KIERA PENPECI (she/they)
I began my practice in studios in Boston in 2013 while in search of community. The practice was a soft landing when navigating corporate life and training for long-distance cycling. Since then my practice has evolved right alongside my professional work, spiritual awakening, and healing. Part of yoga, for me, is a way to embody healing in its various forms, so as an educator I naturally gravitated to facilitating this experience for others. To support my instruction, I completed a 200-hr YTT at JP Centre Yoga and more recently completed a certification at Threes Physiyoga.
My instruction is based on the Physiyoga approach, which combines physical therapy principles and yoga. In my classes, I use knowledge of joint mechanics and muscle physiology to teach movements for longevity and injury recovery. Students can expect sessions that prioritize sensory awareness, strength and stability before deep stretching and using props as neuromuscular feedback. In a typical class I will break a pose or movement down by each joint to make it as simple as possible, then gradually build back up adding in more resistance, compound movements, and complexity. My aim is to support students in recognizing that each joint/muscle area can perform a movement with strength and control by starting small, then progressing to more challenging poses where the whole body shares the work.
When I’m not teaching yoga at studios in Boston and privately, I’m working as an Organizational Psychologist, facilitating organizational healing and equal opportunity, and a professor in the Organizational and Leadership Psychology department at William James College where I’m focused on multicultural and inclusive leadership and organizational assessment.