Hello everyone, my name is Nyla and I live in Boston, MA. I am super excited for us to be embarking on this journey together and see what comes of it. I am inspired to pursue this work because of the powerful impacts that yoga has had on my life, my desire to understand people's stories, and my pursuit of making tools and resources accessible to the masses rather than only a few. I am graduate student getting my master's in social work and I hope to find ways to integrate yoga into my therapeutic practices. I am intrigued by prisons that are not only "criminal justice" prisons, but also other spaces that function as prisons such as immigration detention centers, schools, and psychiatric institutions. I think about the ethics of care and continuous change and evolution that are present and yoga and wonder how we can use these frameworks to transform these systems or think about entirely new ones that actually support people in caring, rehabilitative and educational ways. I was called to this training because believe that the principles and frameworks of yoga can be use for intentional transformation and imagining new worlds and I want to be in a space that centers this. I found that PYP embodied these things.
Hello! I’m Juliana, born in Porto, Portugal and after so many changes and a big bikepacking trip through the islands of the Azores, I’m living here in São Miguel!
I’m really happy to have the opportunity to be here. I’ve been following PYP for some time now and has definitely been an inspiration since I found out about it. Really want to say that I admire all of the work that has been shared, James Fox and team, so much dedication, it’s really incredible and a big motivation. Also brings me so much joy to see so many people willing to share and give bk to their communities and to themselves! So nice to meet you all and read about you.
1st time I experienced yoga was with my mother. As she was moving through complications with cancer, she invited me to join an Iyengar class. Right away I was really curious about the practice and the sensations that I felt in my body and mind, the immense connection. Eventually I felt an urge to explore more the world of yoga and started practicing ashtanga by myself. Ashtanga is an incredibly powerful practice but I felt like was at times too rigid and harsh on the body. I discovered Vinyasa and that’s what I practice today. Yoga has helped me so much and continuously helps me discover myself, to truly connect to all the spectrums of self. Was really important that I started with my mother, as if she knew that it would help me to navigate through her loss as unfortunately she passed away in 2017. She was my best friend and the most important person in my life where I could just be without any judgement. Since then has been a tough journey but also healing one, discovering and rediscovering, reshaping myself and learning how to deal with moments of immense void and emotions.
I did a YTT course bk in 2021 with the intention of being able to eventually instruct people that don’t have access to this transformative healing practice, that don’t know about or that are incarcerated. I believe that through the intelligence of the body, so much can be healed, observed and felt. It’s such a complex but so interesting tool we have, our bodies and minds. It’s definitely a rewarding adventure to ride on, getting to know ourselves.
With this course, I hope to inspire people to free themselves from their temporary perceived limitations, as everyone is so unique and deserves to experience love. Everyone is worthy of it. I hope to learn more about myself, how yoga and the nervous system and poses interlace, trauma - how it installs in the body and also learn how to communicate in a non-triggering way and deal with people that have been through traumatic experiences. I’m really interested in human relations, the human mind, what makes people choose certain paths - choices. Social Justice is a big one for me as I feel so much injustice and lack of support and disrespect towards the human being within the system and I feel like it’s one way to fight it back by sharing knowledge and helping people realize their potential! I really hope to be able to instruct in the prison system here in the island!
Hello all you beautiful people. I've been enjoying reading about everyone's experiences and intentions for this program.
My name is Jennifer and i'm an American expat living in Melbourne, Australia. Yoga has been a part of my spiritual path for 30 years. My professional background includes massage therapy, physiotherapy and spiritual care. Currently, I am working as a Catholic chaplain in maximum and medium security mens' prisons in the greater Melbourne area. I am deeply honoured to accompany and support these men on their emotional, spiritual, and healing journeys. I have begun to teach deep breathing and meditation to particular men who are struggling to cope in their environment or who struggle to find any sense of peace in their embodied experiences. Introducing these tools occurs 1:1 in the mental health or solitary confinement areas of the prison. I am acutely aware of the histories of trauma that most incarcerated peoples carry, and i am hoping to learn how to better empower and support the men with whom i journey. In completing this yoga teacher training, I hope to connect with others in my area who provide yoga in prisons. I also hope to introduce a yoga program in the prisons that do not currently offer this healing practice.
Blessings to us all as we embark on this exciting journey. Peace.
Hi All, so good to browse through everyone's introduction, looking forward to building connections with our cohort! My name is Carol-Anne, friends call me C.A., I use sher/her pronouns, and I am currently living in the Bay Area, California. Currently, I am working at San Quentin as a social worker.
