Today we’d like to introduce you to Gopi Kinnicutt.
Gopi, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Where to begin…
I am a brown girl from an Indian-British family, raised far from the stereotype of a “typical” Indian household—if such a thing even exists. My upbringing was marked by poverty, racism, pain, and abandonment. My father drank and gambled his life away, leaving my mother to toil endlessly at a sewing machine to feed four young children. I was the mistake child—the one she never chose—and she made that fact known.
Necessity forced me into adulthood far too soon. After years of verbal, physical, and emotional abuse, I fled home. My father’s addiction, my mother’s brokenness, and the absence of love shaped my early years. I was a brown Indian girl in a white country, lost and struggling to understand who I was or where I belonged. I grew up asking myself, Who am I?—an identity crisis simmering beneath the surface, compounded by the ache of a body starved of hugs, safety, and love.
Survival became my mission; success became my validation. Yet no matter how many tasks I took on or how many masks I wore, my brokenness seeped through the cracks. It was from this place of fracture that I turned to God—to Krishna.
That turning led me to an ashram, where I spent ten years living a monastic life, surrendering to divine grace. Deep meditation and prayer became my compass. I took on many roles—priest, cook, preacher—and with each role, new identities formed.
After ten years, I married. That chapter is another story—one woven with both joy and pain. I married a man who was secretly a trans woman, a truth that opened an entirely new path of inquiry and compassion. What does it mean to live with a trans woman? I learned that love transcends gender—that love is about the person, not their identity. I supported my spouse, held space for their truth, and became a mother of two in the process.
But living in the closet—with the turmoil, dishonesty, and emotional disconnection it required—became too painful. I longed for one whole person, not two lives divided by secrecy. After eighteen years, our marriage ended in divorce—not because my partner was a trans woman, but because I could no longer live hidden.
Yoga and spirituality became my lifeline throughout that marriage. Weaving movement and devotion together is where my healing truly began. Through this path, I also developed a deep sensitivity to the pain of others. That calling led me to train and teach yoga—not as a physical practice alone, but as a profound pathway for healing, connection, and communion with the divine.
I became a yoga studio owner, creating a spiritual oasis—a sanctuary not just for the physical body, but for the mind and displaced emotions. I came to understand that healing becomes possible when trauma stored in the body is addressed; that the body is a living map, imprinting every emotion we experience. My mission has been to help free people from the pain and blockages held within their bodies, so they may rediscover their own power and inner wisdom.
The body does hold the score—it is the record of our lives. Through yoga, meditation, breathwork, mantra, mindfulness, and community support, I have cultivated a studio and spiritual community that empowers students in all aspects of their lives. People may arrive seeking strength or flexibility, but over time they receive so much more—resilience, revelation, and the ability to integrate what they learn on the mat into how they live.
I lead yoga teacher trainings and facilitate international mindful healing retreats around the world. I especially love guiding sacred pilgrimages to India—but these journeys are never merely external trips or vacations. The retreats I lead open into deeper life questions; they become inner journeys of remembrance and transformation.
I am a yoga teacher, business owner, Hare Krishna practitioner, devoted single mother, and sometimes lover—a healer and an empath.
This is just a small glimpse into my story.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No-
Between growing up with race issue and a constant trying to fit in- poverty and amuse-
even as a women of color opening my yoga studio business I was met with male chauvinism , and racism both from my landlord as well as my contractor. Financially, I invested every penny, I had to open up my own business. Because I believed in the cause. It was extremely hard work to have a vision that was different than everybody else in the city and i wanted to create a different kind of community, an oasis and shelter, in a city where there was so much competition.
My studio right now is one of the most diverse Studios in Washington DC, people come from all over just because of its diversity, welcoming in people of color, different shaped bodies and sizes- my teachers mirror that same diversity and show how yoga is for every ‘body’.There is just an overall acceptance that Yoga is more than fitness. Mantra and sacred sound has become a normal part of what we do in the studio, as it has proven to help student find the inner awareness and healing they seek.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Bhakti Yoga DC?
Our Mission
Bhakti Yoga DC serves to empower individuals with conscious lifestyle practices that transform mind, body and heart. We provide our students an empowering spiritual experience and holistic health care/coaching through dynamic healing yoga, mantra, meditation, kirtan and philosophy delivered within an authentic spiritual community that serves to build deep and loving relationships.
Our Wider Commitment
Bhakti Yoga DC is committed to creating a space rooted in dignity, inclusion, and reverence—for our students, our neighbors, and the sacred lineages of yoga itself.
Our building once served as a homeless women’s shelter, and we continue that legacy of service by working closely with individuals experiencing housing insecurity in our local community. Our teacher volunteer at homeless shelter teaching mindfulness and yoga, they is our way of giving back to the community.
We also recognize that we teach and gather on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) and Piscataway peoples, and that this city is shaped by histories of displacement and forced labor. Rather than offering a decontextualized or commodified version of yoga, we aim to honor its cultural origins and share it in a spirit of devotion and integrity.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Probably chanting at my local temple- so much love a joy in kirtan, sacred mantra chanting circles
Pricing:
- $35 new student special – 10 classes (14 days)
- One month annual membership – $108
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bhaktiyogadc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhaktiyogadc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bhaktiyogadc
