Yoga Style : Anusara - Ashtanga - Iyengar - Meditation - Prenatal - Yoga for Kids

Here are some of the teachers who help make YiY a special place to do yoga:

Amy Raichert is a certified yoga instructor and is registered as Anusara –Inspired through John Friend. She is a recent transplant from Arizona. She has been practicing yoga for 14 years with various styles including Iyengar, vinyasa, restorative and even Bikram. She came into Anusara around 4 years ago and has not turned back since. The tantric philosophy and great therapeutics have changed her practice and her world!

One of her favorite aspects of yoga is the amazing transformations and healings that take place, physically and emotionally. Amy is currently moving in the direction to become Anusara Certified and studies with local and traveling teachers alike. She offers the greatest heart felt offering of gratitude for all of her teachers that have graced her life thus far, as well as the deepest respect for the integrity of the teachings as they have been passed down to her by them all. A special acknowledgement to Amy’s teacher in Arizona, Anusara Certified teacher Meg Byerlein, whom taught her that the truest depth of our being lies within the deepest aspect of the heart.

Chrissy Graham has been a student of yoga for 10 years, and an Affiliated Anusara teacher for 8 years. Her main goal in starting a practice in Yoga was to heal her body, and find more enjoyment in life. She was first introduced to Anusara Yoga by Anusara Certified Yoga Instructor Emily Dubin.

After her first Anusara Yoga class, she new this was the style of Yoga she wanted to immerse herself in, and she has been diving into the currents of Anusara ever since.

Following one year of introductory studies with Emily Dubin, Chrissy went on to study directly with John Friend, Anusara Yoga’s creator. She has taken all of her teacher, and therapy trainings directly with John, and has accumulated over 350 hours with him.

She has also studied with a number of other highly skilled Anusara teachers. In addition to her studies with John, she has studied with fabulously skilled teachers, such as Sianna Sherman, whom she now assists locally, and nationally, Mitchell Bleier, and Amy Ippoliti. She has adoringly spent many hours studying in the philosophical traditions of Rajanaka Tantra with Dr. Douglas Brooks.

Ken Graham's love of yoga began at age 19 when he discovered an unused yoga book of his father's and he took this book to college with him where he began to practice on his own. Several years later, he had his first taste of Anusara Yoga through his sister Christina Graham. Anusara's heartfelt approach and depth inspired Kenny to dive deep into the potentials of his practice.
One day as he was walking along the ocean beach, he was looking for a treasure because a storm had just passed through and the ocean offers her gifts to the shore after such storms. On this day, he found a Hanuman prayer flag and even though he didn't realize who Hanuman was, he knew in this moment that he would teach yoga.
Since this auspicious ocean day, Kenny has completed three Anusara teacher trainings, the first under the direction of Noah maze, Sue Elkind and Naime Jezzeny at City Yoga of Los Angeles and the last two under the guidance of Anusara's founder John Friend. Currently, Kenny is assisting Senior Certified teacher Sianna Sherman on a national and international level and recently traveled to Europe with John Friend on his 2005 European workshop tour.

Winter Borg discovered the beauty of Anusara Yoga after practicing various forms of hatha yoga since 1992.  She completed teacher training with senior certified Anusara teachers Noah Maze and Jim Bearnhart in 2004/5.  She continues to deepen her practice through her work with John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga.  Previous lives within this lifetime have found her serving in the Peace Corps in Chad, Africa, teaching ESL in Taiwan, earning a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and completing Ph.D. work in French Literature.

Beata: My first yoga class was with the only teacher in Poland, at that time, trained by B.K.S. Iyengar. And as most of people I had no idea what yoga was about. I definitely didn't expect that it would become my life.
Since I moved to California I have experimented with different styles of hatha yoga and studied with many wonderful teachers like Anirudh Shastri, Ben Thomas, Erich Schiffmann, Max Strom and many more amazing yogis, to whom I am very grateful for showing me yet another facet of yoga.

Thanks to my dear friends Anne Finstad and Philippe Alexis I was introduced to traditional ashtanga practice as taught by Sri Pattabhi Jois. And after inspiring practice with Tim Miller in Encinitas, ashtanga become my practice. For the last couple of years I have been studying repeatedly with such amazing Ashtanga teachers and practitioners like Tim Miller and Dominic Corigliano, as well as Rolf Naujokat, Kirsten Berg, Guy Donahaye and more when attending workshops or just visiting the town.

In 2005 I had finally chance to practice directly with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath during their World Tour. Recently I returned from 2 month study with them in Mysore, India, where I'm planning to get back as fast as my life allows me.

Leigha Nicole has been teaching yoga for 23 years and taught at Yoga Works in Santa Monica, California from its inception in 1987. Her extensive and thorough knowledge of anatomy stems from a bodywork practice that spans two decades. She has been traveling to Mysore, India for the past 16 years to study with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and was authorized to teach by him in 1996. Tim Miller is her main teacher in the west.

Her studies in meditation began with Osho with whom she took sannyas in 1986 and continues with both schools of Zen Buddhism.

She also has a long history with the meditative cultural arts of the East. She is an avid student of Chanoyu (tea ceremony) through the Urasenke school and studies Chinese brush painting with her long time teacher Ning Yeh. of Zen Buddhism.

Leigha moved from Point Reyes to Crestone, Colorado a few years ago,where she built a strawbale, solar home and yoga studio.

