Our Teachers:

Joy Ravelli, Director of Purusha Yoga, is a lifelong yogi who has been known to be "in motion" most of her life. She enjoys sharing the passion for play that she believes is inherent in all of us by allowing her students and clients the opportunity to discover their deepest desires for health and well-being.

Joy invites you to take a journey of deep inquiry and celebration of your true self- or Purusha, by engaging your whole person in the practice of yoga. Joy has 20 years of experience as a personal trainer, yoga teacher, health educator and lifestyle coach. She has helped many people discover and achieve deep desires that they never dreamed of realizing. Joy has found her greatest teachers and inspiration to be wild animals and nature, but has also studied classic forms of yoga and Buddhism with the following teachers and schools: Raja and Hatha Yoga with John and Diane Featherstone and Dr. Rao of Massachusetts, Kripalu Yoga, Iyengar Yoga with Rodney Yee, Chakra Psychology and energy with Anodea Judith, and Buddhism with Thich Naht Hanh, Pema Chodrin and the Insight Meditation Society and Barre Center for Budhhist Studies.
RYT 500, Certified Personal Trainer (ACE/ AFAA), Health Educator, and Nutrition Specialist.
Joy will create a holistic program designed specifically to meet your needs, lifestyle and desires for change.

Adnan Iftekhar, co-director of Purusha Yoga, has been learning, teaching, dancing and playing with yoga, acrobatics, modern dance, improvisation and sometimes with computers for over 15 years. He has taught and performed at a variety of venues from a blackbox theater in Bennington, VT to the streets of France and Germany to APE in Northampton, MA to Deerfield Academy in Historic Deerfield, MA.

Adnan is a Yoga Alliance certified instructor and has taught at yoga studios in Massachusetts, New York, California as well as Paris, France and Karachi, Pakistan.

Adnan loves being upside-down.

Eric Shaw
- Yoga Alliance National Teacher Certification
- Master of Arts, Religious Studies, United Theological Seminary, New Brighton, MN
- Bachelor of Arts, Painting and Drawing, UC - Santa Cruz
Eric began practicing yoga in the summer of 2000. A little voice, originating somewhere in the mental maze, had been saying "do yoga, do yoga!" for months. He was just coming off 6 years of triathlon training. He moved to San Francisco in August 2004 to begin a Ph.D program in Hatha Yoga at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
"Where this course of study will take me, I don't know. I do know yoga is my career, my spiritual center and my intellectual delight. I love learning it. I love sharing it. I hope I may meet you in class."
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 Purusha 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.
Lisa Faith Enzer (M.Ed.) is certified in both Purusha Yoga and Purusha Yoga Core. A registered 200 hour teacher with the Yoga Alliance, she also has over 30 years experience as a perfomer, and educator. Lisa started taking Iyengar Yoga in a church basement in 1977 with Loren Fishman, and continued informal explorations on her own and with various instructors, until she returned to yoga training in 2004. She has since been studying classical yoga with dedicated passion. Lisa completed Level I Training in Psychosynthesis, and has taught at Shelburne Falls Yoga, Green River Yoga in both located in Western Massachusetts, is a primary teacher for Purusha Yoga Teacher Training 2006, and coaches individuals in her home studio in Montague through Living Room Yoga.

Marilyn Hart, aYoga Alliance registered master teacher who was certified to teach Kripalu yoga in 1985, Marilyn has also extensively studied Iyengar, Astanga, and Anusara yoga, and traveled to Mysore, India in 1990 to study with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Practicing Vipassana meditation since 1985, Marilyn teaches the classical poses with a focus on healthy alignment, free breathing, deep relaxation and balancing flexibility with strength.
www.greenriveryoga.com

Carla Nomaiia created Nomaiia Yoga from over 15 years of teaching and personal practice. Certified in Kripalu Yoga teaching, TIEGE emotional growth training and Usui Reiki, she specializes in working with people who are longing for something more than simply a physical practice. She is featured in 2 DVDs "Nomaiia Dynamic Yoga" & "Nomaiia Soothing Yoga." Her training includes Emotional Growth Education, Hatha, Raja and Yantra Yoga, 14 years of classical ballet, Duncan and Graham technique as well as Bioenergetics. She is Cofounder and former director of Asclepian Retreat and Education Center, Vermont, and Founder of the Dance and movement program for the original cutting edge arts focus at The King George School in Northern New England. In addition she has performed her chorography and sold her art nationally. Currently Carla is Co-founder and Director of Nomaiia Arts LLC in Oregon, a business inspiring people to nurture the body and celebrate imagination.
Daniel Orlansky, M.A., a yoga teacher for 13 years, is certified in Meridian Yoga, Kali Ray TriYoga and Kundalini Yoga. He holds a masters degree in Expressive Art Therapy/Dance Therapy from Lesley University and has been a visiting lecturer in movement studies at Tufts University. He has taught in many locations including the Kripalu Center, the Omega Institute, Mass College of Art, Interface, the Dance Complex, YogaSpirit Studios, the Waltham Athletic Club, Charles River School of Shiatsu, Finding Inner Peace Yoga Center, and the Kali Ray TriYoga Center. He is currently on the staff of several yoga teachers training programs in the Boston area, and teaches regularly in Germany and Austria. Visit Daniel On the web at www.meridianyoga.com
Jonas Westring was trained as a physiotherapist in his native Sweden and also holds a PT license in the USA. A multi-certified yoga instructor, his yoga studies began in 1981 at the Scandinavian Yoga & Meditation School, and he has been exploring a variety of yoga traditions ever since. He conducts a busy teaching schedule of yoga, bodywork, and biomechanics at many established venues in the USA, Asia and Europe. With one foot rooted in yoga and the other in clinical environments, his teaching style distills the essence of bodymind practices through precision, mindfulness and joy.
www.shantaya.org
John Featherstone has been studying Yoga for 20 years with his respected teacher Dr. V.S. Rao of High Tech Yoga Institute of America. John has also studied with Swami Satchinanda, Brahmananda Sarasvati and Vyaas Houston.
Rosalie Peri, RN, NSCA-CPT, Level II Pilates-mat certified, 200-RYT-Yoga Instructor(Purusha Yoga), Group Fitness Director Northampton Athletic Club, Adjunct Faculty Smith College Qualifications/Education: R.N, graduated from the Massachusetts General School of Nursing in Boston. Certified fitness Instructor since 1988. Rosalie has developed specialized classes, workshops and programming that continually educate and inspire her clients. Her philosophy is"being committed to providing a safe, effective fitness programming that meets the needs of her clients." As adjunct staff at Smith College Dept of Exercise and Sports Studies Department, she has developed the successful Pilates Mat program and helped create the wellness programming for the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA. She continues to be an advocate of following a healthy, balanced lifestyle that incorporates the mind, body and spirit.