Susan Lynch, JD, E-RYT, serves as a Major in the United States Army Reserve in the Judge Advocate General Corps and is executive director of There & Back Again, a nonprofit reintegration support services program for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program incorporates healing modalities and wellness programs, including yoga.
Lynch began her yoga practice in 2001 in her effort to manage symptoms of her own post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As an attorney and an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in the United States Army Reserves, returning to the United States from the Gulf War in 1991, she experienced the effects of PTSD. After struggling with PTSD symptoms for a decade, she discovered yoga, which became instrumental in her recovery and in her ability to take on a second deployment to Kosovo in 2004.
Susan Lynch is now a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance. She serves the Massachusetts Women Veterans’ Network, Operation Homefront, and Black Lotus Yoga Project, and is the owner of Charlestown Yoga in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she offers There & Back Again’s “Train the Trainer” program, a yoga certification program for veterans. She also works with the Veterans Administration, Vet Centers, the Yellow Ribbon Program, the Warrior Transition Program, and the Department of Veteran Services, to educate and train staff and veterans on techniques to facilitate self-care.
Prior to her commission as an officer, Susan Lynch held the rank of staff sergeant. She enlisted in the United States Army Reserves and completed Basic Training in 1987, and graduated from Suffolk University, Suffolk Law School, United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Officer Basic and Advanced Course.