There is a lot to say about what inspires me to do this type of work, and I think that my dad's volunteer fire-fighter career inspired me to pursue some type of "helping" role. I have held various positions in the environmental world and transitioned into the clinical field around 10 years ago. What keeps me going is my own life experience with trauma and abuse and the slow and steady (continuing) journey of re-claiming my own body and doing my own healing work. I have a deep belief that everyone has the capacity to heal and grow and I wanted to work in a prison setting because I know there is a lot of suffering and trauma present and a tremendous opportunity as well.
I am excited to participate in this training as a way to continue my self-discovery, learn more skills to support others who have gone through trauma process some of it through re-connecting with their body. I was lucky enough to meet James and some of his team members, Annabelle and Ana, who led a training for our staff, and I wanted to dive deeper.
Hi everyone 🙂 my name is kelisha and I am writing from San Francisco, CA. I am a pre licensed clinical psychologist with a background in dance. Yoga and meditation are big parts of my spiritual practice and I am so looking forward to being able to share these sacred practices with others. Excited to learn from and with you all!
Hi everyone, I am Astrid and I am currently residing in Chicago, Illinois.
When I moved to the US in 2004 I had my first intro to yoga in form of prenatal yoga. After that I would sometimes take yoga classes but given my chronic pain it it could actually make it worse, although I always came back to yoga. During the pandemic I started to practice yoga sometimes several hours a day. I helped me with the anxieties of these frightening times as well as physically. One day I noticed that I didn’t feel any of the pain that I usually experienced. That’s when I decided to do yoga teacher training and hopefully be sharing this experience, newfound trust and confidence in my body with others.
During my initial 200h YTT I immediately felt that yoga classes can sometimes be very ableist and exclusive and I wanted to focus on making it more accessible. Working with a friend with physical challenges and limitations for my thesis project I knew that this would be my path. I took Jivana Heyman’s 'Accessible Yoga Training' (where I learned the first time about PYP) and started teaching one-on-one to make yoga accessible to people who wanted to practice yoga but felt that classes weren’t for them or they didn’t have a 'yoga body'.
Yoga also changed my way of thinking and values as well as helping me reconnect with my body, overcoming personal trauma, shame and guilt.
Coming from a different country but also having a lot of privileges the inequalities, systemic injustices and racism in the US are very hard to overlook. I always had the resources and opportunities to deal with my personal negative experiences and challenges but have to acknowledge that so many people don’t. Seeing the impact of PYP on people’s live, giving them agency feels so meaningful. When I saw the invitation for the PYP Teacher training it seemed that this was specifically for me at this point in my life so that I can align my life, time and resources with my values.
I am excited to see that so many of you already have experience working with incarcerated people. Looking forward to meeting you all, listening, practicing and learning together.
Hi everyone - I tried posting a few days ago but apparently there was a website error and my post got lost in the ether so I'm going to try this again and see if I can recreate what I wrote before 🙂
I'm Katie, and I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin. Yoga found me in a tough spot in life (one in which I am currently in and am working through). I have spent the last four years in a PhD graduate program in clinical psychology, focusing my work on finding ways to better mental health care for people with lived experience of incarceration. Recently, due to a toxic relationship with my graduate advisor, I had to leave that program and put a pause on my career dreams and goals.
When graduate school was getting really bad, I would turn to my local hot yoga studio. They offered me a 3 month scholarship for free unlimited yoga, a membership that I otherwise couldn't have afforded. In order to keep the scholarship, I had to agree to practice yoga at least 3x/week. This time on the scholarship made me fall in love with yoga and really helped me center myself on the tough days. When I left my graduate program, I got hired as a receptionist at the yoga studio, eventually working my way up to full-time studio manager, the role I'm currently in.
This program feels like a perfect combination of all of my passions - my passion for yoga, mental health and well-being, for serving the currently and formerly incarcerated community, and for my own wellness. I do intend to return and complete my graduate degree, and I am confident that the twists and turns in life led me to this training, in this moment, and all of us will be stronger for it 🙂 Excited to get started with you all!
Hi!
Zachary here, joining you from NYC. I recently completed the foundational course offered by PYP and, halfway through, decided to take it even further with yoga certification. I am so grateful to be here.
I am a writer and poet from Houston, TX originally, and have found writing to be a very physical process for me over the last few years. I recently began a free writing workshop series for trans writers of all experience levels, called T4T Writing Academy, and am very passionate about the accessibility of knowledge + community outside of institutional learning.
I have had many different movement practices and physical hobbies over the years (yoga, pilates, dance, barre, boxing, soccer, rock climbing, running) but only in the last year have I committed myself to a more spiritual, inward practice of movement after healing from a gender affirming surgery, getting sober, and reestablishing a connection to my body again. It has been life changing for me to heal my own trauma through somatics and movement.
