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Alumni of the Month: Katie Leasor
Where has Yoga taken you?
Yoga has taken me into a deeper relationship with myself and becoming aware about how the practice can help ease pain and suffering in the world. With my students, my family, in the healthcare community, and beyond. After my training at Sonic, I tried practice teaching with my then 68-year-old mother and she couldn’t get down on her knees that easily, let alone do a Chaturanga Dandasana. I felt a little unprepared at that moment to teach people from all different ages, backgrounds, and abilities. This is why I decided to go the yoga therapeutics route. Since then, I have opened my own studio in Fair Haven, NJ called Elements Yoga Therapeutics and am almost a C-IAYT.
How did your yoga teacher training influence your life?
I came to yoga teacher training at Sonic first searching for community and inner peace after a serious heartbreak, but found much more. The experience of being in a kula—many of whom I am still in touch with—was a pivotal part of growing and getting in touch with my true Self. Hearing and relating to the myriad of reasons why people came to training was profound.
I also will never forget seeing Tracy lead one night of training and feeling like I had found my calling. Despite being in business and politics working with many tremendously powerful people, there was something about her holding space for others that seemed like a soulfully commanding career. It’s as if the path laid itself out for me and I’ll never forget that moment of realization. And since my 200-hour training I’ve taken over 500 hours of additional training working with Dana Slamp at Prema Yoga Institute and studying with Dr. Loren Fishman, Sonja Rzepski, and others. I am close to becoming a yoga therapist. My mentor Jeanette Sealy in my local community in New Jersey has also been a profound influence as I continue my studies in Ayurveda and work towards mentoring other yoga teachers, too.
As a teacher, I believe accessible yoga for all is a great preventative practice to calm the mind and tend to the body’s needs. I teach trauma informed classes and as a believer in yoga for all, I will always honor students’ financial needs and prioritize providing a safe practice. I also love working with our local healthcare community and other yoga therapy teachers, if this sounds like you, please reach out at elementsyogatherapy@gmail.com.
What was your first yoga class experience? What was your first Sonic experience?
I first started yoga in high school at a Bikram class in my hometown. As a former high school and college lacrosse player suffering from chronic quad and hip flexor pain, I was only finding relief on the mat. I continued to practice searching for physical relief, but I also realized that it gave me more inner calm and self-healing to balance the stress of a corporate career and my ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
Then living in NYC with a new stressful corporate career plus recently discovering that the boyfriend I moved there for was a sociopath brought its challenges. I found a home in the then Hell’s Kitchen Sonic studio. It helped remind me that retaining balance in the always moving chaos is indeed a practice, and to take one step at a time and just one breath at a time. There were many classes with Johanna that I would cry like a puddle in savasana, connect with Jeffery over his dharma talks, or rise to the challenge of Keith’s long downward dog holds.
I’m forever grateful to my teachers and their teachers, as well as my parents and ancestors, for giving me great lessons about life to learn and share—and to you for being here.
