Barbara Baker-Kuterka speaks at Mayo

Barb training new teachers at the Mayo Clinic

Barb was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, had a lumpectomy, then 2 weeks later a mastectomy because they had not gotten all the margins. She went through chemo, radiation, and few reconstructive surgeries.

Barb began practicing yoga in 1979, studying with the Kripalu fellowship in Jacksonville and Guru Amrit Desai. So she knew she would be doing yoga throughout her recovery.

The principal at the school where she was a teacher told her about a news segment she saw. A local yoga teacher was offering free yoga classes to breast cancer survivors. That teacher was Christina Phipps! Barb talked with Christina on the phone and Christina shared her copy of the video YOGA AND THE GENTLE ART OF HEALING: A JOURNEY OF RECOVERY AFTER BREAST CANCER with Susan Rosen. Eventually, Barb attended one of Christina’s Oncology Yoga classes and Christina, was wonderful!

One day Barb picked up a copy of Natural Awakenings (a free publication in the area). There was a “call to all yoga teachers” to carry on Christina's legacy. The article gave details of her passing. Her family had decided to honor her by creating the Christina Phipps Foundation. Barb knew this was her calling!

In 2011 she completed the 200-hour YTT at the yoga studio where Christina had last taught. In 2012, she graduated from CPF training and has been teaching CPF yoga since 2012. She then received Chair Yoga training from Beth Daugherty and Beth encouraged her to get the 300 hour YTT. She earned RYT 500 before retiring from teaching school, a great accomplishment.

Barb was asked to join the Board of Directors of the CPF and now assists training yoga teachers in addition to her ongoing classes.

Here is Barb training new teachers at the Mayo Clinic

In addition to CPF yoga, she teaches oMS, which offers free yoga to the Multiple Sclerosis community. In 2021 the MS Society sponsored the tuition for oMS teachers to train in adaptive yoga and Mind Body Solutions via Zoom. Students had various forms of physical challenges from prosthetics, paraplegia, quadriplegia, and more.

One of Barb's Chair Yoga Classes