How Teachers Became Teachers - Tammy Minton Gitter

When Tammy was growing up in South Carolina, there weren’t a lot of opportunities to practice formal yoga.

“Looking back, like most kids I was doing a form of yoga in my living room without knowing it; playing around on the floor doing headstands and pose freezes messing around breakdancing,” she says. "But the first time I probably saw an actual yoga class was on PBS.”  

It wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she found a yoga studio, a church in downtown Mt. Pleasant which had been transformed by a local yoga teacher. The setting proved appropriate, as Tammy’s first experience with an asana practice released a flood of emotions.

“Those first few months of classes were really emotional. At the time, I wasn’t in touch with my body and kept my feelings at bay,” she says. “But practicing yoga, which is all about union and connection with the body and breath, and having someone care and support me through physical touch and adjustments, really opened me up.”

While working through her emotions was challenging, Tammy felt a calling to return to the practice and began a journey which ultimately led to teaching. 

“I didn’t initially want to become a teacher," she says. “But as the practice helped me through various spiritual crises in my life, I realized I wanted to provide that safe space for others who were going through similar experiences.”