Maria Bassett, RYT-200, began practicing yoga in 1998. She practiced Hatha yoga intermittently until 2008, when she was introduced to Forrest Yoga through corporate yoga. She was hooked. The healing and calming aspects of this dynamic lineage helped alleviate tension and mitigate aches and pains from long stressful days of designing menswear in the whirlwind world of fashion. It was Forrest Yoga that inspired Maria to become a yoga teacher! After more than 20 years of designing, Maria changed her life’s course when she enrolled in the Forrest Yoga Teacher Training in 2014 with Ana Forrest, the creatrix of Forrest Yoga. Maria also completed a 100-hour Yoga Clinic of NYC Teacher Training with Erica Mather focusing on working with specific injuries. She continues to study with Erica, a Forrest Yoga Guardian and her original Forrest Yoga teacher. Yoga continues to be the place she finds calm.

Maria’s intuitive and creative skills inform her teaching. Her teaching focuses on staying present, feeling what arises during the practice, while she guides students to move in a way that reduces pain and move organically deeper into a pose. She loves to facilitate a student’s own journey in discovering what yoga can do for them. Her classes blend the strengthening core work of Forrest Yoga with a fun and rigorous sequence.