Mary Bridle

Deep Knowledge of the Body.

Mary has been practicing yoga in the Iyengar tradition for 33 years and teaching for about 20 years. 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.

Mary's 48 years as a practicing occupational therapist provides her with a thorough understanding of how the human body, mind and spirit work in health and in ill health. 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.

At Iyengar Yoga of Charlottesville Mary teaches a range of classes from Gentle yoga to Level II. See the schedule and class descriptions. She is also available for private instruction.