Forrest Yoga Guardian
Teachers
When I took my first class with Ana I knew right away that my yoga practice was going to get up-leveled, rinsed out and re-examined in many ways.
The dedicated focus on the pillars of Forrest Yoga: Breath, Strength, Integrity and Spirit have helped me gain confidence through clarity. Instead of simply believing a concept, Forrest Yoga has taught me to feel, and to trust my own experience as the truth. In this way, I have grown at my own pace and learned from my mistakes and my gifts. I can feel space and sparkle glowing inside me and I can command a position on my mat and in my life.
I am grateful for all my teachers, including my students and my closest mentor, my breath.
I am currently an honorary Guardian on sabbatical which means I am not running a mentorship program at this time.
I am teaching at Montrose Yoga Co-op in Houston, TX and my classes are all 2 hours long. It’s wonderful to experience all that breath filled time.
Denise assists Ana nationally at teacher trainings and leads her own workshops for students and yoga teachers. She travels to teach Hands-On Assisting workshops and teaches annually at Omega Institute.
In 2010 Denise partnered up with Kate Lubensky to create Yoga for Breast Cancer, a DVD created to address the needs of breast cancer battlers and survivors. It was so well received that they recently produced two more DVD’s entitled Gentle Yoga for Cancer and Yoga for Heart Health.
Denise draws from her strong sense of intuition and passion for hands-on healing. She has a knack for reading the energy of students and responding to what they need. Denise’s way of instructing is direct, clear, and inspiring. It is her desire that every student feels seen and understood. She also incorporates her work with Cranial Sacral Therapy into her hands-on assists and private sessions.
I am a Forrest Yoga Guardian and owner of Dragon’s Breath Yoga in Washington, DC. I completed my FY Guardian training in March, 2018 and bought DBY in September,2018.
My path to yoga began years ago to help athletic recovery. After life threw a detour in my path, I began to realize and appreciate the mental and emotional impact regular practice has on a student. Forrest specifically helped me to find my breath and use that power to begin healing myself. I believe that we can all be teachers in life if we just take moment to pause, to reflect, and to breathe.
“Bad yogi” is the path that acknowledges we are not perfect, and that’s pretty cool.
One of the few selected Forrest Yoga Guardians and co-founder of Yoga Bodyworkers, Jambo spends his time studying, researching and teaching in order to demystify a practice that we love to practice.
Jambo holds a degree in Complementary Medicine with special interests in Muscle Testing and Classical East Asian Medicine. He is a speaker and participates in research around Well-Being & Complexity studies and is associated with University of Northumbria & Cape Town.
Jambo also shares his passion for psycho-somatic practices he has gleaned from apprenticing with various leaders from a variety of native traditions as well as aspects of psychotherapy.
Strong practice is another benefit from practicing Forrest Yoga. I love how FY teaches you to be compassionate and skillful when exploring personal limits. Setting intents to help you stay in healing and the practice of changing habitual patterns that no longer supports you. I feel this part of Forrest Yoga is tasty and empowering.
My mission as a Forrest yoga mentor to do my part in “Mending the Hoop of people” by reaching students around the world to offer them the chance to experience Forrest Yoga and learn how to support each other. Also sharing my intention of bringing unity in the Forrest Yoga community even with our different beliefs.
As my healing journey deepens, my gratitude to Ana Forrest deepens for creating this brilliant method for healing. I also thank my fellow FY mentors and the Forrest Yoga community and students for their loving support. Get excited about Forest Yoga and life!!
Brian’s magic is built upon a synergy of Forrest Yoga & Myo-Fascial Bodywork. His mission is to teach people worldwide how to use their hands to help relieve pain in others.
Brian was a Head Teacher at the Shiatsu Massage School of California in Santa Monica from 2006-2014, teaching Anatomy & Physiology, Pain & Orthopedic Evaluation, Deep-Tissue Massage, and Advanced Myo-Fascial Anatomy & Treatment Courses.
In 2007, Ana Forrest asked Brian to become a Level 5 “Guardian Teacher”, the highest level of distinction in the Forrest Yoga system. As a Guardian, he has committed to Mentoring new Teachers and to carry on the Forrest Yoga Legacy of Healing to future generations.
In 2013, Brian was hospitalized with “Valley Fever” (coccydiomycosis). It took him 12 months to fully recuperate. During this time he learned how to work through his own body with arthritic and degenerative joint conditions. Now his Forrest Yoga & Bodywork classes are specifically informed and geared towards working with pain and injuries.
