Meet the Co-Founders
Sarah Rose Lesser & Miriam Grace
Welcome! We're so glad you're here. Our names are Sarah & Miriam, and we're the co-founders of Mud & Lotus Yoga Center! We met at a rock climbing gym in 2021, and an instant sisterhood was born, with yoga as the common ground.
M&LYC started on some google docs and late night meetings around Sarah's living room coffee table and Miriam's half-broken laptop in late 2022. With a whole lot of learning and growing (and a new laptop!) along the way, what once felt like a distant dream manifested into reality by December 2023, when we officially opened our studio doors in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA.
Yoga, breath connection, meditation, and mindfulness practices individually changed our lives. We feel honored to be collectively sharing those same practices with you.
Keep scrolling to read our stories.
With Love,
Miriam & Sarah
Miriam Grace
C-IAYT • E-RYT 500 • RPYT • YACEP • Reiki Level 1
Miriam Grace is a Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500, RPYT), and YACEP, registered with both the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and Yoga Alliance (YA).
As a Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapist and Yoga Teacher, Miriam helps people cultivate loving and intuitive connections with their whole selves via yoga, meditation, pranayama/breath practices, sound bowl/mantra rituals, lunar circles, and intuitive movement.
Miriam arrived at the altar of yoga at 8 years old. As a childhood domestic violence survivor, she was therapeutically prescribed the practices of “yoga, meditation, and mindful breath connection” to facilitate her healing and recovery processes. She has experienced, firsthand, the true power of a personal and robust yoga practice, as it brought Miriam back home to her body.
Miriam has been teaching yoga since 2017 in the South Jersey and Greater Philadelphia area, completing 3,000+ hours of yoga education and fieldwork since then. From gyms to studios to private sessions, she has guided people of all skill levels and ages, ranging from ages 2.5 to 60+ years old.
Miriam earned her 200-hour Yoga Teaching certification from Anjali Power Yoga in Westmont, NJ in 2017. Following this, she earned her Trauma-Informed certification from Exhale to Inhale in New York City in 2020. During this time, she also began her 300-hour Yoga Teaching certification and Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) education at Heartwood Yoga Institute in Bradenton, FL. By March 2022, Miriam earned her 300-hour Yoga Teaching certification, and by January 2023, she graduated from her Yoga Therapy program at Heartwood Yoga Institute. As of November 2023, Miriam earned her Pre/Postnatal Yoga Teaching Certification (RPYT). In conjunction with her Yoga Therapist graduation, Miriam was quickly hired at an in-patient psychiatric hospital in the Greater Philadelphia area as a Yoga Therapist, serving patients with acute and various mental health diagnoses, and providing holistic, individualized care; she spent two years working at the in-patient level. In addition to her M&LYC studio responsibilities, Miriam now works at a partial-hospitalization program (PHP) as a Yoga Therapist, serving mainly those with co-occurring disorders and those in recovery for substance use.
Miriam specializes in trauma-informed language, bodily autonomy, and tuning into one’s ever-changing physical, emotional, and mental needs. Her therapeutic and teaching approaches are soaked in comfort, encouragement, and empowerment, affirming her yoga students and yoga therapy clients to develop higher self-awareness and take on an active role in their own self-care and/or healing processes.
At her core, Miriam is a creator of sangha (community), a holder of comfortable spaces, and a natural teacher, guiding people to practice their yoga both on and off the mat - she cannot wait to practice with you.
Sarah Rose Lesser
E-RYT 500 • Reiki Level 1
Sarah found yoga through her journey into sobriety in 2016. After struggling with addiction for many years, yoga gave Sarah a safe way to reconnect with her body, and her yoga practice (and community) has been a vital pillar of her sobriety and wellness ever since.
Sarah completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training at Grateful Yoga in her hometown of Montpelier, Vermont in 2016 and has been teaching yoga and movement classes ever since! As of July 2024, she completed her 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training, also with Grateful Yoga.
Sarah favors the Vinyasa style because of the freedom it allows both student and instructor. Sarah's classes weave together elements of traditional yoga with creative movement styles, forming a unique offering that serves the modern yoga practitioner. Her goal is to help students discover an abundance of health (physical and otherwise!) and joy through their yoga practice.
Sarah has taught over 2,000 hours of group classes, has offered classes and workshops at festivals including Be Well Philly and Vermont Be True Yoga Fest, and has led retreats and teacher trainings with recovery focused studios in Philadelphia. In 2021 she created her own movement practice called Rhythm Flow. Rhythm (for short) is a combination of breathwork with yoga and other movement styles, like dance and calisthenics. Rhythm cleanses (energetically and physically), invigorates, and brings you into the present in your incredible body!
Sarah can't wait to move & breathe with you.