Farida is a Houston-based yoga teacher, movement educator, and Director of The Yoga Institute at the Institute for Spirituality and Health (ISH), with over two decades of teaching experience and more than 4,000 hours of formal yoga education. Her teaching is rooted in a fundamental principle: spaciousness in the body translates to spaciousness in the mind.

Farida serves as Director of The Yoga Institute at the Institute for Spirituality and Health, in Houston's Texas Medical Center. Founded in 1974 by Lex Gillan, The Yoga Institute has trained more than 3,000 yoga teachers and taught upwards of 40,000 classes over its history. As Director, Farida carries forward this more than 50-year legacy, leading the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training and National Certification Courses that Lex established and built over five decades before entrusting the Institute to ISH.

Farida's love of movement began at a young age, leading her to study various dance forms and dance professionally in a modern dance company during college. Yoga came into her life through a deep desire for depth and knowledge: at 16, she discovered the teachings of Ram Dass and began exploring yogic philosophy in earnest. That spiritual practice eventually guided her to asana as a way of exploring the Self through the shapes of the poses. In 2001, Farida completed her first yoga teacher training in Los Angeles with Bikram Choudhury and returned to Houston to teach full time, going on to deepen her training in Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Hatha, kids' yoga, anatomy, and philosophy.

Alongside her yoga practice, Farida holds a certification in Pilates and has worked in the field of Gyrotonics. She has taught classes and workshops to adults and children across studio settings, private and public schools, the Houston Ballet, Brené Brown's The Marble Jar, recovery centers, and various Houston communities.

Farida also teaches Belly Dance, with a focus on helping women connect with their bodies and the Divine Feminine. She has performed and taught throughout the United States and overseas; one of her most meaningful experiences has been teaching belly dance to breast cancer survivors through The Pink Ribbons Project, where she has witnessed women rediscover beauty and confidence in their bodies.

Sound has become an important part of Farida's practice and teaching. Since 2017 she has played Alchemy Sound Bowls as a way to bring balance and calm, and has since completed a Sound Healing certification, drawing on the bowls' vibrations to help regulate her own and her clients' nervous systems.

Farida's classes are rooted in alignment and intelligent sequencing, weaving yoga philosophy into the physical practice and bringing awareness to the subtle body. She takes a psychosomatic approach, encouraging students to truly listen to their body and breath, and loves exploring the myths and stories behind the postures discovering, with her students, something new each time they practice.

When she isn't teaching or playing her sound bowls, Farida loves spending time with her children, friends, and loved ones, being in nature, visiting museums, dying silks with flowers, painting and following her curiosity wherever it leads.

Credentials

• Director, The Yoga Institute at the Institute for Spirituality and Health (ISH)

• E-RYT 500, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher

• NACYT, National Association of Certified Yoga Teachers

• YACEP, Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider

To learn more about Farida’s experience, please contact for a copy of her CV.