Purusha
Yoga Teachers
Explore,
discover, and express your inner truth. Empower yourself and your community
through the classical practices of Yoga.
Keep
checking back for updates to the teacher roster!
Joy
Ravelli, Primary Teacher & Sole Proprietor of the
Purusha Yoga School, is a lifelong yogi who is most inspired
by the great outdoors where deep and simple wisdom may be experienced
with ease and profound enjoyment. Meditation teachers show up in various
forms such as frogs, birds, moose, dragonflies, and hawks. All of these
have been her truest teachers. Joy writes, The humans that I have
been graced to learn from have included: John and Diane Featherstone
of Frog Pond Yoga in Massachusetts; Bhavani, the chanting goddess at
Kripalu Yoga; Rodney Yee for his grace and strength; Anodea Judith for
her way of beholding the human form, heart, and mind with the fabric
of the chakras; Thich Naht Hanh and Pema Chodrin who taught me that
a bowl of oatmeal and your breath are all you really need to dive into
the art of meditation. I am eternally grateful for the bliss that my
family, community, and students shower upon my heart daily with their
love, laughter, grace, and kindness.
Joy
has been enjoying moving her entire life. Eternally active as a child,
her family called her "Joy Bird," as she was always in flight
outdoors. Joy began teaching movement at the young age of 16 and has
been teaching some kind of motion ever since. Joy is certified in the
following modalities:
-
Personal Trainer (ACE, AFFA)
- Pilates
(Physical Mind Institute)
- Yoga
(Frog Pond School, RYT 500 Yoga Alliance)
- Thai
Yoga Bodywork (Sunset Network, Thailand).
Guinevere
Boston came
to Yoga through her training as a performer in New York City in the
early ‘90s. Since then, she has felt privileged to have Yoga as
a constant in her life through a variety of phases, careers and locations.
Guinevere is a Certified Yoga Teacher and Therapist through Purusha
Yoga in San Francisco since 2005. She has continued to work to bring
Yoga to a variety of different populations, working in therapeutic environments,
with under-served populations, and with multi-age groups. She is passionate
about supporting Yoga on and off the matt, and exploring the different
ways people can bring the tools that Yoga offers to their day to day
lives. She is grateful to her Teacher, her family and her yoga family
for their constant inspiration and support.
Deanna
Brolly,
a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer/Yoga Instructor, is known for her
light-hearted,"tough-love" yet nurturing style of teaching.
She combines her passion and extensive knowledge of fitness, yoga, yoga
therapy, and bodywork to offer her students a complete holistic mind/body
experience. She graduated from Nature's Whisper School of Yoga at the
200-hr level and recently Yoga, both emphasizing the practice of Hatha
yoga and the study of the true self, teaching from intuition and authenticity.
She also offers private yoga and yoga therapy to enhance each individual's
needs. Her students leave class smiling and rejuvenated and you may
find yourself having to break out in YOUR most authentic tree pose!
"Through movement and breath we can live healthy lives." Please
visit Deanna's website: www.justmovefitness.com.
Diana
de Piñeres-Schooley is a certified ayurvedic practitioner
and yoga teacher. Her scope of practice includes diet & lifestyle
counseling, herbal medicine, asana instruction, breath therapy, meditation
& post-partum doula services. A yoga practitioner for 13 years,
she has studied within the Integral, Iyengar and Mysore yoga traditions.
Diana trained to teach yoga under the tutelage of Sri Louise in 2003
and completed the Underground Yoga Parlour for Self-Knowledge and Social
Justice Teacher Training in January 2004. Since then she has received
over 1000 hours of additional training in yoga & Ayurveda. Diana
is also a graduate from the Ayurvedic Practitioner Program at the Mount
Madonna Institute, College of Ayurveda (Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. John Douillard,
Dr. Sarita Shrestha). Diana’s mission is to provide direction
to individuals wanting to develop an authentic, holistic & safe
Life style & yoga practice; furthermore, to guide others in finding
freedom. Her classes are dynamic and nurturing with special attention
to alignment principles, Vinyasa, energetics and restoration. Tat Tvam
Asi ~ You are That. Please visit Diana's website: http://ayurvedamamas.com.
Gina
Iadarola is a lay midwife with over 25 years of experience
and hundreds of home births for which she has been the primary attendant.
She is also a professional occupational therapist and gifted yoga teacher.
