Qualifications: A licensed physician, a medical acupuncturist and a certified yoga teacher, I teach weekly yoga classes in the Bay Area and workshops internationally.

Personal History: Baxter Bell, MD, has been actively deepening his understanding of yoga and relaxation since making the stress-reducing move from a career as a busy family doctor to that of a yoga teacher and medical acupuncturist.He is a graduate of the Piedmont Yoga Studio’s 18-month Advanced Studies Program, and has since become Director of PYS’s Deep Yoga Program, teaching the Experiential Anatomy, Yoga Technique, and Yoga Methodology portions of the training. He is also on faculty for several Teacher Training programs around the country, including the Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training program at the Niroga Institute in Berkeley, CA.

Baxter has studied extensively with Rodney Yee, Patricia Walden, and Erich Schiffmann, and has recently been influenced strongly by the work of TKV Desikachar and Donald Moyer. Baxter is featured in Yoga Journal’s DVD, “Yoga for Stress,” and has written articles for Yoga Journal, Yoga for Everybody, and International Journal of Yoga Therapy. He also blogs for Yoga for Healthy Aging, and Doctor’s Orders, for Yoga Journal. Baxter is involved in the integration of therapeutic applications of yoga with Western medicine, lecturing to health care professionals around the country, as well as adding Hatha yoga asanas and pranayama to his care of patients in his medical acupuncture practice.

Baxter teaches public, corporate and specialty Back Care yoga classes in Oakland, Berkeley, Petaluma and Novato, California, as well as workshops and retreats around the country and internationally. He teaches a healing, nurturing style of Hatha yoga, balancing our desire for action with our need to quiet the mind, emphasizing the qualities of curiosity and meditation in the practice. His students say they appreciate his clarity of instruction and playful sense of humor.