At the heart, yoga is a spiritual practice that creates a deep connection with Self. This understanding continues to inform my life and my work as a yoga teacher/therapist. I started practicing yoga in 2007, looking for a way to help me cope with chronic back pain. I fell in love with the movement, the teachings, and the way I felt after savasana. Magically (?), my back started feeling better. In 2009, I enrolled in yoga teacher training and almost immediately, I realized that my passion for yoga would far exceed my initial expectation. My personal experience led me to expand my study and in 2018, I completed the Yoga Therapy program at The Soul of Yoga in Encinitas, California. I am a certified yoga therapist, experienced 500-hour yoga teacher, and Level 2 iRest meditation teacher. I have been teaching yoga and meditation since 2009, while also working as a change leadership consultant, advising business leaders through complex organizational change. As a yoga therapist, I specialize in supporting people with spine health, pain care, mental and emotional well-being, and cultivating resilience. My yoga classes are steeped in the Hatha tradition and include a blend of alignment-based asana, somatic movement, pranayama (breath), mantra (chanting), and mindfulness. All of my work is trauma-informed, heart-centered, and accessible. In addition to group classes and private yoga therapy sessions, I offer yoga and meditation workshops, tailored to a specific group or need. I never tire of exploring the vast field of yoga. What started as a practice that might help me minimize back pain has turned into so much more. Yoga has taught me acceptance, presence and love. I look forward to continuing to learn and explore along with you and our beautiful Perennial community.

Crystal Ann Hanson is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher(E-RYT500), Certified Ayurveda Yoga Specialist (AYS), Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (CFNC), Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP), Sacred Activist Leader and holds a BS in Psychology. She uses an integrative approach utilizing all of these modalities when conducting private client consultations, workshops and teaching classes. Crystal enrolled in her first 200 Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) in 2009 through the Himalayan Institute. After feeling the many emotional, spiritual and physical benefits that Yoga and Meditation brought to her daily life, she had a strong desire to continue to learn and share with others. Crystal has now completed a second 230YTT, 540YTT, Ayurveda Yoga Specialist Certification and Chair Yoga Certification. She is grateful to have had in-depth study-training opportunities with Indu Arora, Sarah Powers, Lauren Walker, Rod Stryker and many others from the Himalayan Institute and Kripalu for Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga, Mudra, Energy Medicine Yoga, Yoga Therapy, Yoga Philosophy and Meditation. Her professional and personal studies are ongoing….. always a student of Life. Crystal teaches from her heart as she invites students to pause, connect, look inside and feel what is happening in the present moment, to observe the effects a practice reveals. Her classes are rooted in traditional Hatha & Tantra Yoga sharing from the lineage of Swami Rami (founder of the Himalayan Institute) and teachings of Indu Arora (International Ayurveda and Yoga). Crystal’s classes include Mantra (chanting), Mudras Pranayama (breath & prana practices) and other teachings from the Vedas (ancient books of “wisdom”). Crystal holds sacred that which Indu Arora has taught, “Yoga is a work IN, not a workout”. Crystal is honored to teach and share from all of her training, modalities and life experiences respecting an integrative approach. Crystal believes that we are ALL teachers and we are ALL students.