Founder story category
Teacher Training stories from Yoga Founders Magazine.
Teacher TrainingFrom a lifelong spiritual yearning and a career in professional dance, Amy Landry found her path through yoga, Ayurveda, and India’s classical traditions. Injury and an accident ended her dance career, but unexpected teaching opportunities opened a new direction. Over two decades, her work evolved through classes, retreats, workshops, mentoring, and a 300-hour teacher training for teachers seeking greater...
Teacher TrainingI’m a father, a scientist, a physiotherapist, and (many would say) a bit bananas. I love to dance, party with younger people, play guitar, sing with my students, and share good energy. I’d say I’m just a guy who likes to live and enjoy my life and help others enjoy theirs. My journey into yoga was anything but typical. At age six, my father taught me advanced breath-holding techniques — unknowingly initiating me into the world of pranayama. By age eight, an Olympic athlete guided me through exercises that helped me control and massage my internal organs using breath. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning yogic kriyas and bandhas. At 17 I was introduced to a Tibetan lama, through which I started exploring tantric (not sexual tantra but essence of tantra) philosophy and practices and after suffering injuries from conventional fitness methods, I've found yoga which provided relief for that - after that everything clicked and I dove deep into practicing more than 6h daily for the next decade...
Yoga Business CoachI grew up in the UK but left home at 17 with a thirst for travel, spending two years in Paris before returning to London’s music industry. I worked in artist management, organising tours, and supporting radio and TV promotions for an independent record label. Music was always a guiding force, yet beneath the surface I longed for something deeper. I wanted to understand happiness, peace and the inner layers of life. At 21, while working in London, I attended my first Iyengar yoga class. As a lifelong gymnast, I expected movement, yet the class felt still and even dull. But when I left, something had shifted. I felt lighter, clearer, more alive—and that mystery kept me coming back. Yoga became my portal to alternative therapies, yogic philosophy and new ways of seeing healing and life...
Yoga Business CoachYoga was always quietly present in my life. As a child, my mum used to sing the Gayatri mantra with us on the way to school, planting seeds I didn’t fully understand at the time. It wasn’t until I left the dance industry that yoga truly opened its door. I was desperate for a new way to move, express, and connect. I found myself in a studio filled with ex-professional dancers who were clearly on the same search. My journey began in the body, with movement. But the deeper I studied, the further inward I traveled. Meeting my teacher, Anand Mehrotra, was a pivotal moment. His integrated practice fulfilled something I’d been yearning for. I honestly feel like there’s no “outside of yoga” for me. It’s not separate from life, it is life. The path continues to evolve. I’ve been fortunate to study with many teachers and masters in Ayurveda, Self-Knowledge, and Earth-based traditions, all of which are now weaving into my own teachings. What a path this is to be devoted to. Every day, I thank yoga for the graceful way it brought me home...
Yoga Business CoachBeyond yoga, I am really just a left-brained geek who also loves the expressive arts. I've always loved teaching (primarily because teaching is an excellent way to learn) and I've also always enjoyed performance. Before yoga, I earned my MFA from ACT in San Francisco and was an aspiring (and very occasionally paid) actor and director in NYC. Like many things I loved, I gravitated towards teaching and also taught stage combat, acting, movement, and voice. I attended my first yoga class in NYC in 1998 on the recommendation of my boyfriend and loved it. It was a relief to me that yoga was NOT performance-based, but rather about my own experience on the mat. Unlike the dance classes I tried to hack my way through, I didn't have to worry about getting the steps right or impressing someone else...
Yoga TechYoga’s been with me since I was five. My mum was one of the first yoga teachers in Australia, she taught packed classes in our rumpus room. In 1980 at fifteen, I started apprenticing with her at Sutherland Hospital, working with kids who had Down Syndrome and kids with asthma. I was teaching my own classes by eighteen. Surfing entered my life around the same time and became my other spiritual path. I grew up in Cronulla, a gritty surf town south of Sydney, and both yoga and surfing shaped my way of being. But it wasn’t all smooth. I had a big energy early on. Yoga amplified that, but my environment couldn’t hold it. I learned to shrink, to read rooms, to shape shift. I chased validation through performance, trained like a machine, partied even harder. I hit burnout by 23...
