STEF'S STORY

YOUR TEACHER

Stef has been teaching movement full-time since 2010 and has taught over 5,000 hours of classes. With thousands of hours of continuous practice, study and training, her greatest passion is supporting people to restore optimal well-being in their bodies and minds. She has worked with a beautiful spectrum of clients from those with movement disorders to professional athletes.

Stef holds certifications as a Nutritious Movement restorative exercise specialist, yoga teacher in many specialities, personal trainer and massage technician. She avidly studies Human Biomechanics and is a dedicated practitioner of Vipassana meditation.

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I went to my first yoga class at 17 years old. It felt like home. The teacher told us over and over to go within and that this was our journey. Those words were so comforting to me and I didn't want to miss a class.

I became very consistent with my practice when I moved to Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles. I practiced with as many teachers as I could possibly experience in classes and workshops all over LA. One of the truly kind teachers I practiced with helped with my confidence... the gift of encouragement.

I was between jobs when one of my dear friends asked me why I don't teach yoga because I talked about it all the time. Soon after, I took my first teacher training with an incredible, uplifting teacher & became a yoga teacher! I received the gift of classes to teach right after training thanks to another amazing teacher I often practiced with.

Over the next year, I taught and studied my heart out going from training to training, nearly every weekend. Each teacher brought a beautiful piece of the puzzle to my attention....some experiences were fun, others calming, others focused, some slower, some faster, some more meditative, some more physical. I studied with as many as I could in every style and learned that every practice was supportive in its own way depending on what's going on in your life at the time. Yet, I still had questions that were not being answered and perhaps that will always be the case to some degree.

I was introduced to the study of yoga through the lens of Human Biomechanics while going on walks with a friend and experienced teacher. I would ask a ton of questions while we walked and I fell in awe with the ideas. Then, a year into teaching, I injured myself. I became scared that this career path where I had finally found exhilaration was going to be over. It took a couple months of healing, but during that time I dug deep into understanding the body and why I and so many others were injured while we were participating in exercise practices, not just yoga. Practices that were here for us to take care of ourselves. Digging even deeper, why were so many modern common ailments still present in excess in these healing spaces? That's when I discovered my mentor. Her way of explaining movement and how it relates to our culture blew me away. It was as though all of those unanswered questions started being answered with ease. I couldn't get enough and well over a decade later, I still can't.

I will always be thankful for this journey as I continue to reconstruct my structure from my cultural habit patterns to feeling free and more alive while learning to move in supportive ways.

Because of the abundance of beautiful teachers that have passed through my life, I live with the idea that if I can help even one other human being, that is enough.

Thank you for learning and practicing with me!