Yoga on the Square - Yoga Teachers & Subs

Joanne Spence

Hometown: Pittsburgh is my adopted home town. I grew up in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia.

Nickname: Josie, Jo, AussieGirl, JoeyKangaroo

Favorite Word: Thank you!

I wish for… everyone to experience the alignment of mind, body and spirit

I am thankful for..... the love of my best friend and husband and three beautiful kids, my health.

Sun Sign: Gemini

What gives you peace? Prayer and knowing someone is listening.

Why Yoga? It helps me remember I have a body and get out of my head and calms my overly busy mind. It also find it creates space in my mind, body and spirit.

3 words to describe you: Optimistic, Calm, Determined,

What/who inspires you? Raw potential in others, sunsets, nature (all of creation actually), people who show courage in the face of adversity

What you can’t live without? Hope and a good sense of humor

Favorite yoga pose and why? Triangle because it elongates muscles and strengthens the body and I feel balanced, secure and open. (And because the Sanskrit translation is intriguing: Utthita Trikonasana).

Favorite Food? Anything with cilantro or arugula in it. It makes everything “goumet”.

Teaching style: inviting, compassionate, friendly

Words to live by (or your favorite quote): God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Best advice you’ve ever received (from who?): What others think of me is none of my business – Cherry Meadows

What do you love to do for FUN? Cooking for small dinner parties, reading, generating new ideas, finding adventure and dancing.

When/where/with who was your first yoga class? It was August, 2000 with Beth Shaw, in a Level I Yogafit Training at Oxford Athletic Club, Wexford, PA.

Local escape: Clear Creek State Park, Moraine State Park, my east end neighborhood coffeeshops and Frick Park.
Other Teachers & Subs:
Joanne Spence, Renee Aukeman, Aleta Howard, Amy Burleson, Katrina Woodworth, Leslie Wright, Jennifer Chaparro, Mariangela Mancuso, Jennifer Sylves, Anne Brownlee, Cathie Sunderman, Maga Sanchez-Dahl, Heidi Zellie, Michaelene Stanko, Greg Karas, Jayna, Leanne, Cara Bessko, Dawn Penney

To see Joanne's schedule and read her story, click here!

Joanne’s yoga journey began in 2000. Just three days after her first yoga weekend, she was pain free for the first time after a car accident, two years previously. This dramatic change set her on a path of inquiry and study with some of the most well-known yoga teachers in the USA. However, long before Joanne ever stepped onto a yoga mat, she had a fascination with India and visited the country for several months in her early twenties. She also had an intuitive inclination towards the mind-body healing connection that was evident in her social work studies in Australia.

Joanne has a Bachelor of Social Work from James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. She is also an ERYT 200 (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher) with Yoga Alliance and a Group Fitness Instructor with AFAA. She also has a Master’s Level Certification in Brain-Based Learning with Eric Jensen, Jensen Learning.

Joanne’s yoga trainings include: Yogafit Levels I-III, Iyengar 200 hours, Viniyoga 100 hours, LifeForce Practioner I & II. Influencing teachers are Beth Shaw, Miriam Austin, Judith Hansen Lasiter, Amy Weintraub, Mirka Kraftsow and Bekir Algan. Joanne has also studied with renown children’s yoga teachers, Jodi Komitor of Next Generation Yoga, Shakta Kalsa of The Radiant Child, Tara Guber of Yoga Ed and Leah Kalish of Move with Me/Yoga Playgrounds. Joanne is currently a trainer for Yoga Ed and Yoga Playgrounds and travels nationally and internationally training yoga instructors, school teachers, PE teachers and mental health professionals in the art of using yoga tools in the classroom. More recently, Joanne’s yoga studies have been of a therapeutic nature with Susi Hately of Functional Synergy, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In Pittsburgh, she provides leadership to state-of-the-art yoga studio, Yoga on the Square and is the Executive Director of non- profit, Yoga in Schools. She also works part-time teaching yoga as therapy to patients at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Currently, she has written and produced a DVD, called Absolute Beginner Yoga and is working on a book by the same title.

Joanne is married and lives with her husband, Doug and their three children and their dog, in Pittsburgh’s East End. For fun, she enjoys cooking, eating, reading, finding adventure and dancing.