Suzanne Manafort

ERYT-500, C-IAYT

Suzanne is the founder of Mindful Yoga Therapy. As a yoga therapist, she worked with veterans who were recovering from PTSD. This work led her to study and learn the practical supports and benefits that veteran’s receive in a yoga program. Her experiences along the way have taught her that teachers require additional training tailored to the specific needs of veterans and trauma. She has led trainings worldwide teaching the guiding principles and toolbox of Mindful Yoga Therapy to other yoga teachers.

Over the last 15 years Suzanne has produced 4 trainings for yoga teachers working with veterans and trauma. In 2015 Suzanne traveled to Palestine with the Give Back Yoga Foundation and taught four trainings for the teachers in that country to use in the refugee camps. In 2019 she traveled to Israel and introduced Mindful Yoga Therapy there to the yoga teachers in an 800 Hour Yoga Therapy program.

Mindful Yoga Therapy is now being used in a clinical setting in VA’s nationwide as a complimentary therapy. It is also being used in Veteran Courts in several parts of the country, along with shelters for battered women, fibromyalgia programs, with refugees in Detroit, and homeless shelters for Veterans.

Suzanne co-authored Mindful Yoga Therapy for Veterans, Practice Guide. She also produced two CDs—Yoga Nidra by Suzanne Manafort & “Breathe, In Breathe Out”.

She has studied extensively with Beryl Bender Birch in the Hard and Soft Yoga Institute and also with Patty Townsend in the Embodyoga® Teacher Training programs.  She completed the yearlong Living Tantra Program and Sage Program at the Himalayan Institute, as well as the Vishoka Meditation Teacher Training.