instructors

Founder and Teacher

p: 206-850-2407
e: colette@seattleholisticcenter.com

Colette Crawford, RN, BSN, IBCLC

I began yoga as a teenager in the late 1960’s with my mother and took my first classes with Maria Svoboda. I attended Richard Schactel’s first yoga teacher training and was certified in 1986, and then in 1992 through BKS Iyengar. My greatest teacher and the source of constant inspiration on this path is my Guru, Mata Amritandamayi, or Amma, as she is known.  It is through Amma, I am learning the true essence of yoga and spiritual living.

I am an experienced registered nurse specializing in maternal/child health, labor and delivery, lactation and childbirth education. The inspiration for the prenatal yoga program came from my public health nursing days when I weaved in yoga poses with childbirth education for women who were hospitalized. During these years I worked with pregnant and parenting teens and was the president of the Snohomish County Teen Pregnancy Task Force.

I have assisted hundreds of women in labor and early postpartum care, including being an international board certified lactation consultant. Since 1989 I have taught prenatal yoga to thousands of women, their families and yoga teachers from all over the world.

Another one of my specialties is therapeutic yoga. In 1992 I created Heal Your Back as a result of my own healing journey using yoga after I had suffered a severe back injury in a car accident while eight months pregnant. At this time I experienced my first CranioSacral Therapy treatment which gave me great benefit. After years of referring out I received certificates from Upledger Institute to practice CranioSacral Therapy for all ages with a specialty in pregnancy and pediatrics.

My commitment is to helping you on your journey of health, healing and spiritual growth. I am dedicated to assisting women and their families to actualize their inner wisdom to birth and parent consciously. It has been a gift and privilege to parent my four children with my loving husband, Bruce. The path of family is my meditation.

Colette teaches on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She is also available for CranioSacral appointments for adults, pregnancy and infants/children as well as lactation consulting.

Nisreen Azar

Diverse landscapes spanning the Middle East to the Pacific Northwest shaped my passion for weaving nature,creativity and well-being throughout everyday life. I hold a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College and a MLA in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona. My formal training in Studio Art and Landscape Architecture led me to work in the fields of landscape design and ecological restoration.

I re-discovered the benefits of yoga while pregnant with my daughter and after her birth in 2018. This inspired me to deepen my yoga practice and to complete my 85-hour prenatal yoga teacher training with Colette Crawford (Sri Janani Yoga) and then my 200-hour yoga teacher training with Richard Schachtel (The Center for Yoga of Seattle).

The art of motherhood is one of my greatest joys and inspirations. I am dedicated and honored to support women on their unique journeys into empowered birth and motherhood.