Education Janice Gates was educated at
Syracuse University, graduating in 1987 in International Relations. She travelled to Thailand in 1988, taking a
meditation retreat which included
hatha yoga. Returning to San Francisco, she studied
Ashtanga (vinyasa) yoga under
Larry Schultz,
Tim Miller, Danny Paradise and Richard Freeman. In 1989 she became an Ashtanga Yoga teacher. She injured her back while learning Ashtanga's Third Series, and turned towards
therapeutic yoga. She studied with
chiropractor Steve Katz and yoga teachers
John Friend (founder of
Anusara Yoga) and
Angela Farmer.
Career Gates ran a studio called The Yoga Garden in
San Anselmo, California. In 2006 she published a book,
Yogini, on leading and pioneering
women in yoga, including
Nischala Joy Devi,
Donna Farhi,
Angela Farmer,
Lilias Folan,
Sharon Gannon (co-founder of
Jivamukti Yoga),
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa,
Judith Hanson Lasater,
Sarah Powers,
Shiva Rea, and
Rama Jyoti Vernon. She wrote regularly on yoga sequences and meditation for magazines including
Yoga Journal and
Oprah Magazine. She was for a time president of the
International Association of Yoga Therapists. Gates stated that yoga is more than postures (
asanas); she used "all the tools of yoga —
breath work, sound, visualization, and meditation — and tailor[ed] them to a client's specific health condition." She was identified by
Yoga Journal as one of the people who had "each, independently, discovered the benefits of merging mindfulness with asana", leading to "something we might call '
mindful yoga'."
Personal life Gates was married with a daughter. They lived in
Fairfax, California. ==Works==