Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali Bullano.
Hi Ali, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I got into yoga in 2010 after graduating from college with a degree in Psychology, and I found it was the only way (at the time) that could help me quiet my anxiety. I fell in love with the practice and I dove head first into studying yoga, completing my first yoga teacher training in 2012 and an additional 500-hour teacher training in 2014. After teaching hundreds of people over the course of 5 years, I knew I wanted to help people heal on a deeper level and in 2019 I completed my Masters of Social Work with a focus on micro, clinical
work. Those two paths kept crossing. I kept noticing how much overlap there was between yoga practices and what actually helps people heal from trauma, way beyond just talking about it.
About a decade ago I opened Zenver Yoga here in the Highlands, running it as a yoga studio and leading 200 hour yoga teacher trainings until 2024 (with a short hiatus after COVID). Since then I’ve added Psychotherapy services and rebranded into what’s now Yoga + Therapy for the Times, offering both somatic psychotherapy and trauma-informed yoga under one roof. While I don’t run a yoga studio anymore, these days my work looks more like seeing clients for trauma focused therapy (emdr and somatic therapy) in-person and via telehealth & teaching an online 25-hour Trauma-Informed Yoga & Somatics Certification for other practitioners. It’s been a winding road, but it all points back to the same question: how do we actually help people feel safe in their bodies again after trauma?
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been full of ups and downs for sure. COVID was a huge struggle as a yoga studio owner. We were at our peak in 2020 before COVID hit, finally feeling the successes of my hard work in building a solid yoga community. But we closed the studio in June 2020 and I took things online. Learning how to run an online business was actually a blessing in disguise because now that’s the foundation of my yoga business. From 2020-2022 I was teaching online classes and working at a group therapy practice in Golden, which gave me valuable insight into what it takes to run a private practice. Then in 2022 by an act of fate, I noticed the yoga studio/office we were originally in before covid was available for rent so we (Zenver) moved back in and gave it another shot, this time adding my psychotherapy offerings as an additional service. It was an uphill climb trying to rebuild the yoga studio, however my therapy practice was taking off. In 2023 I got pregnant and when my baby girl was born in 2024 all signs pointed toward closing the yoga studio. I ended up staying in the same building for my therapy practice but passed on the yoga studio to one of my past teacher trainees (it’s now Golden Hour Yoga run by Julianna Pullis). It’s amazing to continue to offer my therapy services in the same building (3729 W 32nd Ave) where I got my start in yoga business 11 years ago.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Yoga + Therapy for the Times is my umbrella brand, with two branches under it: Therapy for the Times (somatic psychotherapy & EMDR) and Yoga for the Times (trauma-informed yoga certification trainings and online classes). What ties it all together is a somatic, nervous-system first lens.
On the therapy side that looks like EMDR, therapeutic yoga, parts work, and somatic psychotherapy; on the yoga side it’s trauma-informed classes and our Trauma-Informed Yoga & Somatics Certification, which trains other yoga teachers and therapists to bring this same lens into their own work.
What sets us apart is that bridge, most people have to choose between “yoga studio” and “therapy practice,” and we’ve built something that actually integrates both, backed by real clinical training (I’m an LCSW and E-RYT-500) rather than just wellness language.
What I’m most proud of is that the brand didn’t come from a business plan, it came from a decade of running an actual yoga studio here in the Highlands, closing it, and rebuilding into something that reflects what I’ve learned since. I want readers to know this isn’t surface-level self-care, it’s deeply rooted, embodied work for people who are ready to go deeper than talk therapy alone.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Look for the people who inspire you, who are local, and who are doing what you hope to do one day. Reach out with genuine interest, go to their offerings, be their cheerleader and hopefully they will show up for you too. Showing up for others has helped build a network of trusted colleagues, whether that’s attending their yoga classes, commenting on theirs post, or attending their workshops. What goes around comes around.
Pricing:
- $175 per 50min Somatic Psychotherapy & EMDR sessions
- $525 – Self-paced, online 25-hour Trauma-Informed Yoga & Somatics Certification Training
- $925 – Live, online 25-hour Trauma-Informed Yoga & Somatics Certification Training (next cohort starts 9/9, additional cohort starting March 2027)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yogaforthetimes.com
- Instagram: @yogaforthetimes
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yogaforthetimes/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@yogaforthetimes?si=99mkeb3gJk–typK
