’ll be Peer Grief Support person. I look forward to this upcoming journey of learning from Jen as well as all of you in this cohort. On my journey of healing, deep listening, being present, compassion and so much more, to fully embody this practice so that I may assist others on their journey of well being in this world. Thank you

Hey y'all HEEEEEYYYYYY!

   Excuse the country excitement. My name is Erin Williams. I am from Birmingham, Alabama. My chiropractic journey started in 2020. As a child, the doctor told my mother I had Scoliosis. They wanted to operate on me but my mother would not let them. What my mother did not know is that on one particular day while playing with my cousin and sister, I fell into the corner of a home stereo sound system speaker. It punctured my lower back and knocked the lower half of my spine out of alignment in the worst way. I literally walked around in pain everyday for almost 30 years. 

   Fast Forward... I found my chiropractor, got put back in place, discovered nerve pain and trigger points, and started feeling what it feels like to have a somewhat normal body. Between adjustments I started doing yoga at the community center I help run alongside my husband, and I met Celeste. She saw something in me I didn't see. I am forever grateful because now here I am! Yoga helps me stretch my muscles enough in relaxation to be able to keep my own spine into proper alignment between adjustments with my chiropractor. It is definitely a life saver and I do not say that lightly.

I look forward to being able to give other people what yoga gave me in some form or fashion. Hope for something better...

Thanks for letting me share. I'm not normally this long winded. lol

Hello, my name is Danielle. I am a wife, mother of three beautiful children, and a woman in long-term recovery. I was born and raised in Maine where my family still resides. I am in my third year of college pursuing my Mental Health and Human Services degree with a minor in Substance Use Counseling and I am also in the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Technician program that is offered through UMA. I am very passionate about helping ones who suffer from a substance use disorder. From what I have witnessed and experienced throughout my life I think becoming a substance use and mental health counselor would be incredibly rewarding. I believe with having the knowledge and understanding of these illnesses as well as being able to relate and empathize with my clients will be one way to build a trusting relationship with them. I am a nonjudgmental, empathic, genuine, and compassionate person who believes there is room for change within any person and my goal is to encourage and support my future clients in any way that can help them obtain a healthy lifestyle.

I am extremely happy and feel truly blessed that I was offered a yoga scholarship through Sea Change Yoga and have chose to do my training through the Prison Yoga Project. I have been practicing yoga for the past three years with some ladies from Sea Change, which has in turn changed me. Yoga is now a part of my daily life. I would like to teach trauma-informed and restorative yoga in facilities such as recovery centers, sober houses, and jails. I want to offer others what I have gained from the practice of yoga. My future goal is to intertwine these two passions of mine and offer my clients yoga therapy.

I am excited to meet and share this experience with you all.

My name is Mandy. I was just incarcerated, I am looking forward to this class a lot. It gives me an opportunity to heal from my trauma and help others do the same. Yoga helps a lot with my psychological issues (depression, anxiety, PTSD) and I'm really excited to learn more and pay it forward like it was paid to me. 

@mandy-younts1992gmail-com 

Hi Mandy,

I can relate to your situation. I have been incarcerated since May 2019. I was just approved for SCCP aka home confinement, which allows me to enter back into the community on February 6th for the remainder of my time (January 2024). I agree that yoga is a way to heal from trauma and other psychological issues. Yoga has truly helped me to rediscover myself and get through my time here. I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity given to me in prison. I want to offer all that I have gained from yoga to other individuals that have/are experiencing the same or similar situations as I have. I am excited to start this new chapter in my life and share this experience with you. See you on Thursday!

-Danielle

Hello everyone. My name is Amanda and I currently reside in Poughkeepsie, NY. I am a mother of three amazing kids two girls and a boy 19, 12, and my little guy is 4. I work for a nonprofit organization called Unshattered, where we employ women coming out of long term recovery programs. I am one of those women and will have 6 years of continuous sobriety on March 8th, and I am grateful for every day. I was introduced to Prison Yoga Project through the Stand Together Foundation last year, and fell in love with the work and the people involved. I am looking forward to being here with each one of you. 

