About JJ
JJ Gormley-Etchells, Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500), Yoga Educator and Yoga Therapist, began practicing yoga in 1979. She studied from many different traditions. Most of the yoga taught in the US at that time was simply called Hatha Yoga, later JJ discovered more detail about what "style" these teachers were teaching. Her first yoga experience was at the local recreation center, her teacher, Gerta Goldberg taught "Hatha Yoga" in a style that was a blend of Iyengar (known for their attention to alignment) and other types as well as Feldenkrais (gentle healing movements) that Gerta was learning.
Over the decade of the 80s JJ took classes in other traditions (including: Kripalu, Sivananda, and Kundalini yoga). She received her first yoga certification from the White Lotus Yoga Center in Santa Barbara, CA under Ganga White. In 1989 she beganteaching yoga and began studying Iyengar yoga more seriously. She studied from the Iyengar center in Maryland (Unity Woods) under Carol Cavanaugh and John Schumacher and took many Teacher Trainings in the Iyengar tradition. She also studied a great deal from Patricia Walden and other "senior" Iyengar yoga teachers.
In the mid-1990s she began to branch out of Iyengar Yoga and studied with Rodney Yee, John Friend and Erich Schiffmann. In 1994 JJ moved her small household studio in Arlington, VA, and changed the name to Sun & Moon Yoga Studio and began teachingteachers. She herself continued her studies and underwent John Friend's Anusara training and was among the first few individuals to receive Anusara certification.
In 2002 she met Kausthub Desikachar and fell in love with the teachings from "The Heart of Yoga" by TKV Desikachar as taught by his son, Kausthub. She went to Chennai, India to study from Kausthub and the tradition of yoga teaching commonly called "Vini Yoga," and also known as KYM teachings (the institute in Chennai is known as KYM (Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram). In the U.S. this tradition is also called KHYF or HYF for Krishnamacharya Healing Yoga Foundation (an international organization) or the Healing Yoga Foundation (located in San Francisco). In 2007 she entered into a 4-year training program for Yoga Therapists with the KHYF.
She continues her studies of yoga and knows that she will always be a student of yoga. She loves her diverse background and calls her yoga education "eclectic and well-rounded." She draws from each tradition she has studied, seeing the good in all and uses what she loves and what resonates with her heart.
As Director of these Teacher Training Programs she corresponds with and coordinates over 100 students in her training programs.
JJ teaches yoga poses from the perspective of the energetic body and staying connected to the earth energetically (being well-grounded). She'll look at the structure of the body and what is happening with the bones at and around each of the main energy centers (Chakras). She Teaches how the bones move at each of these Chakras to create more space at the joints so one can move with better freedom and release stuck energy.
JJ has produced many yoga training manuals and handouts, yoga videos/DVDs, and a chanting CD which can be purchased on this website. She also continually makes chakra jewelry (selling her pieces at her workshops when she travels) or will make a piece to order--just ask. She has compiled a Study Guide for Yoga Teacher Trainees for use with the training programs.
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