Monique is a practicing Teacher, passionate about Stress Management & Personal Growth.

Inspired by many teachers of Eastern styles of Classical Yoga & Tantra, Monique has been studying/practicing Yoga since 2002 with a concentration on Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga (Raja Yoga).  She has been teaching private lessons since 2015.  In addition, she also studies Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga. 

Monique  (Creator of Tools for Transformation LLC) offers one-on-one private lessons, classes & workshops and public speaking, emphasizing stress management & personal growth. She also offers Reiki and facilitates Woman's Womb Circles & Yoga Nidra Sessions.

Private lessons consist of: Welcoming you as you are, in the present moment, holding space for your needs and going at your own pace.  Starting with stress management techniques, tailoring what will work for you in your daily life. There are many ways to begin, and it doesn't have to be a physical activity. There are many variations of what private lessons may consist of. If managing stress is all you want to do, that is the first step to opening the doors for so much more, if you so choose.

Styles of Yoga include: Gentle Yoga, Beginner’s Yoga, Meditation, Posture of Consciousness, Yoga Nidra and Yoga Nidra for Kids. (Integrative Amrit Method (I AM))

In addition to Yoga, Monique is certified as a Womb Wellness Facilitator and has also trained in and is a practitioner of Usui Shiki Ryoho, The Usui System of Reiki Healing, at the Master level and Tong Ren Healing System and is an Ordained Minister.

Currently, Monique is in the process of completing an 800 hour Yoga Therapy program.

It's a pleasure to meet you!

Hi! I am Monique and am a life-long student who practices and teaches Yoga for stress management & growth.  I also offer Reiki & womb work. My primary passions in life are Yoga, Ayurveda, Nature, Art and Music. Daily living is my Yoga practice. I love to hold space for others as they explore the nature of themselves through experience.

I have always been interested in Art, Photography, Music and Nature all my life. However, that was not always the case with Yoga. There was a time that I swore I would never practice Yoga ever again. 

Throughout my young adult life, I moved a lot, had many jobs at the same time, changed jobs frequently and experienced many friends passing on to the non physical realms.  Back then, I was not aware of all the terms used today, such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, PTSD, bipolar, addiction, anger issues, boundaries and domestic violence.  I thought my life was normal, as this was just how life was, through the experiences I had.

During this time, I struggled with relationships, being able to sit still for any moment of time, was very judgmental of others and myself, acted out of anger a lot of the time. Also, I thought not sleeping just allowed me to get more done anyway, so why would I self examine such a useful trait!

Back in 1999, I had decided to quit a lot of unhealthy habits, beginning with quitting smoking cigarettes, caffeine and alcohol and learning how to eat healthy.   

It wasn't until I began this journey, did I realize I couldn’t just chill out for more than a few seconds at a time.  At first I thought this was useful as I created a lot of crafts and got so much done all the time.

During this period of realization, I began to ask co-workers what they did that they enjoyed and helped them chill out.  One thing that kept coming up was to go to a salon and have their hair trimmed.  This made no sense to me as I had always cut my own hair, but I tried this anyway.  Sitting in a salon chair was quite trying for me. 

During my visit, I saw and ad for facials at this hair salon, so I booked an appointment not knowing anything of what this was. It felt nice, but I had a hard time just lying there and I expressed this to the practitioner and she had recommended paying attention to my diet and trying Tai Chi classes, at a holistic center, downtown from where I lived.  I ignored this advice of taking Tai Chi, but it was always in the back of my mind.

I tried massage, but I just lied there, pretty numb to most of the session, listening more to the music and asking a million questions during the treatment. Before I was leaving, the therapist have me a breathing technique to do, that I forgot all about once I left.

I had moved during this time and experienced a house fire.  After the house fire and a few moves, I quit another one of my jobs out of just not knowing what to do with myself anymore and began College as an adult.  The concentration I started with was short-lived and I ended up in General Studies with no real direction before I would study Art and Music as my focus.

During this time, I visited a new age bookshop and asked for help with being able to chill out with while keeping my busy lifestyle. The woman working there handed me a VHS called “Yoga for Busy People:” created by an organization called Ananda Yoga.  Trusting her advice, I took this home and I put it into my VCR and hit play. 

It began with a man breathing and I thought, with a very cocky attitude,  “I know how to breathe” and fast-forwarded through all of the breathing to get to the physical part of it.  Because, of course, like most people, I thought Yoga was just a physical exercise and I was still unconsciously “doing” all the time.  At this stage in my life, I was good at everything I have ever tried, but not this.  It bruised my ego and I shut it off and swore off Yoga forever.  

Fast forward to another facial and a repeat of the practitioners’ advice, I finally went over to this holistic center and signed up for Tai Chi classes.  I had no idea what this was, but I was going to “do” it.  It wasn’t until I had an argument with my boss and quit my job, showing up to Tai Chi class right after this had happened, that a new door opened for me.  The instructor was on vacation, but encouraged us to show up and practice during this time.

During this session, another person in the class kept running in and out of the classroom randomly.  This began to irritate me as I had just had a fight and was trying to focus on slow movements.  So finally I asked this man what was going on.  And he stated that he was an Acupuncturist and he had scheduled clients during our class. 

I thought this to be very odd since there was no indication this place offered Acupuncture or anything else for that matter.  It was a pretty empty space with a lot of doors.  I didn’t speak my thoughts and just let him know what had just happened with my job.  Then he asked “what was your job?”  and I replied that I was a Jackie of all trades and began listing all of the skills I had acquired with all of the many jobs I previously had. 

This led to me becoming an office manager at this holistic center where I found out they were offering Acupuncture, Massage, Yoga, Tai Chi, Reiki and Belly Dancing!  I have never heard of most of these modalities and there was no indication they were offering any of this.  So I got to work creating signs, brochures, communication space for all the practitioners and word of mouth to get people in the door. 

One of the conditions of me being hired was taking a pay cut in trade to take any and all classes for free.  I was so excited about this, but Yoga was the only class I was not going to take. 

One day, I was having lunch and a man sat down next to me and asked me something to the effect of  “so, you can take classes here for free.  Will you be taking the Yoga class?”  My reaction was quick and confident. “No way, I hate Yoga!!”  I don’t think he was expecting this to be my response.  However, he stood calm and continued to converse with me. 

In this conversation, I learned he was the Yoga teacher.  At one point he asked “how about trying out just one class so when someone asks about it, you can let others know what it is like?”  It was rational and I thought, well he does make a good point.  So I agreed to take this one class for the sake of education and our good conversation. 

I showed up for this Yoga class, having no idea what to expect, but went along with everything I was guided to do, which included simple stretching, breathing and some foreign language that I have never heard of. 

That night, I slept a full night!  I woke up wondering what was this feeling?  I felt refreshed and different and wasn’t sure that sleeping a full night was normal.  Out of curiosity, I completed the 8 week series of this beginner Classical Yoga class and started becoming aware of what relaxation was, and noticing I had a choice in my reactions to daily situations. 

His style was very open minded, gentle, informative, repetitive, used scientific examples, but most of all, based on having the experience of the practice itself.  Being a curious and inquisitive individual,  I was quite surprised at all of the new doors opening in my mind.  Especially as I never knew of a mind-body-breath connection previously.  Before I knew it, I was on a journey of awareness, growth and transformation, taking every single class offered by this teacher. We eventually became best of friends and I became his life-long student.  The rest is history!

Over time, this transformation I experience, and continue to experience, is what sparks my passion about holding space to help you with your transformation. I truly believe that, in light of how imbalanced and stressed out I was, that if I could do it, you can too! 🦋