Dr. Leah Johnson

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Leah has years of experience teaching Alignment based Hatha Yoga that can be vigorous with Vinyasas and complex challenges to slowing it down to Yin Slow Flow or Restorative style Yoga She also holds her Doctor of Physical Therapy Dr Johnson started her life journey of exploring holistic healing through physical movement with yoga and later with her extensive experience as a physical therapist  Leah is a Board-Certified Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist and is also Certified in Dry Needling  She was born and raised amongst the corn stalks in Iowa until she made her escape She learned her Spanish in Oviedo Spain then moved to Montezuma Costa Rica From - Leah spent many happy and tropical years taking classes and teaching yoga Leahs heart is healing through movement In she started teaching at Anamaya Resort as the in house yoga teacher until During that time Leah taught what her certificate calls an “alignment based flow” This is vinyasa yoga with a firm respect for alignment Leah believes in the technique of talking over showing This means that her cues immediately adapt to the students their needs and their understanding and is able to talk the students through their movements This technique is powerful because it allows the teacher to walk amidst her students and adjust each person individually Leah does demonstrate during her classes as well Leah also taught free yoga classes in the park of Montezuma on Tuesdays and Thursdays These classes used beach towels instead of yoga mats  In Leah made the big move back to the United States landing in Portland Oregon where she taught Yin yoga at Yo Yo Yogi for two years This is also where she began her pursuit of a degree in physical therapy  In Richmond VA Leah has finally found her home Leah has practiced as a professional Physical Therapist Through the education and lens of a physical therapist Leah is able to adjust her classes to safely teach those recovering from injuries and working through chronic pain  Philosophy To understand Leahs philosophy of yoga it is important to understand her vision of simplicity For Leah yoga means movement that needs nothing more than ones body and ones breath This simplicity is its elegance its purity For Leah there is nothing more beautiful than guiding a group of individuals moving together as one Leah has a fundamental understanding that each body is different and truly believes each body can do each pose in its own way and that doing this together is an extraordinary gift There are so many modifications so many adjustments so many approaches to a pose and Leah works hard to know as many as possible to be able to meet each person where he or she is in their practice For Leah yoga is a moving toward and thats where the healing begins Yoga is about healing from the outside in Yoga treats the physical body and the spiritual soul as if there truly were no barrier Leah believes yoga exposes connections between every way of being from the physical to the emotional to the spiritual giving us a chance to experience the world as ourselves and as more than ourselves Leahs philosophy on teaching yoga is that its about allowing the student to discover his or her own body It is about encouraging each student to be patient through the pressure to be kind at any hint of pain It is to initiate the students focus on the general pose and to take that focus to the exact alignment to an awareness of how that way of being is connected to the breath the Earth to a momentary stillness of the mind Leah teaches that yoga is ultimately about connection and awareness.