The owner-operator of the Raffa Yoga Active Relaxation Center, she has practiced yoga for over 18 years. As an avid runner since age 12, her quadriceps and low back became extremely tight from training and she tried every stretching program she could find to correct her muscular imbalances. She began practicing yoga to do so and found balance in her personal, professional and athletic life. She notes that she is so blessed to have had the opportunity to study with an amazing group of yoga teachers and experience firsthand the healing power of yoga.
Her first yoga teacher-training was with Baron Baptiste of the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute in Boston and Cambridge. After completing levels one and two teacher-training of the Baptiste style, Christine noted that the “fluidity of Vinyasa Yoga was hard wired into her nervous system.” Christine then completed a teacher-training course with Beryl Bender Birch of the Hard & Soft Astanga Yoga Studios in New York. Beryl’s instruction in classical Astanga Yoga taught her an appreciation of the yoga lineage and a new found respect for this ancient art of self-expression through alignment, breath, patience, and strength.
Ana Forrest founder and creator of Forrest Yoga chose Christine as one of the Forrest yoga mentors in 2006 as a guardian of “mending the hoop of the people”. Christine is a certified Forrest Yoga Instructor. She has completed the Foundational Forrest Yoga Teacher Training and the Advanced Forrest Yoga Teacher Training. Christine also assists at Forrest yoga trainings world wide. Christine feels this was an experience which truly transformed her life. Ana’s yoga style brings intuition and wisdom into each posture which allows one to look deeply inside oneself. The Forrest Yoga Method assisted Christine in reconnecting with the healing power of the breath and intuitive nature of the wiser self.
Christine is currently participating in Shiva Rea’s teacher training of fluid power yoga. Christine States ” Shiva is an amazing person who has a pulse on the pranic flow of energy and the ability to bring vibration and fluidity into the yoga practices.”The combination of fluid power yoga , aurevedic balancing, ancient chant and vibration all assist with a deeper pranic energy connection in yoga. I am finding true life changing balance, joy and understanding at a very deep level with Shiva’s style of yoga.
In July of 2009 Christine traveled to study with yoga master Judith Lasiter and participated in the teacher training for relax and renew Restorative yoga. Christine States”to experience the deeply profound benefits of restorative yoga has changed my view on what a balanced yoga practice has to offer. I have practiced yoga intensely being attracted to strong practices and fast moving styles. My personality is in line with a “power yoga type A program that constantly pushes the edges. By training with Judith I have learned to honor the other side of movement. The depth of sensation when feeling the subilties of breath ,the welcoming of stillness and the action of being rather than doing. This remarkable experience confirms in both my body and mind the Absolute need to relearn relaxation”.
Christine is also now teaching Anatomy for the Yoga works Teacher training programs here on the east coast. She is proud to be asked to share her neuroantanomy experience and education for an organization as well respected as Yoga works in the national yoga arena. Christine is also a register member of RYPT 500 hours. A professional accreditation for the yoga industry.
Christine is a graduate of the Bancroft School of Massage Therapy and is licensed and nationally certified in Massage Therapy. She also holds certification in Pre-natal and Post-natal Massage Therapy and in the St. John method of Neuromuscular Therapy. Christine trained exclusively with Paul St. John and was a member of his teacher-training assistant program. She has completed advanced studies in neuro-anatomy, advanced physiology and myofascial pain syndromes, advanced training in cranio-sacral and cranio-decompression therapy, somatic emotional release, visceral mobilization, muscle energy, neuro-tissue tension release and structural integration techniques. She has advanced studies in exercise physiology, various forms of energy techniques and the disciplines of yoga and movement therapies. Christine is also a student of vipassana meditative training and insight meditation.
Christine’s expertise is in postural distortion and bio mechanical imbalances of the body. Myofascial pain patterning and chronic pain related to the head, neck and face.
Christine states:
“Health care today for the most part is incomplete. The system is set up to treat symptoms but seldom the underlying causation of physical, mental and emotional pain and dysfunction. Hands-on healing modalities have been used for thousands of years to bring relief and treatment to people in pain. Our time is money, society has moved towards high tech, invasive and pharmaceutical-based attempts to solutions for our body’s imbalances. I strongly believe we need to take a breath and observe the ways we are living our lives. The food we eat, the thoughts we think, the amount of exercise or lack thereof, all participate in the stresses we endure and the connection to the experience of our lives. Only when we are in true balance mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically will we return to the true essence of ourselves. Pain is not a way of life but a wake up call to the urgency to live in-balance and fully in the present moment.”
Contact Christine directly. Please email her at RaffaYoga@yahoo.com. This is a personal and confidential email account. Christine will answer all emails personally.
