WELCOME

Hi! I’m Francesca (she, her).

I’m a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT) and certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) with a doctorate in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

I teach yoga in the method of the Iyengar lineage informed by my background in adaptive yoga therapy, trauma-informed somatic practices, and ongoing studies of yoga philosophy. I believe that yoga, as a healing practice of liberation, should be accessible to everyone.

I am a medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco. I'm interested in understanding how yoga and mind-body movement practices shape our experience as biological, psychological, social, and spiritual beings living in particular political, economic, and cultural contexts. As a researcher and yoga instructor with the Integrative Health Service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, I am focused on improving the care of older adults and access to complementary and integrative health care for underserved populations, including directing a “tele-yoga” program for rural Veterans.

My yoga journey

I started practicing yoga in 1999 when I was a college student in a small Midwestern town. I formed close relationships with three teachers and mentors who had diverse backgrounds and approaches to yoga and meditation, including Kripalu and Integral yoga. After moving to Colorado in 2003, I found my spiritual home at Shoshoni Yoga Retreat and Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram where I completed a Yoga Alliance-approved residential teacher training program in Shambhava Yoga in 2005.

I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010 for graduate school and ended up in an Iyengar yoga class. After a series of auto and bike accidents and the birth of my daughter, I found the practice of Iyengar yoga to provide a systematic and creative method to work with my own injuries and health conditions while cultivating emotional steadiness and wellbeing.

Having taught yoga in a variety of settings including with high school students and university golf teams, I am also an experienced yoga therapist committed to accessible and trauma-informed yoga. I have worked with people with chronic pain and musculoskeletal conditions, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, older adults and Veterans. As a person who lives with chronic health conditions, I am inspired to share the transformative power of the holistic practice of yoga to nourish our bodies and minds, soothe the nervous system, and cultivate a sense of internal and collective resiliency.

I maintain a dedicated, consistent home practice of asana, pranayama and chanting and regularly study with Heather Haxo Phillips, Michael Lucey, and Anneke Faas. In addition to continuing my studies of yoga philosophy, Sanskrit and Vedic chanting with Gitte Beschgaard I have also studied with Victoria Austin, Elise Browning Miller, Gloria Goldberg, Roger Cole, and Abhijata Iyengar at the 2019 Dallas IYNAUS Convention and 2020 virtual IYNAUS gatherings.