While attending college, Brooke experienced her first onset of bipolar II disorder. However, Brooke West is extraordinary in that she is high-functioning and has managed her illness with a disciplined combination of medication, cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques, including Yoga and meditation, since 2005. She is certified as an Ananda Yoga® instructor, an Ananda® Meditation instructor and will be certified in Autumn, 2014 as an Ananda® Yoga Therapist, among the first five to graduate the program. She is a Yoga and meditation instructor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her passion is teaching therapeutic and Restorative Yoga and introducing mental health consumers and the Yoga community to one another.

Brooke enjoys writing, gardening and fresh food and fresh air. She really credits her dog, Ruby, for getting her out of bed every single day for the past fourteen years.

Brooke is constantly inspired by her sister, D’Arcy, who committed suicide in 1999, a casualty of bipolar disorder.