Gina brings a sense of keen knowledge and deep awareness to her midwifery
and teaching. She is an intuitive healer with profound abilities to
‘read’ her client’s needs and cater a path that is
appropriate and most beneficial. Gina is the mother of two grown children
and lives in Sutton Massachusetts. Gina was the co-creator of Health
in Motion -the parent company of Purusha Yoga- which thrives as a multi
dimensional health and wellness collective in Massachusetts.
Adnan
Iftekar received his Yoga Training in France in 2000
and also completed his 500 hr. Yoga Training through Purusha Yoga in
2008. Adnan has also studied Acrobatics with the Cirque de Soleil in
Europe, and the Circus School of San Francisco. Adnan has been teaching
dance at high schools and colleges for over 10 years both in Massachusetts
and in California. Adnan teaches proper alignment, trust skills, spotting
techniques, and practical application of the yoga philosophy while performing.
Adnan is the cofounder of the Purusha Seva Project- a non profit organization
that teaches Yoga to underserved and at-risk populations. He sits on
that board as well. Adnan is the Technology Director at the Presidio
Hill School in San Francisco.
Alissa
Lamb leads
the anatomy and physiology portions of the 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training.
Briksha
Mahendra combines Integral Insights, Hindu Yogic practices,
and Buddhist wisdom in his teaching. He is a Certified Integral Coach,
Stress Specialist and Rebirthing Breathwork Practitioner, as well as
a Raw Vegan Chef and Healthy Lifestyle
Educator. He has been teaching Yoga, guided meditation, and stress-free,
healthy lifestyle classes since 2005. He is a longtime Vipassana meditation
practitioner and has done several long silent retreats up to 30 days.
He is a graduate of the Yoga Teacher Training program at Yoga Research
Center, Bangalore (Vivekananda Yoga Research Center) and holds a certificate
in Integral Yoga from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Briksha's main focus is Yoga of Conscious Breathing and Eating (Spiritual
Nutrition). By using various tools and techniques of Integral Yoga and
coaching, he creates a powerful environment to explore the journey of
this mysterious Human Body, finding everything there, as it is said
in an Asian proverb: 'What you can’t find in your Body, you will
not find anywhere.' Briksha's main mission insharing his skills, experience,
and training is to aid in reconnecting with our Bodies and the Body
of Universe so that in turn our Bodies and the Body of Universe will
bless us with peace, prosperity, and wisdom. Briksha invites us to pray
and practice together to awake in our true nature, bringing more love,
light, and wisdom to the World. To contact
Caressa
Mathews
invites her students to relax into their bodies, their breath, and the
present moment. She brings her twelve years of study and the wisdom
passed down from her teachers to every yoga class. She graduated from
the Brahmrishi Yoga Teacher Training, which focuses on a duality of
spirit and nature, asana and philosophy. Her love of the natural world,
connection to Mother Earth, and creative artistic interests inspire
her life and practice bringing a joy and compassion to her yoga classes.
Caressa aspires to impart the same thirst for knowledge of the higher
self and love for the practice of yoga to her students. Please visit
Caressa's website: http://7sensesyoga.com.
Carla
Nomaiia leads portions of the 500-Hour Yoga Therapy modules.
Click here to view Carla's
full CV.
Elizabeth
Samet was introduced to formal yogic practices when she was
14. During the same time she fell in love with Osho’s Dynamic
meditation. This system consists of emotional release through active
movement, stillness, and celebration through dance. This early exposure
to conscious movement paved the way for experiential education of the
Chakras which she began at age 18 with Sonya Sophia Illig in Austin
TX. Here she co-facilitating Godd-ess Awakening Workshops leading students
to experience and heal through their Chakras. She has studied with Anodea
Judith, and Iyengar teachers: Manouso Manos, and Evlaleah Howard. She’s
taught yoga asanas, meditation, mindful movement, raw and macrobiotic
cooking to diverse populations including athletes and people recovering
from psychiatric instability. She passionately guides students to trust
themselves and their bodies by embracing and celebrating whatever they
discover inside themselves.
Tara
Samiy has been a student of yoga for over 10 years. Her formal
training began in Los Angeles with two Yoga Alliance registered teacher
training programs. She completed the Yoga Works 200 hour teacher training,
which synthesizes classical Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Viniyoga styles.
In addition Tara studied with Linda Lack, PhD, developer of The Thinking
Body-The Feeling Mind™SM, a developmental movement technique based
on classic Hatha Yoga, movement therapy and kinesiology principles.
