About Erika 

Welcome.

I’m so glad that you’ve found your way here.

If we haven’t met before, I’m Erika.

When the pandemic hit, I had been teaching for a decade in Santa Cruz, California. My classes were vinyasa-based, and we had a large community that practiced together for much of that time. Soon, like many of my colleagues, I transitioned my offerings online, and in that transition, I noticed my teaching and self-concept as a teacher began to shift.

In the near two years since I have enjoyed the creative opportunity that practicing at home with online guidance affords. My approach to teaching has become less ‘exacting’ a word that I used with a sense of pride previously to describe my classes, and more intuitive and organic. Less straight lines and more spiraling, meandering pathways. 

These days, a desire for fluidity, freedom, and integration brings me to the mat. My classes are inspired by all of my teachers, past, and present. The longer I teach and practice, the more their wisdom takes root and blossoms in unexpected ways. Richard and Mary Freeman, Chuck Miller, David Garrigues, Mark Stephens, and most recently, Donna Farhi and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen are woven into my DNA as a teacher. 

My swimming practice is another place I take inspiration; in the water, I am reminded that we are mostly fluid and the possibilities for moving like water and the freedom that is inherent in flow seep into my practice on the mat.

The pandemic has stretched my capacity as a teacher in new ways. In my private teaching, I have been working with folks with a wide range of physical abilities, needs, and in different stages of life. Currently, my private students range in age from 17-99. I enjoy the challenge of individualizing each session to the student’s needs. In some cases, guided by them, the focus becomes more on integrating Yoga into the different aspects of life and less on physical posture.

As a graduate student in counseling and psychology, my interests are at the intersection of mental health, embodiment, and contemplative practices. Studying psychotherapy has already changed my teaching and brought to the surface all the ways that yoga can serve as a transitional space where our experience of self is worked through. Life has taught me that change is the only constant, and transformation comes when we allow old ways of being to fall away. My teaching practice is a living breathing thing, constantly shifting and morphing to meet the present moment. 

It would be my honor to walk a bit of this path with you.