Yoga Business CoachI found yoga just after finishing undergrad at UC Irvine. As a lifelong martial artist, I was drawn to it for the physical benefits. At first, it was just something I did at CorePower Yoga to stay flexible. But I didn’t stick with it. It wasn’t until 2019, during a tough chapter in my life, that yoga returned—this time with purpose. I’d been deep in the entertainment industry for years as a performer, casting professional, and talent rep. I was burning out. My roommate dragged me to a class. I hated it at first. But after a few weeks, something shifted. The practice wasn’t just helping my body, it was helping me breathe again, quiet my anxiety, and start to rebuild. That summer, I enrolled in a 200-hour teacher training. The more I practiced, the more I felt like I was coming back to myself...
Teacher TrainingAs a former professional fitness athlete and high school teacher, my life was built around improving my physical health, refining my aesthetics, and mastering new disciplines. I thrived on overperforming and pushing productivity, until I hit a breaking point. Burnout crept in, leaving me in a dark and lonely place. That was when yoga found me. It began with meditation and pranayama, eventually leading me to asanas and the deeper philosophical aspects of the practice. At first, staying focused and carrying the benefits through the day felt almost impossible. But I noticed that on days I skipped practice, anxiety, restlessness, and destructive thoughts would return. So I made a promise to myself to practice daily, no matter what. Ten years of consistent practice and studying ancient yogic scriptures led me to my first teacher training, and from that point on, yoga became my life’s path...
Studio OwnerI’ve always believed I’m a dreamer. I don’t dwell on problems—I naturally focus on solutions. That mindset has carried me through life and into yoga. One of the people I’ll forever be grateful to is a dear friend who introduced me to my very first yoga class. That single act changed everything. From the beginning, I felt held by this path. I didn’t experience the kind of dramatic hardships that many others do. Instead, I embraced both the stillness and the excitement that came my way. I allowed the journey to unfold as it needed to—without trying to control or force anything. My yoga path began with a humble studio, then evolved into leading teacher trainings, and later expanded into hosting retreats. Each chapter opened organically, and even now, I stay open to whatever comes next...
Yoga Business CoachThy Monzo’s yoga journey started back in 2004 during her university days in Canada. After walking into her first Ashtanga class, something clicked. The breath, the presence, the connection—she had never felt anything like it. Soon, daily practice became part of her life. She discovered Bikram Yoga not long after, and her love for hot yoga took over. By 2007, she completed her first teacher training—not to start teaching yet, but simply out of deep passion for the practice. That passion kept growing until 2010, when she completed another training and began teaching full time. She moved to Australia in 2012 and continued doing what she loved most—teaching yoga...
Yoga Business CoachBefore yoga entered her life, April Fort imagined herself surrounded by books, dreaming of a career as a librarian. That all changed during her senior year of high school, when she stumbled upon a stack of yoga books in the library. What began as curiosity sparked a lifelong path. Years later, when she became a mother, yoga became more than just a personal practice, it became her way of life. With three homeschooled children and a full heart, she chose a career that allowed her to stay close to them. Yoga gave her that freedom. Through practice, April realized that yoga isn’t confined to a mat. Every breath is pranayama. Every movement, an asana. Life itself becomes a flowing meditation, if you’re present enough to notice it...
Teacher TrainingFrom a young age, I’ve been a seeker—a curious student of life. Born and raised in Greece, I moved to Italy at 18 to study architecture. There, I was introduced to spatial energy and the unseen impact of our environments. Specializing in Bioarchitecture and Feng Shui, I began to understand how energy moves not just through buildings—but through people. To support myself during my studies, I began working as a fitness and wellness instructor. What began as a job soon became a calling. Movement became the bridge between two worlds I’ve always lived in: the structured and the fluid, the physical and the invisible. It became my way of understanding life, healing, and guiding others...