Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective

09/16/2025

Wednesday, October 15
6-8pm $55*
*Get 10% Off Using the Code EARLYBIRD by October 6
Hyperextension of the elbows and knees is quite common among yoga students at all levels, and certain asanas can exacerbate the condition if repeatedly done incorrectly. Fortunately, you can learn to practice in a way that both aligns and protects your elbows and knees, and makes them stronger and healthier.

Eve Holbrook has been practicing yoga since 1994. Initially drawn to it for relief from chronic back pain following a childhood horseback riding injury, she has grown to view yoga as an exploration of the nature of life and what it is to be a human being. She strives to communicate the possibility of being effortful without aggression, of embodying the depth of ourselves without strain.
Eve is a graduate of the two-year teacher-training program at the Iyengar Institute of New York (2005). She now lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she leads classes, international yoga retreats and workshops via her studio, Eve’s Yoga Space. Eve also teaches online for the Iyengar Institute of New York, where she is a faculty member. She became a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher in 2006, and currently teaches at the Junior Intermediate Two level. Eve is on the faculty of Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective, a studio dedicated exclusively to yoga for back care and scoliosis. She is founder of The Nerve of Expression, a community project offering yoga to artists with multiple sclerosis.
In June of 2006, Eve first traveled to Pune, India to study with BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, and son Prashant. Since then, she has returned three times for extended periods to develop her practice and assist in the medical classes there. In New York, Eve studied extensively with with Mary Dunn, Kevin Gardiner, James Murphy, Bobby Clennell and Lucienne Vidah. Currently, she continues her studies with Glenn Ceresoli. She assisted for many years in the Specific Needs class at the Iyengar Institute of New York.

09/02/2025

Saturday, September 27
9:30am-12pm $65*
*Get 10% Off Using the Code EARLYBIRD by September 15
For the third time we are honored to present a workshop with Helen Margaret Giovanello, visiting us from France.

To practice asana is to choose to be consciously present — to meet one’s body and mind with care. This presence allows each of us to find a space to meet life with greater compassion for ourselves and others.

In this workshop, Helen will explore asana from a global and integrative perspective — not as something to perform, but as movements to be embodied with awareness and depth. This way of practicing invites a state of quiet observation that helps one sense the real effects of each posture or movement on the body’s deeper layers. Students will learn to recognize and release unnecessary tension, and explore breathing techniques that support spinal extension and freedom of movement. Helen will also share her basic routine that requires little support and can be adapted to daily life. Helen aims that everybody will leave the practice happier, energized, and in an overall peaceful state.

Helen Margaret Giovanello teaches yoga in the Iyengar tradition with additional specialization in Yoga for Scoliosis, earned through Elise Browning Miller’s training program. She also had the privilege of learning directly from Geeta Iyengar on the subject of scoliosis during her repeated visits to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India.
Helen’s practice has been shaped by her own scoliosis—every learning experience is processed through the lens of her own body. As her primary teacher, Zubin Zarthostimanesh, often says: “You cannot bypass the body.” At sixty, her 25 years of yoga practice have been deepened by a wide range of life experiences — both joyful and challenging. These experiences inform her teaching, which is centered around cultivating a profound sense of well-being.

08/25/2025

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured” -Iyengar

Yoga asanas and pranayama bring ample opportunity to receive profound positive effects on the body, mind, emotions, and breath. A greater ability to notice is both a benefit received from practice and a crucial variable for practicing safely and effectively. This noticing reveals the borderline between healing and pushing too far towards inquiry.

Throughout the weekend workshop, we will invite observation, experience, action, and reflection to deepen your practice as we apply the concepts of sthira sukham asanam (steadiness and ease).

Saturday Morning Session (9:30am-12pm): Sthira (steadiness)
Saturday Afternoon Session (2:30-4:30pm): Sukham (ease)
Sunday Morning Session (10-12pm): Sthira Sukham (integration)

Asanas will be modified for those with back issues, scoliosis, and spinal fusions.
All levels are welcome!

Kelly Moore, M.A. CIYT, C-IAYT, CMT, integrates 34 years of mind/body/spirit practices, assimilating studies and professional work in the areas of yoga, meditation, bodywork, psychology, philosophy, and social work. Kelly is a level 3 Certified Iyengar Yoga instructor and has studied yoga therapeutics with Stephanie Quirk and yoga for back care and scoliosis with Elise Miller, Bobbie Fultz, and Deborah Wolk.
Kelly studied with the Iyengar family in Pune, India, and has studied with many senior Iyengar teachers. Kelly teaches at her studio, Living Yoga in Denver, CO, and continues with her neuromuscular therapy practice of 28 years. Instructing and mentoring in these disciplines continues to be a delight and an ongoing source of learning. A lifelong learner, Kelly recently graduated from an MA program in Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation.
In her personal time, hiking, skate-skiing, and touring on her motorcycle are activities she and her husband enjoy together.

08/25/2025

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured” -Iyengar

Yoga asanas and pranayama bring ample opportunity to receive profound positive effects on the body, mind, emotions, and breath. A greater ability to notice is both a benefit received from practice and a crucial variable for practicing safely and effectively. This noticing reveals the borderline between healing and pushing too far towards inquiry.

Throughout the weekend workshop, we will invite observation, experience, action, and reflection to deepen your practice as we apply the concepts of sthira sukham asanam (steadiness and ease).

Saturday Morning Session (9:30am-12pm): Sthira (steadiness)
Saturday Afternoon Session (2:30-4:30pm): Sukham (ease)
Sunday Morning Session (10-12pm): Sthira Sukham (integration)

Asanas will be modified for those with back issues, scoliosis, and spinal fusions.
All levels are welcome!