Moreover, Tara has completed numerous other workshops with a focused
interest in the psychology and therapeutic applications of yoga.
In 2006, Tara began doctoral studies in clinical psychology at the California
Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where she has also explored
her interest in the therapeutic potential of movement practices, body-oriented
therapies and other non-verbal expressive therapies as sources of personal
transformation. Since beginning her graduate studies, Tara has continued
her training in yoga through personal practice and local teachers. She
has been particularly inspired by her studies with Joy Ravelli and Jnani
Chapman. Tara has taught as guest teacher for the Purusha Yoga Therapy
Training, and currently teaches yoga privately, and assists and teaches
yoga therapy at St. Mary’s Hospital. Tara particularly enjoys
teaching yoga (asana, pranayama, and restorative) to those who are new
to yoga, seeking modified practices, or seeking to build a home practice.
Claire
Shaffer has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 2005.
She is certified to teach both Ashtanga and Purusha Yoga, and is also
a certified Yoga Therapist. As a practitioner, Claire loves to get of
out the city and reconnect with that sense of peace so easily found
in Nature. As a teacher, Claire is dedicated to helping her students
reconnect with their truest selves and to that sense of peace within.
Her classes are joyful explorations of the 8-limbed system of classic
Yoga.
Dr.
Helaine Sheias, PhD, RYT, CGF, is a certified international
group facilitator and Hatha inspired yoga teacher registered with Yoga
Alliance. She is an eco-spiritual counselor and Universal Life Minister.
She holds a doctoral degree in Human Sciences and a Masters in developmental
psychology, with a focus on special education. Helaine is the Originator
of Eco-Yoga Healing: an earth-based spiritual approach to health and
wellness. She is a graduate of the Socially Engaged Spirituality program
at Saybrook Graduate School. She is a pious believer in the Yogic “My
body is my Temple” philosophy. Helaine’s life passion is
to introduce yoga as an empowering instrument for bringing about spiritual
consciousness and bodily awareness. Her goal is to teach individuals
how to maintain sacredness in their lives by consistently embodying
a sense of 'wholeness', i.e., by exploring their relationship with their
mind, body and spirit, from a place of equanimity and self-acceptance.
It is Helaine's dream to sow the seeds of sacred healing throughout
the continents and to gradually transform them into kernels of hope
and peace, thus bridging all people together in love, truth and integrity.
Click
here to view
Helaine's full CV. Please visit Helaine's website:
www.ecoyogahealing.com.
Katherine
Warner was born and raised in Hutchinson, Kansas, and moved
to the Bay Area in 2000. A life-long lover of dance, she trained in
classical ballet for 14 years and first became attracted to yoga because
of its aesthetic qualities. She has always identified as a kinesthetic
learner as well as a disciple of the spiritual path. Yoga for her is
both function and form. She believes that yoga is a unique opportunity
to intersect health and wellness with creative expression, spirituality,
community, and self-reflection. An MACP student at the Institute of
Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, she aims to bring her knowledge
of depth and Jungian psychology to the mat by exploring the relationship
between opposites and the potential for tensions to subtly melt into
non-dualsim, if space is allowed for both to coexist. Bringing seeming
“opposites” together in one space—both on and off
the mat—creates liminal or sacred space, the space where healing
and integration can occur and conflicting forces reconciled. Katherine’s
students are gently invited to own both light and shadow qualities,
for when we own and work with both we can experience how both may benefit
our lives. This process for Katherine is truly the “Purusha”
way, integrating more and more of our True Self nature with each and
every class and each and every breath. Katherine is a 200-hour certified
yoga instructor with Purusha Yoga of San Francisco and trained under
Joy Ravelli and Adnan Iftekar.
Jennifer
Yarro is a certified teacher of AcroYoga, Hatha and Vinyasa
yoga, Meridian Yoga, and Thai Yoga Massage. She has studied & trained
in Thailand, is the co-founder of the New England School of Thai Yoga,
and now travels internationally to teach. Jennifer is also the owner
& director of Frog Lotus Yoga in the Berkshires. She runs the Yoga
Teacher Training program, as well as other certification trainings at
her studio with over 8,000 square feet of residential accommodations.
For more information please visit: www.jenniferyarro.com,
www.froglotusyoga.com,
and www.acroyoga.org.
For additonal information about her Purusha Thai Yoga modules, please
click here.
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