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(listed in last-name alphabetical order):

Bethania Bacigalupe found healing through yoga after an injury. First, yoga helped Bethania work with the the physical symptoms that emerged. A vinyasa practice emphasizing inversions and breath plus a restorative practice and meditation were the only balms to the continual fatigue, nausea, and headaches. Then, yoga became critical for her cognitive functioning and mental clarity. Her teaching is inspired by her personal therapeutic practice and her successful use of yoga as a rehabilitative tool. Bethania teaches from a profound respect and fascination with anatomy and the brain. Her classes place a strong emphasis on alignment, breath, and healing. Through compassion, creativity, and humor, Bethania hopes to improve the life of each student that steps into her class. When not on the mat, Bethania practices the yoga of travel, pondering the stars, eating yogurt, and playing with her dog--a white cockapoo named Dali (like the painter).

Rachel Arnold teaches a creative and energetic vinyasa flow class that combines movement with breath, expression, and a bit of humor. She graduated from the 200-hour Yoga of Energy Flow Teacher Training (taught by Daniel Orlansky, Carrie Tyler, and Aaron Cantor) and has completed teacher trainings with Alice Senko (Hot Hatha) and Josh Summers (Yin Yoga). Rachel has also taken a variety of master classes and workshops with Barbara Benagh, Ana Forrest, Dharma Mittra, and David Swenson. Rachel has a Master of Music Degree and she enjoys teaching cello and performing with several ensembles in the Boston area. She also makes quirky crafts out of clay, felt, and any other medium that inspires her.

Rachel Bairstow found her way to Forrest yoga in 2007, after spending several years studying various styles of yoga, including Kripalu and vinyasa. After experiencing first-hand the empowering, transformative effect of Forrest yoga on her life, Rachel trained with Ana Forrest to help bring these vital teachings to her community. She encourages her students to adopt an inquisitive attitude to their yoga, to feel deeply into the unexplored parts of themselves, and to create change in their bodies and in their lives through the power of breath and intention. Her invigorating and intense classes are balanced by her heartfelt, compassionate approach to teaching yoga.

Katherine Bicer completed her Yoga Alliance certification at Core Yoga and currently studies with Jesse Winder. She has taught around Cambridge and interned as a yoga therapist to children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Her Hatha-based style focuses on proper alignment and building tools for coping with daily stress and distraction. She hopes to share with students of all levels the centering force that yoga has been in her own life.

Sarah Baumert is a yoga practicioner, dancer, seamstress, and free-lance baker. She received her Vinyasa yoga certification through the Om Yoga Center in New York City in 2006. Sarah's teaching is informed by her love of movement and a precise alignment of the body. Her class combines a physically challenging practice with meditation techniques of watching your mind and recognizing your habits. Her approach helps one integrate his/her individual practice into his/her larger life.

Elizabeth Brown began her formal training in 1992 with Sarah Powers, Tias Little and Paul Grilley in the Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Yin traditions.  In 2001-2003 she lived in Siddha Yoga meditation centers in Oakland, California, and in Ganeshpuri, India, where she met John Friend and began training in Anusara Yoga.  She currently studies formally with philosophers Dr. Douglas Brooks and Professor Paul Muller-Ortega; this work informs her classes, which include students from ages 5 to 80 years old. With over 1000 hours of training and four years of full time teaching in Northern California, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and Cambridge, MA, Elizabeth brings a rich understanding of yoga, a strong meditation practice, and the desire for all students to align with their own innate freedom. Her classes are fun, dynamic, and strong. Her lightheartedness is contagious; students move easily to the next level of practice.

James Gotz has been practicing vinyasa yoga daily since 2003, and under the guidance of his teacher Bo Forbes since 2005. Initially a (successful) tool to lose weight and manage the stress of his legal career, yoga now provides James with a blueprint for mindful living and a healthy body, mind, and spirit. A graduate of Bo's Elemental Yoga Mind-Body 200-hour and advanced 500-hour training programs, James regularly assists Bo in national workshops and continues under her supervision at the Center for Integrative Yoga Therapeutics. Through a dedicated focus on alignment and safety, James guides his students in Elemental Yoga’s approach towards optimal mind-body growth. A heart-opening, humor-filled and empowering style infuses his challenging-but-slow-paced classes and private therapeutic sessions.
Besides his regular class, James generously gave his time and expertise as a Flow Yoga instructor so that all donations from the 'Karma' Class he taught on Sundays at 6 p.m. went directly to rescue projects for locally-abandoned animals.

