behind desk for yoga

Heather Whittington has found a new outlet for her creativity.

The award-winning Web designer has switched careers and opened Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy center in Frederick. Now, instead of crafting logos and home pages, Whittington, 33, helps her clients create a more balanced life through yoga therapy.

"I was looking for a way to support myself spiritually -- get more exercise and more life," she said. "I wanted to get out of sitting at a desk."

Whittington earned certification as a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy practitioner last year. The therapy combines ancient yoga practices and contemporary mind-body psychology in one-on-one sessions, according to information from the center. It includes guided breathing and dialogue, with the therapist moving the client's body through yoga-based postures.

"Lots of clients are stressed at work," Whittington said.

"Maybe they commute, to sit at a computer all day at a job they don't love. That causes stress, not only on your emotions, but on your body, too."

Although yoga therapy emphasizes dialogue in which clients discuss their problems and stresses, Whittington said that she, as a yoga therapist, does not offer advice. She said she helps clients "find their own resources within themselves." Whittington said she has about 40 clients.

"Most clients have never done yoga," she said. "Some have never even exercised. That's the thing with yoga therapy -- we move at the client's pace."

Before switching careers, Whittington founded Gecko Media Group, a Web design company that merged last year with Octavo Designs, a Frederick company that focuses on print design. Whittington continues to work for Octavo part-time, developing business in the Washington, D.C., association market.

Whittington said she discovered yoga therapy when she was looking for a way to improve her snowboarding skills.

"I decided to try [yoga therapy] and it was the coolest experience of my life," she said. "I felt it was really what I wanted to do."

She said a personal coach, Barbara Boden, also helped her realize that becoming a yoga therapist was her next career goal.

Linda Martinak, dean of continuing studies at Mount St. Mary's College, said such drastic career changes are not uncommon.

"Lots of people these days are changing careers because their jobs are getting outsourced or downsized," Martinak said. "They come back to school and change careers. It's not necessarily new, but we're noticing it more now because of the economy of the world today. We're more aware of what's happening with mergers and downsizing and outsourcing."

Martinak herself is on her second career. Out of college, she was a microbiologist, and later "just got bored" with that work, she said.

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy sessions cost $65 to $85. Whittington also offers $10 workshops for anyone who is interested in learning more about yoga therapy, but is not ready for a session yet.