“Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Welcome to the next chapter.

After 20+ years of rooting my teaching in Idaho, my journey is expanding to the jungles of Costa Rica. Whether you are joining me for a local workshop, a global retreat, or professional Shanti Yoga Teacher Training & Advanced Studies, I’m here to help you find your own path to peace and purpose.

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Debbi’s Roots

Debbi Murphy’s passion for the mind-body connection has deep roots. In college, she pursued a masters in psychology and a doctorate in exercise science. While working as a teaching assistant during her doctoral program, she represented the University of Missouri Teaching Hospital as their “wellness expert” on NBC’s weekly health segment, taught exercise physiology and participated in numerous projects in their exercise physiology lab and wellness projects which involved “Adherence to Healthy Habits.” She completed her doctoral program with her dissertation, “The Application of the Transtheoretical Model to Exercise Adherence” which was awarded Outstanding Achievement by the University of Missouri in Colombia. During this time, she also published articles in several professional journals including Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (JOPERD).

At this time, Debbi was able to explore the science of yoga which was still relatively new to the midwest, even a College town like Colombia, Mo. Between finishing her Doctoral coursework and beginning her dissertation, she worked at Stephens College there teaching and serving as a counselor. Stephens College, reknown for it’s dance, acting and movement programs, did offer yoga. So here, in 1975, Debbi took her first “real” yoga class which began a much more serious look at all that if offered. Yoga seemed to weave together her interest in psychology, physiology, healthy living and philosophy. It was the perfect nexus of all. For the next 15 years, Debbi taught for the University while working on her dissertation. During this time, she also traveled to her brother’s home in Venice Beach and where she was able to experience the burgeoning atmosphere of yoga that exploded during that time.

After completing her doctoral studies in 1990, Debbi & her husband, Mike, decided to take the big leap of faith and move their young family to the West. They wanted to provide their children (and themselves) of a life closer to the mountains and rivers they loved. The transition took a couple years to plan out, but in the summer of 1992, after taking a 21 day river trip down the Grand Canyon, they headed to their new home in the Salmon River mountain range, McCall, Idaho. Setting up life in the small town of McCall is a different chapter that will be spelled out in her memoir. But, pertinent to her life as a yoga teacher, she took began traveling even more to the West Coast to study with prominent yoga masters, created her own studio in McCall and began hosting workshops led by these masters to students throughout the Northwest. Debbi took many teacher trainings throughout this time, but her most influential was from Erich Schiffmann whose emphasis on being ‘guided from within’ resonated with her evolving beliefs. Though she continues to study with numerous yoga masters, he remains her guru.