My Story
Melanie Gillum
The human body has been my medium in this life — a lifelong source of fascination, wisdom, and creativity. I’ve been drawn to movement and healing practices for as long as I can remember. Through yoga, travel, bodywork, dance, and Human Design, I’ve been fortunate to live a rich and curious life — one that allows me to share what I love most.
My yoga background is rooted in the traditions of Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga, and more recently, in the Kaiut method. I’ve been influenced by every class I’ve taken, yet the teachers who have shaped me most profoundly are B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Richard Freeman, and Francisco Kaiut.
In 1998, my ex-husband and I opened the Denver Ashtanga Yoga Center — a thriving hub for yoga and community. But after several years, I realized that while the center was flourishing, I was not. With two young children, ten employees, a yoga boutique, treatment rooms, and over thirty classes a week to manage, I had lost touch with what first drew me to yoga: the deep, quiet calm that practice brings.
We sold the studio and, in 2005, my family and I relocated to Ashland, Oregon. There, I returned to my Rolfing® practice and began to root into a slower, more spacious life — becoming a gardener, dancer, hiker, Vajrayana Buddhist student, and began a deep dive into Human Design. Over time, my passions converged into what I now call a fascial approach to yoga — a practice that honors anatomy, awareness, and the body’s natural intelligence.
In 2017, during a visit to Boulder, I heard about a new form of yoga called Kaiut. Curious, I signed up for a class — there must have been fifty people in the room, one of the largest classes I had ever seen. I walked out feeling profoundly calm in my nervous system, comfortable in my joints, and deeply energized. I knew immediately that I had found a yoga practice aligned with my own principles of fascial health and nervous system regulation.
Within three weeks, I had moved to Boulder and enrolled in a yearlong teacher training with Brazilian chiropractor and founder Francisco Kaiut. It was a wonderful immersion into a form of yoga that continues to inform and inspire my teaching today.
My exploration of Human Design began around 2010. After my first reading, I was astonished that a system could so clearly articulate my personality and internal mechanics. Unlike astrology, which often looks outward toward prediction, Human Design offered a map of the vehicle I inhabit — a way of understanding how I’m designed to move through life.
After more than a decade of living with this map, my answer to whether we’re each imprinted at birth with a unique blueprint is a resounding yes. While it isn’t always easy — given the weight of conditioning from family and culture — it has been a profoundly worthwhile journey toward greater peace, satisfaction, and self-recognition. I’m currently in professional analyst training with the International Human Design School and offer readings and ongoing support for those drawn to this work.
I feel deeply blessed and immensely grateful for the life I’ve been given, and I humbly offer my work — through yoga, bodywork, and Human Design — as a way to share what I’ve learned along the way.