Anne O’Brien is a dedicated teacher and practitioner of hatha yoga whose practice draws on a broad study of yogic traditions including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Sivananda, Anusara, and Vini yoga. Her practice continues to be enriched and deepened by streams of influence including her early training in classical ballet, immersion in other cultures, inquiry into different spiritual traditions, and her family life. She has had the great fortune to live, work and study throughout Europe, India, and Latin America and to study with master teachers TKV Desikachar, Dona Holleman, Rodney Yee, Edward Clark, Brigitte Longueville, John Friend, Patricia Sullivan, Shandor Remete, and many others.
She teaches multi-level classes, private lessons, workshops & retreats, and trains yoga teachers. She believes in the health and well being benefits derived from yoga and endeavors to cultivate curiosity in her students allowing yoga to be a vehicle for self transformation, joy, and fun! Her classes offer a blend of precise technique, creative innovation, and conscious awareness. Anne frequently leads yoga retreats in Northern California and brings groups on international travel adventures blending cultural experiences with the practice of yoga. She also works privately with students who have particular therapeutic needs.
Anne recently completed a collaborative book with esteemed teacher, Kofi Busia, honoring Sri BKS Iyengar's 70 years of teaching. Iyengar, The Yoga Master (Shambhala) offers insights, interviews, and anecdotes from 50 well known yoga practitioners from around the globe.
Anne has practiced yoga for many years, has taught since 1990 and is a Registered Yoga Teacher (500 level) with the Yoga Alliance. She has trained yoga teachers since 1999 and is currently a core faculty member with Turtle Island Yoga studio's Advanced Studies/Teacher Training Program in Marin County. She has enjoyed the opportunity to teach at yoga conferences and events nationwide offered by the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts, Yoga Journal, the Omega Institute in New York, and other organizations. She has taught yoga at Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, and Rancho La Puerta in Mexico. Anne has periodically been interviewed about yoga by NBC television, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Sonoma Sun, regional public radio, Bloomberg radio, Elle Magazine, Yoga Journal, Free Spirit,Univision.com and other media. She was featured in the March 2008 issue of Yogi Times magazine
With an unusual background for a yogi, Anne spent many years in the business world. She held senior level positions in the world of financial services and international investment banking in a career that spanned 14 years and included postings in San Francisco, Istanbul, and London. She then spent another couple years consulting in the fields of investor relations, executive presentation coaching, and event creation and management. During this time, she developed her yoga practice. Her desire to be more involved with yoga outweighed her interest in the business world. She carved out a year off during which she studied intensely with world-renowned yoga teachers in London and India.
In 1998, Yoga Journal, L.L.C., a media company producing the leading magazine on yoga, invited her to establish and direct a conference and events division. Here she found an opportunity to blend her business acumen and public speaking skills with her yoga teaching experience and passion for the practice of yoga. She honed her skills at creating and leading enriching events and conferences.
An important part of Anne’s commitment to yoga, has been her outreach to diverse communities to make yoga accessible to many. She offered generous scholarships to her teacher training program each year to students who would otherwise not be able to attend. She spent several years on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Yoga on the Inside Foundation, a non-profit organization bringing yoga to public schools, juvenile facilities, treatment centers, children’s shelter, prisons and other settings where the healing and therapeutic powers of yoga can benefit the lives of people who are at-risk. She often donates yoga classes and day-long events to local charities as fund raisers.
Anne obtained her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA, postgraduate education from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Humanities at Dominican University. She does her best to communicate in several languages including Spanish, Italian and Turkish and holds dual European and United States citizenship.
Contact details: yoginianne@sbcglobal.net or 707 996 2617
|