Hey Guys! 

My name is Sharreda and I am a person in long term Recovery from alcoholism. I live in Jasper, Alabama. I am the Mother of 3 young men. Mason, 26. Elijah, 24. Parker, 23. Through my process of getting sober and finding myself again, I also found Yoga and meditation. Most of my friends and family find my love for Yoga hilarious. I have a potty mouth, go at life at 160 mph, I have no filter and sarcasm is my 1st language. Not typically how people would describe a yogi who meditates daily.....but it works for me. I have learned through Recovery that I can be whatever God made me to be, Shamelessly. I love people and I love showing others that regardless of your personality Yoga can be right for you. 

I am so excited to meet you all.

Hi Yogis!

My name is Henrietta. I am grateful beyond measure for the opportunity to be part of this community and to continue learn and grow with all of you.  I live in Lakewood, Colorado with my husband and three daughters. 

Henrietta

Hello Yogis. My Name Is Kelson Phillips. I am from Birmingham Alabama. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to be able to not only put new tools and a whole new healing modality under my belt for my services to the world but get a chance to work and take a break to sit and heal my own traumas that I don't even fully understand lol but I am so honored to have this opportunity and to have so many supportive people around me so I can shine . Love you All Namaste 

Hello Yogis. My Name Is Kelson Phillips. I am from Birmingham Alabama. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to be able to not only put new tools and a whole new healing modality under my belt for my services to the world but get a chance to work and take a break to sit and heal my own traumas that I don't even fully understand lol but I am so honored to have this opportunity and to have so many supportive people around me so I can shine . Love you All Namaste 

Hello there beautiful PYP family❤️

I haven't got the opportunity to introduce myself yet, so here it comes. 

My name is Joacim Svingen, I am 35 years old living in Norway. I spent most my life as an drug addict, going in and out of rehabs and prisons. 5 years ago I completely changed my life and today I live a beautiful life with my beautiful family🙏 yoga has been a safe haven for through this prosess. 

I do have an 200hours Ashtanga Yoga that I completed in 2019. Yoga for me is way to find home, a way to peal of all the layers of confusion, delusion and misinterpretation in my existence. It's a way to clean out my chaotic mind. Through this practice I get to know myself in better way, it's a never ending journey of exploration and a gradually path to stability and peace.

My mission is to make yoga accessible for all the people that never would enter a yoga shala. I do teach yoga for Back in the ring - it's a community that share yoga to drug addicts and for incarcerated people.

I am super excited to continue on this journey with you guys, and to share what I learn with the people I meet on my path. 

Thank, lots of love J

Hi Everyone!

My name is Mariah. I was able to join for the first hour of our live meeting last week and am so excited to be part of this group! So many beautiful souls.

I live in the Bay Area in California. I am a doula and support families throughout the prenatal period, labor/delivery and postpartum. A majority of my births are homebirths which are my favorite. I get to help people on their journey to becoming parents, educate how to nourish their little, and help establish healing practices for this new life. As incredibly fulfilling as birthwork is, it is also emotionally heavy and comes with lots of frustration, hurt, sometimes tragedy and peeling back layers upon layers of trauma. I do this work because of the astronomical disparities in maternal and infant mortality between Black/Brown women and white women. I was led to birthwork shortly after the transition of my paternal grandmother which completely shattered my world. I will save the drawn out story, but I believe I was brought to this work to not only heal others, but to heal myself as well. 

I also facilitate yoga and mindfulness programming at the juvenile hall in my county. Adolescents have soooo many questions! lol. But they are the best parts of my week! These sessions have also taught me a lot about my self and I hope I am doing the same for my practitioner friends. Some days are extremely tough mentally after leaving there, and one thing I've been struggling with s learning how to not carry home all the emotions from these sessions. 

I watched the recording of the remainder of the live session that I missed and was so moved by everyone's energy and vulnerability! I'm so excited to share this space with you all!