Alyssa Prettyman

Hi. I’m Alyssa Hale-Prettyman. I don’t like bios written in the third person because – if we’re being honest – we all write our own bios, don’t we? So let’s start there.

In 2004, I herniated a disk in my low back and couldn’t walk for a month. I was 24 years old. Little did I know, this time of tremendous pain and suffering would lead to a discovery that would change the course of my life. In addition to back issues, I was trapped in a cycle of self-loathing and feeling like I was a failure because I was slow to find my way in the world after college. I was never successful enough, I was never thin enough, I just never felt good…enough.

My journey into yoga started as a search for pain relief, but, within a couple weeks, I was noticing changes in my body that I’d been unable to achieve simply strapping myself to a treadmill and doing a bunch of crunches. I felt strong. I felt stable. I felt good. 

But the “good” I felt was bigger than the physical good. I remember those early days, dropping into a sweet savasana and feeling like it was beyond this world. I remember feeling like I could handle the daily stresses of life with more grace and poise than the frantic 20-something I’d been only months before. I was hooked. With only six months of training under my belt, I begged my studio owner to let me sign up for a 200-hour training. And so it began. 

In the early days, I was very much into “hot power yoga,” as that was the doorway I found into the yoga universe. But over the years, my interest was piqued by concepts and strategies I learned about in Functional Movement training programs, meditation and Yin intensives, and restorative workshops. Where it all gelled for me was when I took my first ball-rolling/self-massage class. The sensation was intense, and, without breath and focus, there was no way to get through to the other side. I found yoga in the work of staying present with the body during deep tissue relief, and I also found a new way to manage pain and improve performance in my own body. Fusing the sciences of functional movement, yoga, and self-massage have helped me develop a highly-adaptable and accessible style of teaching. Whether it’s Vinyasa, Self Massage, or a Gentle modality, you can expect plenty of variations, a light-hearted approach, and the opportunity to work where you are at.

Beyond yoga, I spend a lot of time with my little humans (now 11 and seven years old), my husband, and our French bulldog, Luna. We love to take road trips, try new things, and get out into nature. On any given weekend, you’ll either find us looking for a cool outdoor adventure or trying our hands at a new recipe.

How do you ground students in class?

As much as I like to be creative in sequencing, I like to start students the same way: grounding in the body, the breathing, and the space they are in. I will typically offer this opportunity to “arrive” for two minutes (seated or lying down) at the beginning of every class. 

What three yogis, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party?

Iyengar (on his journey), Krishnamacharya (just to see what the heck he was like), and Indra Devi, one of Krishnamacharya’s first female students (sooo many questions for her as an early female pioneer in yoga of non-Indian descent).

What aspects of practice do you look forward to steeping yourself in more deeply?

Always meditation and breathwork.