About Suza Francina
Suza Francina is the best-selling author of The New Yoga
for People Over 50, a Comprehensive Guide for Midlife and Older Beginners
(Health Communications Inc., 1997.) She is a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor
with more than 25 years of experience in the field of yoga and exercise
therapy. Suza is director of the Ojai Yoga Center, where she specializes in
classes and workshops for people over 50. She has taught yoga nationally to
people of all ages in a wide variety of settings, including wellness centers
and health spas, workshops for the Yoga Journal Convention; the annual
Prevention Magazine's Walker's Rally and the Omega Institute.
Suza's
interest in yoga and health began many years ago when she worked as a
home-healthcare provider for elderly and convalescing people. This gave her the
opportunity to observe firsthand the mental and physical changes that often
occur in the later years. Her relationship with many clients extended through
the last years of their lives, up until their death.
The New Yoga for
People Over 50 is filled with delightful vignettes of real people who have used
yoga to improve the quality of their lives. In her lectures and workshops, in
addition to discussing the benefits of yoga in addressing menopause, heart
disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, and other health problems commonly associated
with aging, Suza shares inspiring stories about her students and teachers. She
explores the changing view of aging and yoga's well-known reputation for
slowing down and reversing the premature aging process.
Suza Francina
writes extensively about yoga, health, aging, and environmental issues. Her
first book, a completely different Yoga for People Over 50, was published in
1977. Her writing has appeared in numerous books and magazines including
Prevention, the Prevention Walking Club Newsletter, Let's Live, Senior Life,
Healing Retreats & Spas, Prevention's Walking Fit Guide, Senior Scene, Your
Health, Yoga Journal, Women's Health Care: A Guide to Alternatives
(Prentice-Hall), The Holistic Health Handbook (Green Press), American Yoga
(Grove Press), The Arthritis Cure Fitness Solution (Lifeline Press), Living
Your Yoga (Rodmell Press 2000), Rodale Book of Building Stronger Bones for Life
(Rodale Press 2000) and Prevention's Complete Book of Walking (Rodale Press
2000). She wrote a weekly health column entitled Living Naturally for the Ojai
Valley News for fifteen years.
The New Yoga for People Over 50 has
been published in several languages, including German and Russian. Rodale Press
has published a hardcover edition. Suza has been featured in the Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other newspapers around the country.
She has done numerous radio interviews and television appearances and her
classes for people over 50 have been videotaped and televised on Fit TV/Healthy
Living (Body by Jake Productions, National Cable Network), and the AARP
Maturity Broadcast News.
Born in 1949 of Dutch-Indonesian heritage in
The Hague, Holland, Suza has lived in Ojai, California for more than 40 years.
She is a spokesperson for sustainable lifestyles and serves on the Ojai City
Council. (She is the Mayor of Ojai, a valley known as one of the most beautiful
and sacred places on earth and one often compared to Shangri-La.) In addition
to writing and teaching yoga, Suza has a deep interest in spiritual politics, a
new emerging paradigm that recognizes the sacred interconnection of all life.
She doesn't own a car, and sees walking and bicycling as positive
transportation alternatives that promote personal and planetary health.
Suza Francina is the mother of a grown son and daughter. She enjoys living
with a family that includes several dogs and cats as well as a potbellied
pig.
Suza Francina PO Box 1258, Ojai CA 93024
TEL (805) 640-8732 FAX (805)
640-8232 EMAIL Sfrancina@aol.com