Suzanne Manafort is a certified embodyoga® teacher, having completed 200 and 500 hour studies with Patty Townsend at Yoga Center Amherst. She has also assisted Patty in the 200 hour teacher training at Yoga Center Amherst.
Suzanne has a 500 hour certification from Beryl Bender Birch, the founder of The Hard and the Soft Yoga Institute.
A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, she also completed a teacher training with David Swenson and the year long Living Tantra program taught by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait at the Himalayan Institute.
She serves as a board member of the Give Back Yoga Foundation.
For the past several years, she has worked with Veterans with PTSD in a program called PPRP (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Residential Rehabilitation Program). The program teaches Veterans yoga and its many practices to help them manage the effects of PTSD.
This work led her to study and learn the practical aspects of what benefits Veterans in a yoga program receive. Her experiences along the way taught her that teachers require additional training tailored to the specific needs of Veterans. With Dr. Daniel Libby, Suzanne co-founded The Veterans Yoga Project and Mindful Yoga Therapy for Veterans with PTSD. The program trains other yoga therapists to effectively use yoga to help Veterans. Trainings are offered nationwide.
As director/owner of Newington Yoga Center, Suzanne feels yoga has changed her life, and she is grateful for the practice. She feels blessed to be a part of sharing embodyoga® teacher training.