Yoga Instruction
Private Yoga Instruction may be given one-on-one or in a small group and typically lasts either sixty or ninety minutes. The session is tailored to the individual's needs and is a valuable way for you to begin or deepen your yoga practice. In your first session, Marisa will talk with you to learn about your health history and guide you through a practice to assess your physical and emotional needs. In each session, she will check in with you verbally, observe patterns of holding and tension, and create a yoga practice that will maximize benefit. This practice may include any combination of appropriately paced movement coordinated with your breath, active postures based on anatomically based alignment principles, restorative postures (seated or lying down with the support of blocks, blankets and bolsters), breathing techniques, meditation, and chanting. Marisa will use hands-on adjustments to help you find your individual alignment and deepen your experience.

Yoga Therapy
Yoga Therapy is offered on a private, one-on-one basis. If you are suffering from acute or chronic pain, managing a condition or illness or recovering from surgery, Yoga Therapy will offer you a way to begin or continue your yoga practice and heal. While any yoga practice has therapeutic and restorative potential, Yoga Therapy provides a personalized adaptation and application of Yoga techniques and practices to help individuals dealing with health challenges at any level manage their condition, reduce symptoms, restore balance, increase vitality and improve attitude. Yoga Therapy is derived from the Yoga tradition of Patanjali and the Ayurvedic system of health care preserved for centuries in India and passed on to Western practitioners by contemporary teacher TKV Desikachar. A session may consist of any combination of gentle movement coordinated with the breath, active postures, restorative postures, the use of a chair or props, meditation, specific breathing techniques and chanting.

Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga
Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga are offered one-one and in small groups and Postnatal Yoga may be with either parent or any guardian. Yoga is a safe and effective method of self-care for pregnant women and new and parents. In this practice, Marisa emphasizes abdominal and pelvic floor strengthening and incorporates breathing techniques to ease discomfort, aid posture during pregnancy and ease delivery, breast feeding and caring for your new baby. Marisa teaches a postnatal practice that helps you balance self-awareness and awareness for your baby, maximizing the benefit of experiencing yoga (union) with your baby. These practices may include active and restorative postures, breathing techniques, meditation, sounding, and hands-on assistance. Yoga is a valuable tool for alleviating physical, mental and emotional discomforts during pregnancy, delivery and parenting, such as nausea, back pain, wrist pain, muscle soreness, heart burn, hemorrhoids, posture, emotional stress and depression. A regular yoga practice will promote physical strength, mental focus and calmness throughout this time in your life.