MEET OUR GRADUATES: Andrea Martin: Birth of a Butterfly

A native of Barrington, Andrea Martin was 12 when she began drinking and using illicit drugs. By 17, she overdosed on heroin, yet continued to use drugs.

Martin was looking for freedom, she said, from a home life where her father (now in recovery) had addictions to alcohol and painkillers.

“I thought I was breaking out of a box,” she said, “but I found that alcohol and drugs had actually boxed me in. I was being controlled by these substances. When I was using, I couldn’t even sit down to watch television without having a drug in my system. Drugs never gave me freedom.”

She said drugs numbed her to the life she was living and to the life she once had. As a child, Martin loved to dance. She took dance lessons, performed in competitions and taught younger children until the age of 12. She would not dance again until she was 20.

Martin finally achieved recovery at a treatment facility in Vermont. During her recovery, she began the practice of yoga, and from it she created a Christian alternative to the Eastern practice of yoga. Her technique is called Selah yoga, which integrates the mind, body and spirit, using a Christian meditative practice.

In 2013 Martin began teaching Selah yoga as a recovery tool at Caritas, Inc., a substance abuse treatment facility for teens. In 2014 she raised over $10,000 to establish Selah Yoga as an official business entity, holding classes in a space at New Hope Christian Church in Swansea, Mass.

Today she is working on a business plan to expand her business to a full holistic wellness center that provides discounted services for the underserved.

In 2015 Martin was honored with the Rhode Island College Student Leadership Award in the category of “Vital Contribution to the Community” for demonstrating that a community can be transformed through leadership and involvement.

“I have watched with great admiration and pride as, Andrea, this young chrysalis, became a beautiful and free butterfly,” said Professor of Dance Angelica Cardente-Vessella. 

Martin will be graduating from RIC with a B.A. in dance performance and performing arts management, a minor in international nongovernmental organizations studies, and a C.U.S. in nonprofit studies.