About Me
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Welcome! I'm Sam, a yoga teacher, a surfer, and an avid baker living in Durham, North Carolina. In my classes, we often
build towards a pinnacle pose by breaking it down into its component parts. We'll practice the underlying actions in related poses and
work to develop the understanding and strength needed to make and support the peak pose. I love hearing my student's revelations from this approach!
A lot of people can do more than they initially think and we have fun doing it!
Beyond the physical poses, I encourage patience, self-compassion, being present, and connection between mind, body, and breath. In my experience, learning the alignment and engagement within yoga postures helps to develop greater mobility with consistency. Even if a version of a posture feels out of reach,
I truly believe there is something for everyone to work on and benefit from in steps along the way.
Much of my teaching style and knowledge has come from training with exceptional yoga teachers. I completed my 200-hour teacher training in 2016 with In 2016, I completed my RYT-200 yoga teacher training with
Sommer and Paul Sobin of Thousand Petals Yoga.
Several years later in 2022, I completed my 300-hour advanced teacher training with Christina Sell.
Outside of yoga, I have a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and
started my own medical device / imaging consulting company, Archer Woods Consulting, LLC. After a few years,
I pivoted to a biomedical research analyst, where I honed my skills of analyzing scientific literature and communicating that in
public dissemination. Most recently, I've relaunched Archer Woods Consulting to jump back into engineering for medical devices.
