Joann Burnham, founder of Dharma Yoga Nantucket and the Nantucket Yoga Festival with husband Ted,
lives by the motto “if you’re going to do it, do it properly.”
This mantra, as well as the desire to get her husband out of chronic pain, drove the decision to take the Yoga Tune Up® Certification Training in 2017. Ted had an injury that nothing could heal, so they started seeking alternative practices and ways to move.
For Joann, the YTU training “changed everything–the way I taught, the way I viewed students, and my personal practice–it gave me so much freedom… It gave me permission to have a broader view of what yoga could look like.”
Over the past several years, Nantucket yoga clientele shifted from wanting to do big asanas like headstand, to coming in and asking for help with pain. This has reformed the kind of yoga they offer on the island by adding therapeutic and somatic practices with a YTU spin.
Joann is always on the hunt for new methodologies to bring back to her island practice and teaching.
Want to hear more about Joann’s path to owning and successfully running Dharma Yoga and the Nantucket Yoga Festival? How about learning how to eliminate “sensory amnesia”? (https://restorehealthky.com)
Listen to Joann’s live interview with YTU Teacher Trainer Ariel Kiley and let’s continue the conversation…
I was in Nantucket in 2018 and I wish I had known about Dharma Yoga! It looks like a wonderful studio! When I have the opportunity to go to Nantucket again I will definitely visit. This interview was done in 2019; I just looked at the website and am thrilled to see Dharma Yoga is still thriving after Covid which is amazing. I was fascinated by Sensory Motor Amnesia. This is the first I have heard of it, but I do notice when students in my classes seem to “ignore” my cues and I wonder if this is sometimes due to SMA. I plan to learn more about it.
Jen! I hope you can join us in Nantucket in June we are reimagining the yoga festival June 21-22 🙂
Ran into a yoga tune up class by mistake and came out with pain relieve and feeling of deep massage, loved it from the very first time. Had many classes after and would like to learn more. Would love to hear more from the yoga tune up community.
Having had suffered for 15 years of lower back pain and not knowing what caused it, is what has led me to yoga tune up. Understanding your own body and how to manage pain to me is the beginning and am looking forward to learning from the yoga tune up community.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ariel’s interview with Joann. Having just completed a training, I loved hearing about their take on the vulnerability one feels because training can be both difficult and uncomfortable on the one hand, yet also so exciting. By the end of the interview, I had to click the links to both Dharma Yoga and the Nantucket Yoga Festival.
Love Joann’s classes on Nantucket and the annual yoga festival. ❤️ Ariel’s class at last year’s festival on why down dog shouldn’t hurt was my favorite!! ?
Great Interview!!! I have just finished my YTU training. The training has also affected my teaching universally. It has connected me to more freedom in the practice and the tools to go “off the grid” a bit to meet the needs of students in fun and creative ways. “Sensory Motor Amnesia” is fascinating!!! Yoga and all mindful movement is not only a movement practice but can be a feeling practice as well.
Joanne, thank you for sharing your story of YTU & how it is integrated into your practice. I live in Muskoka, Ontario and like you, have found a community really appreciative of the deep exploration and release offered through the creativity, play and quiet internal awareness offered through is practice.