Director of Center Youth
Veronica Lewinger, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, NBHWC
Veronica completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2009 and has been a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) since 2016. Along her journey, she has completed numerous trainings, including: LoveYourbrain training for Traumatic Brain Injury, Prenatal Yoga, two trainings for kids yoga, and completed her 500 hour training with The Center for Integrative Yoga Studies, including a 75 hour therapeutic internship. Veronica has taught for the Atlanta VA, City of Refuge, Haven at the Salvation Army for sex-trafficked victims, Covenant House, Shepherd Spinal Cord Injury Hospital, among many other classes for underserved communities. She was an instructor for the Project Stress-Less Research Study between Emory University and the Atlanta VA, and an osteo-arthritis study for the Physical Therapy Program at Mercer. In addition to her yoga training, she is certified as a National Board Health & Wellness Coach, and was a fitness coach and Personal Trainer.
Veronica was one of the first Lululemon Yoga Ambassadors for Ponce City Market when it opened, and founded Integrative Flow 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings. As a first generation American and grand-daughter of Holocaust survivors, Veronica is passionate about social equity and the lifelong work of healing trauma. In her spare time, she loves spending time with family and adventuring in nature.
Board of Directors
Holle Black, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT
Holle Black is the co-founder of Centering Youth, which empowers traumatized, abused, homeless, at-risk and underserved persons through Yoga and Mindfulness. She is also a co-founder and co-director the Center for Integrative Yoga Studies, which provides 200 and 500 hour therapeutic yoga teacher training programs that combine the latest research and methods of yoga and therapy with traditional and innovative applications of meditation, biomedical and pain science. In addition, she has completed trauma sensitive yoga training with Pranakriya Yoga and Street Yoga, along with 300 additional hours of trauma sensitive yoga training (TC-TSY) with David Emerson and the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA. Holle is a certified prenatal yoga teacher and kids yoga teacher. Holle has been a C-IAYT since 2016 (Certified - International Association of Yoga Therapists)
Marlysa Sullivan, DPT, C-IAYT
Marlysa is the Physical Therapy Coordinator of the Empowered Veterans Program at the VA. This is a comprehensive pain care program that integrates whole health coaching, psychotherapy, and mindful movement with a chaplain, psychotherapist and physical therapist. She trains physical therapists as well as offers the mindful movement component integrating therapeutic pain education, mindfulness, and acceptance alongside therapeutic movement practices.
Marlya is the author of Understanding Yoga Therapy: Applied Philosophy and Science for Well-being and co-editor of Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain, as well as several peer-reviewed articles. Marlysa has been involved in the professionalization of the field of Yoga Therapy through the educational standards committee of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, which helped to define the competencies for the field through some of her research. She is also part of the Global Consortium of Yoga Therapy focusing on international collaboration and development of the field of Yoga Therapy.
Livia Adia Budrys, AM, C-IAYT, SEP, LCSW
Livia is a psychotherapist, social worker, yoga therapist and Somatic Experiencing practitioner. Recently she has engaged in a doctorate program in Community Psychology, with a focus on decolonical and indigenous psychologies. She designed and implemented one of the first yoga therapy programs for mental health and trauma treatment in a nationally renowned residential treatment center. There she developed a clinical residency program to train the next generation of psychotherapists to weave yoga into their treatment of complex mental health, addictions and trauma, implementing a model that emphasised best practice in the integration of neurobiology, somatics, yoga and psychotherapy.
Livia’s engagement with yoga and meditation began with a two-year residency at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy where in 1999 she was initiated into the tradition of the Himalayan Masters. She has completed over a decade of advanced and therapeutic yoga certifications along with becoming a Reiki Master in 1998. She has been deeply influenced by the mindfulness training that she has received from Vietnamese Zen Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.
Today she works to educate healthcare organizations, conducts research and presents nationally on the benefits of yoga for mental health and trauma awareness to reduce systemic burnout. She partners to implement therapeutic programs, training and protocols that utilizes the trauma-informed yoga and community-based Somatic Experiencing. She has enjoyed several clinical leadership roles in inpatient settings, most recently as Director of Trauma-Informed Care at a national treatment center - always with her hope to serve clients while supporting the system’s greater capacity for sustainable well-being.