Hi, I'm Bob. I am a full-time yoga teacher (EYT-500) and personal coach based at Heart of the Village Yoga Studio and Boutique in Manchester, Vermont USA. I call my personal coaching system “Perspective Coaching”! It is intended to draw upon a diverse personal “body of knowledge” to offer personal coaching services which help clients better “know their bodies” and enjoy their lives more fully from multiple perspectives. I teach classes (in-person and online) in Power Flow Yoga, Yin Yoga, Yoga for Core Strength, and Aerial Yoga (including Anti-Gravity Power Yoga-X-Training). I lead guided meditations, I help clients find their way during difficult times, and I train clients to move better and be functionally stronger in a pain-free manner. I strive to continue learning from others, to help build community, and to train others and to teach yoga postures, meditation and breathing with integrity, clarity and compassion. In my classes, I include components of intelligent sequencing and postural alignment. My teaching style is student-centered and experiential. Each class is intended to educate students, and perhaps motivate them too. I strive to help students find their personal powers, develop practices to support the full expression of these powers, and maintain far-reaching perspectives in how they might bring these practices to life.
It is my experience that when people work together in a spirit of mutual support, building cooperative relationships, and recognizing each other with a sense of dignity and understanding, we all thrive. We feel empowered to be authentic. We are individually motivated to express ourselves with purpose, power, wholeheartedness, and openness for the benefit of all. We become the change we want to see in the world.
I have been coaching sports and outdoor recreation for over 40 years. I am a PSIA / AASI certified ski and snowboard instructor, an ACSM certified personal trainer, a NOLS outdoor education alumni, and a certified functional strength coach / pain-free performance specialist. I have been training skiers, snowboarders, athletes with disabilities, combat veterans, aging adults and young adults for years. More recently, I have been integrating yoga, outdoor education, and functional strength training into classes, workshops and other programs that I lead, all intended to help bring out the best in each student.
My professional career began as a structural engineer and timber home designer; I understand alignment, forces and the biomechanics of movement. I am a creative problem-solver and enjoy creating positive solutions for people. During my professional engineering and design career, I was also a coach! I mentored many younger engineers, created team-building and staff-training programs, and generally coached others to thrive in their careers – always building off of personal strengths and capabilities. Since 2009, I have developed and facilitated many health and wellness programs for veterans with PTSD. With the Adaptive Sports Foundation, I helped develop Warriors in Motion. In 2011, I co-founded Warriors Live On, a non-profit organization which served veterans in the San Diego area for almost 10 years. I have also worked with veterans to lead therapeutic wilderness hikes in the northeast and was recently an advisor in the founding of Adaptive Sports at Mount Snow.
My yoga training has been diverse, beginning with Astanga-based Power Yoga, and including adaptive yoga, therapeutic yoga, aerial yoga, Yin yoga and Bhakti yoga. I thank all of my teachers, including Beryl Bender Birch, Eoin Finn, Mathew Sanford, Nikki Meyers, Jessica Lubin, Biff Mithoefer, Manoj and Jyothi Chalam, Gaura Vani, and Sean Johnson... and Jo Kirsch! I thank all of my students. I thank my meditation teachers, founders of the Radiance Sutras School of Meditation and Instinctive Meditation, Dr. Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine. And, I also thank my former personal strength training coach, Dr. John Rusin.
I enjoy helping individuals and groups of people to see new perspectives, to synthesize ideas, to learn, to be inspired, and to be their best! I enjoy helping people discover their own unique gifts and purpose in life. My work often begins with attention to a physical-body practice; it usually leads to an enhanced way of living - empowered and supported... and joyful. I realize that my skills are usually just seeing the best in each other and facilitating the sharing of possibilities wherein we all see new perspectives in our lives!
