Cheri Dostal Ryba
Cheri Dostal Ryba has devoted over two decades to embodied inquiry & transformation as a movement educator, personal fitness trainer, dancer, C-IAYT yoga therapist, and author.
Cheri’s approach weaves the cyclical wisdom of nature with nervous system and polyvagal informed whole person pelvic care.
Cheri served as a founding co-director and lead faculty of the accredited C-IAYT yoga therapist training program, AlcheMe Yoga Therapy, for 7 years and mentors yoga professionals in personal embodiment and career growth. She has spoken at the international conference SYTAR, and has contributed articles to Yoga Therapy Today and Midwest Yoga + Life Magazine to serve the growing field of yoga therapy.
Her students around the US and globally learn to hold themselves as a priority, establish and evolve boundaries, increase resilience and ability to rest, find their voice, reduce bladder urge, frequency, and leaks, improved sexual response and comfort, and more. Cheri’s group program, Inhabit, enrolls annually in September.
Brave Inquiry is her first approved professional development (APD) course with IAYT (approval expected early 2024) that she has refined through over a dozen training offerings in person and online since 2016. It blends her love of somatic inquiry, imagery, and embodiment with ethics and principles for creating a yoga culture that both seeks to prevent future harm and understands the mature, necessary work of being human together, using the practice of yoga for personal healing AND collective transformation. We examine bias and power dynamics, learning styles, informed consent best practices, proximity, body language, and touch within the Brave Inquiry framework over 12 course hours together.
Cheri published her first book in 2022, Pelvic Yoga Therapy for the Whole Woman: A Professional Guide. She’s developing a professional training on Whole Person Pelvic Health based on her first book, as well as upcoming online programs for students that desire nervous system reeducation through playful practice, and sensuality skills for women. She makes life a moving ritual with her husband, two daughters, and joyful garden experimentation in Wisconsin.
As a faculty teacher at Devanadi, Cheri also teaches Introduction to Trauma-Informed Yoga Methods & Practice workshops in both our 235 and 340hr Yoga Teacher Trainings.