Margaret Burns Vap, RYT: yoga teacher, horse lover, business woman

Margaret is the founder of Big Sky Yoga Retreat and discovered  yoga about 10 years ago while working and living in the chaos of life in Manhattan, working for L’Oreal. “A few years and several hundred down dogs later,” as she writes on her website biography, Margaret left corporate NYC and followed her yoga passion to DC and created Georgetown Yoga.

Her yogic journey brought her to Bozemon, Montana where she has combined her innate creativity, yoga practice, and the crisp mountainous beauty of her surroundings to build a wonderful retreat program that integrates some of the best mind, body, and spirit wellness and renewal in action (or so I gather as I salivate over the retreats on her website).  She is a mother, wife, yogini, and horseback rider who has integrated her passions in life into her passions in business to create Big Sky Yoga Retreats and Cowgirl Yoga where she integrates yoga and riding for a unique retreat experience–something like organically therapeutic programming.  Nothing like endless Montana skies, horses, and downdogs to make someone slip into bliss. Thank you Margaret for your innovative work and sharing your passion and story with us!  Read the full interview…

Elizabeth Plapinger, JD, RYT: laywer, professor, & yoga for mental wellness teacher

Elizabeth Plapinger is the co-director of  Yoga for Mental Wellness (YMW) at The Breathing Project, which has provided low-cost or free therapeutic yoga classes for those living with mental illness in NYC since  2004.  Elizabeth and her colleagues, Bess Abrahams, RYT, IMT and L. Ruth Kalvert, RYT, CMT, MA, administer and teach the YMW program and provide yoga to various hospitals and community mental health programs in and around NYC.  Elizabeth and her colleagues also assist yoga and mental health professionals interested in exploring yoga’s complementary role in mental health and wellness.

Elizabeth is a certified yoga teacher, with a background in vinyasa, restorative, Iyengar, breath-centered and embodied yoga.  A graduate of the Advanced Studies in Yoga Anatomy at The Breathing Project, Elizabeth has studied with master yoga teachers and yoga therapists Jillian Pransky, Leslie Kaminoff, Amy Matthews, Roxlyn Moret, and Bess Abrahams.  She currently studies embodied yoga and Body-Mind Centering with Amy Matthews and Roxlyn Moret, and Iyengar Yoga with Michelle LaRue.

In addition to her yoga teaching and studies, Elizabeth, who is a lawyer, was an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School from 2000-2008, where she taught conflict resolution and problem solving.  Elizabeth is the former director of the Public Policy Projects at the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, a nonprofit research and education organization in New York City.   Elizabeth is the author of numerous policy and research studies, books and articles regarding ethics, mediation and other methods of conflict resolution.  She is a graduate of Carleton College (magna cum laude) and the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (Order of the Coif), and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Read further for the full interview…

Nancy Coyne, MD: trauma therapist, yoga teacher, & EFP practitioner

Nancy Coyne,M.D. is a psychiatrist whose work as a healer is informed by long experience as a psychotherapist, artist, yoga practitioner and lover of animals and of the outdoors.  She utilizes creative process, movement and breath, EMDR, as well as talk therapy and medication in her practice.

Since 2005 she has immersed herself in studying the wisdom of horses and the contribution they can make in healing our human herd.  In 2007 she completed her apprenticeship at the Epona Center in Sonoita, Arizona with Linda Kohanov, Kathleen Ingram and Shelley Rosenberg, in equine experiential learning.

She currently  practises equine facilitated psychotherapy, working with people in concert with horses as healer/mentors in Maine and  Arizona.  This work brings together her passion for creative process as a healing tool, connection with animals, and deep centering through breath, movement, and immersion in the natural world. Read the full interview…

Shelley Rosenberg: horsewoman, author, trauma survivor, artist

Shelley R. Rosenberg is an accomplished horsewoman, trainer, rider, artist, teacher, and author of My Horses, My Healers, about healing from childhood sexual abuse with the help of her horses.

Rosenberg’s current projects include facilitating workshops at the Epona International Center for Equine Experiential Learning including a new workshop for survivors of trauma; developing Epona’s stallion training program; sharing her experience and giving back by reading from her book and speaking at sexual trauma groups and advocacy centers around the country. As Epona’s ranch manager, Rosenberg is at the forefront of caring for and learning from our horse colleagues as well as co-creating and facilitating workshops in collaboration with director Linda Kohanov and other Epona instructors.

