About Rachel

I began practicing yoga in 2007 and have been teaching in Austin, Texas since 2009. As of 2019 I am a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and I have specialized training in Pain Care Yoga, as well as Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy. I first became interested in using yoga to manage persistent pain during my studies with Inner Peace Yoga Therapy. I loved how Pain Care Yoga brought together the time-tested practices of yoga and the evidence-based knowledge of modern pain science.

My journey with yoga began because I wanted to become a more well-rounded athlete. In my weightlifting class at The University of Texas at Austin, I learned that flexibility was one of the five main components of physical fitness, so I enrolled in the university’s yoga class. Much the way my strength-training textbook separated out the different aspects of physical fitness, at that time I took an approach of compartmentalization with my health: my exercise was in one category, my nutrition in another, spiritual life in another (mental, emotional, and relational health were not yet on my radar).

I eventually completed a 200-hour power vinyasa yoga teacher training and taught group classes for a number of years. I began to feel an itch to grow professionally, and I felt the desire to be able to offer my students something beyond a good workout, so when I discovered the field of yoga therapy through William L. Broad’s book The Science of Yoga, it was a natural fit. I began my yoga therapy education in 2015.

My studies in yoga therapy have transformed my understanding of health and how human beings work. I came to understand that the various aspects of our beings are not distinct, as I had previously considered them, but they are inextricably intertwined. As my Pain Care Yoga teacher Neil Pearson says, “You can change any aspect of your being through any aspect of your being,” and yoga is ideally suited to speak to any aspect of being.

I am very thankful for my many teachers, mentors, and other influences: Neil Pearson, Lisa Pearson, Genevieve Yellin, Laura Kupperman, Maria Mendola, Nischala Joy Devi, Dr. Marc Halpern, Amy Weintraub, Durga Lee, Antonio Sauys, Michele Lawrence, Stephen Phillips, Jason Crandall, Rod Stryker, Benjie Slaton, and Kim Hall.