Lisa Manheim (MFA) is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 500), a Certified Yoga Therapist (CYT) with over 500 hours of training and over 15 years of teaching experience. She is trained in yoga therapeutics, breathwork, chair/senior yoga, meditation and various schools of yoga. She is CPR and AED certified and fully insured. She is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and the Yoga Alliance. Lisa has a private practice in Doylestown and teaches classes and workshops at several yoga studios in the Philadelphia area. She is on the faculty in the School of Health, Physical Education and Nursing at Bucks County Community College.
I have been practicing yoga for 25 years and became a serious student in 1993. After investigating many schools and styles of yoga, I gravitated to the more alignment and therapeutic based practices found in Iyengar and Anusara. Studying with Donna Farhi and Gary Kraftsow further influenced my teaching by demonstrating a more individualized approach. Stress is the common factor in most modern illness, disease and physical and mental strain. I see this many times a day while teaching college. For many students, their yoga class is the only time to regain some calm and balance in their hectic life. Volunteering at a cancer center further convinced me of the therapeutic benefits of yoga. Recently I too had an experience with cancer and have a firsthand knowledge of the transformational effects of yoga and a Mindfulness meditation practice. I realized two essential things in my healing process: I had to be comfortable with my whole self, even including the cancer inside me and I was not defined by my cancer. These innate qualities of wholeness, strength and health are what I emphasize as a Yoga Therapist.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have studied with many excellent teachers in the field of Yoga Therapy. I thank Robert Butera PHD for sharing his knowledge of how Classical Yoga relates to Yoga Therapy, Naime Jezzeny for his therapeutics and Leslie Kaminoff, Julie Gudmestadt and Valeri Kitt-Love for their instruction of Anatomy and yoga. I would also like to acknowledge Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg and Gil Fronsdal for their teachings on Mindfulness Mediation which have profoundly influenced my approach to living, teaching and Yoga Therapy.

