Namaste and welcome,

                                 A little about me?

                     The easy to state things come first.

I am a Registered Yoga Instructor, Liscensed massage Therapist with a focus in movement based modalities, Breema Practitoner, Thai Yoga Therapist, Author, and the lucky mother of three beautiful girls Raphaelle, Avalon, and Alidar.  I currently live and teach in and around Seattle Washington and call Bainbridge Island my home. 

....and the rest of my story at least as it relates to Balance Arts...in the shortest version possible...

My expereice has taught me this- Yoga is something you must do to understand. It comes from inside, slowly taking you into its own embrace. 

My relationship to yoga has been deeply personal, a gradual awakening unfolding over much time. To the intimacy of this relationship, I owe the life spirit of this ongoing work; to the ageless wisdom of Hatha Yoga, the breath, body, and bones.

Life has taught me this- No teaching, idea, word, or philosophy, will ever be as wholly profound as your own experience of it.'

This statement is the key to everything I have to offer and embodies the true experience of Yoga as I have come to know it.  But please don't take my word for it, dive in and start swimming.

-How Yoga found me :

I took my first yoga class at home in my room at age 10.  The rug on my floor served as a yoga mat, my underwear transformed itself into yogawear, and a book pulled from the shelf at our small town's public library proved to be a patient teacher as I spent hours staring at the wise eyed sage in impossible looking positions and tried to imitate what I saw in an effort to grasp the as of yet undefinable feeling that his eyes semed to communicates to my longing heart.

Why I brought that yoga book home in the first place is a strange story that deserves to be told somewhere....Its my web site, so this is a good place for such tales.

I began reading books on Yoga and Meditation immediately after attending a Spiritist church Meeting with the Youth Group at Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts. In a Spiritist church, a medium leads the group, "channeling" guidance from other dimensions, bringing messages of hope and encouragement to those in the congregation from ancestors, guiding spirits, angels and other beings of light.  I was the first person to be called on that day...He(the medium) pointed at me and said that there was a strong female presence, an old woman who wanted me to know that I would find myself, find my life, in the great philosophies of the world, and that Yoga in particular was a good place to start....Well I am still on the journey that never ends; yoga with its deep roots and abundant branches never ceases to delight and amaze, bless and heal. Yoga, the place of refuge I sought out when when tired, hungry, and bruised from hard living, until I learned to make life the practice and yoga the way...

My own experiences in the ongoing process of self-discovery were born through a deep abiding love for the practice of yoga and broadened by my life path as a healer.The Balance Arts system of Partner yoga is the natural outcome of these two passions entwined and the result of over 15 years of hands on "research"....

-Where I've been:

Having been broken, I became very interested in the healing arts. 

I gained a certification and liscensure as a Massage Therapist, this being only the first step into yet another area of vast and constantly evolving wisdom.

I have studied Thai massage, Breema, G-Jo, Shiatsu, Positional Release Therapy, Myo-Fascial Release Therapy, these the healing modalities from which my own style of yoga therapy has grown.

I have also been Blessed to Learn through the Gift of Recieveing.... the healing touch of many beautiful and talented healing artists comunicating so so clearly love divine , provodong insight and inspiraton, bringing light to places that were yet unlit. Many Namaskaras to all on the healing path with heart and dedication.

    As I became ready, my massage practice blossomed into  a full time career. My personal yoga practice now became my means of staying grounded, and centered. A regular asana practice kept my own body free of pain while the meditiatons and pranayamas/breathing practices served me well in clearing energy, maintaing, focus, and learning to drop into the current of the breath as a vehicle for establising a resonant connection with my client, assisting in bringing balance and harmony throughout the body/mind system via the natural self- healing potential available in each individual. Using yoga asanas/postures as a model for the possibilities of applied stretching in conjunction with deep tissue massage was a natural step in the progression of developing the Balance Arts practices as they stand today. In this model, the client is passive while the therapist moves from head to toe, front and back massaging muscles and applying deep stretches leans and compressions to the client relaxing on the massage table.

      - It wasn't long before I began dreaming about how wonderful it would be to teach people to work with eachother in a way that was mutually supportive and beneficial, to use the healing wisdom of the yoga asanas and the powerful tool of conscious touch to bring people together into healing partnerships. I began to work out multiple partnered postures that danced around the energy and healing potential inside of each asana/posture.  I developed short sequences of partnered postures that were result specific, covering a broad area of therapeutic use ranging from a healthy back practice to an anti-anxiety flow.  I began to invite my clients to practice a few postures with me in adjunct to their curent massage therapy and track the very positive results. 

-This is when "The Calling" to teach became apparent in my life, completeing one full circle, or cycle of discovery and growth, while reaching forward into the next.

       - I recieved my certification as a yoga instructor through the remarkable teaching offered at Nosara Yoga Institue with Don and Amba Stapleton.

I also recieved from Don and Amba the great gift of their combined wisdom, light, love, and passion for both teaching and continueing to learn... being a life student part of the ongoing journey. Rather than put out my wild fire thinking and non-traditional approach they lead me to fully trust the teacher within, pointing the way rather than dictating how I should walk upon it...for this I am eternally grateful. 

-Where I am going:

I continuine to add to the Balance Arts System of Partner Yoga as it is in a constant state of evolution, taking me with it through many a delicious twist and turn, circle and cycle, in a spiral dance through this gift called life.

                                                           Sat Nam

                                                               and

                                                   Many Many blessings

                                                            Mishabae