What the students are saying:

Christina Allen has been my mentor teacher since 2000. I was given the honor of apprenticing daily with her, practicing and learning to teach under her excellent tutelage. Chris has hands like a tender Saint, like a gentle tiger that intuits just the right amount of pressure for that particular breath in each particular body. Through her guidance and sensitivity I learned how to breathe, release, be present and endure. I also learned to teach people, not just asanas. In being with her, her words infused my journey like stones on the path and when I have since lost my way they remind me and gently guide me back. Her consistent outpouring of love in the daily ritual of teaching Ashtanga yoga inspires my own sense of inner discipline. It is also due to Chris’ excellence that I am now carrying on the foundation of work she set about. I have now been teaching yoga at the Golden Door Spa for the last two years, and feel that I received training that prepared me to be an integrous, sensitive and intelligent teacher. I recommend Chris to any beginning yoga student and serious practitioner as one of the very finest yoga mentors I have met. She is a joy to practice with and a fun light and warmly loving person and teacher.

Nikyta Palmisani, Yoga Teacher, Graduate Student
Encinitas, Ca.

I have been an active practicing Hatha Yoga student since 1994, expanding my practice to Ashtanga, Vinyasa and “Power Yoga” over these years. I did most of my practice in a studio in West Bloomfield, Michigan with Johnny Kest up until April 2003 when I relocated to California.

I came upon Ashtanga Yoga Center East by “chance” since I live in the Carlsbad area. I am thankful and truly appreciative of the level of expertise that I have had the opportunity to take part in at this studio. I have found the level of classes to be superb and exactly the type I was accustomed to over these past several years; definitely challenging both mentally and physically. I am quite sincerely aware of the value of Chris’ and the other instructor’s time and efforts in making this studio come to life.

My hope is that the studio will have many more years of classes ahead so that we may all grow together in wisdom and be given the physical challenges that we all need. My sincere wishes for happiness, truth and love for us all. Thank you!

Wendy Douglas, Dental Hygienist
Carlsbad, Ca.

Six years ago I walked into AYCE studio—it was the first day of the rest of my life. During the previous two years I had quit smoking after 30-something years and gained almost 40 lbs. On the one hand I was feeling much better about my life and myself but I had never carried so much weight and I was feeling sluggish as well, you know… Anyway, I had been trying the fitness gyms and I felt awkward and self-conscious; it really was not the venue for me but it encouraged me to keep looking. I found a Hatha yoga class offered through Palomar College community services. It was mostly senior women and it was a great place to start—it was a sequence of twenty poses and one “Surya Namaskara” or “Sun Salutation.”

One day while doing some banking I spotted the word “yoga” on the monument sign out on San Marcos Blvd. Tucked back in a corner I found the AYCE studio and picked up a schedule of classes. The following Monday I took my first class with Chris. That was October 19, 1998. I knew by the end of the first class that Ashtanga yoga was for me and that Chris would be my teacher. A few hundred classes (and 40 pounds) later it is my honor to give tribute to Chris and what she has accomplished at AYCE.

Chris has created a warm, welcome environment for her students, She maintains an atmosphere of reverence for the practice and the practitioner of yoga. Obviously a skilled practitioner herself, she is also a very intuitive and sensitive teacher; knowing when and how much to adjust poses to skill level and when to push to potential. Yogasana, or the yoga of posture/action, may be the thread that binds us but what sustain us are the intangibles.

During the tragic events of 9/11 many of us gathered at AYCE for solace. We were able to sit in our circle and feel, speak and cry without judgement but with the support of kindred spirits to see each other through; the gift of community. It is this feeling of community that Chris, through AYCE, fosters that has helped many of us through illness, life changes, loss of friends and family, It has also been the source of special celebration over the years, monthly Ladies’ Lunches and Full Moon Drummings.

AYCE is first and foremost the place where we go for Ashtanga yogasana but it has become a gathering point for students and friends in community. Thank you so Christinaji, my teacher, my sister, my dear friend.

Kathleen Quinn, Iyengar Instructor
San Marcos, Ca.