Rosenberg’s skills with horses and humans help people develop awareness and authenticity within themselves and in their relationships with others. As a U.S. Dressage Federation “L” judge, she also continues to provide lessons and training for riders from beginners to the Grand Prix level. Riding since the age of 12, she has over 30 years of experience training horses, teaching riders in western, jumping, dressage, hunter, and driving horses. Rosenberg’s experience with horse breeds spans from Arabians to Haflingers, Warmbloods, rescued Mustangs, and horses recovering from abuse that require rehabilitation. In her long career she has successfully competed for the long-list on the U.S. Olympic equestrian team; co-created and run (with Barbara Rector) a therapeutic riding program for adolescents at Sierra Tucson; and conducted Dressage clinics. Rosenberg was president of the Tucson Dressage Club, and for 18 years ran her own Dressage Center in Oro Valley. Rosenberg continues to actively judge, train and compete in the art of dressage riding in Arizona. Read the full interview…

Emily Van Horn, RPP, CMT, CU: Somatic Resolution Practitioner

Emily Van Horn (RPP, CMT, CU) has enjoyed over 15 years as a practitioner in the healing arts She has trained and certified in CranioSacral Unwinding, Polarity Therapy, Somatic Trauma Resolution Therapy, and clairvoyant healing. She skillfully blends these various modalities in her unique style of energetic bodywork and therapeutic process thus facilitating an increased level of well-being for each client.

“I am an advocate of personal growth and transformation. My goal is to assist each client on the journey inward to reconnect with the body’s wisdom and innate healing information. I look forward to sharing these gifts with my clients as they create their own healing miracles”.

“I am fascinated with the multidimensional ways of working with the human energy system and feel grateful to work with people in ways which deeply honor the individual and can change their experience of life and of themselves.” To further explore the complex levels she experienced while working with people, she completed several years of training with the Southern California Psychic Institute. “I believe this was the best education I could have chosen to refine my ability to see energy, to develop healthy energetic boundaries, and to be able to work clairvoyantly from a grounded place.”

Most recently, Emily has been helping people release the stored effects of trauma. A graduate of Sharon Porter’s Somatic Trauma Resolution training, she has further expanded her capacity to work with the body’s natural ability to release trauma. “I feel most excited by this modality as it encompasses the energetic dynamics of previously learned techniques and allows even greater facility for helping people to heal from traumatic experiences”. Read the full interview…

Susan Tebb, PhD: Social Worker, Yogini, Professor

Sue Tebb,Professor of Social Work at St. Louis University , a former Dean/Director, has centered her research interests around family caregiving.  She has written two books and over forty book chapters and/or publications in this area.  She has been a social worker for more than forty years working with many diverse family configurations in adoptions, medical social work, court mediation and caregiving situations.  Lately her caregiving research , knowledge building and skill training has begun to involve more complementary and integrative interventions, such as yogic techniques,  to deal with stress and trauma. Read the full interview…

Durga: yoga teacher, ayurvedic teacher, creator of “yoga of recovery”

Durga is a Clinical Ayurvedic and Pancha Karma Specialist, trained at the California College of Ayurveda and also in Kerala, India. She leads several Ayurvedic Retreats at International Sivananda Yoga Ashrams. Durga has been involved with the 12-Step Fellowship for over 10 years. She completed her Sivananda Yoga teachers Training Course in May 2002, the Meditation Immersion Course in January 2005 and the Advanced Yoga Teachers Training Course in March 2006.

She created a protocol for persons in recovery from addiction which integrates the principals of ayurveda, philosophy of yoga, and the attentiveness to the 12 steps that brings it into application for those persons in recovery.  Her passion is clear and her drive has brought this work to the forefront of the yoga and mental health world spheres.  She is another innovator on the forefront of integrating mind, body, and spirit practices for mental health and holistic wellness.  Read the full interview…

Connie Hozvicka: artist, teacher, yogini & owner of Dirty Footprints Studio

Connie Hozvicka is a full time Artist and Creative Wildwoman that breathes fire into the world through her blog/obsession/biz Dirty Footprints Studio.  She believes with her whole entire being that Art can transform lives and that painting is a powerful tool to unlock all possibility.  She teaches FEARLESS Painting™, Art Journal LOVE™, and all things Creative Juicy–in person, online and in her sleep. And when she’s not playing a FEARLESS Painter on her YouTube channel, she’s actually living her dream-painting FEARLESS in the studio! Plus, she lives worshiping the sun in Arizona, has the world’s most fantastic-loving-supportive partner, Hansel, and she shares her studio with two adorable furry creatures: Nyla the dog and Theo the cat! Together–plus throw in some Yoga– this makes up her Creative Juicy Life that she rambles on about at Dirty Footprints Studio at http://www.dirtyfootprints-studio.com.  Read the full interview…

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