About

Teaching Credentials

Stephanie Orgill is a Yoga Alliance Certified yoga teacher. She took her 200 hour Vinyasa teacher training at Yoga to the People in Tempe, Arizona in early 2015. She has continued to further her yoga education with an Ashtanga apprenticeship and Hot Hatha teaching addendum at We Yoga Co. in Settle, Washington. She has also studied Astanga yoga, Ghosh yoga and Ayurveda. Her teaching style is alignment based and she focuses on helping others heal through accessible and mindful yoga. She currently teaches in studios around Seattle and is available for private and group classes.

 

Stephanie’s Personal Journey of Healing Through Yoga

Stephanie made her way to practicing yoga in a time in her life where she was feeling empty and in need of change. She hadn’t been good to her body and in turn it hadn’t been good to her. At first it wasn’t easy for her to show up and practice; there was too much scar tissue and pain from all of the injuries she had sustained and bones she had broken, but it didn’t take long to feel the effects of the practice. Her joints started returning to their proper mobility with less swelling and less pain. She began to feel stronger and more graceful; which are two things she had never known much about. She was experiencing all of things she expected out of practicing and more. What she didn’t expect was the mental and emotional effects yoga would have on her life. Things she had buried deep inside had resurfaced and began to make their way out. It was a total transformation. A life altering change.

Just when life began to make sense for Stephanie, her whole world got turned upside down. On Christmas day of 2013 she and her boyfriend were in a terrible car accident. Luckily he wasn’t badly hurt physically but not as luckily she was. Her left ankle was shattered, her right lung collapsed and her back broken in two different places. The T-3 vertebrae was only fractured so it would heal on it’s own but the L-2 had burst and needed to be rebuilt and fused to two other vertebrae to stabilize her spine. Stephanie’s ankle was even worse off than her back. Had she been somewhere other than Washington, who has one of the best trauma hospitals in the country, she might have lost her foot.

In the first week after the accident Stephanie underwent two surgeries to rebuild her ankle and another surgery to fuse her lumbar spine. She spent the following two months with an ex fix (external fixator that held her bones in place as they healed) screwed into her foot and leg. Even though she couldn’t physically practice yoga she was very grateful for her yoga practice through this recovery time. She spent most of her time in bed and regularly meditated to help cope with the pain and loneliness she was feeling.

Two months after the accident Stephanie had her third ankle surgery. They removed the ex fix and lengthened her gastrocnemius (essentially shredding the calf muscle to lengthen it, allowing the ankle to heal in alignment). After the surgery she spent two more months wearing the back brace that covered her entire torso and had strict orders to keep from putting any weight on her left foot. As soon as she was able to take the brace off and begin the process of learning how to walk again Stephanie was in the hot yoga room. She could barely do any of the asanas and modified like crazy but she showed up for herself as much as she could.

It was a slow uphill journey but she took it on with tenacity. Through hard work and tears Stephanie recovered from her injuries much more quickly and thoroughly than any of her doctors had anticipated. She went to Arizona only a year after to take her 200 hour yoga teacher training. Just three years after the car accident Stephanie was able to get most of the metal removed from her ankle; which is something surgeons told her would never happen.

Through this experience, Stephanie has dedicated her life to practicing yoga and sharing it’s healing effects with others.