Beryl Bender, author and activist, will be celebrating her 37th year on faculty at Omega this summer. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in English and philosophy and has been an avid student of classical yoga and Buddhism since l971. 

Beryl spent four months in India in l974 with her Jain teacher, Munishree Chitrabhanu, to further her studies of the Eastern wisdom traditions. She is the founder/director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, a prestigious and nationally recognized Yoga Alliance accredited school that has been training yoga and meditation teachers since 1980, and is now a virtual school with ongoing trainings and global participation.

Beryl is also a certified yoga therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), the cofounder and board chair of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, and the best-selling author of many books on yoga, including Beyond Power Yoga and Yoga for Warriors. Her current online yoga studio, Just This, is a refuge for yogis seeking peace, community, and connection. 

What People are Saying About Beryl Bender

"Beryl is my kind of woman, a pragmatic practitioner of yoga...someone who takes you on a spiritual and physical journey with the proper mix of realism, compassion, joy, and laughter. She is the perfect guide to help us all appreciate the rewards of yoga."
—Katie Couric