When she was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 10 and put into a hard plastic brace that stretched from below her hips to under her arms, Graham Williams had no idea that her scoliosis would lead to her life’s passion and vocation.

Today, 30 years later, she is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor(the only Certified Iyengar Instructor in Raleigh, NC) and is passionate about empowering her students to enjoy the positive physical and emotional benefits yoga has brought to her.

Graham was introduced to Iyengar Yoga in 1994 while living in Crested Butte, Colorado, after graduating from the University of Georgia.  Her first teachers, Donita and Gary Reitze, intermediate-level certified Iyengar Yoga instructors, told her about Elise Browning Miller when they found out about her scoliosis. Elise specializes in Iyengar Yoga for people with back problems, and Graham took her first scoliosis workshop with Elise in 1995. In 2004 she completed Elise’s scoliosis teacher training in California. As her own practice and teaching has grown, Graham has assisted Elise with scoliosis workshops.

Graham has practiced Iyengar Yoga for more than 15 years. She has taught children, teens, and adults in Colorado, Virginia, and North Carolina. She made her first trip to Pune, India, in October 2007 where she studied with the Iyengars to enhance both her personal and teaching practices. Graham has taken thousands of hours of trainings and workshops from top nationally known Iyengar teachers.  In addition to Elise Browning Miller Graham has attended several weekend workshops  with Manouso Manos, Dean Lerner,  John Schumacher, Mary Reilly, Judith Hanson Lasater, Roger Cole, Simon Marrocco and Bobbi Goldin. She has taken a  week long teacher training with Patricia Walden and Joan White. Several weekend teacher trainings with Joan White,  Jan Campbell, Kathleen Pringle,  and Cindy Dollar ,  She attended the Estes Park Iyengar Convention in 2005 where B. K. S Iyengar taught and just recently  had the privilege of attending the Reflection convention, Yoga For Therapy for Certified Iyengar Teachers in Portland, Oregon taught by the esteemed Geeta Iyengar . The convention had over 500 Certifiied teachers from all over the United States as well as different parts of the world.  Graham’s study and knowledge of Iyengar Yoga is unending.  In October she will attend the first of a six-part therapeutic series with Senior Certified Stephanie Quirk, who lives in Pune, where she has studied with the Iyengar family for nearly twenty years.

 After many years of traveling to study with some of the top teachers of Iyengar Yoga Graham is thrilled to have the ability to host some of these teachers at her own studio in Raleigh.  Elise Browing Miller in November 2010, Bobby Clennell in February 2011, Dean Lerner(date to be determined).

 Prior to opening her own studio in Raleigh, she was Production Manager of a Fleece Company, Critter Mountain Wear in Crested Butte Colorado. She helped the owner manage and run the company for 6 years, then moved to Denver where she was purchasing agent for a Textile Network Company. While in Denver she attended classes with Donita and Gary Reitze(they moved from Crested Butte to Denver) who opened an Iyengar yoga Studio, The Iyengar Center Of Denver. Donita and Gary were going to be out of town and asked her to teach a class. Having never thought about teaching she was very nervous but after the one class she was hooked and her process to become a Certified Iyengar teacher began. Thank you Donita and Gary!!

Graham has years of experience on how to manage and run a company. After moving from Denver to North Carolina she studied with Certified Iyengar Instructor Cindy Dollar in Asheville and was soon managing Cindy Dollar’s One Center Yoga, where she taught classes as well. In Raleigh she taught in several locations before finding and renovating a space for her own studio. She is very proud and happy to be the owner of her own studio and to have the ability to help others like she has helped herself. She is very thankful to her Iyengar teachers and community for the  love and support to have helped her along this tremendous and most fulfilling path of teaching and being a student.

 

How to become a Certified Iyengar Instructor

 One has to first practice and study Iyengar Yoga for a minimum of three years before becoming eligible for starting the certification process. Testing cannot be done until the candidate has studied with a certified mentoring teacher and taught exclusively in the Iyengar method for two years. During the testing process, candidates are carefully observed and evaluated by Junior or senior-level instructors as they demonstrate asanas and pranayamas and teach a class of students. Each certified Iyengar Yoga instructor has passed at least two rigorous, standardized assessments. Instructors must be committed to maintaining the high standards of Iyengar Yoga and the pure method of B. K. S. Iyengar as well as continuing their own personal practices and training with senior teachers.

Graham passed the teacher-in-training portion of the certification process in October 2006, studied at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India, in the fall of 2007, and passed the second part of the certification in October 2009. She is proud to be a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor.  

Trip to Iyengar Institute in Pune, India

( This was the 3rd day after I broke my foot. I was on crutches the rest of the time I was in India but did what I could to still have an experience of a lifetime.)


Of course in these situations, when we injure ourselves, or our body isn’t feeling well, it is very easy to focus on what we CAN’T do as opposed to focusing on what we CAN do.

Unfortunately I WASN’T able to take classes, but I WAS able to observe, which is a huge learning tool with teaching. It was hard not to be able to do what all my friends were doing, relate to what they were feeling after class, and not feel frustrated that I wasn’t able to have the experience they were having — an experience I had anticipated for such a long time. However, I do feel that by observing I was able to watch, listen, and see many things not experienced by those doing the poses. It was a “different” experience for me but was very fulfilling in numerous ways.

(The Iyengar studio in Pune, India)

 I read this quote somewhere recently, “Don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.” This quote resonated with me because I think that we often focus more on what we can’t do and don’t appreciate what we can do. I will be honest: I did focus at times on what I couldn’t do because of my foot, but I had to get past that or else I wouldn’t have made it for the five weeks I was there. I went to India not quite knowing what I wanted to achieve. Was it to become a better teacher? To learn some new poses? To be in the presence of the Iyengars themselves and learn directly from them?

 I frequently tell my students to APPRECIATE, APPRECIATE, APPRECIATE and live in the present moment, because you never know what may happen next (like breaking a foot going down some stairs while you’re in India).

 It is difficult to describe my experience in India. The words that do come to my mind are again to always appreciate what you DO have and to enjoy every minute of your life. “Don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.”

Here are a few more pictures from India: