Gina McCotter's resume includes a college degree, several small businesses, and many years of volunteer work with organizations including La Leche League (for breastfeeding
mothers), a variety of public and private schools, and a myriad of arts organizations involving her children. Yoga and meditation practices were introduced by her mother in the 1960’s, and other
excellent teachers followed. Big name “celebrity” teachers, such as Rodney Yee, Judith Lasater, Jason Crandell and Baxter Bell figure prominently, but no one could be dearer
to her heart than the closest, most familiar teachers: Mom, local yoga teachers like Ally, Aimy, Karen. The steady dedication to practice over a long period of time defines her
experience and the nature of her teaching.
A devoted student of yoga for over 20 years, Gina embraced the teachings of Anusara yoga in a 2004 workshop and continues to nurture that devotion today. She bows deeply to teachers Karen Sprute-Francovich, Elizabeth Rainey and Denise Benitez, and, of course, to John Friend. She completed 200+ hours of teacher training with Denise and Rainey at Seattle Yoga Arts and continues to study there. Her teaching offers a bright enthusiasm for skillful alignment and deeper connection.
From Meet the Instructor: Gina McCotter August 1 Two Dog Newsletter
The yoga seed was planted in me by my mom when I was just a child, and I tended to it especially when I was becoming a mother myself. During my first glorious pregnancy I read The Magical Child, by Joseph Chilton Pearce. It was given to me by my mom, and I remember how supported and encouraged I felt to have my own authentic experience of pregnancy and childbirth and parenting. I remember feeling swept up in my own unchecked optimism and happiness. The ideals put forth in The Magical Child, that our love and attachment to each other, our play and imagination could be our most critical endeavors, indeed the primary focus of our evolution and enlightenment...these notions sprouted the yoga seed in my new-mother self.
Giving birth was, of course, the single most radical transformation I have ever even imagined. Several more births and deeper versions of transformation followed; with lots of yoga and meditation. My children are 11, 15, 18 and 21 years old. They are extraordinary and have given me access to limitless, eternal bliss. Magical.
After many years of yoga practice and music lessons, of holding a baby in one arm and reading a book aloud with the other, I was introduced to Anusara yoga, and my sprouted yoga seed began to burst forth. The invitation to invoke grace and the application of common sense to the movement of the body, the sheer beauty of the philosophy and the principles of alignment initiated a magical moment of recognition.
I have been blessed with many competent and generous teachers, from my mom to all the local teachers and popular workshop instructors I have been fortunate enough to study with. I have also been blessed with challenge and loss, and I have begun to accept that we really must continue to meet our lives with ever more love and imagination, whether it feels magical or not. Learning to practice and accepting the fact that it will always take 10,000 times to master a new skill are basic. How wonderful that the practice of yoga offers us so many new chances, such rich material. It is gratitude, devotion that drive my practice and make teaching yoga possible for me.
