Monique Parker
Teacher of Vedic Chanting, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500
The Empowered Voice
My dharma as a teacher of Vedic chanting and yoga therapy is to help you discover and nurture your authentic voice and experience the heart opening and transformational power of Vedic chanting.
The teachings I share are an embodiment of twenty-six years of classical yoga study, including Vedic Chanting, Therapeutic Yoga, Yoga Psychology, Vedic Astrology, Ayurveda, massage, and the intuitive and creative arts.
My approach is based on the Sri T. Krishnamacharya tradition of synthesizing asana, yoga psychology, pranayama, meditation, mantra, gesture and chanting with an emphasis on personalization.
By utilizing these practical and holistic disciplines, I assist you in experiencing authentic self-empowerment and healing imbalances of body and mind in order to awaken your true potential.
Photo credit: Morgan Timms
What People Are Saying
“I feared coming back to yoga with a degenerative illness because I still had memories of what my body could do as an Ashtanga yogi. Monique adapted postures and helped me to work with my breath and movements in a safe way. Simple chanting and breathing opened up energetic nadi channels, and I was able to mentally focus to a stillpoint. Prior to some sessions, I couldn’t feel my feet, arms or legs, or breathe, but once we started the sessions, I experienced the deeper profound lesson of yoga—that we are not the body.”
-Maia Calloway
Milestones in Yoga
In my early thirties, I walked away from a lucrative career in Silicon Valley and relocated to a piñon forest at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Northern New Mexico where for the last twenty years I have dedicated myself to spiritual studies, teaching, writing, and service.
Some of my professional milestones in yoga include co-founding and directing the Yoga Teacher Training Program at the University of New Mexico-Taos, where I also taught English Composition and Creative Writing. Later, I founded and directed Svastha Yoga Institute, the U.S.-affiliate school of Svastha Yoga and Ayurveda in Chennai, India. In 2014, I opened Taos Yoga Therapy, where I served as yoga therapist and Vedic chanting teacher until its close in December of 2020.
As a yoga therapist, I have been honored to support individuals facing a broad spectrum of health concerns and illnesses, including Multiple sclerosis, cancer, Lyme disease, hip replacement, back surgery, and PTSD. My students describe me as caring, knowledgeable, empathic, supportive, down-to-earth and patient.
The Tradition
Since 1998, I have undertaken formal studies in the Krishnamacharya tradition, receiving credentials and certifications as a Yoga Teacher, Yoga Educator, Yoga Therapist, and Teacher of Vedic Chanting. I have studied with some of the most prominent yoga teachers in India, who are either family (Viniyoga), or were long time personal students (Svastha Yoga) of the legendary Sri T. Krishnamacharya, considered the Father of Modern Yoga.
I have made ten pilgrimages to India for extensive training and certifications, including yoga psychology, yoga teacher certifications, yoga therapy teacher certification, and in the last six years, teaching certifications in Vedic Chanting with Krishnamacharya’s daughter-in-law, Menaka Desikachar, a pioneer in women’s empowerment and Vedic Chanting.
I traveled to Sivananda Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, CA, for three years to study Vedic Astrolgoy, and am working on my Jyotish certification through the Council of Vedic Astrology.
On the 2020 Winter solstice and great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, I received a spiritual name (Mukambika) from Swami Jnaneswariananda, a spiritual leader at Sivananda, at the conclusion of a 10-day Vendanta course. “Mukambika” is the Tridevi: Lakshmi, Sarawati and Parvati. Her shakti it to bestow speech to others.
