Julie Schlemmer

My approach as a yoga teacher has always been to help my students develop a healing practice that fits their lives and their bodies.  In order to achieve that, I too, have had to develop a similar practice for myself.  I feel it is impossible to teach this healing art if I do not attempt to live it fully from my heart first.  Having strong teaching skills comes from having amazing teachers who have shared with me the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the practice.  Through them, I have also learned how to weave yogic philosophies into my classes which then become the focus for the class; a direction; an intention.  I do this through story telling, demonstration, hands on adjustments, humility and humor.  

The evolutionary path of yoga, invites us to go at a pace that is right for our body.  It is important to sit and listen so that we can develop the sort of practice that serves us, whether it be a restorative meditative practice, a strong heated vinyasa flow, or a soft and gently therapeutic class.  I have taught all these styles of yoga and aspire to utilize and deepen my knowledge in yoga therapy, my hearts desire.  My current public classes are a moderate vinyasa flow with a strong approach toward alignment.  My private classes include a mixture of vinyasa, body alignment practices, gentle yoga, meditation, yoga for seniors, yoga therapy and Reiki.  As a trained Reiki Master through Sr. Ann of Ursuline College and Rowan Silverberg, a talented and gifted teacher of teachers here in Cleveland, I hope to continue to strengthen that energy and offer my services.  Through these approaches, the life supporting benefits of yoga and yoga therapy become healing to all people of all body types.  

I started practicing yoga in the mid 90‘s while living in Portland, Oregon.  After my return to Cleveland, my home town, I was fortunate enough to be able to start down this path of teaching what it is I love most to do.  I have been healed, and continue to heal, from physical pain and emotional traumas through this practice and I truly believe it is because of this practice that we learn how to live and be present in the moment.  I have studied with wonderful local teachers, such as Rowan Silverberg, Deanna Black, Marni Task, Swami Atmarupa, and many others who continue to teach me about this practice.  World wide yoga teachers I have studied with include John Friend, Shiva Rae, Tias Little and most recently Joseph LePage, Jenny Otto, Doug Keller and Gary Kraftsow specifically for yoga therapy, where my core interests lie.  I believe that yoga therapy will alter and enhance our health care system in the future and would be honored and thrilled to be a part of that transformation.  

Through yoga, we learn to see, feel and reveal the light that shines within each of us.  We come to the mat with no expectations other than to learn how to experience and accept the softness of our hearts, the convictions of our morality, the strength of our bodies and the truth of who we are in our core.  That inward light then teaches us to expand our beliefs far beyond the limitations that we think have been placed upon us.  With each expansion, we grow beyond the measures from which have come to see ourselves and, in doing so, see that same potential for growth in others, connecting us; uniting us.