Brian’s most current project is the YogaBodyworkers Training. In these 10-Day courses, Brian has teamed up with fellow Forrest Yoga Guardian Jambo Truong to teach Yoga Teachers, Medical Professionals, and people from all backgrounds how to test the Muscle Functioning of the body’s 16 most important Structural Muscles and how to use MyoFascial Bodywork and Forrest Yoga to resolve pain syndromes and bring the body into optimal conditioning. Brian is leading these trainings and other MyoFascial, Hands-on Anatomy & Forrest Yoga courses throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Sita Menon
Sita teaches with a passion for Forrest Yoga that reflects the impact Forrest Yoga has had on her own life. She is enthusiastic about teaching her students how to live free of pain – physical and emotional. She brings in a quality of mindfulness into the way she teaches Forrest Yoga that encourages students to look into their own emotional patterns, accept themselves for who they are and evolve from a place of acceptance and being good enough. Her classes are normally All-levels and she brings exquisite attention to injuries.
Sita also shares her healing touch with her students – with the permissions of her students, she uses her hands-on adjustments as way to hold space for the student while they process and breathe. The sensitivity and depth with which these hands-on adjustments are given, create an incredibly healing and accepting environment where, as human beings, we get to connect to one another on a non-verbal, feeling level.
Sita is also one of the co-founders of Earthwalking – a platform that organizes the Earthwalking Festival and other Forrest Yoga related events in Berlin and fosters the growth of the local Forrest Yoga community and aspires to promote living in Balance and Beauty.
About it, Ana said: “I’m proud of Erica Mather’s contribution to humanity as a Forrest Yoga Guardian and now as an author. Erica’s book YOUR BODY, YOUR BEST FRIEND holds the keys to freedom from your mental imprisonment. Erica’s deeply intelligent investigation into the nature of entrapment is fascinating. Breathe deeply as you read. Seek out these keys and take action. Good hunting!”
As an embodiment educator, Erica guides people to feel better in, and about their bodies. Her Adore Your Body Transformational Programs helps overcome body image challenges, and The Yoga Clinic of NYC supports students, teachers, and health professionals to learn about empowered care for the body. Mather lives in New York City and Salem, Virginia.
Heidi Sormaz
Heidi wants to help you feel comfortable even when life isn’t. The path of yoga and meditation was her way out of extreme social anxiety over 20 years ago. Heidi received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Psychology from Yale University and is an expert on the influence of arousal and attention on performance, how anxiety affects thinking, and stress management. Her first love was the study of the mind. As an academic, she experimented with unwinding cognitive habits (habitual thinking) through specific attention and meditation work. Heidi’s current offerings are a unique combination of her expertise in psychology, meditation, and yoga. She encourages students to work with their minds as specifically as they work with their bodies.
Heidi is the founder and director of Fresh Yoga in New Haven. An original Forrest Yoga Guardian, and lineage holder, she currently teaches the Forrest Yoga 200-HR Foundation Teacher Training, the Forrest Yoga Advanced Teacher Training, teaches and designed the Fresh Yoga 200 and 300-HR Teacher Trainings, and travels nationally to present workshops and trainings. In 2008, Yoga Journal selected Heidi as one of their “Next Generation of Yoga Teachers” and she was selected by The Great Courses to design their first ever course on yoga; Yoga for a Healthy Mind and Body. HDR Press published her book Performing Under Pressure, and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine published her article “Meditation can Reduce Habitual Responding.”
www.HeidiSormaz.com or www.FreshYoga.com
Alexandra Sagorz-Zimmerl
Her intention is to give her students the best possible experience in class, which means finding balance between challenging them and keeping them safe while finding their own potential. Her teaching is a compassionate and grounding experience. You can expect clear and precise directions and hands-on-assists, to feel more aligned and more at home in your body. She shares a positive attitude, optimism, and would name herself a very resourceful person. Besides that, she loves her daily yoga practice, drumming and ceremony, the sun, the stars and the moon, the sea and hiking in the beautiful mountains of Austria.
https://www.rosalindsouthward.com/
Ricky is a Forrest Yoga Guardian and Teacher, Bodyworker and Aromatherapist based in Indonesia. He is passionate about improving quality of life by reducing physical or emotional pain and getting more energy.
