As a model, images of Anastasia Dorohov were splashed across the mainstream style and fashion media. Successful but uninspired by the fashion industry, she headed off to college and earned a journalism degree, then decided to tap into her lifelong yoga experience to forge a new career model.

Following completion of yoga teacher training through the Jivamukti Yoga Center, Ms. Dorohov founded her yoga practice, Steady Bliss™ Wellness, in New York City. To expand her capabilities and to address the needs of her yoga clients, she additionally completed Reiki Master training with Children of Light Healing Center as well as a one-year certified holistic health counselor program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is currently finishing a distance learning master’s program in natural health from Clayton College and plans to continue to earn a PhD in holistic nutrition from Clayton. Ms. Dorohov is registered with American Association of Drugless Practitioners, is certified and registered with Yoga Alliance and is a member of the American Holistic Healthcare Association.

Through Steady Bliss, Ms. Dorohov brings yoga and holistic health counseling to clients in private sessions, group classes and corporate classes as well as through nutrition, holistic health and diet workshops, a series of yoga DVDs and authorship of articles about yoga and nutrition. “I try to reach and educate as many people as possible about holistic nutrition and about yoga and energy work,” she says.

She is additionally a yoga-for-tennis expert and a yoga advisor for the USTA Tennis League; she conducts yoga classes for tennis aficionados through classes and also reaches tennis players through a TV show featured on The Tennis Channel, Anastasia’s Yoga for Tennis and through her Yoga for Tennis DVD series.

Her goal is to bring yoga to mainstream America, and she is well on her way. Ms. Dorohov and Steady Bliss have been featured in lifestyle magazines including NY Spirit, Fit Yoga, Women's Health and Lucky as well as numerous tennis publications. To reach even more people with a yoga-inspired lifestyle, Ms. Dorohov launched Blissful Wear™ yoga attire and is in the midst of further developing her yoga DVD series. In October 2006, she re-located Steady Bliss from New York to Miami to work more closely with tennis academies in the area and to start production on additions to the DVD line.

My goal is to integrate all of these practices with American mainstream life; unfortunately, things like yoga and Reiki and holistic nutrition still have a negative connotation, and still have some association with the weirdoes. I wanted to use all of these things in the mainstream world, and this is why I created the Yoga for Tennis series of DVDs. I’m bringing the ancient practice of yoga to the tennis players who are normally used to strength and fitness training as part of their preparation for the game.

They are complementary of each other. I first started teaching yoga, and then I realized that to learn about energy is so crucial to become a better yoga teacher and to understand how to use yoga better; to help people, I really had to learn about he way energy worked. So I went and learned about Reiki energy healing, and then I combined it with my yoga practice. Then my students started asking me about nutrition and what they should eat, how certain foods influenced their yoga practice and what they should do. I felt I needed to learn about that. If somebody just begins a regular yoga practice, without any energy work or nutrition, they (and their clients) are not going to get as much benefit as if they do all three together.

Everybody asks this question. I was modeling for many years, and it was very uninspiring. I got tired of being a hanger. I decided to go to school [New York University] and get a degree in something. I loved writing, so I got a degree in journalism. Now, I use it to write articles about natural health and yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga for many, many years. It was the one thing that always made me happy. One day I just woke up and decided to follow my dreams. I knew I could be a freelance journalist, and be very good at it, and probably making some money. But it would not be something that was my calling, no matter how good I was at it. With yoga, I felt this way, so I just went for it.

I try to reach and educate as many people as possible about holistic nutrition and about yoga and energy work. The easiest way to do that is to teach lectures and workshops. I find it especially helpful to work with corporations. People who wok in corporate environments are so stressed, they are in such big need to learn to connect with themselves. Most of the times, they only work with their heads, thinking, and they are very disconnected with their own bodes most of the time. I’m teaching them to have fun with their bodies, stretching and meditating. They discover this whole area of themselves that they never knew existed, or that they knew existed, but didn’t know how to tap into.

