About Me
Hello and welcome my friend,
my name is Brisa, and I am so grateful that you are here.
I'm passionate about teaching yoga, I'm an adventure seeker, world traveler, food enthusiast, wellness junkie, and avid yoga practitioner. I am a mama of two beautiful girls and Bodhi the corgi, and wife to the love of my life. We live in Durham NC.
I grew up between the big city of Rio de Janeiro and a small town in the south of Brazil. I have lived in some of the most beautiful, exotic, and fun places around the world. I went to school for Dramatic Arts, followed by a journey that brought me to the Rocky Mountains, Bermuda, a sailboat across the Atlantic to the Azores, then the Canary Islands, and Spain.
My Yoga Journey
Though I first found yoga in Brazil in 2003, it was not until 2009, while living in Aspen, Colorado, did yoga become part of my life. After only a few days of daily practice, I realized the health, fulfillment, and peace that yoga would bring, and knew that I was destined to become a yoga teacher.
In the spring of 2010, I attended my first Yoga Teacher Training. Originally known as the Bishnu Ghosh Yoga, and later as the "26/2, The Original Hot Yoga", the 9-week intensive Bikram Yoga Teacher Training
was in Las Vegas and required students to attend over 700 hours of instruction.
After completion, I dedicated myself to be a full-time yoga teacher, teaching from 10 to 14 yoga classes per week, briefly in Aspen, then Boston, and Seattle area.
In my new home in Seattle, I met Ana Forrest and discovered the healing power of Forrest Yoga, and in 2012, I graduated from Ana Forrest's 30 days Foundation Teacher Training held in Chicago. I continued to deepen my education and completed the year-long Forrest Yoga Mentorship Program in 2013.
In 2014, I graduated from Prenatal and Early Postnatal Yoga Teacher Training at Seattle Holistic Center.
In Seattle, I became a volunteer yoga teacher at Full Life Care Adult Day Care Center. My students were adults of all ages with chronic illnesses, and physical or developmental disabilities.
After moving to NC, I got pregnant with my first baby. I continued to practice yoga throughout my both pregnancies, and postpartum. I became deeply inspired by the beauty and hardships of motherhood and decided to teach prenatal and early postnatal yoga to the patients at Durham Women's Clinic.
After having my first daughter, I practiced yoga and took barre classes to help strengthening my new mama body. After my second pregnancy, I felt really lost and distraught with the many demands of being a mama of 2. I continued to show up at my yoga mat, but I realized something was missing, and that my new body needed a different flow. I began to add weights, bands, and barre exercises into my Forrest Yoga practice, not only to increase muscle building, but also to improve cardiovascular health. The result was a more invigorating, strengthening, and challenging flow, while still being a heartfelt yoga practice. That was a big turning point of my yoga journey as a teacher, where I began to break free from my teacher's classes formatting style, and started to create my own offering and find my own voice as a yoga teacher. My new yoga offering, Sculpt~Strength~Stretch feels incredibly authentic to me, and I am honored to share it with my yogi friends at Yoga off East.
In 2019, I completed my Barre3 Instructor Certification, and I currently teach at Barre3 Chapel Hill.