About Valerie
Valerie Griffiths, Yoga Instructor
Valerie Griffiths is the founder of Beyond Breath, LLC and The Breathing Barn in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, an international yoga and wellness retreat leader, and Vinyasa yoga instructor at Newport Power Yoga.
With more than thirty years of personal practice and over 500 hours of training through Live Love Teach, Valerie has been teaching since 2014. Her work brings together yoga, meditation, Yoga Nidra, sound healing, and somatic breathwork. As a certified Soma+IQ™ Somatic Breathwork practitioner, she integrates conscious breath and embodied practices to help people slow down, reconnect, and create greater space within themselves.
Through Beyond Breath, Valerie leads and collaborates on yoga and wellness retreats both nationally and internationally, creating intentional spaces for people to step away from the demands and distractions of everyday life, reconnect with nature, themselves, and one another, and return home with a deeper sense of clarity, presence, and connection.
At the heart of Valerie’s teaching is the belief that these practices are not about becoming someone different, but about remembering what is already there. Rooted in compassion, curiosity, and meaningful connection, she encourages others to breathe deeply, listen inward, and recognize that we are always more than our thoughts.
‘Live, Love, Teach’ philosophy.
I have always been an athlete, drawn to movement, challenge, and taking care of my physical health. But even when I felt strong physically, I knew there was something missing.
Nearly two decades ago, a running injury brought me to my first Vinyasa yoga class. What began as another way to move my body quickly became something much more. Yoga asked me to slow down, pay attention, and become aware of what was happening not only in my body, but in my mind.
What I began learning about myself on the mat started showing up in my life off the mat. I began to understand that the practice wasn't really about the poses. It was about awareness. How we respond when things become uncomfortable. How quickly the mind takes over. How the breath can bring us back to the present moment.
That understanding continues to shape the way I teach today. Whether through yoga, meditation, breath-work, sound, or retreat experiences, my intention is to create space for people to become more curious about themselves, to slow down enough to listen, and to reconnect with what is already within them.I still enter every practice as both a student and a teacher. There is always something more to learn, something to let go of, and another opportunity to come back to ourselves.