Meri is a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor, supporting people in finding physical, emotional, and spiritual balance through modern application of the ancient art and science of Ayurveda and its beautifully simple, common-sense approach to understanding and healing ourselves. 

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Meri became a certified Sivananda yoga instructor in 2005 and has been a yoga practitioner for 20 years. She has taught Sivananda yoga, hatha yoga, basic yoga, gentle yoga, and children’s yoga in studios throughout South Florida and has held workshops and mentored in yoga teacher training. Meri is registered with Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT 500 and is uniquely certified to teach Trauma-Informed Yoga for people working through trauma, anxiety, or depression. 

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As her yoga practice has consistently been the key to bringing balance, clarity, and perspective to her life’s challenges and triumphs, it is an honor for Meri to share this beautiful tradition with others and to celebrate the peace and well-being that yoga brings to them as they discover its innumerable benefits. 

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Meri utilizes Ayurvedic practices, including lifestyle changes, yoga, and meditation to counseling patients through experiencing personal, professional, and mental health issues. Her expertise and experience have proven valuable for patients experiencing Ayurvedic practices, including yoga and meditation, anxiety, stress, depression, divorce, trauma, bereavement, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and job and life transitions. 

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“When Jerry shared his vision of Fort Freedom with me, I was in awe. Then he asked me if I wanted to teach yoga as part of the program, and there was no decision: I absolutely wanted to! Working with this population inspired me to learn more and to pursue a certification in Trauma-Informed Yoga. Those with whom I have had the honor of working with in the program thus far helped me to understand the impact that these teachings have on those who are living with trauma and the impressions and manifestations of PTSD that go with it. Yoga provides a safe container to be present in the body and observe the mind and experience it with the understanding that we are really neither of these. We have experiences, but we are not the experiences. We have thoughts, but we are not the thoughts. The practice engages us on a subtle level and frees us to find comfort and bliss in knowing the divine light within, which is our true nature.