Our Story
The Heart of a Physician
Dr. Kari Rollins graduated from Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1979. Following her internship she realized her passion was using health education as a key to preventing illness. In 1981 she returned to UNT to join the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. and was part of a program called "Personal Wellness". This program was intended to teach medical students how to be healthy so they would become better role models for their patients. As part of that program she began teaching yoga to students, staff, and the general public. In 1982 she combined her medical practice of integrative medicine with her yoga school and opened The Wellness Center.
Dr. Rollins has studied many styles of yoga and meditation including Iyengar, Kripalue, Vinyasa, restorative, Kriya yoga and Kundalini. She uses yoga in her practice of medicine for many health problems including back pain, fibromyalgia, hypertension, weight loss, emphysema, asthma, depression, insomnia, and many other illnesses. She is highly skilled in using yoga to treat back and joint pain and understands how to adapt yoga poses to each student's needs and level of skill.
Our Philosophy
Our teachers use all forms of yoga to empower and heal our students. We recognize the greatest benefits of yoga are not limited to giving students a great physical workout. We understand the most transformational aspects of yoga can occur when one learns to regulate their nervous system through breath practices and meditation.
Most people in our culture suffer from chronic stress and are typically in a state of “fight or flight” all day long! The consequence of this imbalance of the nervous system causes the body to be incapable of healing itself. When we are in this state, our circulation moves away from our deep internal organs and instead moves to our muscles in preparation to fight or flee. This means we are not able to digest our food, or repair our cells, and basically none of our internal organs can functional normally.
It is imperative that we learn to regulate the breath and breathe from the navel because the breath is our conscious link to our autonomic nervous system. We also must learn to regulate our thoughts because subconscious memories and thoughts can be driving our addictive and unhealthy behaviors. It is impossible to change our habits if we don’t change our thought patterns. The capacity to regulate our thoughts is the gift of meditation.
Our teachers have been chosen because of their unique and complementary skills. We offer classes suitable for people of all sizes, shapes, and levels of ability. Because the studio is physician led, our teachers are able to modify and adapt what is being taught in class to suite each student”s level of ability.