His yoga focused on manipulation and control. Until she broke the sequence.
Award-winning memoir, featured in the Daily Mail
Winner, 2024 PenCraft Best Book Award – Memoir
Finalist, 2024 National Indie Excellence Awards – Relationships
Finalist, 2024 IAN Best Book Awards – True Story
Honorable Mention, 2024 Readers’ Favorite Awards – Religion/Philosophy
The Secret Practice is the shocking true story of Joelle Tamraz’s 18-year entanglement with a master manipulator parading as a spiritual teacher. Fans of Educated, The True Happiness Company, and Netflix’s Bikram and Twisted Yoga will find this memoir impossible to put down.
“Phenomenal.” —Daniella Mestyanek Young, author of Uncultured
“An intense and suspenseful memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Captivating and hopeful… such an important story.” —Jean Brown, SEEK Safely & author of This Sweet Life
Joelle Tamraz was barely past twenty when she traveled to India in search of spiritual wisdom. In Rishikesh, home of yoga, she met an alluring older man who offered to teach her a secret practice. This encounter changed the course of her life. Over the next two decades, Arun dismantled her identity through emotional, social, financial, and physical control.
Still, holding on to the promise of true love and transformation, Joelle persisted in seeing him as her spiritual master, soul mate, and key to her destiny. Until the day she dared open her eyes and found the strength to reclaim her agency, her voice, and her life.
From darkness to light, from dependency to self-awareness, from psychological need to genuine love, The Secret Practice is at once an exposé of a master manipulator, the exploration of a narcissistic relationship, and the exhaustion of a disciple’s faith.
Heartfelt, gripping, and illuminating, it's a powerful true story of falling prey to and awakening from the dark side of yoga and spirituality.
