Catherine Schmidt

Catherine Schmidt, Yoga Zen Owner/Founder, Instructor: E-RYT - 500, RCYT, YACEP; Reiki Master Practitioner

Catherine has been practicing yoga since 2012 while she was working her way up the corporate ladder in the Human Resources field. After a decade in HR, and teaching yoga on the side, Catherine took the leap into entrepreneurship in 2018 when she opened Yoga Zen: A yoga studio for all ages in the heart of Caledonia. Catherine appreciates the balance, creativity, and fun that yoga brings to her life and she’s passionate about sharing the benefits of this ancient practice with those in the Yoga Zen community.

Catherine began teaching yoga in 2016 after completing a 200-hour Power Vinyasa yoga teacher training with Megan Rader Yoga in Grand Rapids. She’s further expanded her knowledge in a 300-hour teacher training program in 2019 at Peacelab Yoga with Melanie McQuown - a program focused on alignment-based yoga. Passionate about working with kids, she attended The Little Yoga House's Kids Yoga training in 2018 and has been teaching kids yoga since opening Yoga Zen. She also went on to receive her Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT) certification in 2022 after completing a 95 hour Children’s Yoga course through Yoga Ed. a program designed to encourage incorporating yoga into an educational setting.

Catherine has been leading group guided meditations and relaxation visualizations since 2019 and started to incorporate sound baths with a set of crystal singing bowls into her relaxation sessions in 2020. She is a Reiki Master Practitioner, receiving that certification in 2022, and she first became Reiki I & II attuned in 2020. She provides individual reiki sessions at Yoga Zen.

Catherine continues to explore her own yoga and healing practice and remains dedicated to being a student first. Her yoga classes are a healthy mix of proper pose alignment, intuitive movement, fun and playfulness, physical work, and internal contemplation.

Catherine has lived in Caledonia since 2015 with her son, Connor. She enjoys spending time outdoors, biking or walking around different parks in the area, and trying new restaurants around Grand Rapids.