Barbara Ruzansky
spent much of her life struggling with eating disorders and depression, including years in various treatment programs and hospitalizations. Discouraged by the lack of improvement, she eventually found the miracle of healing through yoga, whole foods cooking, and other spiritual and holistic practices. She has been helping people with eating disorders and depression for the last two decades. She spent 20 years as a whole foods chef, teacher and yoga instructor. Her yoga training includes work with Ana Forrest, David Swenson, Shiva Rea, and Dan Leven, as well as a deep study of Kripalu yoga, and a 500 hour Yoga Alliance certification. In 2002 she opened West Hartford Yoga.

Barbara has blended her experience into WHY Power, a dynamic yoga which encourages people to explore their edges, develops core strength, and connects people to their breath. She is a highly intuitive teacher, compassionate and insightful about students’ individual needs. Students have said she has an uncanny ability to see where they are blocked and help them move forward and heal.

Gillian Galen, PsyD
Gillian Galen first tried yoga in Boston in 2002. A dancer for much of her life, she was drawn to the intensity and fluidity of power yoga. In 2003, she moved to Hartford, CT to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology and she began practicing at West Hartford Yoga. In a matter of months she noticed subtle, but profound shifts in her state of mind and came to her mat more and more often to quiet her daily anxieties. To her amazement, the mat became an intimate place for her own healing. Intrigued by this, she found herself confused and frustrated that this powerful intervention was not recognized within the mental health field, and she decided to focus her doctoral research on the use of yoga as a compliment to traditional mental health treatment.

Gillian’s experience with yoga is strongly integrated in her clinical work and teaching as she feels it provides a unique ability to build self-awareness, presence, and allows us to live with greater authenticity, tools not as accessible in traditional treatments. She is guided by the piece of advice given to her by a famous psychiatrist, “If you can change the way you move and breath, you can change the way you feel.” In 2008, Gillian received her PsyD in clinical psychology with a specialty in children and adolescence from the University of Hartford. She is currently finishing her training as a post-doctoral fellow in clinical psychology at a hospital in Boston.

Gillian has had the opportunity to participate in national workshops with Ana Forrest, Tias Little, Sean Corn, David Swenson, David William, Sarah Powers, Jill Miller, Bryan Kest, and Heather Tiddens, but has found her true inspiration while working with Barbara Ruzansky. In 2008, she will receive her National Yoga Alliance Certification from the 200-hour WHY Power Teacher Training and has also received certification in Trauma Informed Yoga from the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA.