Classes
Classes
Main Classes
Spring schedule
Monday and Friday, 9:00-10:00 Open Level at Nordic Wellness Hornstull.
Thursday, 10:00-11:00 Senioryoga
11:30-12:30 Lunchyoga
at Nordic Wellness Hornstull.
Tuesday, 18-19:30 ONLINE at Iyengar Yoga Södermalm. Zoom link Öppen lektion
18:00 – 19:30
Zoom
NEW CLASS! Thursday, 16:25-17:10 Procedos (TM) P.E. One (procedos.com) A movement and strength training class at Nordic Wellness Odenplan (nordicwellness.se)
Corporate classes and small group sessions available upon request. Please send me an email to get in touch.
Workshops and Extra Classes
See specific dates below
Start
My goal is to serve as an example of how to work with a knee injury in yoga, training and other sports. This is my life’s work. I hope to be able to be of help for others on this path!
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How I focus on injured knees
I want to help people with injured knees. After injuring my knee I went directly to a sports medicine specialist (orthopedic surgeon) and physical therapist. This approach has been both positive and negative so I continue looking for different methods for healing, strengthening and improving the knee and its integration to the body.
There are many reasons why knees can become painful. Osteoarthritis until recently was thought to be hereditary or caused by being overweight. As the boom in sports medicine occurred over the last 40 years and the repercussions of surgeries are being documented, increasingly knee surgery is considered a last resort or not advised at all due to its serious damage to cartilage and cause of osteoarthritis.
What is Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is a type of joint disease that results from breakdown of articular cartilage (the cartilage covering bone surfaces) and underlying bone. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness, which in time may become constant. Other symptoms may include joint swelling and decreased range of motion. Symptoms appear over time.
Causes include joint injury, trauma to the joint, abnormal development and inherited factors. Osteoarthritis is believed to be caused by mechanical stress on the joint and inflammatory processes. It develops as cartilage is lost and the underlying bone wears away, becomes deformed, and bony spurs grow. The space between the bones is lost with the reduction in cartilage and tissues. As pain makes it difficult to exercise, muscle loss may occur.
Whatever the cause of knee pain or injury, most health resources, from Western medicine to holistic methods (yoga, rehabilitation) concur that exercise and movement in balance with a healthy lifestyle helps.
Figure 1 from Biomarkers in osteoarthritis – Semantic Scholar. You can see the bone-on-bone effect of the severely osteoarthritic knee.
About
About me
Yoga
I practiced yoga for the first time in college to help with schoolwork stress.
I resisted the idea of teaching and pursuing theater believing instead that it was smarter to get more specific skills for the ‘real world’ thus opting for business school.
What do I want to tell you?
I love studying/learning – I got a bachelor’s degree, then master’s in business and worked in corporate America and Europe for over 10 years. Upon the arrival of my kids I wanted a more flexible work schedule and dove into health and wellness as a yoga teacher. I am a gym rat at heart and spend hours on strength, condition and movement, combining that with my yoga practice. It’s that magic combination that keeps me from getting a knee replacement! True story! After several injuries (and subsequent operations) I have practically no knee left… just bone-on-bone and severe osteoarthritis due to a complete loss of cartilage. A steady diet of knee rehab is my ‘life sentence’.
Over the past 20 years I have studied, experimented, poked, needled and prodded my own knee in an effort to live pain free (ok, as little as possible) and still do sports, yoga and activities to the fullest.
I remember one surgeon said, “Well, you’ve got a great lifestyle and can walk around the block.”
But what if walking around the block isn’t enough?!
I have been teaching yoga for 16 years. I bring myself fully to each class. My teaching style is a reflection of myself: thoughtful, engaged, observant, funny. I like to not take myself too seriously.
I am a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. I am grateful for my wonderful teachers. From the start in New York, Mary Dunn, James Murphy, and Carrie Owerko. In Sweden, Monica Haar (New Zealand) and Nina Sjödin.
And much gratitude to the movement gurus I follow and train with: Louise Dahl, Seth Ronland (evidensbaseradpraktik.se), Andreas Öhgren (aoperformance.se)
My goal is to serve as an example of how to work with a knee injury in yoga, training and other sports. This is my life’s work. I hope to be able to be of help for others on this path!
In that vein, I am continuing my education not only in yoga and personal training but also physical therapy. I want to be the best resource for those with knee injury.
Walking around the block is not enough!
Action for Happiness
Within my soul searching especially when I was a new transplant to Sweden several years ago, I discovered this organisation – yes, spelled the British way because it is a UK company and worldwide effort.
Although mankind enjoys living longer, healthier and wealthier lives than ever before, we are not happier. Faces glued to smartphones and social media do not make happy folks. I love the grass-roots projects of Action for Happiness and their conscious effort to make their resources, work and courses available to all.
You can also learn more at Action for Happiness.
Theater
Ah, true love. Hamming it up on stage since high school. Most recent work at varforinte.net.
