Amy Cooper, RYT-500; Program Director Asana, Pranayama

In 1981 Amy Cooper’s inspiration for becoming a Yoga teacher came after seeing B.K.S. Iyengar at the San Francisco Yoga Convention. With a degree in Anthropology, beginning studies in Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy, Amy was commited to include alternative health and lifestyle choices in a career focused on helping people help themselves.

In 1988, she received a teaching certificate from the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco along with certification in massage therapy from the Institute for Educational Therapy in Berkeley.

From 1990-1992, Amy trained teachers in the Integrative Yoga Therapy Program. Her passion for how the body moves and breathes most freely is expressed in the application of anatomy and meditation in her teaching. 

After teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for 22 years and co-founding the Yoga Garden in San Anselmo, Amy moved up to Mount Shasta. Since 2003, she has been the Founding Director of the Shasta Yoga Center and most recently of the Vajra Pani Yoga Teacher Training where she continues to deepen her commitment to extend enlightenment to as many beings as possible.....

Amy was featured in the Yoga Journal Calendar (1989) and in the Yoga Journal articles, “The Psoas is...” (May/June, 1999) and “Standing on Your Own Two Hands” (May/June, 2003).

Mona Therese Winston, E-RYT
Vinyasa Yoga & Pranayama

Mona Therese has always found the body fascinating, not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. Her many years as a therapist and teacher of Yoga, Massage, Reflexology and Reiki Healing have given her profound insight into the mind/body connection.

Mona Therese is an adventurous person, whose career has evolved from a deep interest in the Human body and its capacity for movement, starting with classical ballet that morphed into gymnastics, then aerobics and fitness until eighteen years ago where she found her roots in Yoga and meditation.

Mona Therese’s practice and inspiration in Yoga comes from Ashtanga, Iyengar and Sivananda; all of these valuable teachings which she incorporates into her teaching of Vinyasa Yoga. These three practices of Yoga and her teachers, Lino Miele and Gwendolyn Hunt have inspired Mona Therese to be true to the tradition of Yoga.

Mona Therese is grateful for the time she has spent in the presence of the 14th Dalai Lama, as well as her time in Plum Village, France, with Thich Nhat Hanh -- experiences which in her own words "changed my life." 

Today, Mona Therese dedicates all her time to the science of Yoga and the limitless realms of the human spirit. http://www.theresewinston.com

Chantia Smith
Anatomy

Chanti Smith is a Certified Embodied Anatomy Yoga Teacher through the School for Body Mind Centering. She discovered Body Mind Centering (BMC) in 1997 and fell in love with how delightful it felt in her own body.
A deep re-patterning occurred which led her to study with the founder, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen for several years. Chanti currently assists Bonnie in the Embodied Anatomy and Yoga Training in the San Fransisco Bay Area. See Body Mind Centering yoga programs for more info.  Chanti is also a bodyworker, a nationally certified midwife (CPM) and pre and peri- natal birth therapist. She teaches Prenatal yoga, Acu-yoga, and Embodied Anatomy and Yoga and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y..

"Chanti is a gifted, clear and engaging teacher. Her depth of knowledge and embodied practice of Body-Mind Centering gives her the ability to communicate and activate deep experiences of our body's many systems and layers, awakening our physical structure into it's fullness. Applying this knowledge of embodiment makes the experience of practicing yoga truly multi-dimensional & deeply satisfying!" -Nicole, Yoga Teacher                                   "In its application to yoga, Embodied Anatomy opens a door to the transformative aspects of yoga and takes asanas beyond a formulaic, external approach and into the subtleties of yoga practice."    -Body Mind Centering website

Natalie Gougeon
Ayurveda, Prana Vayus, & Chanting

Natalie is a student of life. She offers courses, treatments and consultations in Ayurvedic health care throughout the U.S. Through her research of 20 years, Natalie has discovered the importance of Ayurveda's holistic approach to health. Natalie has trained in Ayurveda at Benares Hindu University, and received degrees from the Himalayan Ayurveda Research Institute in Nepal, and the American Institute of Vedic Studies in the U.S. Her current coursework are with Shantideva's Dr. Mary Jo Cravatta, and the Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute in California. See www.ayurvedicare.com  

Kristin Laak                                                               Yoga Sutras & Philosophy

Kristin began exploring yoga in 1981 and since then has studied extensively. She has spent over three years in India, and continues to return annually to study the yogic arts and sciences of pranayama, meditation, sanskrit and philosophy with her teacher Dr. Shankaranarayana Jois. Kristin has been teaching since 1987 and leads teacher trainings and workshops nationally. Through years of devoted personal practice, Kristin brings joy, the spaciousness of receptivity, and her deep inspiration toward Realization/Liberation to her teaching.

Joanne Lescher
Nonviolent Communication

Joanne has decades of experience in the facilitation of communication skill building workshops.  She has been trained and certified by Marshall Rosenberg, founder of the Center for Nonviolent Communication and has brought his work to this area.  Joanne has dedicated her life to mediation, practicing and teaching the skills for facing and resolving conflict while communicating compassionately.  She has presented at national and international professional conferences.  She has a degree in Psychology and advanced training in mediation, personal effectiveness and intensive communication.  

Joanne offers the tools and techniques for improving communication between people, whether they live together, work together or play together.  She guides workshop participants in utilizing techniques that will enable them to achieve more harmony, intimacy and joy in all their relationships.   

Her style of facilitation is alive and engaging, making the skills she teaches accessible and easy to understand for use in real life situations.  In Joanne's workshops participants will learn the tools for conflict resolution, effective and compassionate interpersonal communication, compassionate listening and team building.  These tools can help participants identify and develop their inherent leadership abilities. www.joannelescher.com

Selene Seltzer
Meditation

Selene has practiced meditation since 1970. A student of body/mind/heart healing since 1982, she is passionate about the process of inquiry and waking up.

Her practice, with a foundation in Theravadan Buddhism (especially the Abhidharma - Buddhist Psychology), centers on integrating the body-based practices of sitting meditation, energy bodywork, breath work, psychotherapies and the moving practices of tai chi and qigong. She has studied with Asian and Western teachers and has been influenced by the non-dual teachings of Advaita Vendanta, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Dzogchen, Taoism, Tai Chi and Qigong.

When asked to describe her life, her usual reply is “It’s all about heart. Having an open heart and being open to all things as sacred.” Selene loves to laugh!

Additional guest instructors may surprise us...

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." -Albert Einstein