Biography

Leading yoga teacher Donna Farhi has been practicing for over 40 years and teaching since 1982. As a post-lineage pioneer, Donna has been at the forefront of generating a new model for teaching that fosters self-inquiry through the cultivation of a deepening trust in one’s own perceptions. 

Donna Farhi head shot

Through creating a warm atmosphere free of judgement and competition she invites students to investigate their experience and to adapt and evolve their practice according to their individual needs.  Incorporating the rigorous backing of anatomical principles for safe and sustainable practice, Donna offers progressive levels of engagement that allow people of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic yoga practice.  Considered the “teacher of teachers” people return to Donna’s intensives year after year to be a part of the inspiring evolution of her own practice and teaching.

"Considered the "teacher of teachers", students return to Donna's intensives year after year to be part of the inspiring evolution of Donna's own practice and teaching."

Donna’s livestream and online courses make her expertise accessible to teachers and students worldwide and, in 2021, Donna will become the first yoga teacher to present the practice of yoga to a global audience through MasterClass USA, an e-learning platform that provides classes taught by well-known celebrities and industry leaders.

Donna is the author of four contemporary classics: The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness, Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living, and Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship which is a curricular text for teaching training worldwide.

Her fifth and most recent book, co-authored with Leila Stuart, Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease is becoming the go-to text for Yoga teachers, therapists and somatic practitioners. The book is grounded in personal experience. In April 2017, Donna fractured her pelvis in two places as a result of a serious riding accident. 

Her lengthy rehabilitation has given her extraordinary insights into the profound consciousness of the body and its ability to heal.  


Approach

Donna’s approach to teaching is strongly influenced by her initial training as a dancer, her studies in interdisciplinary science, and the deep thought process of her work as a writer in articulating the embodied experience.  At a crucial junction in her training as a yoga teacher she was introduced to the writing and work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen and found a deep resonance between what she had been sensing and feeling in her own practice and the human developmental movement patterns and body systems work of Body-Mind Centering®.

Donna Farhi demonstrating upward puppy

" . . . contemporary and ancient wisdom shared with warmth, clarity and Donna Farhi’s unique point of view– a transformational experience."

~ Sam Mills (London)

When you come into one of Donna’s workshops, intensives or trainings you can expect to have both your mind and body stimulated through the process of what Donna calls “shared-inquiry”.  Sessions begin with a thoughtful introduction to the theme for the class.  Rather than learning rules and techniques, each class is focused on a foundational principle that can be used as a springboard for almost limitless application.  Experiential classes can include Body Weather Reading, brief sitting meditation, guided somatic inquiry, and gentle yet strengthening asana practice.  Other sessions can take the form of Restorative Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and therapeutic yoga for specific conditions.  Within the structure of what is offered, Donna will demonstrate progressive points of entry so that you, the practitioner, can make choices that honor your body, your level of conditioning and your individual structure. Students often report dramatic shifts in their experience of their body; reduction of pain, increased agility, and a renewed sense of pleasure in moving and in being alive. 

Donna considers teaching an artistic process and likens her class planning process to the creation of a sculpture.  She attempts to evoke the same heightened sense of aliveness, connection and joy that we may feel when moved by art.

"This workshop has given me clear pathways to deepen my self-inquiry and reignited my faith in the practice of Yoga.   . . . Donna’s message is clear: we are our own best teachers."

~ Suzie Hoile (Australia)

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