Lucy Lomax
Certified Yoga Therapist C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, RPYT, YACEP, C-WAE, C-iREST®, Co-Director, Y4A Yoga for Amputees
In the light-hearted, practical manner in which I approach life, I teach therapeutic essentials of alignment-based yoga. In every class and every pose, I teach alignment of the bones, muscles, connective tissue, & breath.
My yoga background includes over 23 years of study and practice in alignment-based yoga, which helped me strengthen and heal my overly flexible body. Since 2011, I have focused my studies on specialized training in yoga for seniors, the military, and those dealing with cancer, amputation, stress, trauma, and PTS (post-traumatic stress).
In 2017 I became a Certified Yoga Therapist. Whereas a yoga teacher is focused on teaching yoga techniques to students, a yoga therapist focuses more on applying those yoga techniques to individuals or groups to help ease specific health issues or concerns.
My teaching is based on anatomy, posture, movement, and integrative body/mind principles; my focus is on trauma-sensitive yoga and meditation, and accessible and adaptive yoga for injuries, illnesses, special conditions, and recovery. I teach with a light-hearted and practical approach believing that the yoga you do in class should be fun, and should support you in everyday life. Further, I believe that yoga is not about doing a specific pose well, but in doing a pose that might need to be modified to meet you where are on life's journey.
Finally, I am a yoga teacher trainer for both entry and advanced level yoga teachers (RYT 200 and RYT 500 levels), am co-director of the Yoga Center of Columbia's Yoga Teacher Training 200 level program, and an adjunct faculty member of its Yoga Teacher Training 300 level (for RYT 500 status). I also am a Master Trainer, trained by Marsha T. Danzig, for her Y4A: Yoga for Amputees program, and an Accessible Yoga Teacher. I teach public classes, workshops, retreats, and private yoga therapy sessions.
My Journey
My journey into yoga began in the 1970’s with Transcendental Meditation, TM, and the little book, Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28-Day Exercise Program. This was long before there were yoga studios in every town ready to teach how to do yoga, and only people like the Beatles were meditating! I loved doing the Sun Salutations described in the book but as an overly flexible person I often ended up with sore joints. Still, I continued meditating and doing yoga, on and off, into the eighties and early 90’s as a full-time working mom finishing my BS and MPFM (Masters in Public Financial Management) at night. Whew.
In 1998 I went to Miraval Spa in AZ with friends and walked into a restorative yoga class, a type of yoga I hadn’t done before – and I was hooked. My body felt so good, my mind relaxed, and I knew I wanted to bring yoga back into my life full time. I returned to Annapolis, MD, where I lived and started studying with someone recommended by a body-worker at the spa, this teacher was an experienced older, very wise yoga teacher who opened my eyes to the breadth of the yoga and meditation practice.
I began teaching yoga in 1999 after taking one short, one medium, and then one full year yoga teacher training program. I started teaching in a gym, a church, then moved to teaching in studios, at Willow Street Yoga Center for 8 years, and at the Yoga Center of Columbia from 2007 to the present After almost 33 years as a financial policy analyst I took an early retirement to become a full-time yoga teacher. Although I really liked my early career, I much prefer teaching yoga!
