About Unyong

I learned to bow to my efforts after many weeks of attempting peacock pose and ending on my face. 

Thank you for your curiosity about Stress Burner Yoga! 

My teaching is dedicated to my beloved parents who through their courage as immigrants have shown, that it is important to live both in the moment and for the sake of our descendants, and that our choices today have a long-term impact that ripples out beyond us.

I love helping people gain insights, self-love, flexibility, peace and joy, using all the tools I have had the opportunity to gain, and then seeing the ripples spread to their circles of family, colleagues and friends.

What sends the ripples out, is how we live day to day and treat those around us, not whether we can perform that crazy foot-behind-the-head pose.

My journey of learning to practice self-love and acceptance daily while releasing perfectionism and continual self-critique causes me to view each person as perfect just as they are.  We are all beginners, capable of making yoga ours with our own unique next steps. 

My formal educational journey has taken me through the Socratic halls of liberal arts education at St. John's College, to the meditation halls of contemplative Buddhism, at Naropa University. 

After graduate school in Psychotherapy, my love of working with people included counseling, education, conflict resolution, leadership training on issues of inter-group conflict resolution, as well as training trainers on these issues.

Overcoming almost crippling fear of public speaking, I have now taught every kind of audience you can name, from corporate to school age, from police to churches and universities, to military and civilian.

I have learned that individual empowerment for greater change comes from people starting with quick, winnable victories.  My passion to make yoga accessible and meaningful to all, is to provide a quick winnable victory to help empower folks beyond the mat with tools for a lifetime of health, growth and discovery.

Through training and completing the Marine Corps Marathon as a non-runner to start, I learned first hand about the quality required for sustainable and effective effort, lessons which directly shape how I teach:  make practice joyful and self-nurturing, not a stick with which to beat yourself!

Photo by Shelly Han

World travels included solo journeys to Asia: Korea, Nepal, Tibet, China, India, and an overland journey through the Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa, South America, Central America and back to the U.S.  These journeys helped me appreciate the common humanity and heart of people everywhere, as well as some common aspirations and challenges.

An ongoing student of energy techniques for mind, body health and healing, I incorporate these in helping people work through inner obstacles encountered in their yoga practice. I have had a life-long appreciation of holistic approaches to health, strengthened by my own life experiences and health recovery stories, e.g. from depression, diabetes, debilitating lower back pain and sciatica.

I have formalized my love of yoga and teaching through a 200 hour In-Depth Yoga Teacher Training with Sun and Moon Yoga Studios in Northern Virginia, and am a registered yoga teacher (RYT).  Additional trainings have included in Emotional Freedom Technique, Quantum Powers and Foundation Training.

My current roles as a business owner, parent of three dynamic daughters (the youngest is pictured above), and spouse to my amazing travel partner, have been a true and humbling test of all that I have learned. This is how I know that we are all beginners, taking our next step, hopefully with appreciation of the journey and a smile!

In gratitude,

Unyong Kim

I kept practicing and learning  just a few minutes each night and found myself more often like this. This experiment showed me what is possible with a tiny bit of daily effort for the most daunting challenges.