John Sweetman Certified Therapeutic Yoga, Pilates & TRX® Instructor

I was born in the small town of Killarney on the southwest coast of Ireland.  Having come from a competitive sporting background, including Irish football (soccer), track and field, and rowing, I had accumulated a lot of injuries.  I experienced lower back pain, many soft tissue injuries, tightness all over my body and very limited range of motion.

When I came to the U.S. in 1994, I trained to become a massage therapist at the Institute of Psycho-Structural Balancing, learning anatomy and the art of hands-on healing.  I then took a beginner’s class in yoga and was amazed.  My injuries began to heal, my range of motion increased and I felt more relaxed.  Yoga helped clear up the scar tissue I was carrying around and my quality of life increased dramatically once I had less pain.

In 1998, I decided to become a yoga teacher and help others experience the same benefits.  I enrolled in a teacher training at the Yoga Studio of Santa Barbara and become a certified Hatha Yoga Instructor, with further training at Brian Kest’s Power Yoga Center and Yoga Works in Santa Monica. I have been teaching yoga for over 14 years, six of them at the Center for Physical Health.

In 2006, I completed my Pilates instructor certification in mat and machines from the Physical Mind Institute and now teach Pilates for both fitness and therapy.

I completed a two-year yoga therapy program designed to blend yoga and the best of western medicine at Loyola Marymount University, the only course of its kind in the United States. I learned a lot about the importance of good standing and sitting posture, walking, and moving correctly.