Yoga with Mary Kaul-Black

Mary Kaul-Black earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from Salisbury State University in 1996 and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Kentucky in 1998. I was introduced to yoga by a Jane Fonda VHS tape in my dorm room in 1992. Back then, I used yoga as a way to stretch in between cardio and weightlifting workouts. In 2012, I read an article by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk that said that yoga was an excellent adjunct therapy to mental health therapy and specifically with people who experienced trauma. Since I had seen the benefits of yoga in my personal life (calmer, balanced, less anxious, less stressed, etc.), I decided to go to Kripalu for a 200-hour teacher training, as suggested by Dr. van der Kolk, so that I could adequately bring yoga into the therapy room. While at Kripalu, I learned that I actually liked teaching group yoga classes and have been since March 2013. Since then, I have engaged in other yoga teacher trainings. In 2018, I went back to Kripalu and earned a 500-hour yoga teacher certification, and I am certified to teach Stand Up Paddle Board yoga, Feet Up yoga, Warriors at Ease level 2, Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) and Yoga For All. My husband is an Army veteran and a volunteer fire fighter which enhances my passion to work with all first responders.