Anne O'Brien's Bio

Anne O’Brien teaches the practice, history and philosophy of yoga. 

Anne offers multi-level group classes, private lessons, therapeutic work, intensives, workshops, retreats, and yoga teacher training courses. Her instruction offers a blend of precise technique, creative innovation and a dose of humor.  Classes are a rich, physically challenging experience that emphasize alignment, cultivate a focus on the breath and conscious awareness, encourage individual modifications, and offer nuggets of yoga philosophy. The practice encourages a full being spiritually uplifting experience.
 
Early experience in the Sivananda style led her to deep studies in the  Krishnamacharya lineage including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, and Vini yoga spiced with Tripsichore Yoga forms. She has had the great fortune to live, work and study throughout Europe, India, and Latin America and to study with master teachers TKV Desikachar, Dona Holleman, Rodney Yee, Edward Clark, Brigitte Longueville, Patricia Sullivan, Shandor Remete, Tony Briggs, and many others. Current inspirational teachers include Jaki Nett and Ann Austin. She embraces all that yoga may offer:  spiritual, physical and mental health and well being, self transformation, deep connection with others, joy, and fun!
 
Anne has practiced yoga for over 20 years, has taught for 18 and is a Registered Yoga Teacher (500 level) with the Yoga Alliance. She is the yoga consultant to The North Face, an internationally recognized leader in performance apparel. She is a member of the Nava Yoga think/practice tank composed of senior yoga teachers and academics from across North America engaged in deep inquiry into the practice of modern yoga. Anne has trained yoga teachers since 1999 and is currently a teacher training faculty member at Bodyworks Yoga in Petaluma, Baptiste Power of Yoga at the Bay Club Marin, and Solstice Yoga Center in Zipolite, Mexico. She teaches at yoga events nationwide offered by the Kripalu Center, Yoga Journal, Wanderlust Festival, the Omega Institute, and other organizations.

Anne edited esteemed teacher Kofi Busia's book, Iyengar, The Yoga Master (Shambala) honoring Sri BKS Iyengar's 70 years of teaching. She is currently at work on her first book detailing the overlooked contributions of Western Yoginis to the practice of modern yoga. She has been interviewed about yoga by NBC television, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, regional public radio, Bloomberg radio, Elle Magazine, Yoga Journal, Organic Spa Magazine, Univision.com and other media. She has been featured in Yogi Times magazine, the Sonoma Sun newspaper, the documentary film YogaWoman and was recently featured on the cover of Yoga Journal magazine. 

Anne held senior level positions in the world of financial services including international investment banking, investor relations, and financial conference creation in a career that spanned 14 years and included postings in San Francisco, Istanbul, and London. During this time, she developed her yoga practice, began teaching, ultimately deciding to carve out a year off when she immersed herself in intensive study and practice with renowned yoga teachers in London and India. Eventually returning to her native California, she was fortunate to work for the Yoga Journal, 1998-2000, where she established and grew the conference and events division.

An important part of Anne’s practice includes outreach to make yoga accessible to many. She advocates for The Art Of Yoga Project, a non-profit organization bringing yoga to incarcerated teen girls. She often donates yoga classes and day-long events to local charities as fund raisers.

Anne obtained her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA, earned a postgraduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, and recently completed a Masters Degree in Humanities at Dominican University. She was invited to present her thesis on Modern Western Yoginis to an international academic Humanities colloquium in Vancouver, June 2011. She does her best to communicate in several languages including Spanish, Italian and Turkish and holds dual European and United States citizenship. She lives with her husband Paul, a keen yogi, in Glen Ellen, California. 

email Anne at yoginianne@sbcglobal.net