Heart of the Village Yoga

Therapeutic Yoga

with Jo Kirsch, Yoga Therapist, E-RYT 500

Yoga Therapy Sessions can be arranged livestream or in-person. To arrange a phone consultation to see if yoga therapy is a good fit for you, please Email jo@heartofvillageyoga.com or call me at 802.379.4514.

I’m excited to share with you that I recently completed a year-long study to become certified as a yoga therapist. This training was a deep dive and a lovely culmination of my 32-plus years practicing, studying, and teaching yoga.

Yoga therapists work one-on-one with individuals. As a yoga therapist, I teach people how to work with themselves for a variety of conditions: such as pain, anxiety, and insomnia. I use techniques like yoga postures, breathing, and meditation. There is good science these days on how effective these techniques are for these types of conditions. Yoga therapy is its own system. Much like the way an acupuncturist uses Chinese medicine, we have our own model that has really helped people with conditions that are not addressed completely with other models or western medicine.

I specialize in yoga for back, hip, and shoulder pain. Did you know that 8 out or 10 people in the United States suffer from back pain at one time in their lives? That is a lot of you! Currently, I am offering a weekly class on Yoga for Back Pain, as well as working one-on-one with clients. My role as a yoga therapist is to teach you how to improve your condition and be healthy. We’ll begin with a free phone or in-person consultation to see if yoga therapy is a good fit for you. Then I’ll do an evaluation and create a personalized sequence of breathing and physical exercises, and possibly meditation, for you to practice on your own. We will get back together to review your progress and modify your protocol. Currently I‘m working one-on-one with clients with back, hip, and shoulder pain, as well as individuals suffering from anxiety and depression. Some clients are simply cultivating a regular yoga practice for overall well-being.

Yoga Therapy Sessions can be arranged livestream or in-person. To arrange a phone consultation to see if yoga therapy is a good fit for you, please Email jo@heartofvillageyoga.com or call or text me at 802.379.4514.

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What Clients Have to say:

As someone who wakes up every morning with a gentle pain reminder to be kind to their back and hip ,I decided to try Jo’s Wednesday back pain yoga class. I do have to say that I was a bit skeptical but it worked! The next day no pain and 4 days later still no pain. Can’t wait for class this week! – Karol D.

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Jo is a wonderful mentor and teacher. Her authenticity comes out in her unique ability to truly connect. As a client I have felt so understood, met where I was and held in such a deeply loving way. Jo is light hearted and deeply empathetic. She creates a space where I have been able to grow, expand and heal in a way I never thought was possible. Working with Jo is truly a special experience. – Sandy B.

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Having a physically challenging profession and choice of “hobbies”,  trying to live with chronic pain made basic things almost impossible. Fortunately I found Jo and she helped me navigate through discomfort using yoga therapy.  With 3 months of personal guidance and prescribed  exercise, Jo taught me to help myself by reducing chronic pain and giving me hope for the simple joys of life again!   Thank you Jo…happy to be “back”! –  Cathy C.

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My back felt really stiff this morning after two days of golf. So I practiced your back pain video and it feels much better. Thank you! – Audrey W.

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Yoga has been an integral part of my life for more than 25 years. Practicing yoga enables me to experience a well-being of body and mind. Six months ago I broke my shoulder. Immobile for a month, I was then cleared to start physical therapy twice a week with daily exercises. But I did not do my yoga. I could not straighten my arm. It was not easy to move from floor to standing. I concentrated on strengthening and resuming daily tasks. When I returned to Vermont, Jo began working with me through a Yoga Therapy Practice, focusing on breathing, movement, and the yoga poses that re-opened my body and mind to the benefits of yoga. After just 3 sessions my range of motion increased dramatically and I found my breathing rhythm of yoga returning. Jo thoughtfully directed my movement into the familiar poses, giving my body its needed positions and my mind focus. Under Jo’s careful and skilled facilitating I continue to stretch and strengthen, finding greater capacity and ease in movement and poses both in our sessions and in my daily activities. She integrates her years of yoga practice and teaching, wisdom gained in both physical and mental health training and her unique spirit and joy. Today, we explored a weighted fish pose which opened shoulders, hips and mind. I wish I had started this sooner, but grateful to be here now. – Gerry G

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Jo has been my teacher for many years.  My practice and understanding of yoga philosophy have flourished under her guidance.  Recently, we have engaged in private sessions, and Jo’s contribution to my personal growth has had an immeasurable impact. While genuinely listening and being a keen observer, she has begun to transform not only my physical practice but my emotional & spiritual well-being. Jo has helped me identify goals that are attainable and practical in my everyday life.  She has offered tools (exercises, breathing, meditation, chanting, and more) to obtain those goals.  Most importantly, Jo’s easy and loving nature has shone through and it lifts me up (with a few good laughs thrown in).  – Sue F.

