Kimberly Richardson began practicing yoga to deal with the stress of being a mother, military spouse and business owner, but often found Birmingham yoga studios unwelcoming.

Richardson has been practicing for a decade and teaching yoga since 2018. She became one of the first Black women to become a certified yoga therapist in Alabama in 2022. She founded Yes You Yoga and Wellness to make the practice more accessible to Birmingham residents.

Now, she uses yoga therapy to help many people, including veterans, feel stronger, happier and more at ease.

“I wanted to take yoga out of the studio where it can feel intimidating and often doesn’t feel quite welcoming and take it into the community and just meet people where they are and lower those barriers for participation. Stereotypically, you see someone who does yoga as very young, very thin, very athletic and very bendy. I want to dismantle those stereotypes by saying I’m a 52 year old, bigger bodied, African American woman who does yoga,” Richardson said.

Richardson said she wants to see more representation in yoga spaces, where she sometimes is the only Black person. In 2021, 71.3% of yoga instructors in the United States were white, 10.6% were Hispanic or Latino and 7.1% were Black, according to Zippia, a career research website.

In 2023, Richardson began working with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Arts in Medicine program where she also connected with other hospitals and groups including patients with cancer, people who are incarcerated at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, LGBTQ+ people at Magic City Acceptance Center and veterans at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Whole Health program.

While a normal yoga class can sometimes make some participants feel left out, therapeutic yoga offers more intimate classes that target the needs of individual participants.

Richardson offers classes online through Zoom. And for clients that don’t have full mobility, she offers chair yoga. She recently hosted a chair yoga class at the Birmingham Museum of Art where some participants were using canes and walkers.

“Birmingham is in a lot of ways an under-resourced community but we can bring more yoga into spaces that traditionally haven’t been served,” Richardson said.

Some participants may ask for yoga sessions that help with chronic arthritis pains and others will want to learn breathing exercises that help improve their mental health. Richardson customizes each therapeutic yoga class for her clients’ needs.

“I’m really listening to hear what that person’s concerns are, what their conditions are, what their goals and desires are for their care and then designing a plan around that need,” Richardson said.

‘She became a friend’

Gloria Elcock, 68, served in the Army for nine years. Growing up with seven siblings, Elcock’s mother could not afford to send all of her children to college, so Elcock enlisted in the Army to pursue higher education.

Once she was discharged, Elcock began going to the VA where she attended yoga classes. While she enjoyed the sessions, Elcock said she often felt like she was “lost in the shuffle,” and “just a number in the crowd.”

That is until she started attending Richardson’s therapeutic yoga classes.

“When I got there, I met this fantastic lady with this giant smile…She is such a personable, knowledgeable, friendly person and she is so encouraging and very accommodating,” Elcock said. “By the end of the class, she became a friend. I look forward to taking another class with her.”

Elcock has arthritis and back problems and said the yoga classes have helped improve her physical and mental health.

“It helped to strengthen my back. It helped me lose weight. It helped me with my flexibility. It helped my core. It improved my posture, my sleep,” Elcock said. “I enjoy the class so much. I made friends in the class. We became a family.”

Elcock said she often takes what she learns from Richardson’s yoga classes and uses them in her everyday life such as using breathing exercises to reduce anxiety before bed.

“The breathing exercises, just sitting there and listening to the music, I could look in and find my own strength,” Elcock said. “When I finish class and get in the car, my shoulders are relaxed and I just feel so much lighter. For hours after, nothing bothers me.”

Richardson said working with veterans is important to her because as a former military spouse, she knows how the service can affect veterans and their families from the separation during deployment to reintegration when they return.

“I really understand how families are impacted by a service member’s work and commitment. So I’m hoping that we can expand the practice to be able to serve the entire family,” Richardson said.

Health benefits of yoga

Yoga can help increase flexibility, energy and vitality, strengthen muscles, improve respiration, heart and circulatory health as well as help participants deal with stress and anxiety, according to the American Osteopathic Association

Experts say yoga can also help improve ailments such as arthritis, chronic joint pain, balance issues and inflammation.

Kroshona Tabb, chief of Whole Health with the Birmingham Veterans Affairs system, said the Whole Health program puts veterans in the driver’s seat of their own healthcare.

Besides yoga, the Whole Health program also offers health and wellness coaching, tai chi, creative writing, art and music classes.

“The coaches will help the veteran formulate their own health care goals and take charge of their own lives through some complementary, integrative health approaches like yoga and other offerings that help them on their self care journey,” Tabb said.

In April, the VA hosted an event in Eastlake Park where staff and veterans planted trees and participated in a yoga session with Richardson.

She said the veterans she works with are enjoying and benefiting from Richardson’s yoga sessions.

“Veterans have reached out to me to share very positive comments about Kim. They tell me that she’s knowledgeable and she made them feel extremely comfortable with her yoga instruction,” Tabb said. “That’s how influential what she’s doing here has been. She has really touched the lives of our veterans.”

Richardson’s work in the community has not gone unnoticed.

In February, Richardson received a resolution from the Birmingham City Council recognizing her service to the Birmingham community.

And in March, she was included among the 30 women recognized by Mayor Randall Woodfin’s StrongHer campaign.

“Being able to offer yoga in a compassionate way really supports communities and supports individuals. I really believe that a huge part of the work that we do for personal healing is work that has to happen collectively,” Richardson said.

Alaina Bookman’s reporting at AL.com is supported by grants and individual donations. Give a tax-deductible contribution today.