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Yoga Kula: Yoga, Bodywork & Continuing Education

Here is an OPEN EXCHANGE interview with Judith McKinnon, the founder and former owner of McKinnon Institute of Massage, and Deane Juhan, author of Job's Body and Touched by the Goddess, on their continuing mission.

OPEN EXCHANGE: When last we spoke in January, Judith, you had just sold your massage school. What has drawn you back to work?

Judith McKinnon: It was after "retiring" that I received a call from Saraswati Clere, founder of Yoga Kula in Berkeley, asking if she could interest me in collaborating to develop a massage and bodywork wing of her school. Yoga Kula was founded on the Anusara style yoga classes from beginning to advanced levels including a teacher-training program. The school offers the opportunity to study with eminent scholars such as Carlos Pomeda from U.C. Berkeley, acclaimed author and teacher Sally Kempton and Anusara yoga founder John Friend.

For myself, I want to continue the dynamic process of vision and creativity started in the 60's with a fresh application for health and health care. We intend to bring in renowned teachers in the bodywork arena creating a renaissance of learning and inspiration for our time. Deane Juhan has already begun teaching at Yoga Kula.

Deane Juhan: Massage has been a wonderful life's work for me. I began my practice at Esalen in the early 70's, place and a time that was exploding with experimental, exciting, and very successful models of group therapy and all kinds of bodywork. It was truly a time of paradigms shifting.

After these thirty years it is with deep pleasure that I return to Berkeley where I was a graduate student prior to going to Esalen. My wife, Jessica Turken, and I, along with Judith McKinnon, are involved with Yoga Kula where we are collaborating with the owner, Saraswati, to create an Academy of the Healing Arts. Our intention is to offer continuing education courses for professionals, seminars for the general public, and community outreach, along with the yoga classes, Pilates classes, and bodywork, presently available. In the decades since the 60s, the infrastructure for the healing arts has been put into place. We are now able to take the work further by inspiring the vision, the values and the career opportunities for this current generation of practitioners.

Judith: Deane and I were both deeply affected by our experiences of the 60s, as were the people who founded OPEN EXCHANGE. Perhaps now, with this new Academy, we can reinfuse the vision, the voice, and the hope into our times, with our love and commitment for the healing arts and continuing the spirit of the Touch Revolution begun in the 60's we now have a firm foundation to build upon and new opportunities available.

We intend that Yoga Kula be a place for the bodywork field as it has become for the yoga community, drawing inspired and prominent teachers who deliver knowledge and techniques, creating a renaissance of inspiration and teaching for our time.
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