Janice Gates

Janice Gates is a teacher of yoga as exercise, known for her emphasis on the power of yoginis, women in yoga and her work in yoga therapy.

Education

Janice Gates was educated at Syracuse University, graduating in 1987 in International Relations. She travelled to Thailand in 1988, taking a meditation retreat which included hatha yoga. Returning to San Francisco, she studied Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga under Larry Schultz, Tim Miller, Danny Paradise and Richard Freeman. In 1989 she became an Ashtanga Yoga teacher. She injured her back while learning Ashtanga's Third Series, and turned towards therapeutic yoga. She studied with chiropractor Steve Katz and yoga teachers John Friend (founder of Anusara Yoga) and Angela Farmer.

Career

She runs a studio called The Yoga Garden in San Anselmo, California. She teaches and facilitates yoga and meditation at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California and in retreat centres around the world. In 2006 she published a book, Yogini, on leading women in the world of yoga. She writes regularly on yoga sequences and meditation for magazines including Yoga Journal and Oprah Magazine. She is vice president (former president) of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She is a mentor on the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She trains healthcare professionals and yoga teachers in yoga therapy.

Gates notes that yoga is more than postures (asanas); she uses "all the tools of yoga — breath work, sound, visualization, and meditation — and tailor them to a client's specific health condition." She was identified byYoga Journal as one of the people who had "each, independently, discovered the benefits of merging mindfulness with asana", leading to "something we might call 'mindful yoga'."

Personal life

Gates is married with a daughter. They live in Fairfax, California.

• Yogini: Women Visionaries of the Yoga World. Mandala. 2006. ISBN 978-1932771886.