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To learn more about my personal journey with yoga, read on.

Yoga saved my life.

In 1991, I hurt my back bumping around in a motor boat. A friend suggested I visit a chiropractor who suggested I try yoga to loosen up my tight muscles and quiet my monkey mind. I was hooked from the get-go.

For 10 years I attended gentle Hatha and Kripalu yoga classes and began to consider learning to teach yoga. In 2001, I completed a 5-year process of becoming a fully-certified Alpine Ski Instructor and was motivated to keep learning and teaching. In August of that year, I attended a five-day yoga teacher training with Beryl Bender Birch at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. I fell in love with Beryl and the classical active style of Astanga Yoga. Beryl taught with passion, compassion and wisdom. I went on to study with Beryl for many years and attained my 500-Hour Teacher Training Certification through her school, the Hard and The Soft Yoga Institute.

I began teaching yoga in 2001 and I opened Wild Mountain Yoga, a small yoga studio in Manchester, in 2004. And then, in 2006, I began to experience paralyzing anxiety, leading me to close the studio.

After some time I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As happens with many sufferers of PTSD, it took 12 years for my symptoms to become acute and to identify my disorder. Once identified, proactive healing began.

My daily yoga practice helped enormously: moving my body to keep prana flowing; cultivating present moment awareness through breath-centered meditation; using focused breathing to quiet my racing thoughts and become grounded in my body; cultivating my witness self and noticing when my mind was hijacking the truth; using breathing practices to fall asleep at night and to calm down when triggered.

I began to heal. My anxiety lessened. I was once again able to leave the house to go to the grocery store, able to hold a conversation, able to work again.

In 2009, my husband Bob, and I were invited to volunteer at a retreat for post 9-11 veterans suffering from PTSD. Pam Greene, Program Coordinator for the Adaptive Sports Foundation (ASF) in Windham, NY, had worked closely with Bob in the ski industry and knew of Bob’s excellent team building skills. Unknowing of our personal experience with PTSD (not many did). Pam reached out to Bob to help out at this retreat.

As the veterans walked into the ASF building, their emotional suffering was palpable. After all we’d been through, all we wanted to do was help ease their suffering any way we could. One day turned into 3 years of the most fulfilling work Bob and I had ever done. ASF hired Bob to train their ski instructor volunteers and me to do marketing for this non-profit “dedicated to providing profound and life-changing experiences for children and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities and chronic illnesses through outdoor physical activity, education, support and community.”

We introduced yoga to ASF and worked with staff members to develop Warriors in Motion; a comprehensive program to provide troops injured in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq with a basic understanding of wellness and the importance of lifelong healthful living.

During this time I became certified to teach Adaptive Yoga by Matthew Sanford; Trauma Sensitive Yoga by David Emerson with Bessel Van Der Kolk; and Yoga Nidra by Jennifer Reis.

After three years of commuting we longed to be back in the Green Mountains full-time. In 2012, Stratton hired Bob to manage its ski school and both of us to develop health and wellness programs. While at Stratton I turned a storage facility into “The Living Room” yoga studio that continues to this day.

Growing up in an entrepreneurial home, I decided to leave Stratton to open Heart of the Village Yoga in 2013. Having the fortune and fortitude to survive the pandemic, we are now in our 11th year, and are blessed with a vibrant studio with a cohort of experienced yoga teachers and dedicated students.

While running Heart of the Village Yoga, I continued to study yoga and became certified to teach Yoga of 12-Step Recovery with Nikki Myers; Yoga for Traumatic Brain Injury survivors through Love Your Brain; Yin Yoga with Biff Mithoefer, Soul School Yoga with Sean Johnson; and have studied Bhakti Yoga with Manoj Chalam and Gaura Vani.

I recently completed a Yoga Therapy Certification program with Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy. This immersive study comprehensively integrated my 32 years of yoga practice and training.

Yoga therapists are trained to work one-on-one with individuals using yoga techniques, including movement, breath and meditation, to reduce suffering. The possibilities of what yoga therapy can help with are endless, but include: insomnia, physical issues, pain management, digestion disorders, depression, anxiety, asthma, autoimmune issues, etc.

Yoga therapists do NOT take the place of doctors, therapists, chiropractors, or physical therapists. Yoga therapists cannot do their job and they cannot do our job. Yoga therapists are different because they are educators teaching individuals how the mind, body and prana works in an experiential way.

Yoga therapists do not have hierarchical relationships with their clients. They have boundaries, but are “friends” in yoga, and this helps the healing process.

Yoga Therapy Sessions can be arranged livestream or in-person. To arrange a phone consultation to see if yoga therapy is a good fit for you, please email jo@heartofvillageyoga.com, or call  or text me at 802.379.4514.