The first time Ricky stepped into Forrest Yoga Class, he knew that this style of yoga was what he was yearning for. There is something magical about Forrest Yoga that helped him to trust his own strength and intuition. He became a Forrest Yoga teacher in 2018 and has been assisting Ana and Jose throughout the world and in cyber space.
His style of teaching encourages his students be in their own body and believe in their true potential using a strong and safe sequence. He also use his bodywork skill and hands on assist to help his students to find free up their breath and ease their pain.
For more info about Ricky visit:
Web : https://www.rickysaputrayoga.com
IG : https://www.instagram.com/rickysaputra/
Hi everybody, I am Ilias and am based in Oslo, Norway, where I am teaching regular classes for HiYoga. In addition, I offer workshops and teacher training modules, all Forrest Yoga related. My foremost passion and intention is to help spread and further develop the healing medicine of Forrest Yoga.
You can learn more about me by visiting my website: www.iliaskousis.com
Moreover, you can practice live online with me once per week. Click here for information: https://www.iliaskousis.com/schedule
Chantal Hauser @chantalhauseryoga is the founder of YOGA ATELIER near Zurich, Switzerland and has been teaching full-time ever since leaving university.
She is a published author of a Kids Yoga article and currently
– teaching small group classes @myyogaatelier and
– private clients across the globe
– appearing at various company events
– pursuing studies in Positive Psychology
– leading events for athletic companies
– and passionately teaching yoga to preschoolers, young yogis and Teens!
“As a movement teacher I guide the practitioner to what is and what could be so that the wiser Self can show up. Let’s start this journey together!”
Chantal has brought Forrest Yoga to the Zurich yoga studios in 2014 and has extensively presented the style all over Europe at festivals and through guest-teaching.
She first experienced Forrest Yoga in the late 00’s in NYC and started teaching and integrating the style in 2012.
“The Forrest Yoga practice has taught me how to listen to my body and how I feel within. Listening made me feel and feeling made me vulnerable.
Naturally; I completely rebelled. It took many deep breaths, the guidance of Ana, lots of hours of practicing asana and just as many hours crying on my mat to acquiesce to the process. To be open — to start the work, and to allow space to breathe and be.”
Follow her @chantalhauseryoga or visit her website: www.chantalhauser.com
Victoria Kourkaki is the founder of Nama Yoga Studio, the Forrest Yoga studio in Athens, Greece and she is the leader of the yoga space, seminars and training programs.
Victoria has been extensively training in Forrest Yoga® by Ana Forrest and the Guardians since 2012. She has been assisting Ana Forrest and Jose Calarco since 2016. Victoria Kourkaki is also Kundalini Yoga teacher (200 hours) and a Certified Poppy Perinatal Integration Teacher – yoga for pregnant and postpartum. She is an International Yoga Alliance E-RYT500 Certified Yoga Teacher.
Victoria’s teaching comes from a very authentic place inside of her. She has a magical voice and a magical, healing touch that can travel someone to depths inside themselves. Her teaching is soothing, focused and uplifting. Her classes are strong, healing and fun. Victoria’s enthusiasm and encouragement is contagious! She is interested in helping people alleviate their pain and get centred in their core so that they move in life pain-free and confident.
My mission, as a Forrest Yoga Mentor, is to offer to students around the world the chance to experience Forrest Yoga. I learnt how to feel and accept my true, authentic self and believe in my true potential. Forrest Yoga builds the curiosity and willingness to explore our inner space, our breath, our wins and limitations. This process brings openness, sweetness and excitement in life. This is what I am passionate about sharing and teaching!
Albina grew up in a small village with no running water or electricity in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan. It’s been a fascinating journey of ups and downs to her life now as a serial entrepreneur, success coach, a mom and a wife, as well as a passionate lover of Forrest Yoga.
Albina’s life took a completely new trajectory for the better once her path crossed Ana Forrest. Albina is deeply grateful to Forrest Yoga for teaching her to listen to her inner wisdom, love and heal her body and connect to her Spirit. She is learning joy and playfulness from Jose Calarco every time they see each other. Albina’s business savvy comes from her continuous listening to her intuition, one of her greatest gifts from Ana Forrest.
It’s been Albina’s honor to be of service to Forrest Yoga over the last 20 years through hosting many FY Foundation and Advanced Teacher Trainings, workshops and events in her 7 yoga studios in Houston Texas, Forrest Yoga retreat in her retreat center in Taos, NM and travel the world whenever she can assisting Ana and Jose.
