Kelly Villarreal
Vinyasa | Mantra + Pranayama | Yin + Restore
E-RYT 500 // YACEP
Core YTT Faculty Member - 200hr Yoga School
At the heart of yoga is the invitation to remember wholeness. Kelly is passionate teacher who holds a deep reverence for the long history and traditions of yoga and the way they continue to offer relevant guidance for our modern lives. Kelly’s class offer a fluid combination of yoga philosophy, dynamic movement, and curiosity about both body and breath. Classes are crafted to offer a space for you to discover the possibilities that exist at the edges of your comfort zone, both on and off the yoga mat.
While you can expect strong and challenging flows in Vinyasa classes, Kelly is also deep believer in practices that attune us toward rest and slowing down enough to hear the quiet sound of intuition. After experiencing burnout and physical health challenges of her own, helping others find space to slow down and heal has become Kelly’s mission. The true magic of yoga lies in being able to access your own innate wisdom, and Kelly begins from the belief that the role of a teacher is not to impart wisdom but to create a space for you find your own understanding, one layer at a time. As our understanding grows, we find that the practices are truly available to us all the time.
In addition to teaching group classes, Kelly is part of the Yoga Teacher Training Faculty at Bellingham Yoga Collective, and offers specialized training in specific practices such as restorative and yin yoga. Kelly also works with businesses to support employee wellness in the workplace, and with small groups healing from chronic stress and burnout. You can also find Kelly’s guided mediations on the Insight Timer app.
Since her primary certification in Baptiste Power Yoga, Kelly has spent hundreds of hours in continuing education in studies of practices such as yin yoga, chanting, restorative yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and yoga Nidra. As a student and teacher, Kelly is deeply interested in the way that modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom inform us in the healing power of practices that help to regulate the nervous system, and as such is strongly influenced by her teacher Judith Hanson Lasater. Kelly also holds an 85 hour specialty credential in prenatal yoga.
Kelly is committed to yoga as a full life practice, and continues to walk the path of a life long student alongside you. When not in the yoga studio, Kelly feels most alive tending to her suburban homestead, baking, knitting badly, devouring novels, and spending time with her husband and 3 boys in Bellingham’s many outdoor spaces.