Mojdeh has been a student of Healing Arts for the past 20 years. She has been trained in several healing modalities with emphasis on meditation and visualization. She started the practice of Ashtanga Yoga in 2000. She has completed David Swenson's Teacher Training program and studied and attended workshops with many advanced Ashtanga Yoga teachers including Lino Miele, John Berlinsky and Tim Miller. She is a dedicated student of this practice and believes in the magic of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.

Philippe Alexis started practicing Ashtanga in 1995 with John Scott in London. Since then, he has studied yoga with many teachers including Dena Kingsberg and Lino Miele. He started teaching at YiY in 2000. He also works as a web designer (he coded and maintains YiY's website).

photo coming soon

Betty Strain began her study of yoga with Charles Horn in 1964. She has continued to further he education with Ann Erikson, Felicity Hall and Larry Hatlett over the last 40 years. She advanced her understanding of yoga during a 1983 course in India with BKS Iyengar, as well as a 1991 workshop in Greece with Angela Farmers and Victor Van Kooten. She also did 5 years of formal teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco.

The yoga Betty teaches works to bring one's physical, psychological and spiritual countenance into harmony. Her classes develop suppleness, strength and coordination with additional instruction of how to achieve these attributes in every aspect of life. You can find out more about Betty in this article of the Palo Alto Weekly.

Tom Abrehamson has a BA from Princeton and a JD law degree and has studied Iyengar Yoga since the 1980's. He has had over 450 hours of teacher training with, among others, Manouso Manos, Aadil Palkhivala and Elise Miller. His Iyengar-based classes combine precise instruction with individualized attention and gentle humor. His students work hard, make progress and have fun. You can find out more about him at his website, www.alpineyoga.com.

See Mojdeh

Jeanna Lurie discovered her calling to work with women in the childbearing year when she was pregnant with her daughter Jeannessa, born February 2, 2001. A self-proclaimed “book worm,” she devoured everything she could on the subject of pregnancy, birth, and mothering to ensure her own empowering birth experience. Prenatal yoga had a profound effect on her journey into motherhood and although she had practiced yoga before, it was during her pregnancy that she got hooked and began a regular practice.

Jeanna is certified as a Whole Birth Yoga Instructor and has been teaching pre and postnatal yoga for three years. She is also a graduate of the Avalon Yoga Teacher Training. In addition, Jeanna is a doula (professional childbirth assistant), childbirth educator, La Leche League Leader, and received training as a midwifery assistant from the famous Farm in Tennessee . She donates her time serving as President of Bay Area Birth Information (BABI), a grassroots non-profit organization to support and educate birthing families and childbirth professionals in the area.

Connie Habash, MA, has been practicing yoga since 1991, and teaching since 1993 in the Iyengar and Vinyasa styles of Hatha Yoga. She has a passion for integrating the philosophical and psychological aspects of the yogic tradition into her classes, which she holds in the Santa Clara and Contra Costa county areas. You can find out more about her at her website www.awakeningself.com or email her at connie@awakeningself.com.

Julianne Rice has been teaching Yoga classes in the Bay area since 1984. Her teaching style includes elements from Iyengar, Vinyasa Flow, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, and Dance. She has been on the faculty of Yoga Educational Seminars, a yoga teacher training program founded and directed by Joyce Anue. Her classes challenge and nourish the body and the mind and inspire the opening of the heart. Her communication skills, commitment to her own spiritual and physical development and her own creativity have contributed to her long-standing reputation.

She has been teaching primarily at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment (www.csecenter.org) in San Jose for the past twenty years. As the manager and primary teacher there she has developed classes that focus on Yoga as Spiritual Practice. She aspires to bring alive the wisdom of the eight limbs of yoga throughout asana classes. She continues to study extensively and develop new classes. These classes include pre-natal, mom and baby, special needs (including students with multiple sclerosis, polio, Down's syndrome, seniors, children of all ages and teens). She has also presented within groups at the Services for the Brain Injured in San Jose.

You can find out more about Julianne at her website, www.juliannerice.com.

Sarah Willhalm began her journey into yoga while in high school. She has been practicing yoga for over 12 years. Yoga has helped Sarah to create a life that is meaning full and balanced. Sarah’s care and interest to work with children has been a life long pursuit. While going to college for her BS in occupational therapy, she knew she would be helping to heal the children of the world. As Sarah approaches the completion of her masters in occupational therapy, she has expand her practice and is now using her interest and love of Yoga as a therapeutic modality.

In her work at Stanford Hospital many of her patients benefited from simple, easy poses and the breath work for strengthening, pain reduction, and vital capacity and to help decrease stress and anxiety during their stay on the units. As Sarah transitioned to pediatric practice, she began to use simple yoga flow sequences that she learned in her yoga classes with children with motor impairments, on the autistic spectrum and with various other diabilities. Sarah began to see fabulous results in the children’s ability to motor plan new activities, their flexibility, and focus as well as their ability to relax.

This lead her to the teacher training course at It’s Yoga Kids in San Francisco in August, 2006. Sarah received a two-day intensive training for teaching yoga to kids. She now use yoga in her daily occupational therapy practice. Sarah is looking forward to becoming a part of the yoga community outside of the clinic setting and can’t wait to share her knowledge, experience, love and enthusiasm for yoga with the children of our local community. You can contact her at littleyogis@earthlink.net .

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