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“Transformation isn’t sweet and bright.

It’s a dark and murky, painful pushing.

An unraveling of the untruths you’ve carried in your body.

A practice in facing your own created demons.

A complete uprooting, before becoming.”

Victoria Erickson

 

What yoga and life have taught me...

Gabrielle’s belief is that yoga is limitless in its potential to transform and heal our lives, that every time we step onto the mat is a chance to begin again. Being someone who has faced many life challenges, she became adaptive and resilient to change and transition. Being raised by a single mother, then 27yrs later making that same choice created/encouraged a belief system, that life is what you make it... truly. Her mother's choice to ultimately choose her own well-being and happiness imprinted itself in little 7yr old Gabrielle's heart and gave her the strength when the day and time came to believe she had all she needed inside of her... to begin again.

Realizing that an ending, was just an opportunity for a new beginning, a rewrite, a fresh start. These lessons and traits were not learned and realized without much heartbreak and suffering, but the choice to choose and to keep choosing truth, to always above all other voices listen to the one within, your inner knowing/remembering/intuition/true north, no matter the cost, saved her life over and over again... returning her home once again.

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Her approach to teaching is real and honest, nurturing and playful, intuitive and intelligent, beginning every practice/class with an intimate check-in, allowing the space for her students to connect on a human level, fully recognizing how they feel, why they have come, and what they need. If maybe for the first time, tuning into themselves for the first time that day and fully acknowledging themselves in the moment, as they are AND then, in turn, learning how to extend that same gracious space to others.

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Gabrielle was born and raised in Chicago, where she was trained to be a professional ballerina, blessed to have her mother as her mentor for many years. It was this experience that set the stage for her affinity and passion for physical expression and the artistry of movement. Her lifelong dream and dedication to becoming a ballerina was intercepted by an unfortunate injury. It was through this humbling life experience that she found yoga, which would forever change and heal her life and her relationship to her physical body and mind.

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After receiving a BA in Fine Arts and Communications from Loyola University of Chicago, Gabrielle’s free spirit led her to many faraway places like Hawaii, Europe, India, Morocco, where she lived, studied, and trained for a number of years exploring the vast world of yoga and the healing arts. It was on this journey, she heard the calling and first realized she might just be...a teacher, like her Mother (something she denied for years).

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These life experiences and a series of life-altering events challenged, humbled, and encouraged her to spread her wings and begin her own donation-based yoga school, Monarch Yoga Shala, in Chicago, IL. Founding a donation-based yoga school, was a dream, and through this dream, Gabrielle realized her potential to help and transform people's lives was endless. It was also during this time in her life, as a young mother and business owner that again life challenged her physically, and after a traumatic spine injury, was faced with the reality and challenge of rebuilding her relationship to her body. This new reality as well as several other injuries over time would give her priceless insight and influenced her to pursue a different path as a teacher, one which forced her to fully focus on the importance of biomechanics and alignment. After doing online trainings with Sadie Nardini, Leslie Kaminoff, and Amy Matthews and working at Catalyst Physical Therapy and Wellness as Yoga Director, her style of yoga is more "anatomy-enhanced," with attention to intuitive alignment.

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Being raised by a strong-willed, free-spirited artist and force of nature, Gabrielle always envisioned doing something for women's empowerment. Circle + Rising is a women’s healing circle and collaboration of women empowering women which began as a dharma project that turned into a monthly gathering at yoga studios in San Diego.

 

Gabrielle teaches yoga daily at numerous studios in San Diego, leads yoga teacher trainings, facilitates workshops, and hosts international retreats.

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• E-RYT 500+ with yoga training certifications and continuing education degrees in India, Guatemala, Maui, Chicago, and San Diego.

• Lead facilitator of 30+ yoga teacher trainings, intensives, and yoga mentorship programs in San Diego, California.

• Gabrielle has been teaching yoga full-time for 18+ years and owned her own donation-based yoga school - devoted to and passion-filled about her yogic path.

• METAMORPHOSIS: Dharma + Transformational Life Coaching Program, working one-on-one to inspire, motivate, and support ch ch change on your unique path to liberation and transformation!

• Rise By Ritual, founder co-lead, a monthly gathering led by women who are here to awaken, empower, and support other women.