Interview with Instructor Michelle Doyle
Today I sat down with Michelle Doyle, a local nutritionist and yoga instructor residing in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Michelle’s place in my life began as a boss because I nanny her two-year-old, and now I look at her more like family. She has been a great influence in my life in the past 18 months that I have known her and her daughter (my favorite toddler), and I was excited to learn more about her journey in practicing yoga, what inspired her to practice nutrition, and how she became an instructor.
Can you briefly describe your background and experience in yoga instruction?
“I've been teaching yoga for 16 years. I started off in the school system instructing kids in gym classrooms around once a week. Teaching grade school evolved into working in corporate wellness and private instruction.”
What style(s) of yoga do you specialize in, and why are you drawn to this/these particular styles?
“Interdisciplinary yoga, so a blend of Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, hot, and children’s. I couldn’t attach to one modality because everyone’s body is different and I couldn’t justify teaching just one lineage. None of my clients are the same.”
What certifications and qualifications do you hold as a yoga instructor?
“I hold over 500 hours EYRT and 400 hours of a blend of Hatha and Vinyasa.”
Other than your yoga training hours, do you have other educational backgrounds?
Doyle first studied oncology nursing in college but was soon diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 19. She finished chemotherapy and radiation right before her 21st birthday and shifted her focus to studying psychology. Doyle didn’t like the prescription basis of psychology; she wanted to find more natural methods to aid mental health, so she changed focus again to nutrition, graduating with a Masters in Science and Nutrition (MSN). Doyle is also trained in TRX as well as personal training through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
Can you share examples of your previous early experience mentoring or teaching yoga to individuals or groups?
“I wanted to quit all the time. I was the manager at a local studio, and at one point I was teaching 30 classes a week, so I was burnt out. You work with tons of personalities at a time. I could have a professional athlete and an 80-year-old who had hip replacement surgery in one room. Eventually you get past not being everyone’s favorite teacher,” Michelle mentioned she also worked in post-surgical rehab, and because she was an athlete who had surgeries herself, she was able to understand her students better. Further, because of her experience battling cancer, she was able to build trust within the community of students who had cancer themselves. “People who had cancer weren’t scared to take yoga with me because I understood what they were going through.”
How do you adapt your teaching style to meet the specific needs and goals of your students?
“The first thing I do in the beginning of a class is have everyone do a pose with their eyes closed,” Doyle says that by doing this, she can survey each student’s flexibility, focus, and mental stamina before the class begins. “By that first pose is how I judge my class.”
What is your favorite type of class to teach?
“My favorite is core. No matter what size, shape, or age someone is, without their core muscles, they have nothing to work with,” Doyle explains that our core is everything; it affects one’s back, digestion, dopamine, etc. “Core is the most important thing in our lives and we forget it.”
What is your philosophy on the mind-body connection in yoga, and how do you incorporate it into your teaching?
Michelle begins and ends each class with meditation, and makes a point throughout the class to instruct her students to pause while holding certain poses. “It’s easy to keep moving and not feel, but during my class I ask questions to make people uncomfortable.” She talks about current events, being a good human, why we as people do certain things, etc. with the intent of inviting her students to keep in mind what hard things they may have to work through. Doyle explains that she is not there to tell people what is right or what is wrong, but to question everything. “Are you taking care of your neighbor, yourself, and being the best you can be for you?”
What do you believe are the key qualities of an effective yoga instructor, and how do you embody them?
“It’s not about me, it’s always about the student in front of me,” Doyle explains the importance she finds in teaching to the level of the person in front of her, not the level she wants them to be at. She feels that if she teaches a very hard class to a group of students who are not ready for that level of difficulty, they experience defeat, and that feeling generally discourages them from continuing the practice. Doyle emphasizes that a yoga instructor teaches that everything lies in the mind, body, and breath, and those principles give students tools to work through whatever goes on in their lives.
In your 20s, how did your experience and education lead you to the practice of yoga?
Doyle claims she never planned to teach yoga for a living; she was bartending to pay off graduate school and taught classes in between bartending shifts. With time, she quit her bartending job and unintentionally became a full-time yoga teacher. “If I could go back I would not change one thing; my path and journey led me to the person I am today. It gives me a lot of connection to and understanding of humanity.”