I guide you through a complete restorative practice using minimal props and focusing on moving the spine in all directions.
Joanne’s philosophy as a yoga teacher is to help people who seek personal empowerment feel connected to their bodies, quiet their mind, stimulate a healthy nervous system, and release tension in the body caused by stress, anxiety, or trauma. Her teaching techniques use a combination of breathwork, meditation, gentle asanas, somatic yoga, medical qigong, and neurogenic tremoring.
I guide you through a complete restorative practice using minimal props and focusing on moving the spine in all directions.
I Rest Meditation | Joanne Varni
Guided body scans are one of the oldest practices in both the Chinese and Indian systems.
Open Your Joints | Joanne Varni
This fluid standing practice, influenced by medical Qigong, will open the joints to create more flow and release stagnation.
11 Restorative Yoga Poses to Help You Rest and Digest
A roundup of our best therapeutic tips.
Joanne is an E-RYT 500 and earned her certification through Jennifer Prugh’s, YA certified JOY of Yoga”teacher training and is a Level 2 TRE facilitator. Joanne teaches classes, workshops, teacher trainings, as well as runs retreats locally and internationally. She is co-founder of the Yoga for Trauma Recovery Program and teaches trauma-informed yoga at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose, California and has voluntarily taught yoga to women incarcerated at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas and the Center for Survivors of Torture in San Jose.
When Joanne is not teaching, she enjoys spending time with her children, traveling, photography, and being in nature.
One thing your classes always have? One thing your classes will never have?
Breathwork and grounding will always be included at the beginning of class. There will never be handstands in my classes!
One thing you wish all your students – that everyone, including non-yogis – knew?
I wish students would be more compassionate and kinder to themselves.
What three yogis, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party?
My yogi dinner party would include Jesus, Patanjali, and Yogananda.