Nancy Hong

I’ll always be grateful to my mother because she brought me to my first yoga class! Years later, when I started taking classes from Mary DeJong in 2004, Mary suggested that I think about becoming a yoga teacher. Because of her encouraging nudge I took my 200-hour training with Roche Zoet. After completing teacher-training I taught at various places including a dance studio, an addiction center, my church and at my own yoga studio, Organic Yoga Company. Four years later, in 2009, I completed the TT 500 program at Yoga North, Duluth, MN, led by Deborah Adele & Ann Maxwell. Currently, I teach using the “8 Principles of Movement,” a methodology developed by Susi Hately, a kinesiologist and yoga teacher. These principles teach bio-mechanics (how the body is designed to function) and are like a map that I use to guide students through a yoga practice that is natural & sustainable, unique to each person and enables them to safely deepen their yoga practice. Since 2012 I’ve been integrating Somatics into my yoga classes. Somatics is a methodology created to re-educate your muscles to reduce tightness & pain and increase mobility & functioning. It is a powerful tool in it's own right as well as a methodology designed to further one's yoga practice with ease. I use Somatics in every yoga class I teach now to raise awareness, lesson pain and increase mobility. For years I taught weekly yoga classes, worked one-on-one with clients to reduce pain and increase functioning, and teach as the lead trainer for OYC’s TT 200 program. I also worked at Keystone Addiction Center as a pastor and taught relaxation, breathing and meditation to the patients there. Currently, I teach in Knife River, MN, at the local recreation center as well as work with clients one-on-one. My formal education includes a B.A. in Art & Religion from Augustana College (Sioux Falls, SD), an M.A. in Counseling from the North American Baptist Seminary (now Sioux Falls Seminary) and an M.Div. from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN.