Faculty - YOGA UNION CENTER FOR BACKCARE AND SCOLIOSIS

	Alison West, ERYT, CO-DIRECTOR YOGA UNION CENTER FOR BACKCARE & SCOLIOSIS established Yoga Union in 1996 after studying widely and teaching Yoga in NY for ten years. She practiced Astanga Yoga for a number of years while studying Iyengar Yoga for alignment, working in particular with Kevin Gardiner and Genny Kapuler. Alison has studied with many of the senior Iyengar teachers in the United States, and has traveled to Pune to study with the Iyengars. Both her mother’s scoliosis and her own thoraco-lumbar curve awakened her to spinal asymmetry and led her to study with Bobbie Fulz and then Elise Miller, whose certification program she completed in 2005. With Deborah Wolk, she has established the Yoga Union Center for Backcare and Scoliosis, the first of its kind on the East Coast. Alison has formulated Principles of Practice that can be applied to most forms of Hatha Yoga, and brings to her teaching the insights born of the ongoing study of anatomy and kinesiology with master teachers such as Irene Dowd, Tom Myers, and Gil Hedley for dissection. Alison conducts biannual Teacher Trainings in New York City, teaches workshops nationwide and in Europe, and teaches both group and private classes in Manhattan. The Yoga Union TT is registered at the 500-hour level. Alison can be reached at yogaunion@nyc.rr.com or at 212-889-8643. Please visit www.yogaunionbackcare.com. Yoga Union is Alison's new center for Yoga classes and Teacher Trainings. For information please visit www.yogaunion.com (photo credit: jocelyn filley)
	Deborah Wolk, ERYT CO-DIRECTOR YOGA UNION CENTER FOR BACKCARE & SCOLIOSIS Having practiced yoga since 1994, Deborah found that specifically practicing alignment-based yoga could control back pain and arrest the progression of her scoliosis. That awareness inspired her to complete Alison West’s Yoga Union Teacher Training in 2000. Deborah then studied Yoga and Scoliosis with Bobbie Fultz, completed Karin Stephan's Advanced Studies Program in Therapeutics and Healing in 2003 and was certified as a Yoga for Scoliosis teacher through Elise Browning Miller's teacher training in 2005. In 2002, Ms. West invited Deborah to teach the scoliosis segment of the Yoga Union Teacher Training and since then she has taught Yoga & Scoliosis workshops in New York City, nationwide and in Europe. She continues her bi-annual teacher training scoliosis workshops for Yoga Union and for Karin Stephan's Advanced Studies Program. In 2003 she created the first weekly Yoga & Scoliosis class on the East Coast. Weekly Back Care classes and annual scoliosis workshops are offered at Yogasana Center for Yoga in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Now, with Alison West, she Co-Directs the Yoga Union Center for Backcare and Scoliosis and teaches a wide variety of classes for students with back problems and scoliosis including specialty classes for children and classes for students with Harrington Rods and other spinal fusion as well as bi-annual scoliosis workshop and other scoliosis and backcare related workshops. Deborah can be reached at dwolkYoga@gmail.com or call 212-677-0064. Please visit www.yogaunionbackcare.com. (photo credit: Alison Bradley)

	WENDY "SANTOSHI" BARANELLO Wendy is our wonderful Wednesday morning Backcare and Friday evening Restorative teacher. Her style is dynamic, warm and encouraging. Wendy's longtime experience holds the wisdom of the many styles she has practiced and taught: Integral (she was a student of Swami Satchidananda), Anusara and Iyengar. Wendy is a devoted student of Elise Browning Miller and Joan White and has taken Elise Browning Miller's Yoga for Scoliosis Teacher Training. For further information on Wendy's classes and private lessons please contact her at 212-721-3745 or samadiwy@aol.com
	DEBBY GREEN has been studying and teaching yoga for 15 years, and holds an Introductory Level Iyengar Yoga Teacher certification. Currently, she teaches at Yoga Union for Backcare and Scoliosis, Equinox and privately in NYC. She is certified by The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration as a Rolfing practitioner. Her work derives also from many years as a dancer. She studied ballet from a formative age with the great Cecchetti ballet teacher, Margaret Craske. For private lessons, bodywork or class & workshop information please contact Debby at debanngreennyc@gmail.com or call 646-486-3310

	MIMI ROSETTI Mimi was diagnosed with scoliosis, at age 16. Following 6 months wearing a Charleston brace, she underwent posterior corrective surgery with ISOLA instrumentation and fusion. Nearly 10 years later, while simultaneously pursuing a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and delving into her 500 hour yoga teacher training at YogaWorks http://www.yogaworks.com/, Mimi began to reconnect with her scoliosis and the impact of her surgery. Since 2006 she has apprenticed with Deborah Wolk (co-Director of Yoga Union Center for Backcare and Scoliosis http://www.yogaunionbackcare.com/ and in July 2008 completed Elise Browning Miller's Yoga for Scoliosis Teacher Training. She has also assisted Ellen Kiley in a Scoliyoga workshop at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Mimi spent January 2011 as a student in the medical class at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India where she studied directly with BKS Iyengar through the guidance and teachings of Lois Steinberg, Stephanie Quirk, Elise Browning Miller and Julie Lawrence. Mimi owes much gratitude to her many life teachers and feels privileged to be a guide for others working with scoliosis and corrective spinal fusions. She happily lives with her husband Brian in NYC. Mimi teaches classes for students with back problems and scoliosis including a specific class for students with Harrington Rods and other spinal instrumentation and fusions—the only one in the world! For information on classes, private lessons, and upcoming workshops please contact Mimi at miriamrosetti@gmail.com or call 212-767-9226.
	Emily Gould Emily began practicing Iyengar yoga soon after being diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager and has been studying with Deborah Wolk for eight years. In 2008 she completed Alison West's 200-hour Yoga Union teacher training. She has since continued to study with both Alison and Deborah and has assisted Deborah's backcare class for 2 years. Emily also studied with Elise Miller and took her Yoga For Scoliosis teacher training. Emily Gould is the faculty instructor for Yoga Union Center's weekly Yoga & Scoliosis for Teens & Tweens class and she also teaches a general Teens class at Shambhala in Prospect Heights. Emily is a natural as a teacher for teens, relating to them with ease while sharing her lifelong love of, and interest in, yoga. For information on classes, workshops and private lessons please visit: http://emilygouldyoga.tumblr.com/ or email emilgou@gmail.com
	Kaitlyn Hipple Kaitlyn began practicing yoga to improve her dancing but didn’t realize she would become a teacher. In Sondra Loring’s bhakti-filled classes she saw a different path. Unaware she was seeking yoga, she found a practice that used the physical body to access a more elusive and intangible body. In her first class with Alison West in 2008, Alison informed her that she had scoliosis. To restart her yoga practice, she began re-learning how to align her inner and outer bodies with the space around her. Kaitlyn then realized that her dharma was to expand from a devoted student into a devoted teacher. She decided to help others use yoga to create new postural patterns that lead to a healthier back. In 2009 Kaitlyn completed Alison West’s 200 hour teacher training and has assisted her backcare classes for the past two and a half years, as well as her recent teacher trainings and backcare certification workshops.