Why Yoga Coaching?

Currently, most yoga in the U.S. is taught in large group class settings (ten or more students) in fitness centers and independent yoga studios. While the caliber of instructors in such classes is usually high, the nature of group classes makes meaningful direct instructor-student interaction difficult, and accommodation of the specific needs, limitations and goals of individual students impossible.

Although the group class model has helped make yoga more accessible to a greater number of people in the U.S., it has also proved inadequate for a growing number of individuals, teams and organizations who recognize that a premium-quality, customized yoga training program can maximize and accelerate the physical, mental and emotional benefits of a yoga practice.

Core Yoga was founded to serve those who desire personalized yoga counseling and instruction, and who therefore seek a professional yoga coaching alternative to the group class setting.

Core Yoga currently serves individuals, teams and organizations throughout New England. In addition, Core Yoga participates in academic conferences at leading U.S. hospitals, medical schools and their research affiliates.

About Deborah Cohen

Deborah Cohen has been teaching hatha yoga since 1996.  She trained first at the World Yoga Center in New York with Ann Farbman-Brown and then at SVYASA, a yoga rehabilitation center and research institute in South India.  She currently studies primarily with Barbara Benagh and  Patricia Walden.

She has advanced clinical training in Mind/Body Medicine from the Beth Israel Medical Center.  She has taken the Practicum in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and has studied experiential anatomy with chiropractor/yoga teacher Tom Alden.  She is also a graduate of the Landmark Forum.  In addition, she is trained in the Karma Kids Yoga and the Yoga Ed programs as well as the Penn Resiliency Project and the Positive Psychology Program to teach yoga to children in school settings.  Deborah taught an annual hatha yoga teacher training school, herself, from 2002-2006.

Regarding traditional academic education and teaching, Deborah holds a bachelor's and master's degree (EdM) from Harvard University, and a master's degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.  In addition to her yoga teaching activities, she is also a section leader for Tal Ben-Shahar’s Positive Psychology course at Harvard.

Ms. Cohen is currently working with the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital as the project leader of a research study measuring the impact of the Yoga Ed Program in four public schools in the Greater Boston area.  Her mission is to bring mind-body health and wellness into public schools.