Kelsey Dalrymple

I first found yoga at 16, although for years my practice was mostly cobbled together from whatever cheesy fitness videos I could get my hands on. It wasn’t until a 2018 retreat with Shari Hochberg that I experienced yoga as something more than movement: a practice that could bring balance to body, mind, and spirit.

That lesson has become increasingly important over time. I grew up playing sports that were not especially gentle on the joints, tennis, basketball, softball, and later fell hard for cycling and high-intensity interval training. My body eventually filed a formal complaint.

Years of injuries, a bulging disc, a gnarly back surgery in 2024, and recently learning that I fall on the hypermobility spectrum have taught me (sometimes the hard way) that just because your body can do something doesn’t always mean it should. Thus, my classes are always informed by injury prevention first!

I became a yoga teacher because I wanted to help create the kinds of spaces that had become so meaningful to me: places where people could move, breathe, experiment, reconnect with themselves, and show up exactly as they are. Over the past six years, I’ve taught in a wide range of settings and with wonderfully diverse communities, from yoga studios to humanitarian contexts and university settings to local community centers.

Much of my work now centers on trauma-informed yoga with incarcerated and justice-impacted adults and youth, including through my role as Director of Research and Learning with Rise Above Yoga. Those experiences have deepened my commitment to making yoga more accessible, adaptable, and welcoming across bodies, abilities, identities, lived experiences, and socio-economic status. I believe yoga should invite people into caring and healing relationships with their bodies, not ask them to override, punish, or perform with them.

Just because your body can do something doesn’t always mean it should.

Inner Fire Yoga has been part of my own yoga community since 2021, so joining the teaching team feels especially meaningful. My classes range from slow-flow Vinyasa and restorative practices to sweaty Power Flows, but the invitation is always the same: choose your own adventure. Listen to your body. Get curious about what you need today rather than what you think you should be able to do. Care for the people sharing the room with you and hopefully learn something, breathe a little deeper, and have some fun along the way!