Laurie was one of those who was unwillingly dragged to a class back in 1988, and Anne Pitman was her first teacher. She loved yoga from the start, though the journey to embracing the practice fully was bumpy, to say the least. Over time, yoga has become one of the most potent tools to help her navigate through life. Some of the things she loves most about yoga is that there is no end point and that the “perfect” asana is the one you can do with how your body feels at the time. It doesn’t have to look good to feel right.
Under the guidance of many skilled teachers and following her own unending curiosity, Laurie’s practice continues to unfold and evolve. She started to teach almost as soon as she returned from completing her first 200-hour teacher training at the Kripalu Yoga Center in 2005, and has since gone on to complete over 1500 hours of training across a wide range of styles and specializations, including yin, power, forest yoga, trauma-informed yoga, yoga for depression and anxiety, Anusara yoga, and LoveYourBrain Yoga. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher at the E-500 level with Yoga Alliance.
Laurie is a member of the PranaShanti Education Faculty, where she teaches classes as well as the Yin Teacher Training and the Assisting and Adjusting workshop. Over the years, she has led more than 20 two-hundred-hour yoga teacher trainings — including several at PranaShanti — and has co-facilitated numerous yin teacher trainings. Teaching teachers has become as much a part of her path as her own practice, and she brings the same curiosity and care to the training room that she brings to her mat.
Yoga opens doors and pathways for awareness, expression and acceptance. Laurie’s mission is to help others see who they are and what they feel is valid and beautiful in all its complexity — whether they’re stepping onto a mat for the first time or stepping into the role of teacher themselves. Being perfectly imperfect is perfect enough.