Deafhood Yoga is a journey, born of real life experiences.

During the early 1990s, Kristen embarked on a personal journey that continues to this day. In her exploration of yoga styles and approaches, she was intrigued by holistic Native American and Mother Nature-oriented beliefs and philosophies in her. She began attending yoga classes in several states, but faced a lack of classes provided directly in American Sign Language (ASL). She began researching the existence of direct ASL access in yoga classes, and was astounded to find so few resources.

After experiencing spinal injuries and being amazed by how yoga helped heal her injuries, Kristen began practicing an intensifying level of yoga, pranayama, and meditation. It was during this process that Kristen understood firsthand how the mind, body and spirit work together to be one, and that it is impossible for any of these components to work independently from each other.

In 2007, at a concert offered by the renowned yogi and activist Michael Franti, Kristen’s name was drawn in a raffle and the gift was classes at the Yoga Tree SF. With this, she teamed up with three other yogis’ to offer yoga classes in ASL at The Sun Room with the Mission Yoga San Francisco. The following year, she began studying Dr. Paddy Ladd’s Deafhood concept by taking courses in the Deaf community. It was when a discussion took place on Dr. Ladd’s statement that Deafhood is “a process to decolonize our mind, body and spirit from colonization” that everything suddenly aligned.  It made sense to marry the concepts of Deafhood and yoga to move forward in healing and strengthening the unity within each Deaf human being and within the Deaf community. With this reawakening, the vision and name of Deafhood Yoga emerged.

Envisioning Deafhood Yoga as a study of the social entrepreneurship approach that aimed for positive social changes.   She became a certified yoga instructor in the summer of 2009 during a month-long stay with the Sivananda Ashram, and completed another teacher training course with the AURA Wellness Center. She became an experienced registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance for Hatha Yoga.

Deafhood Yoga officially opened in 2010, and continues to be a process and a journey towards centering.  Just Be.

About Kristen

Bay Area native Kristen “K10” Weiner (Durga) is a source of light and shakti, and a yogini. She earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education in 1996 from Gallaudet University. She worked as a university recruiter for two years then earned her master’s degree in Deaf education, specializing in family-centered early education.   Returning to her alma mater, the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, Kristen worked as a teacher for two years.  She felt the call of Earth, and accepted a position with the year-round Aspen Deaf Camp in Colorado, and stayed there for several years before coming home to the Bay Area once again.  As Kristen’s journey evolves, Deafhood Yoga has sprouted and continues to grow.