Meet ioana Pop

My yoga practice started as a young child while witnessing my mother in her daily routine. Back then, she started to playfully integrate activities nap-time or brushing my teeth into the daily yoga practice. Later on, in my teenage years, she noticed my strong interest and began searching for renowned yoga teachers. Mind you, this was at a time when yoga wasn’t that popular yet!

My Studies

I had the good fortune to study extensively with some of the world's most respected yoga masters in the traditional 1-on-1 guru-student setting. My great curiosity made me try all possible lineages of yoga. After years of exploring, I remained loyal to 4 different yoga styles:
- Iyengar for its alignment techniques
- Asthanga for the sequencing method
- Desikachar’s Viniyoga for its restorative approach
- Yin Yoga, mainly after Paul Grilley

I am honoured to call all the following skilled teachers as my personal friends, who are still helping and supporting me in a very generous way in my journey trough life: Among them are Senior Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden, yoga journal co-founder Judith Hanson Lasater, Ashtangi David Swenson, Vinyasa master Doug Swenson or direct disciples of Krishnamacharya, Mark Whitwell and Srivatsa Ramaswami; but also Annie Carpenter, Cyndi Lee, Poweryoga founder Bryan Kest and the late Larry Schultz who created the Rocket Yoga, who were specially close mentors.

My Practice

My on-going studies continue extensively with Chad Hamrin (who was also the lead teacher in the advanced RYS-300 Deep Flow Yoga Training). My own meditation practice is vipassana, in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, and his disciple S. N. Goenka. I also like to deepen my study of meditation in vedanta centers.

My Study years

I respected my parents wish to study and got a bachelor in journalism and communication science. After working several years in a fast-paced hustle of a modern career, I finally decided to dedicate myself exclusively to my yoga teaching. Since I made my first teaching experience as a young student at university I never stopped teaching ever since.

My Studio Years

For 17 years I was heading my beloved yoga studio INNERCITYOGA. A serene light-filled and generous oasis in the business district of Geneva, that contained the essence of all my knowledge acquired over the past 25+ years. During its existence, the the studio rapidly set new standards and was known for being one of the leading studios in Europe. In the most beautiful setting we welcomed over 10’000 yoga students from 80+ nations. I jokingly liked calling it the “United Nations of Yoga”. Plus, I guess my ability to speak 8 languages had an influence on it.
To give the Geneva and Swiss yoga community a taste of the many great styles of yoga, I organised master classes and teacher trainings at the studio with Annie Carpenter, Bryan Kest, Cyndi Lee, David Swenson, Doug Swenson, Kathryn Budig, Tiffany Cruikshank and many more.

Personal Life

But my greatest achievement was becoming a mum. When I was 34 weeks pregnant with my baby girl, we filmed the DVD “Prenatal Yoga for Active Moms-to-be”. I take you there through a very dynamic sequence adapted to the needs of a pregnant woman who wishes to remain active throughout her pregnancy. I elaborated the sequence with my own obstetrician, the doctor in chef of the “Beaulieu Clinique” in Geneva and his large team of midwifes. Since then, I have been accompanying over 1500 expecting women through their pregnancy.

The Press

My vision of offering yoga in a beautifully designed environment and making it accessible to so many people got me featured in all important Swiss and French magazines. The most popular feminine magazine in Western Switzerland requested the production a series of yoga videos.

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