Jessica Barnes Smith

She discovered that yoga provides a space to enjoy movement yet find stillness that is necessary to explore the deeper subtle layers of self all within the support of community. In that space for movement, stillness, and community she found joy. Jessica hopes to facilitate that for others. Jessica shares yoga with people of all ages and abilities. She enjoys sharing the grounding of alignment and the rhythm of vinyasa flow. Jessica strives to make her classes inclusive. She teaches specialty classes for children preschool through preteen, chair yoga, yoga for seniors, yoga for service members, and yoga for people who are blind. Her training at the Asheville Yoga Center include both 230hr Yoga Instructor Certification and 300hr Advanced Yoga Studies Certification. Jessica completed both Opening Yoga, Adapting Yoga for Disability I/II and Opening Yoga, Advanced Studies in adapting yoga for trauma loss and disability with her teacher, Matthew Sanford, the founder of Mind Body Solutions, which is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) with a mission to transform trauma, loss and disability into hope and potential by awakening the connection between mind and body. Jessica's continuing education for Veterans include a Certification in Mindful Resilience Training from the Veterans Yoga Project, and Mission Calm with Begin Within Yoga, and Wellness. Jessica is a Certified ChildLight Yoga® & Mindfulness for Children Instructor at both the Basic and Advanced Levels. Jessica has attended Grounded Kids Yoga and Street Yoga,Trauma-Informed Yoga for Youth. Some of her volunteer work include leading yoga classes for Camp Kemo 2013- 2014, The Spinal Cord Injury Association of SC in 2016, The Youth leadership Forum for Able SC in 2017, Palmetto Place Children's Shelter through the Junior League of Columbia in 2018 and 2019. Jessica is a regular assistant at Dara Brown's Yoga for Everyone, a weekly adaptive yoga class, since 2013. Jessica is a an artist with a BFA from Winthrop University, spouse, mother of two girls, and a lover of nature.