“I practice yoga because it works. It keeps me strong and supple. It quiets the crazy woman who lives in my head. It orients me at my center where I am more kind and patient.” Laurie Gallagher

Laurie sees yoga as a living tradition – a practice that continues to evolve at the intersection of ancient and modern. She loves that yoga is both tried and true, and also surprisingly adaptable. She believes that yoga practice – now more than ever – can offer a relevant and much needed tool kit for skillful and happy living. She enthusiastically embraces her role as a yoga teacher and loves sharing the power of this practice with others.

Laurie’s experience as a teacher began in 1996 as a Group Exercise Instructor and Personal Trainer. She expanded into the yoga world, completing her 200-hour Teacher Training Program with Clayton Horton, within the Ashtanga Tradition of yoga. Over the last decade she has explored other disciplines of yoga and teaching methodologies and has had had the honor of studying with some brilliant and revered yoga teachers. In 2007 she opened Cosmic Dog Yoga in Livermore with her business partner, Lisa Gray, and worked for three years as Co-owner and Program Director. After selling the studio, Laurie is branching out around the Tri-Valley, teaching classes and educating upcoming yoga teachers in the art and science of Vinyasa Flow Yoga through 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training programs. Always a student, Laurie is currently studying in the Yoga Works 300-hour Professional Teacher Training program, to be completed in April 2013.

Laurie’s classes are intelligently sequenced; marrying breath, mindful movement, and stability work – all designed to draw students inward. She instructs with accuracy, at a moderate pace and offers modifications so that class is accessible to all bodies. She is welcoming, open-minded, and leads class with a rhythmic and dynamic voice. A bhakti yogi at heart, Nada Yoga is part of her practice - you can expect her to sing!

When she’s not on the yoga mat, Laurie is busy earning her title as Meanest Mom Ever to three growing kids, killing green things in the garden, and dabbling in photography. She’s a sucker for needy animals, smart non-fiction, and British television. Steamy baths, good chocolate and one egalitarian husband of twenty years make her yoga world go round.