Kelly Moore, M.A. CIYT, C-IAYT, CMT, integrates 34 years of mind/body/spirit practices, assimilating studies and professional work in the areas of yoga, meditation, bodywork, psychology, philosophy, and social work. Kelly is a level 3 Certified Iyengar Yoga instructor and has studied yoga therapeutics with Stephanie Quirk and yoga for back care and scoliosis with Elise Miller, Bobbie Fultz, and Deborah Wolk.
Kelly studied with the Iyengar family in Pune, India, and has studied with many senior Iyengar teachers. Kelly teaches at her studio, Living Yoga in Denver, CO, and continues with her neuromuscular therapy practice of 28 years. Instructing and mentoring in these disciplines continues to be a delight and an ongoing source of learning. A lifelong learner, Kelly recently graduated from an MA program in Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation.
In her personal time, hiking, skate-skiing, and touring on her motorcycle are activities she and her husband enjoy together #

08/08/2025

August 9-10
Saturday 9:30am-12pm & 2:30-4:30pm
Sunday 9:30am-12pm
Full Workshop: $165
Saturday All Day: $110
Saturday or Sunday Morning Only: $65
Saturday Afternoon Only: $50

Click Here to Sign up for the IN-STUDIO Sessions
Click Here to Sign up for the ONLINE Sessions

Joint structure, surrounding ligaments, connective tissues, and fluids allow us to move with flow and grace. But compensatory patterns, wear and tear from age and life events cause uneven weight bearing, injury, arthritis, and/or pain. In this workshop, Deborah will lead you in an exploration of the anatomy of the shoulders, hips, and knees, their relationship to the spine and the asana practices to help you avoid and heal these types of misalignments and injuries, recovering your fluidity, strength and “equipoise” in movement.

Saturday Morning: Upper Limbs

Saturday Afternoon: Lower Limbs

Sunday Morning: Integrating the work holistically

6 months yoga asana experience is recommended for this workshop

Deborah Wolk, C-IAYT, has been teaching and working with students with back issues, scoliosis, and other injuries for over two decades. Her yoga practice working with her own scoliosis informs the work she does to help others.
Deborah’s teachings are based in the principles of Iyengar style yoga and Body Mind Centering (BMC) techniques. She is warm and funny and her teachings are subtle yet explained at a level everyone can understand. Deborah teaches workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings on Back Care & Scoliosis and related topics in New York City, across the US, and around the world, and has a thriving private practice. Deborah is the Founder and Program Director of Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective. To learn more about Deborah please visit www.dwolkyoga.com.

07/15/2025

Join us at Samamkaya in-person or virtually for this in-depth workshop focused on joint health and healing. *GET 10% OFF Using the Code EARLYBIRD if you register on our website before July 28th. August 9-10. Register for individual sessions or the whole workshop.

06/28/2025

06/02/2025

Our 6 week Adaptive Yoga series is back!

Join us every Monday from 2:30-3:30 PM. This class is designed for students with special needs or disabilities. Register on our website for individual sessions or the whole series. Sessions are hybrid and available in person or online.

06/02/2025

Join us at Samamkaya for an impactful weekend workshop focused on strengthening the pelvic floor and repairing the nervous system. Get 10% off if you register on our website by June 9th with code EARLYBIRD.

BOBBY CLENNELL: Bobby’s study of lyengar Yoga began in 1972 in the UK. She was certified to teach by B.K.S. lyengar in 1977, and has made subsequent trips to Pune at one to two yearly intervals. She began teaching yoga in London in1975, and combined this with a twenty-year career in cartoon animation. She began teaching yoga in New York in 1995. Bobby considers herself blessed to have studied directly with B.K.S. lyengar. The profound and cathartic effect of the six or so intensives of his that she attended remains with her to this day. She also considers herself fortunate to have studied with Geeta Iyengar who inspired and informed her work with women; and Prashant lyengar, whose knowledge of yoga philosophy and its history and culture is unsurpassed. Bobby also remains grateful to Mary Dunn for her teaching and her selfless work in establishing the New York Institute. Bobby is a core faculty member of the IYINY, and currently teaches: The women’s class, level II, level III, and the Restorative class. • Bobby has taught workshops throughout the US, Australia, the Middle East, China, Japon, SE Asia and Europe. She has written three yoga manuals: The lyengar Yoga Glossary, Props and Ailments (currently being re-worked) and A Cosmic Body Map. She has three published books (which she also illustrated): The Women’s Yoga Book: Asana and Pranayama for All Phases of The Menstrual Cycle, Yoga for Breost Health, and her children’s book: Watch Me Do Yoga. Her animated film, Yoga Yantra, which is generated from film footage of B.K.S. Iyengar can be viewed at www.bobbydennell.com or search for it on YouTube.

05/14/2025

May 31-June 1
Saturday & Sunday 9:30am-12pm & 2-4:30pm
Full Weekend: $220
Three Sessions: $170
Two Sessions: $120
One Session: $65
Use the code EARLYBIRD to get 10% off by May 19
In this workshop both yoga and ayurveda are presented to enhance your understanding of how to support the bones and corresponding tissue to build a resilient body. Applying the aligned movements of yoga we will explore modified postures from the ground up. Standing poses, backbends, forward extensions and even safe inversions.

Ayurveda describes seven types of dhatus, or tissues that make up the structure of your body. These include lymph, blood, muscle, fat, bone, nerve and reproductive. Any imbalance affects bone health. An increase or imbalance in the vata dosha, causes a decrease in the bone tissue.

Saturday: AM standing poses, PM forward extensions & inversions
Sunday: AM back arches and core stability, PM restorative & pranayama

Jeanne-Marie Derrick is an Iyengar Yoga and Yoga for Scoliosis Instructor with over 40 years of teaching experience. She specializes in yoga therapeutics, restorative, gentle yoga and pranayama. Jeanne-Marie is a Clinica