Ashley Phoenix

Ashley Phoenix resides in Washington Park with her husband John, daughter McCall and Hannah the Yoga Dog. A native of South Carolina, Ashley grew up with a fascination of medicine, a love of the outdoors and a passion for sports. She attended Sweet Briar College in Lynchburg, Virginia receiving a B.A. in anthropology with a minor in chemistry in 1993. After graduation, Ashley became a devoted distance runner while attending the Medical College of Georgia. She completed the New York City Marathon in1995, and, obtained her B.S. in nursing in 1996.

In 1997 Ashley joined the surgical trauma intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Still running Ashley found a release for the stress created by her career of choice logging in excess of 50 miles per week for five years.

In 1999 Ashley relocated to Miami, Florida and took a position as a critical care registered nurse at the Ryder Trauma Center in downtown Miami. A level one trauma center ranked in the top three critical care centers in the country, Ryder provided a new challenge to Ashley, along with many additional demands. At the same time the running began to take a toll on her body forcing Ashley to search for a new method of both stress reduction and exercise.

Ashley was introduced to yoga in the winter of 1999 and was enthralled with the combination of meditation, exercise, balance and breathing. Much to her surprise Yoga provided the aerobic exercise she craved while eliminating the daily damage to her joints that running inflicted. In the spring of 2001 Ashley decided to pursue a career in Yoga and attended the Bikram Yoga College of India in Los Angeles. Ashley's roots in Western medicine and her detailed understanding of human anatomy provided a unique foundation for her new journey. In June of 2001 she built her own studio in Cherry Creek with the vision of combining the benefits of eastern and western medicine and today continues to pursue this goal.

During the summer of 2003, Ashley discovered Baron Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga and fell in love with the challenging flow of yoga postures. She attended Level1 Teacher Training in May of 2003 and completed the current highest level of teacher training in May 2005. In February of 2006 she received her certification as a Baron Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga teacher.

Maintaining a good relationship with Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga, she attended Bikram's Yoga College of India Teacher Recertification in July 2005.

Outside of yoga Ashley loves to ski, snowshoe, hike and remains a registered critical care nurse in the State of Colorado. She is also an avid college football fan-especially for the University of Georgia!

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