About Me

Hi, my name is Tal. I’m the founder of Luna Alignment Yoga, the yoga director, and the lead teacher of the Alignment Yoga teacher training courses.

I started practicing yoga at the age of 16, back in 2001. I felt at home from the very first class. It was the first time I felt really good within my physical body. This was a Sivananda Yoga class—a soft, classic Hatha yoga. The teacher was a sweet, young man with a soft voice, and the room was softly lit. We were told to close our eyes, focus inwards, breathe deeply, and soften our bodies. I immediately fell in love with yoga. I remember what I was wearing that day and walking back home afterward, feeling like I was floating above the ground.

As a child, I had bronchitis that later turned into asthma. My father died unexpectedly a few months before my 9th birthday. I had learning disabilities and struggled with a lot of anger (I translated sadness and my morning feelings into anger). I also had chronic, unexplained, and sometimes paralyzing knee and belly pain. Around the age of 12, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. When I got my period, the pain was unbearable for a few days every month. I didn’t really like my life, didn’t like my body, and didn’t trust either of them.

And then, there was yoga. This soft practice embraced me and brought all of my body’s systems into balance. (It took a few years, but it happened—the asthma, knee pain, IBS and even scoliosis with time were all gone!) As that 16-year-old girl, even dreaming of becoming a yoga teacher felt impossible, but I did. At the age of 21, I took my first yoga teacher training with the Sivananda organization. I embraced the yogic lifestyle and was embraced by the Sivananda Yoga community.

After graduating, I felt unprepared to teach—actually, I was terrified of teaching. So I started teaching friends and family regally. Several month after the TTC I've taught my first real class in Dharamsala, India, where I had over 20 students every class! This blessing lasted for several months as I continued teaching in Dharamsala for two seasons.

Soon after that I was invited by the head manager of the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas to become a staff member. I felt humbled and exited — I accepted the invitation: I spent seven months serving there as a Karma Yogi. My life at the Ashram involved cooking, cleaning, practicing, teaching classes, and assisting in teacher training courses assisted in TTCs, without a single day off. I left the Ashram with rich teaching experience and knowledge, but exhausted, disappointed and confused. I felt lost and depressed, I came to realize I need a real change, but didn’t know of what kind. 

Flying out to Thailand helped. At 2010 I was invited by my friend Daliah to come teach at Orion healing center, Koh Phangan. I loved teaching there, but Koh-Phangan was very different and empty at that time, I came to realize that after four years of traveling, I wanted a home. I wanted to learn Yoga Therapy and possibly shift away from the Sivananda style of practicing and teaching. So I moved back to Israel. First, I studied anatomy and then began a year-long Yoga Therapy course with Dr. Gill Solberg. During that year of study, everything changed for me: the way I practiced, the way I taught, and the way I perceived yoga. Through Gill’s teachings, I began a new journey of understanding my body, my posture, my postural habits and patterns, and the connection of my life story to all of these things. It also made me see Sivananda Yoga differently. I understood that this kind of unaligned, relaxed practice that once healed me, was now damaging for me, and that I had a  few yoga injuries.

After the Yoga Therapy course, I wanted to get stronger and change my old yoga practice. So I enrolled in a year-long Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga TTC. During that same time, I also began practicing Iyengar Yoga—and I soon came to realize that this practice made the most sense to me, both physically and mentally. The concept of alignment was revolutionary to me. It answered so many questions that had lingered in my mind and connected directly with my Yoga Therapy studies.

Over those five years, my personal life was pushed aside. Most of my time went into teaching, learning, and practicing yoga. I taught three to four classes a day and practiced intensively—mostly Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, and some Vini Yoga. My practice looked beautiful from the outside, but inside I struggled with physical pain. I had pushed my body too far, leading to additional injuries that forced me to reduce my yoga practice and stop my Ashtanga practice. I was devastated, unable to understand what went wrong.

