Camarillo Yoga Teachers are real people, just like you… not flexy-bendy pretzels in white leotards with perfect hair and whispery voices.    We all feel that yoga is a gift in our lives, and we teach to share that gift.

If I had a penny for every Warrior 2 I have done in the decades I have taught and practiced yoga, I would be as rich as a celebrity yoga teacher! Instead, my life is enriched by living in Camarillo for the last 14 years, and teaching and practicing yoga with a warm and wonderful community of people, who range in age from 6 weeks to 94 years. I am moved to tears each Thanksgiving, when our yoga room is crowded to overflowing with faces of students who have become friends, all of us grateful for the gift of yoga in our lives. Yoga has healed my body, banishing the back pain which caused me to begin, and rehabilitating knees injured two years ago after a hiking fall which required three surgeries. Yoga keeps my joints lubricated, my bones strong and my muscles supple, so that at 52, I feel healthy and confident. Yoga has grounded me through life’s difficulties, and helped me to appreciate the simple things- the tender and never-to-arise-again moments that are easily missed in the headlong rush of daily life. Yoga has been my shelter- I simply can’t imagine life without yoga practice.

My classes are a blend of Iyengar and Viniyoga, with liberal doses of traditions ranging from Astanga to Kundalini, a synthesis of the gifts of every teacher I have ever studied with, and every practitioner I have ever taught. My teaching is completely indebted to them.

Yoga saved my career. I first discovered yoga by accident after a bad back injury that threatened my career as a commercial airline pilot. Massages, physical therapy, drugs all had very little effect.

By sheer coincidence my wife, Allison, and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary at a hiking spa in Canada. The first activity each morning was yoga before our hike. After I made the standard lame excuses that come from middle- aged men, my wife and the teacher “encouraged” me to try it. With the teacher’s guidance and watchful eye, I was able to make it through the class without significant pain. Now encouraged for real, I successfully completed a challenging hike that day. After four more days of yoga, hiking and massages, I felt 50% better than I did when I first arrived at the spa.
Upon returning home, Allison encouraged me to continue yoga. We tried DVD’s and books for about a week but the absence of a good teacher was sorely missed. It just wasn’t the same level of instruction I needed. We searched on-line and found the Camarillo Yoga Center. After three months of practicing yoga 3 to 4 times a week with Audrey, my back was pain-free. I was flying my regular schedule and feeling good. Six months after starting yoga my whole body was pain- free! I had spent 24 years in the Navy and had never had the comprehensive whole body workout that good yoga practice can provide. Had I known 20 years ago what yoga could achieve, I would have started long ago.

Yoga ignited a desire in me to explore the muscles and bones inside my body and how they work together. I fly with men mostly in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and I see them in the pain that I once shared. I wanted to share the gift that yoga has bestowed on me with others. Allison and I attended teacher training classes together and now teach at the Camarillo Yoga Center. In addition, I teach yoga classes while on the road to any interested pilots, flight attendants or friends. Each class challenges me to learn more and encourages me to continue to share the gift of yoga.

I’m a Registered Nurse, and work as a School Nurse in substance abuse prevention. I started doing yoga almost 5 years ago to support my husband—he started doing yoga quite by accident while we were on vacation, and he had a miraculous recovery from significant back pain. Little did I know that I would feel so great myself!

Yoga offers me a sense of physical, emotional and mental balance that nothing else provides, and I love to share that with others, both in the Yoga Center and in my nursing practice. Our daughter teases me that I really don’t need to tell EVERYONE I meet that they could benefit from yoga…

My husband and I live in Camarillo, have two grown children, and a grandchild on the way.

Coming soon!

