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susannanicholson@gmail.com

Founder-director of an independent yoga studio, Union, located in the Martha Jefferson Outpatient Care Center in Charlottesville.  

Having practiced Yoga for over 40 years, Susanna teaches hundreds of students on an individual basis at Martha Jefferson Hospital's Outpatient Care Center.  Susanna is a master-level teacher certified by a Yoga Alliance training program (500 hr level).  She has obtained over 600 hours of further training to become a certified teacher of the Krishnamacharya Healing Yoga Foundation, and she has studied under numerous therapeutic yoga teachers in other traditions. She is deeply grateful for the wisdom and guidance of her teacher Sonia Nelson, director of the Vedic Chant Center.  She has also been a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and has published in their journals.

Here in Charlottesville, she has been as a member of the Martha Jefferson Hospital's Integrative Health Task Force, and she currently serves the hospital's nationally-recognized Cancer Care Center, as well as the MJH Women's Midlife Health program and The Women's Initiative (affiliated with MJH). She has taught Yoga at Ann Cary House, the maternity and birthing education center of MJH, and has conducted seminars for healthcare works such as the Breast Cancer Coalition and the Virginia chapter of the American Psychological Association.

She has written on Yoga for ACL tears, and on subjects such as personal practice, Yoga therapy, and breath instruction in professional journals, magazines and newspapers. She assists with an ongoing clinical trial study which examines the benefits of Yoga for breast cancer patients in the first months of cancer treatment.

Susanna lectures in collaboration with MJH clinicians. sometimes on these topics: Yoga for Primary Care Patients; Yoga for People Living with Cancer; Yoga and Hot Flashes; Yoga for Teen Athletes; Yoga for Pregnancy/for Expectant Parents; Yoga and Stress Reduction (corporate or hospital in-service groups); Yoga and Digestive Health.  For local agencies and nonprofits, she conducts free classes on Yoga and Depression; and Yoga for Mentally Disabled Adults.  Susanna teaches and assistant teaches at national yoga conferences, in universities, schools, corporations, hospitals, colleges, gyms, and private studios in Europe, Asia, and in the United States.

Susanna regularly studies with Sonia Nelson, a senior teacher in the KHYF tradition and the director of the Vedic Chant Center, Santa Fe.  She has been a student in workshops offered by Ms. Nelson's teachers Kausthub and TKV Desikachar of Chennai. She has studied with British teacher and author Paul Harvey of Bristol, England; Fran Ubertini in New York, Hanne Gillespie of Dublin, Ireland; Chase Bossart and Kate Holcombe of HYF San Francisco; Malek Daouk of the Samgati Yoga Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.  She has studied with te faculties of the Institut de Viniyoga in Paris and also at American Viniyoga Institute in Maui.  Susanna has also studied Sanskrit at the American Sanskrit Institute and for a year at the University of Virginia.  She specializes in teaching yoga philosophy (in its practical daily applications); and Yoga for the Voice (healing chant).

Listening to and understanding the individual student is central to Susanna's practice as a teacher.  In her previous work life she was part of a Peabody-winning journalist team at NPR and a duPont-Columbia-winning team at Nickleodeon.  She was an adjunct professor of media studies in Manhattan.  She has also received a certificate in digital storytelling for educators from the Center for Digital Storytelling in San Francisco.  She holds advanced degrees from Oxford University and the University of Virginia.