Heather Gunn
Heather Gunn is a Peer Support Yoga Facilitator at Grand Summit Recovery & Resilience and Workforce Development Program, as well as a Certified Peer Support Worker (CPSW), Comprehensive Community Support Services (CCSS) provider, and Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200). She is dedicated to creating environments grounded in unity, dignity, and mutual respect, with a strong focus on trauma-informed care and holistic wellness. Heather holds an Associate of Applied Business Administration degree and continues to expand her expertise through ongoing education in community health and integrative support services.
In her role at Grand Summit Recovery and Workforce Development, Heather works as both a yoga facilitator and peer support worker, providing insurance-billable behavioral health services through her CPSW and CCSS credentials. She facilitates group sessions three days per week for clients experiencing homelessness, substance use disorders, and sexual trauma. Her approach emphasizes safety and regulation, beginning with simple breath awareness practices—often starting with just two minutes of guided breathing—to help clients learn foundational nervous system regulation skills in a supportive, accessible way.
Heather’s sessions progressively integrate pranayama (breathwork), gentle movement, Surya Namaskar variations, and yogic principles such as the yamas and niyamas. Once a week, she leads a dedicated meditation group focused on mindfulness, breath awareness, and guided stillness. Over a four-week period, she has observed meaningful growth in client capacity, with participants progressing from difficulty tolerating brief moments of stillness to engaging in 15–20 minute practices with improved emotional regulation and reduced trauma responses. She is currently pursuing a Community Health Worker credential to expand her work into hospital settings and envisions developing a “yoga zen den” model within treatment facilities—offering walk-in access to breathwork, mindfulness, and nervous system reset tools for individuals in crisis.
• Certified Peer Support Worker
• Comprehensive Community Support Worker
• Registered Yoga Teacher
• Parks Business College - AAS, Business Administration and Management, General
• City of Albuquerque Civic Plaza volunteer work for events
• Support for mental health wellness initiatives
• Support for police officers
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to yoga and my work as a behavioral health professional. These two have been my catalyst to everything. Everything else was a job, employment that just helped me pay the bills, but these two are my passion. Yoga discovered me when I went to recovery in 2002, and it has been a grounding foundation for me to stay sober and continue living productively in our society. When I was able to become a yoga facilitator after everything I went through, being able to give back to the community that gave me so much has been profound for me. If I didn't have my associate's degree, I wouldn't have been able to be a substitute teacher and fail with that, and then I wouldn't have been able to call NAMI and find my way to becoming a peer support worker. Everything led to this point where I could turn my passion into something that helps others.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Listen to your heart, listen to your passion, and don't let anything stop that. Because if it's your passion, it will happen. I never believed in all that until it actually happened for me. And then getting your story out there is so important. If I hadn't gotten my story out there, then I wouldn't have had these opportunities either.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I'm doing a study right now about the benefits and non-benefits of having yoga mandatory in treatment centers versus voluntary in treatment centers. I'm finding that there's a huge difference between the morale of the clients depending on whether it's mandatory or voluntary. I would love to be able to connect with other people who are bridging behavioral health and yoga together to see how it's working for them and have conversations about this. I would also love to expand and have a yoga zen den at a treatment facility, like a walk-in facility where people having a crisis could just come in and we could do meditative breathing and give them the tools to do a central nervous system reset.
Locations
Grand Summit Recovery & Resilience and Workforce Development Program
Albuquerque, NM 87105