| | Katja Brandis is a yoga teacher trainer, pre and postnatal educator and entrepreneur. She founded Studio Serenity in 2004 after working for several years in the public policy field in Washington DC. She has been recognized for her entrepreneurial spirit and featured by a number of media outlets, including Fox TV, Voice of America, American University Radio, the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, and the Washington Times. Katja has been invited as a presenter at the Green Festival and the Truman Foundation. Washingtonian Magazine voted Katja one of the "25 Beautiful People" in 2006. Her experience in the somatic healing arts span over 18 years.
Born and raised in a German rural village, Katja set out to work on four continents and live in many different cultures, including far flung destinations like the Libyan Desert, Alice Springs and Cold Foot. After two years of nomadic living, Hawaii became Katja's home away from home and where she graduated from University of Hawaii at Manoa, the first in her family earning a higher education degree.
After postgraduate work in Political Science, Katja arrived in DC to work for Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the only African American woman elected to the US Senate. She continued her public policy career in international development at the World Bank. Hard wired and driven, she lived the familiar Washingtonian stressed out life: racing from meeting to meeting, skipping lunches, lacking exercise and time to unwind, clocking 14 hour work days in the office.
In her early 30's she was diagnosed with severe IBS, a breast lump and cervical cancer. Disillusioned and burned out, Katja quit her tenured position to continue on a more life-affirming and balanced path. She turned down Western doctor's recommendation for invasive surgery and healed her body with alternative and complimentary medicine. With a desire to bring holistic modalities to other stressed out Washingtonians, she conceived two entrepreneurial outcomes both cubicle and shoe free: Child Birth Care in 2001 and Studio Serenity in 2004. The purpose of both businesses is to offer a conscious community and haven for those seeking healing, awareness, and wellbeing.
Katja earned a Bachelors of Arts cum laude from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and performed with Hawaii's revered butoh company Iona Pear. Completing her first meditation seminar almost 20 years ago, she has consistently deepened her understanding of the healing arts with many noted teachers in the US and abroad. Her primary teachers have included Chuck Miller, founder of YogaWorks and Max Strom, founder of Sacred Movement.
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