Pranayama: A Path to Healing and Freedom

Allison Gemmel Laframboise discovered yoga in college when she was both curious about the practice and looking for a way to ground herself through challenging life events. Seven years later, in 2003, she trained with Yoganand to become a yoga teacher at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. She has since studied with Yoganand and other renowned teachers in numerous depth trainings, and holds a professional-level teaching certification. Allison graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University and has experience in psychology and public health research. Today her work is a combination of her life's true callings-teaching yoga and African-style hand drumming; running her yoga-inspired jewelry line, Prasada; helping to manage the yoga team at Kripalu; and her greatest passion of all, mothering her sons, Kai and Tayo. Allison is calmed, energized, and renewed by living on a lake in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, where she loves to spend time enjoying life with her family. Once her boys are a bit older, she plans to get back to hobbies like playing piano and guitar, snowboarding, and waterskiing. Born into a strict fundamentalist Christian family, Yoganand left this religious tradition behind at age 16. Yoga-in particular the yoga of Swami Kripalu-offered him another way to channel the dedication to spirituality with which he was raised. He studied with Kripalu Yoga masters in India and the United States, and taught at Kripalu for more than 15 years before founding the Pranakriya(TM) School of Yoga Healing Arts. At the time of this printing, Yoganand is Dean of the Kripalu School of Yoga, leads Pranakriya Yoga teacher trainings and other programs around the country, and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. He is a masterful storyteller-through many years of intensive study and practice, he has gained a profound ability to distill and interpret esoteric yoga texts and techniques, making complex philosophical concepts accessible and engaging. When he's at home in South Florida, Yoganand spends time cultivating his collection of close to 500 orchids, whose ability to blossom and thrive in harsh environments amazes and inspires him.