About Colleen and Blue Buddha Yoga
I found yoga when my knees were broken.
I was a collegiate athlete and was told I could no longer compete with my knees the way they were. At the same time all this was going on, I was taking a Hinduism class in 1993 and decided to do a report on yoga. Being the budding journalist and to make my report more real, I decided to have an “experience” of yoga to write about.
My first epiphany about yoga? “I can move my body without pain! Whoo hoo!” I started exploring Kripalu yoga shortly after.
However, it wasn’t until I met Ana Forrest that I began to appreciate a deeper relationship and emotional healing within my yoga practice. I left a career in journalism and, through my initial Forrest Yoga Teacher Training Course in 2000, discovered that teaching yoga was my heart path. Forrest Yoga has been the cornerstone of healing my depression. Through this yoga, bioenergetics therapy, and many other healing modalities, I have met my spirit and made peace with my experience of depression.
Six months after the initial training, I was a certified Forrest Yoga teacher. I launched Blue Buddha Yoga while in Chicago to reflect my interest in bringing yoga to those who live with depression. I created a 6-week Yoga for Depression class series with companion workbook and am currently co-authoring a San Francisco State University sponsored study examining Forrest Yoga’s effects on depression. Through this work, I hope to inspire students to unlock the mysteries of their depression and view it as one of their life’s greatest teachers like I have.
I continue to support Forrest Yoga’s Hoop of Healing. I’ve completed Forrest Yoga’s 10-day advanced teacher training and also assist Ana Forrest at her national workshops. More recently, I was honored to co-author the new Forrest Yoga Mentorship Program (FYMP) with fellow senior teachers. I am currently acting as Forrest Yoga's Mentor Liaison to help hone this awesome new Hoop of the Teachers.
I also teach prenatal, postnatal and kids yoga. Through independent research and personal experience (I have two children) I helped craft pre- and postnatal teaching guidelines that I presented to Chicago's Moksha™ Yoga center. In 2006, I earned my Mamaste Yoga™ prenatal teaching certification and Let's Play™ Yoga certification, as well as completing supplemental study in postnatal yoga through Samatva Yoga.
For more details about my yoga training and experience, click here to download my resume. |
