About JJ & Surya Chandra

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Eight Programs

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Sheridan WY YTT Schedule

East Meets West 300-hr

East Meets West 500-hr

East Meets West 1200-hr

JJ's Travel Schedule

Surya Chandra Healing Yoga

Yoga Education - Yoga Therapy

Faculty and Administrators for the Teacher Training Programs
Director and Administrator of the Training Programs

JJ Gormley-Etchells, Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500), Yoga Educator and Yoga Therapist, is the founder of Sun & Moon Yoga Studios in Virginia, Eureka Yoga School in Montana and Surya Chandra Healing Yoga in Virginia.  She is the Director and Chief School Administrator for the training programs as well as the main teacher for the programs.

JJ 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.  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 began teaching 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 opened up Sun & Moon Yoga Studio in VA and began teaching teachers. 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.  She went to Chennai, India to study from Kausthub and the tradition of yoga teaching commonly called "Vini Yoga,"but 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 "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.

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 appeared in Washingtonian Magazine, Prevention Magazine, Pause Magazine and has five (5) DVD's, one (1) chanting CD and has written training manuals and study guides for her programs.  These are also available for sale on line to other teaching programs.  She has been invited to teach at numerous places within the US and abroad.  International accolades include Bali, Indonesia, Peru, Laos, Cambodia, Mexico, Canada, Coasta Rica.  Her US endeavors include the prestigious Feathered Pipe Ranch, Montana, Gray Bear Lodge and Retreat Center, Tennesssee and the Ojai Crib, California. She is in the process of writing a book, "Yoga Therapy Through the Chakras" with Megan Sullivan, illustrations by Terry Strayer. Stay tuned for details of the book release.  She is a member and Secretary of the Krishnamacharya Healing Yoga Foundation-North America Association, member of the Gray Bear Yoga Sanga and a member of International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).


Instructors at each facility

Instructors at each facility to assist in teaching the program are the owner’s and/or senior teaching faculty of the yoga studio. 

Dawn Curtis is the owner of East Meets West Yoga Center in Vienna, VA. Dawn first explored Kundalini Yoga in 1990, studying from such master teachers as Gurmukh from Golden Bridge in Los Angeles & New York, Guru Dev Singh, Shakta Kaur Khalsa, Todd Norian and Ann Greene of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Amy Weintraub (LifeForce Yoga Therapy), JJ Gormley of Eureka Yoga in Montana, Betsy Downing, PhD, Brian Legere (Yoga Wall technique), and Susan Van Nuys and Doug Keller of Health Advantage Yoga Center

Laura Tyree is the owner of Dragonfly Yoga Studies in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. Laura first trained with Jan Campbell and the rigorous Iyengar Yoga method in 1986. She began teaching in 1990 continued to study with Erich Schiffmann and Rodney Yee.  Her current studies in yoga therapy are inspired by her teachers JJ Gormley-Etchells and Doug Keller.


Instructors and Adjunct Faculty

Because these training programs are offered in various locations across the country and abroad, instructors are specific to various locals.  Adjunct faculty are brought –in to teach at each locale include:

Marie Schum-Brady, M.D. is a medical doctor located in Arlington, VA.  Dr. Schum-Brady teaches many anatomy and physiology classes at the 300-hour level, 700-hour level and 1500-hour level.

Baxter Bell, M.D.
, RYT-500 is a medical doctor, medical acupuncturist and Yoga Instructor and co-director of Piedmont Yoga Studio's Teacher Training program in Oakland, CA.  Dr. Bell teaches many anatomy and physiology classes as well as therapeutics classes for the certificate and upper-level courses.

Brendan Feeley, N.D. is a naturopathic doctor, ayurvedic and homeopacthic practitioner, Jyotisha expert (Vedic astrology) located in Rockville, MD.  Dr. Feeley teaches Eastern Anatomy and Physiology and Ayurveda.

Donna Lannes, R.N. is a registered nurse located in Centreville, VA.  Donna teaches many anatomy and physiology classes at the 300-hour level, 700-hour level and 1500-hour level as well as CPR.

Karen Fountain, C.M.R is a certified medical representative from the CMR Institute, Roanoke, VA and is located in Houston, TX.  Karen teaches many anatomy and physiology classes at the 300-hour level, 700-hour level and 1500-hour level.

Dean Campbell is an ayurvedic and yoga practioner located in Salt Lake City, UT.  Dean teaches ayurveda and yoga therapy classes.

Rev. Cynthia Snodgrass is an ordained Episcopal priest, and has studied Sanskrit extensively with Vyaas Houston of the American Sanskrit Institute, as well as at Harvard University.  Cynthia teaches Sanskrit.


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