About In Waves Yoga
In Waves Yoga’s goal is to empower individuals to take control of their own health and well-being through yoga.
Core Principles:
Yoga provides tools for living an empowered and fully present life of intention.
- These tools include physical postures, breathing exercises, chanting, meditation, contemplation, and study of texts. All of these practices can be modified and varied to suit each individual.
Yoga should be accessible to every human, regardless of body shape, physical ability, religious or spiritual beliefs, or economic standing.
- Humanity is universal, and all humans can practice yoga. Yoga teaches us that our experiences, while unique, are also shared amongst everyone.
Yoga is practical and meant to be experienced.
- Everyone’s yoga journey is self-directed and unique.
- Practices are tailored to the goals of the individual. These goals can and will change over time. Practices are dynamic and modified to align with those goals.
As yoga practitioners in the West, we must honor and respect yoga’s origins as an Indian practice.
- Yoga is an ancient practice that can be adapted to modern life while at the same time honoring its cultural heritage.
Meet Your Teacher
Sara Merrick-Albano
C-IAYT, E-RYT 500
Teaching Philosophy
Sara loves to help students develop their own practice whether they are just starting out or they have been practicing for years. She invites exploration of how a student’s individual body moves and empowers students to approach asana (postures) with variations and modifications while cultivating compassion and respect for the body and the self. Sara is also interested in the deeper pranayama (breathing) and meditative practices that yoga provides, teaching students how to safely explore places where physicality no longer matters.
Sara’s intention as she offers yoga therapy and private yoga is to provide individual guidance and a customized yoga practice using the tools yoga offers in ways that will be best for the student. She accounts for injuries, current and past health issues, and above all the student’s goals for the yoga practice and their life. Sara’s teaching is pragmatic and non-dogmatic. She does not hold to a specific lineage. Instead, she focuses on what works for the individual. The result is a student-driven practice that invites balance in the body and mind, both in the practice and in life off the mat.
Training & Education
A 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance, Sara has been practicing yoga for over 15 years and has over 1000 hours of training and over 2000 hours of teaching experience. She’s passionate about using yoga to help people restore balance to their lives. She has completed further trainings to hone her practice, including working with fascia, positional therapy for chronic pain relief, yoga for osteoporosis, sacroiliac joint care in yoga, pranayama and yogic meditation, and Ayurveda. Sara is certified as a yoga therapist by Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy and the IAYT. She is a guest educator and mentor for yoga teachers-in-training. Sara provides yoga therapy through Yoga Therapy Associates. She has also completed specialized training in using yoga therapy specifically for weight loss.
Sara holds a B.S. degree in geology and mathematics and graduated with highest honors. She spent six years working as a process engineer in the metal finishing industry, working on reducing chemical usage, continuous improvement, and project management. This translates well to her one-on-one work with clients and students as she guides them on the process of yoga. She can quickly identify small changes that make a big difference in an individual’s transformation.
Moving Forward
If you are interested in moving forward with yoga therapy, private yoga, or mentoring, you can book an initial consultation.
Sara is an outstanding yoga therapist who has been working with me for several months. We started with a one-hour evaluation and I was impressed with her professionalism and thorough information gathering about my condition, my needs and my goals. I also had the opportunity to ask her questions about her training and experience which she was very willing to answer thoroughly.
Her therapeutic approach has included yoga poses and movements that are specific to the needs of my body that we identify together at the beginning of every session. She then creates a program for my specific needs that I practice with her and we end the session with a meditation. Throughout the session, she encourages me to share with her any pain or discomfort and she is very adept at making the proper accommodations were needed. After that she sends me a video where she demonstrates the same session and I practice on my own while watching the video on my computer.
We live in different locations and have opted for all this to be virtual. It works well and is very convenient for me. She is very caring too. I recommend her highly.