Mary Bridle

CIYT Level 1

Mary's extensive experience spanning 48 years as an occupational therapist has provided her with a comprehensive and deep understanding of how the intricate human body, mind, and spirit function in various states of health and well-being.

Mary has been practicing yoga in the Iyengar tradition since 1984 and teaching since 1992. Her primary teachers include Joe Adlesic, Sandra Pleasants, Siegfried Bleher, and Kevin Gardner. She is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher, having achieved this December 2014.

Her experience working with people of all ages with a wide variety of challenges including injury and disease, acute and chronic, orthopedic, neurological, psychiatric and psychosocial gives her a profound appreciation of human resilience and capacity for healing.

This knowledge and experience infuses her teaching style allowing her to explain why a particular instruction is given as well as how to implement that instruction. She adapts the poses to accommodate individual students' physical limitations within the class context. She is vigilant in listening and watching for both verbal and non-verbal cues from students to help her respond to their needs and maximize their participation. She is patient yet persistent, helping her students achieve their potential. Her teaching is characterized by consistent, meticulous, and serious attention to detail and alignment, leavened by a sense of humor so her classes are fun as well as instructive.

In 2016 Mary underwent a total reverse shoulder replacement in February and a total hip replacement in November. She continues to work through her practice to regain poses temporarily lost, such as Sirsasana ( headstand) and gracefully relinquishes poses irrevocably lost due to prosthetic limits such as Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstand) and be grateful for the relief of joint pain and all the poses she can do. These surgeries have deepened her practice and teaching in unexpected ways.