Hello, my name is Michael. I started yoga about four years ago, or so, AYCE was almost one year old at the time. My story begins about six years ago when I was in a chiropractor’s office with lower back pain. I was working in the concrete industry and being 6’-7’’ tall I was always leaning down to do my work so I had been having backaches for some time. The pain was something that I thought I was going to have to live with. While in the chiropractor’s office we started a conversation, Since he was a personal friend also I asked him if there was anything that I could do to get rid of my pain because the pain was always there. The chiropractor suggested I do Yoga. Yeah, right, me do yoga?! I couldn’t see myself doing yoga. I had the same stereotypical mind-set about yoga as a lot of people do. It wasn’t me. I put it off for two more years. I drove right past AYCE for almost a year and than I thought what the heck, I might just see what this yoga stuff is all about (Boy the spirits have a hard time with me!). I stopped by and grabbed a flyer and called Chris to ask some questions about Yoga. She was great to talk to and I decided to give the class a try.

Well, let me tell you, I found humility with Yoga. I would fall down every class for a month or so. I was sore and also feeling something going on. I read all I could on Ashtanga Yoga and just fell in love with what was happening with my body. I was going three times a week and could see a real improvement. Well, about three months went by and I do not have any backaches anymore. An area that I thought was going to be a pain that would just be there the rest of my life was now no more. Yeah. But then the other benefit was starting to emerge, which was not only the physical freedom I was enjoying but the spiritual side of my life began to be calmer and cleaner.

Ashtanga Yoga Center East is Christina Allen. At first I just liked going to class with Chris and then I started going to yoga conferences and did some classes with Pattabhi Jois, when he was in Carlsbad, and other well known instructors, as well as traveling to Maui and doing yoga during a week-long fast. What all this experience has shown me is what a gifted person and instructor I have found and have had the privilege to study yoga with over the years (here at AYCE). Chris has a great gift to give a class and each individual each and every time, the kind of attention you would expect from a high caliber professional. Namaste.

Michael McCarthy, Concrete Contractor, Company Owner
Carlsbad, Ca

Professionally, I am a psychotherapist and practice within the mental health domain of addiction related disturbances. Continuous employment of self-caring skills is a requisite for me. I have found that a regular yoga practice is an effective method in which to care for myself in a professional fashion as well as personally. If I care for myself, I can provide better care for my clients.

My introduction to yoga was via Power Yoga at a trendy and well known studio in Santa Monica, Ca. During midsummer of last year (2003) I moved from West Los Angeles to Vista, Ca. for professional purposes. It was during the first week in relocation transition that I had the privileged opportunity to chat with Chris. AYCE was my third contact; the previous two studios did not seem to suit my needs. During that initial chat with Chris, however, I felt an intuitive energetic charge that profoundly confirmed that my search had ended and a new journey was about to begin!

Currently, I regularly practice at AYCE under Chris’ proficient tutelage. Chris provides an intimate, dynamic approach to yoga practice. She applies gentle, yet powerful, user-friendly methodology to yoga practice that fosters an empowering sense of community with a strong emphasis on compassion and nonjudgmental awareness. Personal attention, proper instruction and extraordinary hand-on adjustments are accommodatingly applied with seasoned precision. Whether she is fine-tuning poses, realigning weak posture and/or actively coaching Pranayama, Chris effectively stands out in a league of her own.

The valuable experiences I have had at AYCE have allowed me to learn a deeper way of observing my thoughts and feelings. This awareness has helped to increase my vigilance on mindfulness, self-compassion and has provided a broadening openness to more consistent healthy life-style changes. I utilize my Ashtanga practice as an efficient vehicle driving along the road of self-transformation. One noteworthy facet of positive change that has recently opened up for me and clearly compliments my yoga practice is Chris’ energy work, particularly, the Reiki and Shamanic Lightbody Work techniques. I had no previous personal experience with these lightbody practices until my introduction by Chris at AYCE. My Lightbody sessions with Chris were powerful, transforming, healing experiences! The static energy dislodged from my energetic body resulting from these sessions has provided a liberating sense of release and has opened up within me parts of myself I was never able to access before. I continue with these complimentary treatments because of their profound effect and they work for me. I endorse and recommend them highly.

Chris’s studio, AYCE, effectively provides the caring, professional environment that I provide my clients. As a place for deep self-transformation and healing AYCE stands in a league of its own.
Namaste

Randy Nome, Psychotherapist, MA, PysD. Candidate
Vista, Ca.