HANDS TO HEART CENTER

Karuna O’Donnell

Karuna O’Donnell, Certified Forrest Yoga Teacher, M Ed, RYT.

I see yoga and arts learning as my path to becoming an authentic human being with a precious gift to bring to my people. Through a 20 year journey of embodied learning, I have witnessed the power of practice to uplift, heal and inspire responsibility. Searching for depth in my own healing and alignment in practice, I attended the Forrest Yoga Foundational Teacher Training in 2009 and have now completed both continuing education and advanced teacher training with Ana Forrest as well as two years of mentorship with Heidi Sormaz, Ph.D. and Forrest Yoga Guardian. I am proud and honored to be a Certified Forrest Yoga teacher and assistant for the Forrest Yoga Foundation Training in New Haven, CT (2014). With the guidance of my mentors, Ana Forrest, Heidi Sormaz and Nikki Meyers (Y12SR), I feel I have found my most authentic expression of self, thus far. I am a deeply passionate teacher and student of Forrest Yoga, Trauma Informed Yoga and the Yoga of Twelve Step Recovery. I have had the priveledge of assisting the groundbreaking Yoga, Meditation and Addiction Recovery Conference, founded by Nikki Myers and Rolf Gates, at both Esalen and Kripalu. I hold a BFA in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University. I offer yoga and studio art as resources for healing psychological trauma in the greater Boston area. In 2008, my intensity as an artist, activist and teacher converged as a founding member of Survivor Theatre Project, of which I am now acting as the touring company manager. Facilitating personal acts of courage brightens my spirit tremendously.