Elizabeth Gudrais aims to help students tap into yoga's power to bring emotional and physical balance. She takes pride in helping her students understand their own bodies' idiosyncrasies: through cultivating mental discipline and awareness of our bodies, we can strengthen what is weak and address limitations and old injuries (as well as preventing new ones). Formerly a runner and teacher of aerobics and muscle conditioning, Elizabeth is certified through YogaFit and is now pursuing teacher training in the Iyengar method. Her classes typically move through poses that develop strength and balance, then on to deeper stretches and deep relaxation. She focuses on beneficial alignment and adapting poses to individual bodies and ability levels. Originally from Minnesota, Elizabeth graduated from Harvard and now works as a magazine writer and editor. She has found yoga to be an oasis of calm and renewal in a busy life.

Caroline Harvey has been a teacher, writer/performer and health practitioner for over a decade and works as a yoga and dance instructor, a doula (birth attendant) and is in private practice as a Somatic Therapist. Caroline holds a Master’s Degree in Arts & Cultures from UCLA and is a grateful student of yoga pioneer Ana Forrest, Insight Yoga founder Sarah Powers, and Michael and Anneli Molin-Skelton, creators of the dance practice SpiritWeaves. Caroline is a registered member of the United States Association for Body Psychotherapists and is honored to be a Teaching Assistant for the Upledger Institute for CranioSacral Therapy, the most comprehensive CST training venue in the world. When not on the yoga mat, Caroline teaches and performs poetry nationwide. She is an Artist in Residence at Berklee College of Music, was featured in two documentaries and appeared on Season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry. Caroline names creativity, honesty, self-awareness and transformation as her pillars of integrity; her classes are challenging, smart, nurturing and safe. To contact Caroline, visit www.carolineharvey.com.

Jessica Healey has practiced yoga off and on her entire life, starting with the PBS Lilias Folan show with her mother in the 1980’s. As an athletic adult, struggling with multiple injuries (knee, shoulder, back), depression and anxiety, she was drawn back to yoga. After attending her first class in 2003, she knew she had found what her body and mind needed. Jessica completed the Forrest Yoga Teacher Training in 2009. She encourages her students to use yoga as an amazing tool for both physical and emotional healing. As a holder of a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public health and having worked with people with major medical and mental illness, she brings a devotion to healing, with humor and warmth to her teaching. Most recently she established the Forrest Yoga Program at the first yoga studio in the country of Grenada, WI, where she lived with her husband.

Hope Klebenov began studying Yoga in 1988, at the Sivananda Yoga Center in New York. In 1992, she received her Yoga Teacher’s Training Certification from the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in Kerala, India. Since then she has taught in India, Sri Lanka, and the United States in a variety of settings. In addition to Sivananda Hatha Yoga, Hope has studied Anusara, Iyengar, Vinyasa and Jivamukti Yoga. She has taken two further teacher trainings: a 200-hour Iyengar-based teacher training, and the Baptiste Power Yoga In-House Teacher Training; also, Hope has taken workshops in Elemental Yoga with Bo Forbes. Her yoga classes combine the precision of Hatha with the liveliness and fun of the Vinyasa practices. Hope has been meditating since 1998, and practicing Buddhist meditation since 1994. She brings elements of her meditation practice into her classes.

Sara Knight fell in love with yoga over a decade ago, almost by accident, after finding a flyer for unlimited Iyengar yoga classes for the duration of the summer.  She immediately noticed a change in herself and continued to practice in the Iyengar style for many years with Roni Brissette, Patricia Walden and Jarvis Chen.  These first years of Iyengar gave Sara an incredible foundation and, out of curiosity, she began to explore other styles as well. In 2007, she enrolled in Barbara Benagh’s 500 hour Art of Teaching yoga training certification program.  Just one month into the course she found out she was pregnant with her second child, Mary, and this coinciding of yogic transformation with the profound transformation of the body during pregnancy and postpartum really brought her body awareness to another level. Sara’s journey through yoga, pregnancy, and motherhood has taught her the many joys of each, and she has been sharing these joys as a yoga instructor ever since.  Her teaching style is a combination of the many influences over the years, with a strong focus on the breath, and the value of the balance between effort and surrender.

Brianna Ladapo began dancing at age three and hasn’t stopped since! As a student of movement forms for more than 25 years, she brings her knowledge of Ballet, Jazz, Modern Dance, Hip Hop, Ballroom, Tap, Polynesian Dance, Yoga, and Pilates to the NIA classroom to create a magical fusion of creative expression, cardiovascular training, and profound full-body healing. Prior to becoming a NIA instructor, Brianna taught Jazz and Ballroom dancing at the high school and college levels and danced with several companies in California. She is completing a Master’s Degree in English from Harvard University and is also an avid writer. Brianna’s classes focus on helping her students find the joy and expression in their bodies in their own time, in their own unique and creative ways, and are suitable for all fitness levels.

