Richard Valdez

Richard has many years of yoga experience, both as a student and instructor, which has shaped him to being the passionate, personal and caring person he is today. His personal journey began while practicing Tai Chi and yoga during his studies at California State University, Chico where he obtained both a Bachelor of Science and Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology. After graduation, Richard moved to the Sacramento area to become an associate professor at Sierra College teaching a variety of courses in the Recreation management, and physical education including yoga, and meditation. After three years of personally exploring different yoga traditions, Richard completed a yoga teacher training certification program that emphasized the Iyengar yoga tradition. It is through his years of teaching yoga at the college that he experienced many of his students wanting to move on to become yoga teachers themselves. As a strong supporter of bringing quality yoga instruction to the community, Richard and another colleague, Bhavani Girard, developed one of Sacramento’s first 200-hour yoga teacher training programs certified by Yoga Alliance. In 2009, Richard had a desire to further his studies and traveled east to practice Ashtanga yoga at Shri K. Pattabhi Jois Yoga Institute in Mysore, India. While in India, Richard was also exposed to the tantric tradition of yoga nidra and has since incorporated the technique into his practice. It is the positive and profound impact of yoga nidra which inspired Richard to study the iRest yoga nidra technique with its founder, Richard Miller. It was during his iRest level II training that Richard had an apparent shift that pointed him to undertake level III training and certification program. Richard also has a profound intreats in leading adults on backpacking/yoga trips in Yosemite National Park and Tahoe national forest.