Yoga lovers in Lewis County now have a new studio to stretch out in thanks to Lauren Urich Yoga in downtown Chehalis.
Lauren Urich, 33, originally from Onalaska, suffered from chronic back pain due to a spinal condition similar to scoliosis.
“I went to doctors. I went to specialists. I went to chiropractors. Nothing worked,” Urich told The Chronicle. “They gave me pills. None of that worked. Nothing was helping.”
Doctors eventually told her the only option was spinal fusion surgery, which she wasn’t comfortable with due to her young age. Additionally, they told her the surgery would limit her mobility.
“Finally, through the pain management steps — with insurance you have to jump through all those hoops — I found acupuncture,” Urich said.
Acupuncture led to her discovering a yoga and pilates studio in 2010 near Beaverton, Oregon, where she was living at the time. While pilates caused her more pain, the yoga soothed it. During this time, she worked for a bank in a collections department. Her dislike for the job was compounded by her back pain. Urich’s chronic pain also limited her ability to travel as she couldn’t handle sitting for extended periods of time on a plane.
Then, shortly after she started the yoga classes, she suddenly noticed her pain had gone away at work. Soon, she saw her mobility returning.
“I stopped and said, ‘Oh my God, I don’t feel pain,’ and I was like, ‘I want other people to feel like this, I want to do this,’” Urich said.
With help from her father, she attended yoga instructor classes and earned certification, then began working at a studio in Portland.
While she was able to complete her training and get certified, Portland is oversaturated with yoga instructors she said.
“In Portland, there are yoga teachers on every block,” Urich quipped.
Eventually, with her husband and two children, she ended up moving back to Lewis County where Urich got her business license and began hosting yoga sessions anywhere she could. She never intended to open an actual studio.
“I started out with private clients, or I would do ‘beer yoga,’ where I go to Flood Valley (Brewing). I knew a bartender, he’s one of my friends, and I said, ‘Hey can we do a yoga class here?’ and he said ‘yes,’” Urich recalled. “Included with the ticket was your first beer.”
She would also teach at Thorbeckes Wellness Center, which is where she met Riverside Fire Authority Captain Scott Weinert, who now helps manage Urich’s studio while taking her classes.
As more clients kept requesting her classes, she began renting an old mortuary’s garage in Chehalis, which is now a RE/MAX realty office. As winter settled in, Urich realized the garage wasn’t an optimal yoga space.
“It was getting cold. It’s winter. It was freezing. The door wasn’t sealed. It’s a garage, it’s concrete, and it was just getting harder to be in there,” Urich said.
Eventually, she found an empty studio space at the St. Helens Apartments in downtown Chehalis and began renting it this past November.
Weinert will begin teaching his own yoga classes starting this month. A 24-year veteran of the fire department, Weinert originally became interested in yoga back in 2016.
“I was looking for something that was a little less impactful to my joints,” Weinert said. “I was getting a little bit older. I had done a lot of Crossfit-style workouts, a lot of weight training, things I had to do for work, and I was looking for something that helped with my flexibility and (that was) a little lower impact.”
Throughout his career, he endured hip and shoulder injuries and suffered from chronic pain. Weinert was also looking for something to help his mental health.
“Yoga helped my headspace quite a bit. We respond to a lot of traumatic things and over the course of a career, that kind of builds up. I really found a place where I can connect with my breath, connect with my mind, my body — and it just worked for me,” Weinert said.
Meeting people such as Weinert, who are also suffering from chronic pain, is ultimately what drove Urich to open the studio.
“People come to me with pain and suffering, and I help them to release it and manage it. I help them feel better, and that is why I started this business,” Urich said, later adding, “I really want people to know I am not just a bored housewife. I am passionate about healing and helping people find their own ways to heal.”
Classes available at Lauren Urich Yoga studio include warm detox yoga — the studio doesn’t get hot enough to officially call the classes “hot” yoga — along with Vinyasa yoga and a casual Hatha style, among others.
Class times and options vary throughout the week. A full schedule of classes available along with pricing options can be found at https://www.laurenurichyoga.com/.
Lauren Urich Yoga studio is located at 438 N. Market Blvd., Chehalis. For more information, visit the studio’s Facebook and Instagram pages or email Urich at laurenurichyoga@gmail.com.
