Lisa Meer-Lewis
Lisa Meer-Lewis, CMT, 500 RYT, Level 1 Crossfit Trainer
Lisa is the co-owner and co-creator of The Space Above Yoga Center
Graduating from Old Dominion University in 1995 with a BS in Psychology and a BS in Human Services Counseling, Lisa began exercising her curiosity for the body-mind connection while working in the mental health field. A year later, inspired by a close friend, she began study at The Fuller School of Massage Therapy. Lisa became a National Certified Massage Therapist in 1997 and began work in private practice in Ghent. During this time, she attended her first yoga class with Anna Pittman at the downtown Norfolk YMCA and was hooked. As a competitive athlete for most of her life, Lisa was craving balance to support her active lifestyle. Yoga was the answer!
Lisa continued practice under the guidance of Anna Pittman and Gabrielle Gerard at Inside Out Yoga Center until 2006. Completing her 200 hour yoga certification with Anna Pittman in 2002, her 500 hour certification in 2007, she is now a 500 hour Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. Lisa has also completed the first level of training for The Great Yoga Wall and continues to share the fun, enlivening and therapeutic benefits of play on the wall in The Space Above.
While Lisa feels that everyone she knows has been an inspiration on her life’s path, some of her major influences in her yoga practice and teaching include Aadil Palkhivala, Doug Keller, KaliRay, Tim Miller, Gabriel Halpern, Angela Farmer, Dharma Mittra, Suzie Hurley, Kate Miller and Beryl Bender Birch. She has also studied yogic philosophy with Aadil Palkhivala, Vijaya Stallings and Dr. Graham Schweig.
In addition to being a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist, Lisa is also a Certified Neuromuscular Massage Therapist and a Level 1 CrossFit Trainer. Her approach to working with her clients has been especially influenced by her passion for fitness and the importance of functional movement along with her studies in John Barnes’s Myofascial Release Technique, The Structural Integration Method and an extraordinary six day human dissection experience with the Somanautics team of Todd Garcia and Gil Hedley.
When attending Lisa’s classes, you are bound to feel encouraged to flirt with your own perceived boundaries with a sense of humor and an open heart. With a discerning eye for safe physical alignment in postures, Lisa enjoys helping her students find their own unique expressions of the poses using modifications that allow for a blend of effort and ease. Her perspective on yogic philosophy is simple and approachable. Most of all, she values the opportunity to help her students understand what they are made of while imagining their possibilities.
When Lisa isn’t talking about, thinking about or practicing bodywork or yoga, you might find her at a Crossfit gym working on her pullups or up in the mountains, backpacking with her dogs. If she’s lucky, she might even be out West, paragliding or scaling a rock-wall or rock-face in West Virginia. If all else fails, she’s probably home, curled up on her couch with her laptop. She lives in Chicks Beach with her 6 dogs and one sassy cat.