Lynea & Jim Bios

Cobra with Lynea img_24Lynea Gillen, LPC, ERYT

Lynea was introduced to yoga as a teenager and found it the ideal tool for coping with emotional challenges she was then facing, as well as her general health and well-being. As a teacher, counselor, author and co-founder of Yoga Calm, she has given that same gift many thousands of times over.

Lynea holds an MS in Counseling and is both a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) with Yoga Alliance and an Oregon Licensed Professional Counselor.

A decades-long proponent of somatic, body-based therapies, Lynea creatively melds dance, yoga, counseling, music, trauma releasing exercises (TRE) and “active play” into her work through her full-time counseling practice. Parents, teachers and colleagues often refer to her as a “kid whisperer,” observing her love and natural talent for connecting with children.

A loving, committed therapist and communitarian, Lynea is one who lives her values, drawing from her rich personal experience to help others live with less pain and more joy.

She has been a featured speaker at national education, counseling and mindfulness conferences and is the award-winning author of Yoga Calm for Children, Good People Everywhere, Little Banty Chicken and the Big Dream, and creator of the highly regarded Mindful Moments Cards and DVD Kids Teach Yoga: Flying Eagle.
Jim PlankAssistColorHI

Jim Gillen, ERYT-500

After a dozen years in the high tech corporate world, Jim decided to follow his dream of supporting youth environmental education and physical fitness through work with the National Science Foundation, Saturday Academy and the National Sports Center for the Disabled. He was also a key player in several multi-million dollar campaigns to protect parks and natural areas in Oregon.

He pursued another dream as well – of teaching the yoga he had loved since his early teens – and opened his own studio, Still Moving Yoga, in 1998. It was then that he and Lynea starting teaching yoga at her elementary school behavior classroom and worked out and synthesized the activities that would become the Yoga Calm curriculum.

Jim is the award-winning co-author of Yoga Calm for Children, as well as a publisher and video producer through their media company Three Pebble Press. He developed the Yoga Calm Certification programs, college courses (14) and online learning center.

A self-described “big picture person,” Jim thrives on seeing the connections among disparate fields and creatively solving problems with holistic, integrated solutions. A natural athlete and teacher, Jim enjoys his free time chasing his granddaughter on her bike and teaching her about birds and gardening.

Jim_Lynea_fun_yoga_pose_08--for-WEBTogether, Lynea and Jim are what one student called a “power couple” with complementary skills and talents, greater than the sum of their parts. Jim is a natural teacher who helps to structure and create curriculum, product and programming with Lynea’s creative ideas and extensive experience with children and families. Jim’s strong background in sports, science and therapeutic yoga complements Lynea’s expertise in counseling and working with the heart. Both have curious, omnivorous minds and a passion for making the world a better place.

 

 

Learn how Jim and Lynea created Yoga Calm

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