Shelley Loheed / Sahaj Kaur received her certification as a Kundalini Yoga Teacher in 2000. She brings a deep love of yoga and 17 years of experience in studying both Hatha and Kundalini yoga. She is currently assisting with the Kundalini Yoga Teacher training in Millis, MA. She has been teaching yoga classes in Cambridge and Boston for the last 8 years. Her classes are open to all, both beginners and advanced, and are powerful and dynamic.

Karma Longtin was born in Florida to a family of hippies and named after the "karmic" link found in her parents' astrological charts. After moving to Boston ten years ago, she turned to yoga as a way to heal her intense back and joint pain, discovering a solace that inspired her to become a teacher in 2002. Karma embraces many different styles of yoga including power, vinyasa and restorative hatha and plans to continue on her path of exploration with a power yoga teacher training at Open Doors this fall. Her classes focus on the connection of body, mind and breath in order to tap into your prana flow and deepen your practice. She encourages everyone to find the practice that is right for them in order to realize their own path to self-discovery and personal transformation.

Faith McClellan is a Yoga Alliance Registered Kripalu Yoga instructor with certifications in Kripalu YogaDance, JourneyDance and SomaSoul Somatic Movement Therapy. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration and has over 10 years of experience managing programs in social work, leadership development, and education. Faith is faculty at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and Lesley University.

Natasha McKenzie began taking yoga seriously eight years ago after noticing the toll a high stress job was taking on her body. The feeling of physical and mental buoyancy she experienced during her first savasana was a huge contrast to her professional life. She was hooked immediately! Natasha trained to teach at a 200hr level with Natasha Rizopolous of YogaWorks, and is inspired by Anusara, Iyengar and Forrest Yoga. She strives to create an intelligently sequenced class that blends flow with a strong emphasis on alignment. Classes are challenging, meditative, supportive and always non-competitive.

Catherine “Cat” Murcek is a Yoga Alliance registered teacher and a professional modern dancer. Her Yogaworks training with Natasha Rizopoulos has been her strongest influence in her teaching, a method that combines the breath-with-movement aspect of Ashtanga yoga with the attention to alignment and sequencing from Iyengar yoga. Being a dancer—and having studied the body for more than half her life—she brings a refreshing and illuminating sense of body awareness through movement as well as through each and every asana. Her goal is for each of her students to learn something new in every class and to find that perfect balance between effort and ease throughout their practice. Catherine also enjoys traveling, teaching dance to children, and is a member of several local modern dance companies, including Lorraine Chapman The Company, Zoédance, The And So No Sin Performance Troupe, and Falling Flight Project.

Tiffany O'Connell is a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher through Yoga Alliance, as well as a certified ACE Group Exercise Instructor, who has been teaching since 2003. She discovered yoga for the first time in her mid-twenties after an unexpected job loss left her with plenty of discovery time. She spent her early years as a professional dancer, so after that first yoga class she developed an immediate love for the mind-body-spirit connection of yoga. Her classes foster an environment of no judgment of oneself or others, and the reminder of contentment with what you have and who you are. She stresses a connection to the core as well as the importance of proper alignment, yet still leaves space for individuality. Her class is a flowing/vinyasa style that teeters between uncertainty and familiarity, while balancing effort with surrender. She believes it is within our own imbalances that we find both outer strength and inner calm. Tiffany left her career in the travel industry to teach yoga full-time in 2007 and has never looked back. She believes that if we are willing to let go and stay present with what is, then every time we step on (and off) the mat, we have the opportunity to learn something new.

Michelle Pfennighaus is continuously amazed how yoga has changed her life. Yoga guided her away from a stressful, anxiety-ridden lifestyle and career in advertising and slowly but surely towards a more authentic way of living. She is now registered through Yoga Alliance and has studied with David Vendetti, David Swenson and Josh Summers among other amazing teachers. Michelle is also certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a holistic health counselor. Visit Michelle at http://FindYourBalanceHealth.com

Jenn Pici is a Yoga Alliance certified Power Vinyasa instructor with 10 years of practice and close to 5 years of teaching under her belt.   A former collegiate distance runner, Jenn turned to yoga for guidance and balance. She believes in the healing power of yoga and welcomes people of all levels to be challenged and inspired by it. She creates her "flow" series for the day depending on the students' energy, the moon cycles, and her own creative inspiration.  Jenn uses music to guide the flow of each class and says teaching yoga is her favorite and most fulfilling part of each day.

KARMA YOGA STUDIO
>Harvard Square, Cambridge
>South End, Boston