Certified Yoga Teacher Ashley Phoenix

Instructor: Ashley Phoenix

Ashley Phoenix resides in Washington Park with her husband John, daughters McCall, India, and Hannah the Yoga Dog. A native of South Carolina, Ashley grew up with a fascination of medicine, a love of the outdoors and a passion for sports. She attended Sweet Briar College in Lynchburg, Virginia receiving a B.A. in anthropology with a minor in chemistry in 1993. After graduation, Ashley became a devoted distance runner while attending the Medical College of Georgia. She completed the New York City Marathon in1995, and, obtained her B.S. in nursing in 1996. In 1997 Ashley joined the surgical trauma intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Still running Ashley found a release for the stress created by her career of choice logging in excess of 50 miles per week for five years.

In 1999 Ashley relocated to Miami, Florida and took a position as a critical care registered nurse at the Ryder Trauma Center in downtown Miami. A level one trauma center ranked in the top three critical care centers in the country, Ryder provided a new challenge to Ashley, along with many additional demands. At the same time the running began to take a toll on her body forcing Ashley to search for a new method of both stress reduction and exercise.

Ashley was introduced to yoga in the winter of 1999 and was enthralled with the combination of meditation, exercise, balance and breathing. Much to her surprise Yoga provided the aerobic exercise she craved while eliminating the daily damage to her joints that running inflicted. In the spring of 2001 Ashley decided to pursue a career in Yoga and attended the Bikram Yoga College of India in Los Angeles. Ashley's roots in Western medicine and her detailed understanding of human anatomy provided a unique foundation for her new journey. In June of 2001 she built her own studio in Cherry Creek with the vision of combining the benefits of eastern and western medicine.

Soon after the opening of her studio Ashley introduced Baron Baptiste's Power Vinyasa Yoga to her students after attending an intensive teacher training. Baptiste was an early practitioner and teacher of Bikram Yoga and developed a complimentary style in the late 1980's. Unlike Bikram, Baptiste Yoga is a flow vinyasa practiced at a lower temperature. Ashley has completed numerous trainings with Baptiste and in 2006 she became Master Teacher. Today Yoga on 6th is the only Bikram Certified, Baron Baptiste Affiliated studio in the country.

Maintaining a good relationship with Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga, she attended Bikram's Yoga College of India Teacher Recertification in July 2005. Her passion lies with The Baptiste community as she attended Level 2 in 2006 recently Baron's Bootcamp in October 2008.

Outside of yoga Ashley loves spending time with her family, reading, cooking, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, surfing and remains a registered critical care nurse in the State of Colorado. In 2008 Yoga on 6th adopted the Africa Yoga Project where Ashley is a volunteer and fundraiser. In 2010 Ashley will lead a group of teachers from Yoga on 6th Nairobi, Kenya where she will teach in the new school she is helping to build. Ashley is also an avid college football fan of the University of Georgia - GO DAWGS!