It took time, but this became a real turning point for me. I came to understand that I had damaged my body while trying to heal it, that I misused yoga and mistreated myself. This awakening forced me to better understand my own nature and tendencies. From this experience, I developed a course initially designed for Sivananda Yoga practitioners. I wanted to save them from making the same mistakes I had made. In time, I realized it wasn’t my responsibility to “save” anyone, but from this seed, I created the teacher training courses I lead today. I taught that Yoga Therapy course several times in the Sivananda center in Tel-Aviv and also in Thailand, in a yoga center called Samma Karuna on Koh-Phangan. In that center I met a new friend with whom in the future I will open Gaia Yoga Shala.

In those years I’ve taught so many beautiful people - In Israel and in Koh-Phangan. I’ve taught in big groups, I’ve taught therapeutic yoga classes, I’ve taught seniors and corporate yoga. I loved observing the healing power of yoga, I loved talking and laughing with my students, creating a personal connection and seeing how this connection is affecting them and myself. During that time I also took a Pilates teacher training (Pilates also goes so well with my Yoga Therapy studies), I participated in the first year of Iyengar Yoga teacher training. And so I’ve developed my own kind of Alignment-Therapeutic teaching style.

I was very happy and content with my yoga career in Israel, but I wanted to further my growth and a more easygoing life style. In 2015 I permanently moved to Koh-Phangan, to open a yoga center with my friend  Ajay. This was nothing like I expected it to be, but in many ways it was much better. I’ve learned how to manage a yoga center, I grew and developed extensively, I’ve met wonderful people and made life-long connections and friends. Gaia was a home for many volunteers, teachers and students, this was a beautiful space which created a community around it. in 2016 I’ve also led my first Alignment Yoga TTC together with Anu and Nami. I was so happy and proud.

A few months and another TTC later we had to move out from our location and we’ve decided to continue Gaia as a yoga teacher training center in a different location just nearby.

Another year had passed in which we have facilitated 3 more TTCs and I felt it was time for me to move on my own, and along with Guy – my partner I’ve opened a my own yoga teacher training center–Luna Alignment Yoga. 

I continued my journey of learning and was fortunate to find an incredible yoga therapy teacher—Rachel Krentzman. She initially started as my physiotherapist, and through her guidance, I took the course “Yoga for a Happy Back” with her. This course beautifully combines the principles of physiotherapy, alignment, and yoga, and it was truly transformative for both my personal practice and my teaching.

I feel deeply blessed to have had the opportunity to teach with Rachel,in 2019 at Luna Alignment Yoga.

When COVID hit, I had to pause my teacher training programs and return to teaching regular yoga classes, focusing on drop-in classes and workshops. During this period, I became pregnant and gave birth in 2021 to my beautiful daughter, Sofia at home, here in Koh-Phangan. I took a two-year maternity leave to fully embrace this new chapter of motherhood.

Last year I had to leave our previous venue and I started teaching again at the old Gaia Yoga shala on Bovy Beach. it' very nice to come full circle like that... Now I am excited to soon be moving into a new studio. This new space marks the beginning of another chapter in my journey, I can’t wait to see how this studio will grow, connect, and inspire. I am excited to soon share it with you. 

I believe that a good yoga teacher never stops learning, and so I strive to learn every day. I learn from my daughter, from my students, and from the act of teaching itself. I learn from reading books, attending courses and workshops, and from the lessons my own practice reveals to me. I find inspiration everywhere—whether it’s through the pages of a book, online courses, a scroll on Instagram, or simply the experiences life presents. Learning, after all, is a lifelong journey that keeps evolving, just like yoga.

I find a fascinating connection between our life story, body type, personality, and the way these influence our posture and movement patterns. I love guiding students to see this big picture—to truly see themselves. I incorporate this perspective into my yogaTTCs, classes, one-on-one yoga therapy sessions, and in yoga conversations - a form of coaching. Through these interactions, I aim to help students gain a deeper understanding of their unique journey, both on and off the mat.

If there is one thing I could offer you, it would be the gift of curiosity. Cultivating an attitude of curiosity is one of the most valuable qualities you can bring to your practice—as a yoga practitioner, a yoga teacher, and, most importantly, as a compassionate human being. Curiosity invites exploration, deepens understanding, and fosters growth in ways that are both gentle and profound.

love,
Tal.

December, 2024