The organizations are very helpful because of networking opportunities, staying in touch, the publications. I’ve also met many fellow practitioners through these organizations, and then we’ve worked together to create and organize workshops. It’s always good to keep yourself updated in terms of educating yourself in your profession, which is another way these groups are also very helpful.

I’m looking forward to further bringing yoga into the mainstream world, I’ve got a DVD series, and an infomercial that’s going to be a huge project, to conclude next year, and I’m really looking forward to making yoga accessible and available to all, and I hope it will work.

Definitely working on promoting my Yoga for Tennis DVDs series; I have a show on The Tennis Channel right now, and it has been featured in all the major tennis magazines. I’m trying to really expand it to educate tennis professionals about yoga, so that they, in turn, can reach out and educate many, many tennis players. I want the yoga program to be broadly distributed, because it will help so many people.

The second thing I’m going to do is create a series of yoga DVDs that will feature completely easy, normal, accessible yoga that an average American person would really love. I’m working with the guys who produced the (Billy Blanks) Tai Bo videos.

I started with a DVD, it got into the right hands, people started loving them, calling me and telling me about all kinds of opportunities. With Yoga for Tennis, I feel like I’m in the right place, it started rolling right from the get go. The DVD, it felt so right, like people really needed it. Then The Tennis Channel was calling.

I have my yoga practice, my meditation, my breathing, check e-mail, check and send out orders, because I also have a yoga clothing line in addition to the DVDs. I meet with private clients; I have a few hours of reading or studying, something educational, for two or three hours in the afternoon, when most people are not available to work with me. In the evening, I teach workshops, or I work with more clients or I teach yoga classes. I keep really busy.

Patience, as any job that involves working with people; compassion, curiosity, interest and dedication; not getting frustrated if something doesn’t go right, every job demands that. Keeping updated with the newest trends in the market, especially when it comes to nutrition, is important. If someone you work with reads a new book about a new diet, even if you consider a complete fad, you have to know about it. You have to know what you are preaching.

I like to look at my clients as human beings first, as opposed to a list of issues they want to work with. I get to know them a little bit and I give them an extensive questionnaire to fill out; it includes details like “what were you eating for breakfast as a child?” and things like “how is your family life?” Through that, I get to know them, and then we discuss it back and forth. I ask them about their goals, what brought them to me, and what they think it will take to accomplish those goals. I give them an opinion about how long it will take to help them, and we come up with a plan to work together. Sometimes people want to do just nutrition, some want to combine it with yoga, some people want only yoga and energy. I have all kinds of combinations of programs; it’s all to fit their needs.

The corporate yoga class is always one hour long, because corporate people are busy. It is either at lunch time or after work, I with a short mediation, some breathing exercises, then we go into some yoga poses, standing and seated posed, we finish with a final relaxation, and we say goodbye. Hopefully everybody is happy. They are actually a lot less stressed afterwards. They need it and they really love it, and I’m not saying that just because I teach these classes. I really feel they need it, especially in New York. I was working with a lot of people who work with hedge funds in the financial industry, and they would come in shaking from espresso, their heads are wandering, one hand is on the cell phone, the other hand on the i-Pod. Their minds were so fragmented and unfocused that yoga taught them how to concatenate and tune the noise in their heads out, and they loved it

I love seeing a person getting more in touch with who they really are as a result of working with me, I love seeing people rely more on their inner guidance; we all have that. It’s great to see that, it means this person no longer needs me, because they found their inner strength. It exists in each and every one of us.

Challenges are sometimes that because our culture is so outward oriented, it’s sometimes hard, especially in a yoga class, to get people to close their eyes and concentrate on within and focus on their breathing, as simple as it sounds. Our lives are about looking and seeing what’s out there, and some people are uncomfortable to sitting and getting to know themselves. For some it is easier, for others, it takes me a long time to get them to that place.

