Therapeutic Yoga Educator + Breath Work Facilitator

Jona Ellis

Your body isn’t broken. It’s just alive - and sometimes that feels like a lot.

Bodies don’t need to be fixed to deserve intelligent care. From that belief, I work as a therapeutic yoga educator, breath work facilitator, and anatomy enthusiast. I specialize in supporting aging bodies and people navigating illness or injury, with a focus on yoga for cancer care and age-related transitions. My work supports bodies across the lifespan - from high-performance environments to seasons of recovery and transition.

My teaching sits within a post-lineage tradition - rooted in yoga’s foundations yet shaped by lived experience and contemporary understanding of the body. I study primarily with Jason Crandell, whose precision and respect for individual anatomy informs my approach, alongside more than 1,000 hours of anatomy-based study and over 20,000 hours of teaching experience with real bodies in real life.

This work has been trusted in professional and healthcare settings, including presentations for the Wellness Council of America, IDEA World Fitness, and Erlanger Health System’s Cancer Care Summit - spaces where evidence-informed, practical movement matters.

Before teaching full-time, I spent nearly two decades with Nike, helping shape mindfulness and movement programs before ‘wellness’ became a buzzword. That foundation - and later collaborations with Blue Cross Blue Shield and Tivity Health - taught me how meaningful change happens when practice meets everyday life.

Evidence-based and deeply human, my work blends science, compassion, and just enough irreverence to keep things honest - because feeling more capable, steady, and at home in your body is often where JOY quietly returns.