Julia Kress

Trauma Informed, Adaptive Yoga Therapist, Meditation Instrutor

Julia has been teaching Health and Wellness for over 38 years. Her initial experience was in the Health Club industry as a personal trainer and exercise instructor. Her experience in yoga classes in the early 1990’s at the Himalayan Institute of Buffalo led her to make a radical shift in lifestyle and move to the Institute’s educational facility in Honesdale, P.A. where she lived for almost 8 years studying and teaching yoga and Holistic Health.

Julia has a B.A. in Exercise Science from the University at Buffalo, is a Certified Yoga Instructor at the Advanced 500 Level, E-RYT500, she also has certification as a Yoga Therapist, a Vishoka Meditation Instructor, and is an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist. She has training in specialized yoga for disabilities and has been part of the Universal Design Yoga program at UB since 2009. Her training has led her to work with various able bodied individuals, wheelchair users, those with vision impairment, those with joint replacements, and people living with Autism, Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Cancer diagnosis, and Hypertension. She is also trained as a Trauma Informed Yoga Instructor and yearly attends multiple science/clinical based trainings to stay current with new findings and research in neuroscience, meditation, contemplative practices, and movement.

Julia is currently enrolled in the programs at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM training in understanding the integration of holistic practices within the medical model. The programs she has taken are Being with Dying and G.R.A.C.E, Training in Compassion based interactions, she is also enrolled in their 2 year Chaplaincy program that starts in January 2023. She is the Administrative Coordinator and Senior Teacher for the 200 and 300 hour Teacher Training Programs at the Himalayan Institute of Buffalo and has served as an instructor for other teacher training programs in PA, WI, NYC, The Dominican Republic, and Western NY.

She works privately with clients to find the most effective method of yoga practice (movement, breath training, and relaxation/meditation techniques) and lifestyle (ayurvedically informed) methods to fit their unique needs and abilities.

Julia4yoga@hotmail.com

Mindfulness, Movement, and Meditation

Mindfulness practices refine our field of awareness through our body and mind. They can show us how to touch in on that which is habitual, difficult, or unconscious and assist us to be more receptive to noticing, feeling, and being with what our body is experiencing and our mind is telling us about the experience.

Using mindfulness through movement and breath work we can respond with compassion and care when we notice strong habits of tension and resistance. Working with the areas of pain, tension, or distress in a compassionate way can lift the burden of suffering out of the body and instill more ease and fluidity hence improving circulation, immunity, comfort, and balance.

A practice of relative relaxation prepares our systems for a more quiet focus on breathing, body sensation, and thoughts. All of this is a mechanism of the nervous system. When we connect to the nervous system we engage from the hub of sensation and thought and this can bring about meaningful interaction and transformation with ourselves and others.