I did my first adho mukha svanasana in a locked ward at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Hospital. I was an inpatient in the Eating Disorder Program, diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and depression. At 19--standing at 5’7” and weighing 98 pounds--I was scared, angry and confused. I was used to running 8 miles a day and working out in the weight room for hours; once admitted to the program, exercise was strictly forbidden. My only solace was the Rodney Yi yoga tapes I would get to watch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The brief reprieve from my daily struggle with issues of identity, body image and deep-seated grief was a coveted gift. Savasana, or Corpse Pose, was the most difficult pose for me as I could barely hold myself still or quiet my racing thoughts…but I was drawn to the ancient system of yoga down to my very core.
I did not take my first yoga class until a few years later. The yoga studio was new, and many times I was the only student in the room. The instructors I met were of all sizes and shapes, but they had one thing in common: a luminous grace and strength that I found both comforting and inspiring. I fell in love.
I enrolled in massage school on a whim, and began to study Eastern philosophy, holistic medicine and aromatherapy in addition to various modalities. The words of Alan Watts, Thich Nat Hahn, and Judith Lasater began to impress upon me the importance of self-acceptance, mindfulness, and the mind-body connection. Upon searching online for a yoga studio closer to my home—and more affordable for my student budget—I found it: the Camarillo Yoga Center. And the rest is history.
Audrey’s knowledge is extensive and her teaching style has encouraged me to find a balance between challenging myself and surrendering my desire for perfection. The studio space itself has facilitated great healing in my life. It is the one place where the trappings of everyday life fall away, allowing my inner Self to emerge.
I now have been practicing seriously for 6 years, and the more I practice, the more wonderful lessons unfold. When I teach, I try to bring humor, gentleness and compassion into the studio. I want to create a sacred space for my students so that they might feel safe enough to let go of self-judgment and examine their own definitions of success, fulfillment, awareness and self-love. Every person experiences suffering. It is my belief that regular yoga practice can allow healing to happen—to allow one’s full potential to bloom. Celebrate every breath…life is a brief, but fantastic adventure!
Namaste!

Dancing has always been my first love, and although I have danced and taught dance all my life, I decided to dedicate myself to yoga once my severe scoliosis became extremely painful. Amazingly, through regular yoga practice, I am now pain-free, and needless to say, I am now a devoted yoga practitioner. Because of this life changing experience with my own body, I studied yoga in many forms, and became a yoga teacher- sharing the gifts of yoga with others continues enriches my life in ways I could never have imagined.

In my classes, I combine asana, pranayama, meditation, and philosophy to give the student a well-rounded practice. I enjoy teaching all styles of yoga, from vinyasa flow to gentle yoga and I incorporate the grace and creativity I learned in dance, with the structural alignment of yoga, so you will be safe, and have fun, too!

I love yoga !
I teach yoga so I can share my passion with others. I met Audrey eight years ago and became an enthusiastic student and eventually one of her CYC teachers. Audrey and the teachers she trains emphasize breath, body alignment, and a meditative (mindful) way practicing yoga.

Like many of us, I deal with chronic pain, so it was great to discover that yoga can provide continual, dependable, relief from pain. Also important to me is our mental attitude towards the stressors in life, both physical and emotional. That’s why I teach a free laughter yoga class every Saturday morning at Camarillo Yoga Center. In Laughter Yoga, we use our body, via laughter exercises, to retrain our brain, cultivating a “habit of happiness.” Scientific research shows that both spontaneous laughter and simulated laughter will produce the same physiological and psychological benefits. Having a positive attitude can improve our health and general well-being.

Come join the Camarillo Yoga community to enjoy improved health and happiness!

Yoga became a part of my life during my first pregnancy, and became a valuable resource to me in my journey through pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Practicing Yoga allows me to connect with my inner self and my physical body, to find strength within, and to trust in my body and its ability to serve me well. This has been helpful not only in childbirth and parenthood, but in life. Supporting other women and families who are finding inner strength along their journey into parenthood has become my passion, and I am honored to witness and share in that experience.

Katrina has been working with and learning from children for over 20 years, with her Karuna Kids Yoga program. The ancient Sanskrit term "Karuna" is translated as compassion or compassion in action. This idea is at the heart of every 'Karuna Kids Yoga' class. As we play and move we connect to our inner self, we find a joyful heart! And our parents find tremendous joy in knowing thatthey are providing their child with a set of skills that will bring a life time of well being.