Emily's story

Life sure is full of surprises! I certainly never imagined I’d be opening my own business. My degrees and professional background are in Education—but here I am, leading from my heart and learning the business side as I go. Bear with me!

I first found yoga in 2018 during a season filled with loss and grief, when I desperately needed grounding. The ways I was coping weren’t sustainable, and I decided to try yoga simply to feel a little better than I did. What I didn’t expect was how powerfully it would pull me back into my body. For a long time, I felt like a helium balloon that had slipped free- yoga became the invisible hand gently pulling my string back down.

At first, I craved the routine and the physicality of the practice. But the more I showed up, the more space I began to feel—space in my body, in my breath, and eventually, inside myself. On my mat, I explored physical space with curiosity, and in return I found internal space for the first time in a long while.

Yoga taught me how to sit with discomfort—first physically, then mentally and emotionally. Instead of numbing or running from difficult feelings, I learned how to stay present, allow them to exist, and meet them with awareness. That practice carried off the mat and into my life, including my time in the middle school classroom and now into motherhood.

Before living in Suffolk, my husband and I lived in Richmond where I taught 7th grade math through CCPS for four years. In that time, there was a yoga studio just a block from our apartment that became my home away from home. It was my sanctuary—the place I rushed to after long school days, before diving back into grading papers and lesson planning. It was deeply community-centered, and it planted the seed for what would eventually become The Yoga Room. That studio closed during COVID, but I like to believe its spirit and legacy will live on through this studio.

In 2020, when my husband and I moved to Suffolk and welcomed our first child, I became a stay-at-home mom. During that season, I felt a clear pull to blend my two passions: teaching and yoga. That calling led me to my first teacher training through Yax Yoga Concepts. Since 2021, I’ve been teaching throughout Hampton Roads—at public gyms, private studios, community pop-up classes, and even local coffeehouses. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of working with a wide range of students across ages, abilities, and life experiences, including older adults, prenatal students, individuals with limited mobility, hearing impairments, and language barriers.

From falling in love with that studio years ago, I knew I wanted to create a space where people feel seen, safe, and genuinely welcomed—a place to connect more deeply (or reconnect) with their mind, body, and soul. This space is being created humbly—not from a place of superiority, but from a genuine passion to keep learning and growing, together.

Yes, I am a teacher, but first and always, I am a student—one who is excited to learn from the incredible teachers within this studio and the community that fills it.

Life isn’t easy. It can be messy, heartbreaking, and painful—while also being beautiful, joyful, and full of meaning. Yoga is the practice I return to so the hard moments don’t unravel me, and the good ones don’t pass me by. It helps me stay purposefully present through both the highs and the lows.

In ways I never knew existed, yoga has taught me discipline, patience, forgiveness, and deeper compassion—for myself and for others. It’s what allows me to navigate the challenges of parenting young children and to show up more fully in my life.

The Yoga Room was created from this lived experience and innate desire to help. My hope is that when you walk through our doors, you feel the same sense of belonging, steadiness, and peace that I found in that studio years ago. But then that you’ll find the same sense of belonging, steadiness, and peace within yourself, it’s still there. <3

Credentials & Experience
My formal training includes a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training and a 40-hour Accessible Yoga Teacher Training, both of which deeply shaped how I approach teaching—with adaptability, inclusion, and respect for each individual body at the forefront. I’m excited to continue my formal education next through a 300-hour training, because learning is something I never want to stop. Alongside formal training, my informal education is rooted in daily self-study (in Sanskrit, Svādhyāya) through books, podcasts, and ongoing reflection, which continually shapes and deepens my teaching.