About Courtney
Ever since I can remember, my life has been marked by exploration, movement and little doses of mysticism. While I do not recall climbing out of my crib at ten months old as the story goes, many memories point toward the creation of ANYA from a very early age. Whether I was climbing a tree, burying magic potatoes in the backyard, digging for worms to take on my “Grampa’s” fishing expeditions or hitting the tennis ball against the garage door as a backboard for hours on end, I was inexhaustibly seeking and always on the move. Tennis State Champion by age ten, softball all-star, cheerleader, cross country track runner and captain of my high school and college tennis teams, sitting still wasn’t an option!
While at Holy Cross College I began teaching aerobics and discovered a new love—the art of guiding and facilitating movement. After college I accepted a position as an outreach counselor for a non-profit human service agency and supplemented my income by teaching multiple fitness classes. From kickboxing to step and dance aerobics to tennis conditioning to sculpting, I instructed at various gyms in Boston, MA. Over time, I realized that teaching fitness classes went beyond the music and the spandex, and represented a meaningful opportunity to help others change for the better.
It therefore seemed “logical” to pursue an MA in counseling psychology to formalize a career in helping others as a mental health therapist. Three years of full-time graduate school at Texas A&M and the University of Florida cultivated an intellectual understanding of human behavior—while the fitness classes I continued to teach on the side made me feel connected to the experience of being human. All the rigorous teaching in addition to training for marathons, however, began to take its inevitable toll on energy reserves, and what I craved to experience was a living example of the concepts I had studied in graduate school about self-care. I intuitively knew I needed to seek out a different venue for “working out.” This call to “work in” and learn how to sit still was also a calling to integrate the concepts I had studied in class with the experiences I encountered in facilitating movement.
This gut instinct led me to pursue certifications in Pilates and Yoga. I studied with Polestar Pilates in Miami, PhysicalMind in Tampa, Powerhouse Pilates in Philadelphia and Power Pilates in Boston, earning certifications in Mat and Equipment. Alongside one of the founders of the Kripalu Center, I studied yoga intensively for a year in a 200-hour registered yoga teacher training. Following, I enrolled in a yearlong full-time massage therapy program at the Southeastern School of Neuro-Muscular Massage and became a licensed neuro-muscular massage therapist, leading me to study Thai Massage in Santa Barbara, CA and later one-on-one with a sacred teacher in Thailand for 200 hours of direct experience. Thai Massage led me to Reiki, the 5 tibetans, Kundalini Yoga and Sanskrit chanting as transcendental guides for daily personal healing and spiritual connection.
All of these experiences have influenced the development of who I am, but also have inspired the creation of ANYA. I have worked with hundreds of people in the role of “teacher” and witnessed a lab of testimonials unfold. The solvency of a method to create enduring change that makes us look and feel more vibrant—more and more—became undeniably clear. Through the synthesis of psychology and fitness—or mind+body training—Applied Neo-Yogic Awareness took on a pulse. Curriculum AUM is the catalogued culmination of these notes and memoirs that has become a bridge to an intuitive evolution. ANYA is the personified essence of this change process within me and countless others—inspired by the art of learning to sit still while honoring the sacred, deeply-rooted need for movement.