Alison Donley discovered her love for yoga when, at the age of 16, she discovered B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga in the library of the small town of Waynesboro, PA. While she continued to practice yoga asana throughout the next 5 years of competitive gymnastics, the real journey began when the competition ended, and the true practice of Yoga began.
Alison has been practicing yoga for 45 years and teaching for over 40 years. She started yoga programs for 2 large health clubs in the West Chester area, and opened The Light Within Yoga Studio in November of 2004 after she and her husband Dean, and two children, Rachel and Trevor, moved to Southern Chester County. The Light Within Yoga Studio was featured in the October 2005 issue of Yoga Journal magazine, as part of Omtown Heroes, an article about small town yoga studios. Before the studio was sold in 2017, it was rated as one of the top 10 yoga studios in Pennsylvania. Alison continued to lead classes and YTT at The Light Within until December, 2019.
Alison created two 3-credit electives (Yoga I and Yoga II) for West Chester University, where she taught from 1998 -2022. In addition, she co-created a Yoga III course and a 200 hour yoga teacher training program at West Chester University and helped to get the Center for Contemplative Studies functioning, She trained in Mental Health First Aid, Civility, Diversity and Inclusion, and completed the Citi Training to help construct and implement 3 research studies at West Chester University. Upon retirement, Alison received Honorary Faculty status and was also honored as one of the 150 Most Influential Women at WCU for the 150 year celebration.
Alison has completed numerous teacher-training and certification programs through the years, including guidance and training from Tim Miller, Richard Freeman, David Swenson, Beryl Bender-Birch, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Alison is the author of Yoga: A Path to Wellness, published in August, 2010 by Kendall-Hunt Publishers. Alison has presented yoga-related topics at the county and state level for West Chester University at local in-services, the Pennsylvania Athletic Training Society State Convention and AAHPERD. She is an advocate for yoga in schools. She is a founding member of the Advisory Board for Unite For Her www.uniteforher.org as the Yoga and Meditation teacher for their Wellness Days. She is a UFH Provider, meeting with women remotely and in person to offer yoga and meditation. She contributes articles on Yoga and Wellness for the foundation and has presented numerous workshops to train yoga intstructors to be UFH providers and on numerous topics such as Yoga for Pelvic Floor Health and Meditation. She also provides monthly webinars for Chester County Human Resources and teaches private, remote, therapeutic yoga for her small business, Cage Free Yoga, LLC. Alison was also a hospice volunteer for 10 years and spent a year volunteering for a child-abuse prevention program.
Alison believes that her strongest quality as a teacher is her passion for sharing yoga and her love for her students. She is infinitely grateful for the love and support of family, friends, and students and for the ability to share this ancient (and AMAZING), system of self-care.