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Denise Kearney

Denise started experimenting with yoga in 2001 to help her unwind during a stressful internal medicine residency. After 15 years of classical dance background, she immediately adapted to the sun salutations sequences and attention to balance, flexibility, and strength. Denise practiced hatha, vinyasa, power vinyasa, and Pilates regularly.

In 2007, she accidentally stumbled into a Forrest yoga class, thinking she was attending a vinyasa practice, and it was like fate. The strong powerful poses with intricate attention to respect and compassion for the body and core strength made her feel strong and grounded. She finds the longer holds in the Forrest practice challenge her to go further and deeper than the physical postures themselves.

In 2009, Denise completed the 200-hour Forrest Foundation Yoga Training under Ana Forrest. She completed the Forrest yoga mentoring program with Forrest guardian Heidi Sormaz in 2009 and continues to study under Heidi as well as many of the other Fresh Yoga instructors. She loves an active moving practice but always returns to the powerful foundation of the Forrest yoga practice.

Other national instructors with whom Denise has taken workshops include Jill Miller, Rolf Gates, Baron Baptiste, Sadie Nardini, Josh Summers, and Sharon Salzberg. She completed a Yin yoga teacher training with Josh Summers in 2010, and continues to challenge herself attending as many Ana Forrest workshops as she can as well as exploring the seemingly different Yin and meditation practice with Josh Summers and Sarah Powers.

Denise is also a physician, specializing in allergy, asthma, and immunology, and she is currently working on bringing yoga to the workplace, teaching a class during lunch hour once to twice monthly. She is studying integrative medicine and is interested in the benefits of yoga for health and healing.

When Denise feels anxious, stressed out, or in a bad place, yoga is always there to support her. It is her respite for the most difficult periods of her life; yet it has allowed her to become more cognizant of the present moment and better equipped to handle life’s challenges.

Denise hopes to inspire students through providing them with a more secure feeling of body awareness, strength, and integrity. She would like to help students realize how to use the yoga for letting go, as a support for the hard times, and to experience bliss—like savasana! Every day.

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