Yoga Teacher, Author, Animal Advocate
Suza Francina has lived in Ojai since 1957. She is a pioneer in the field of teaching yoga to people at midlife and older. Her first book Yoga for People Over 50, was published in 1977. She is the author of The New Yoga for People Over 50 (Health Communications, Inc., 1997); Yoga and the Wisdom of Menopause (HCI, 2003); and The New Yoga for Healthy Aging (HCI 2007). She is currently completing a spiritual memoir that she has been working on for many years: Autobiography of a Yogini: Innocence, Illusion, Illumination.
Her books have been published in several languages, including German, Russian and Portuguese.
Suza is a graduate of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance (RYT) and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She has over thirty-five years of experience in the fields of yoga and exercise therapy and is a consultant for research studies about yoga.
Suza’s interest in yoga and health began many years ago when she worked as a home health care provider for elderly and convalescing people. This gave her the opportunity to observe firsthand the mental and physical changes that often occur in the later years of life. She helped care for numerous elders over a period of many years, up until their death.
She is a contributing author to several books, including Women’s Health Care: A Guide to Alternatives; The Holistic Health Handbook; American Yoga; The Arthritis Cure Fitness Solution; Living Your Yoga;The Rodale Book of Building Stronger Bones for Life; and Prevention's Complete Book of Walking.
She is a contributor to Yoga Journal, LA Yoga, Yoga Life, Yoga for EveryBody, Yoga Vidya, and other yoga magazines. Her articles on a wide range of topics appear in print publications and web sites world wide. A new monthly column, Eldr Yoga, is featured in Eldr magazine and www.Eldr.com
Suza is one of 45 storytellers in a new book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything by Phil Bolsta ( April, 2008).
She offers workshops, group and private classes to people of all ages.
In addition to teaching yoga, Suza is an advocate for the rights of animals. She believes that speaking out on behalf of animals is both an environmental necessity and a moral obligation.
Suza was born in 1949, in The Hague, Holland, and is of Dutch–Indonesian heritage. She has lived for over fifty years in Ojai, California, a valley widely considered one of the most beautiful and sacred places on Earth. She is a former mayor of Ojai and a spokesperson for green, sustainable lifestyles.
When not writing or teaching, Suza enjoys walking, bicycling and practicing yoga outdoors, in nature. She is the mother of a grown son and daughter and feels fortunate to live surrounded by majestic mountains, orange groves, trees, birds, crickets, rabbits, possums, raccoons and frogs, with a family that includes several dogs, cats, pot-bellied pigs and other sentient beings.