I have been an abolitionist since I was 17 years old and recognize the intersecting struggles we all face directly or indirectly, as part of much larger systems of violence. And I believe that all of us have a place to serve our communities amid these struggles in our own unique ways.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family, parenting myself, coming from nearly a decade of sex work and many years of alternative modes of adult learning as a three-time college drop out has set me up for a lifetime of unconventionality, but also a lifetime of empathy and better understanding of the world. So it makes sense that I have arrived here, at Prison Yoga Project! What a blessing. I can’t wait to learn, share, and move with everyone here.
My hope is to graduate this course with an even deeper understanding of the complexities of trauma and the body, and for my trauma-informed yoga certification to be the foundation of a somatic movement practice that serves people of all backgrounds who are historically forgotten or under served, and often lack access to the healing resources they deserve.
xo
@mindfully-alex Hi Alejandro! Thank you for your reply to my post a few days ago. I can't find it now but I am so grateful that you reached out and I agree with your sentiments. After I type this I have to go back and correct a few misspelled words (always the same ones, every time) but I just wanted to say hello, that it was great to hear your introduction with everyone else last night and I'm going to email Jen in 2 secs to see if I can have a 60 second intro next week. I don't know whether I was star struck with you all, had stage fright, or was just contemplating the enormity of the honesty and trust in that space that took me by surprise. Great to meet you and have a great weekend! 😀
@andymccallumoutlook-com Hey Andy! Thanks so much for the message! I’m really glad my reply connected with you. I did reply to several people, but I don't know what happened. And don’t even worry about the misspelled words... I'm an expert at it! It’s nice connecting with you. Have an amazing weekend, and I’m looking forward to chatting again soon! 😊 Cheers!
Alejandro H.
Mindfulness & Meditation Coach
InsightTimer | AuraHealth | Instagram | Blog
It was great to meet so many of you virtually as I reviewed this week's opening class. What a beautiful group of people. I thank each of you for your presence and vulnerability in sharing your past, which has brought you to this moment. I am Catherine. I live in Alabama, native land to the Creek Indians. This is my 3rd 200-hour YTT. I have been involved in prison work for the past several years. Leading some yoga in a women's prison but mostly participating in a book club. I have also been involved in a books-to-prisoners program. We send inmates books and respond to their letters of desired reads.
The timing for this class is perfect for me as my family is newly working to overcome the trauma of the NOLA NYE terrorist event where my son jumped out of the way of the terrorist, saving Henry's life but seeing his friend plowed over and killed.
As we know and will certainly discuss in the months to come, trauma comes in many different forms and lingers for far too long. I am excited to work with each of you as we learn ways with Jen, Vanessa, James and the many others to overcome/live with our own traumas in an effort to assist others with theirs.
Thank you all for being here for me. I hope I can do the same for you.
Peace,
Catherine
Hello! So soo excited to be part of this course and to get to know all of the participants and stories. I was wondering if would be possible to get the Modules in a PDF version to print, instead of reading/studying through a screen?
Thank you 🙂 and hope everyone is having a good start of the week!!
Juliana x
Greetings friends,
My name is Makaya (aka Rev Love). I'm a singer/songwriter/producer and yoga teacher living in Brooklyn, NY. I've also worked in Prison Justice and with Political Prisoners for almost 20 years. I was blessed to have some great mentorship by well-known political prisoners and this has inspired and shaped much of my life. As a musician, I am also a Sound Healer and offer Sound Baths around NYC. I founded a Sound Healing program at Rikers Island, which was a wild endeavor that we paused because Rikers is extremely disorganized and we encountered many moments that were not particularly safe for volunteers 🙂 But hope to begin it again in the future. I'm really great-full to be here with you all and for this opportunity to add-on to my Yoga Teaching in a way that can bring together my prison justice work with my yoga. Yoga has been quite watered down in the West, and one of my goals as a Yoga Teacher is to remind people that Yoga Practices are revolutionary practices that can change the world. Excited to get to know you all more and deepen our practices together.
~Makaya
@jc Great question. I’ve been printing them off via iOS “reader” but that would make it a lot easier.
Catherine,
Thank you for sharing so openly and vulnerably. It’s clear that your heart is deeply dedicated to service and healing, and I am moved by the work you’ve done with incarcerated women and the books-to-prisoners program. These are such meaningful and impactful ways to connect with others and foster hope. Thank you for your heart.
I can only imagine the strength it has taken for you and your family to navigate the trauma of the NOLA NYE event. Your son’s bravery and the loss you’ve experienced are a testament to the complexities of life... how courage and heartbreak often intertwine. I hope this class becomes a place of solace and renewal for you as you process these experiences and continue on this journey of healing.
I look forward to learning alongside you and witnessing the compassion and wisdom you undoubtedly bring to this group. Please know that I am here to support you as well.
Peace and gratitude,
Alejandro
Alejandro H.
Mindfulness & Meditation Coach
InsightTimer | AuraHealth | Instagram | Blog