Kara is a compassion based, therapeutically aligned, yoga, meditation and mindfulness educator. Kara incorporates a mental health perspective into her teaching with the belief that yoga is an essential coping skill for all beings navigating the human experience. She began her own yoga journey in 2005 while managing the everyday stress of working in social services. Kara has been devoted to community service and social justice for as long as she can remember. Drawing upon her extensive experience, Kara has been able to interconnect her commitment to social work and her passion for yoga. Today, Kara aims to normalize yoga as an adjunct mental health treatment and create inclusive spaces that make yoga more accessible to all communities.  

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Kara majored in Psychology as an undergraduate at Duquesne University and then went on to receive a Master’s degree in Social Work from Tulane University in 2004. Kara is a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) in the state of Pennsylvania. She began her clinical career working on the children’s ward of an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Other clinical experience includes in-home crisis intervention for teens and parents, wraparound services for young children with developmental disorders, and school based outpatient psychiatric services. While Kara’s clinical career developed, so did her relationship with yoga. In 2015, Kara completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Schoolhouse Yoga under the helm of Linda Meacci. In 2019, Kara became a certified Trauma Process Yoga Group provider and led therapy groups that combined yoga and embodied movement with talk therapy. Kara also became a certified prenatal yoga teacher in 2019. Kara transitioned online and continued to teach throughout COVID, surpassing over 1000 teaching hours. In 2022, Kara embarked upon a 300-hour yoga teacher training with Chrissy Carter. Kara has experience teaching in a variety of settings and to individuals across the wide spectrum of humanity, including, but not limited to, postpartum parents, survivors of trauma, refugees, unhoused, undocumented, and the LGBTQ+ community.  

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Kara’s teaching style is guided by the belief that yoga and other embodiment practices are needed for healing and growth. In her classes, Kara offers compassion based therapeutic movement that is rooted in embodiment practices and alignment principles. She provides safe, non-judgmental, space for students to explore the fluctuations of the mind and body. The overall, simple goal of a yoga class with Kara is to empower students to move and breathe in their bodies in a way that makes them feel better.