All the time, especially with other yoga teachers; we substitute for one another, teach workshops together. With other holistic health counselors, we organize workshops and classes. Because everyone has different skills to contribute, we complement one another very well.

The most common myth is that all of these practices are associated with weirdo hippies from the ‘60s, and that "normal" people don’t do that. "Normal" people go to the gym, step on the Stairmaster, go home and read a newspaper and watches TV, so all of these other things are too strange. But really, more and more people are getting into natural health practices. In about five years, my predication is that its going to go up, everyone is going to be interested in natural and holistic care and lifestyles.

To stay sharp in any of these disciplines, you really have to keep studying, to be a good teacher you have to keep learning yourself. The minute you think you know everything, is when you stop evolving.

My undergrad degrees gave me a basic knowledge of sciences, arts, how things work, how to write; it gave me a good fundamental to build on whatever I wanted to do afterwards. It was a good base to build on.

For yoga, the school I chose to get certified in was the school I had taken classes in for a long time; they are one of the best in the country. I didn’t want to become a regular nutritionist, I didn’t want to learn about carbs and proteins and fats, I wanted to learn something more; how the body works, how we thing, how this is all connected, which is what the school I chose provided. Right now, I’m finishing my master’s in natural health from Clayton College through distance learning. After that, I’m going to go for a PhD in holistic nutrition, again from Clayton. For someone who is disciplined, and who likes to learn, distance learning through Clayton is one of the best options.

I think they should really think about what is it they want to do before they even decide to become a professional at it, maybe they should become a good student before getting certified. In yoga, I’ve got people who have been taking classes for three months saying “I want to be a yoga teacher.” My advice is always, take classes for three or four or five years; after three months, you can’t really become yoga teachers. The same thing for nutrition, read a lot, read magazines, look on the internet, familiarize yourself as much as possible with whatever it is you want to learn, and then the answer will reveal itself. You will suddenly know what school you should attend.

Whatever they think it going to be, it will be something completely different. You learn so much more than what you actually think you would.

You can assist other holistic health counselors, when they teach a lecture or workshop; you can help them and learn through that. With yoga, it’s a great idea after you are certified, if you are still not comfortable enough to teach, to assist another teacher and learn that way.

If the medical healthcare system was focused more on the person than the system, society would benefit. Society in general needs more love, and the medical system reflects that. Our hospitals are so sad looking. You go in there, you feel fear.

A lot of times I call them industry fads, because they go in and out; a trend is something interesting and lasting. I actually see that yoga practice is becoming more mainstream these days, and that’s a good trend. I believe the market for that holistic health counseling is going to be expanding over the years. Holistic health counselors are getting into all kinds of fancy spas now, and I think it’s beautiful; there should be more of that.

Entrepreneurial is the best way to do it. You can work for someone, but there aren’t that many jobs available for holistic health counselor, you don’t really see listings on jobs-dot-com. It’s really something you have to do on your own, though you can collaborate with others and create a clinic, or work in a spa.

For a complete beginner, it starts at $50 to $60 an hour, then it goes up to $300 an hour, and anywhere in between, depending on where you go with your career. And then of course, you can try to make your own products, which I always suggest for anybody who wants to get into this field. You obviously make more income as you sell your products.

It has affected everything in a positive way, everything is so much more accessible, anybody who wants to find anything, they can find with just a Google. I just love the Internet. You find other practitioners this way, organizations, clients, students, anything you want.

It’s import to be passionate about anything you are practicing if you want to be successful. If you are not very passionate about it, chances are you are not going to be very successful.

Try to never forget that it is still a business; I’ve seen many people start a career in the natural health field with a lot of love and a lot passion for what they are doing. But they’ve gone in with a complete lack of business schooling, without understanding how they are going to deal with trying to get clients and trying to expand the business and trying to make it work. It’s a good idea before you get into the natural health field to think about if you are capable of, or even interested in, being your own boss and running your own business.

Editor’s note: To get in follow-up with Anastasia Dorohov personally, visit her web site, Steady Bliss.