Christel Joy Johnson

My yoga specialty is working with injured bodies and medical conditions to help enable you to heal yourself. Even more awesome than helping someone heal themselves from an injury is to help them never get one in the first place! So, I also work with bodies on injury prevention, particularly athletes.

Part of the reason this has become my passion is that having been in 11 car accidents (6 of them before I even had my drivers license with other people driving!), left me with a spine that was in pretty terrible shape. I have a reverse cervical curve, next to no curve in my thoracic or lumbar spine, a sacrum that radiates pain at times, mild scoliosis, and pain from my sciatica nerve that shoots down my leg.

I came to yoga to reduce the chronic pain in my back body. I came to yoga to heal. The physical practice of yoga has helped me do that and I also learned that yoga is sooooo much more.  I use it for the mental strength it has taught me was inside me all along. I use it to find stability in my body to keep me safe. I use it to find stillness, to soften, and to maintain balance for my Type A personality.

I have been trained at the 500 level through Yoga Works. I am also Yoga Alliance Certified (E-RYT 500). Carmen Fitzgibbon is and always will be my mentor and teacher.

I am lucky to have lived in Los Angeles where I had many amazing teachers at my fingertips. I have taken workshops with Tom Myers, Paul Cabanis, Lisa Walford, Tias Little, Jeanne Heilman, Joan Hyman, and more. I will continue to take workshops for my own yoga practice. The beauty is ~ I become a better student with each workshop I take and then get the privilege of sharing that with my classes. What an honor and a gift.

I feel blessed to be doing something I love on a daily basis. I am honored that people allow me to share my path to becoming happy and healthy. It’s been a wild ride and the biggest lesson I am learning is to let go and enjoy where it takes me!

Yoga can be intimidating for beginners, but Christel Joy is so accommodating of yogis of all experience and fitness levels. She is so knowledgeable and THOROUGH, and she is one of the only yoga instructors in town with a decent sense of humor! – Emily A

Crystal Joy was great to work with. She traveled to our group at Eritage Resort and modified the yoga class, per everyone's specifications. Highly recommend. – Courtney W.

I have been taking Yoga from Christel Joy since last Spring. Her class is relaxing and fun. My health is much better since I have started her classes. My blood pressure has lowered and overall I am able to manage the stress in my life more easily. – Lisa R

I am so thankful to have found Christel! If you are new to yoga, Christel will be there to put you at ease and help you make progress while paying attention to your body’s limits. If you are human you will love her!
– Sarah L.

Christel Joy has worked with me for this past year after my TBI (traumatic brain injury) that has impacted my strength, balance, and flexibility. She has an innate ability to see what my body needs, what muscles are not firing sufficiently impacting my ability to do the pose well. She gives clear verbal and manual cues how to engage the desired muscles and instructs at the appropriate level of yoga to challenge me, but make it completely possible to do and improve. – Christina J.

Upon the recommendation from my PT to try yoga, I started yoga with Crystal. Soon my migraines, neck pain and upper fascia started to release. Fast forward 8 months and my migraines decreased by 75% and am no longer visiting a chiropractor. Crystal's ability to help you understand which muscles are necessary to engage a pose is so helpful. Once I started to use muscles that had shut down and began to fire again is when things really started to come together for me. My body was out of balance and Crystal helped me regain that. My core strength continues to get stronger, not to mention how much better my posture has gotten. – Julie T.

Terrific core workshop. I learned SO much during the 3 hours. Everything she taught resonated with me and I will change my practice accordingly. I felt wonderful when I left, tired but wonderful. M.K.

 I, too, attended the core workshop on Sunday. It was a great learning experience. I was impressed with Christel's engaging teaching style. I look forward to taking her workshops in the future. – Karen H. 

In this busy lifestyle that we live finding some inner peace can be difficult. Taking yoga classes from Crystal Joy has enabled me to find that place where I can reach calmness. Crystal Joy is an excellent teacher and had my interest at heart. - Kevin W.  

I had dabbled with yoga on vacations and attended the odd class. I could see the obvious benefits from practicing yoga but lacked the confidence in the correctness of my poses in classes that seemed to move too quickly for me and were not developing my practice. In short, it wasn’t cutting it for me, I wasn’t seeing the right results. Then I found Christel Joy and her focus and understanding of body mechanics. – Mark H.  

For the past three years I have regularly attended Christel Joy's Pilates/Yoga classes and have observed and benefited from her expertise in working with clients of all ages and levels of fitness. Christel Joy has an excellent working knowledge of the body and is able to effectively provide meaningful cues and instruction to assist an individual in improving strength and general fitness level. – Gretchen R.

At the age of 49 I was very sure that I hated yoga. Roll on 6 months and at age 50 I do it 3 to 4 times a week and love not just the way my body has strengthened (hello core!) but the actual practice itself. After 15 years of dabbling with yoga and stopping every time because it was too stressful I cannot actually believe how much I now love it. And I absolutely credit Christel Joy with this transformation. – Kate W.