Sandy Blaine
Sandy Blaine is the director of the Alameda Yoga Station. Sandy has a joyful devotion to her daily yoga practice, and seeks to bring these qualities to her classes, which combine her experience and training in the Iyengar, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and Kripalu methods. Her writing has been published in Yoga Journal, Yoga International and Ascent magazines, and she is the author of two books, Yoga For Healthy Knees and Yoga For Computer Users. Sandy is the longtime resident yoga instructor for Pixar Animation Studios, and as a wellness consultant, she has spoken at Kaiser and Google. Previously, she taught yoga at UC Berkeley for many years, and she is a faculty member of the Berkeley Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program, from which she graduated in 1995. Find more information about Sandy’s work check out her website, www.sandyblaine.com. Sandy is at work on a new book about establishing a personal yoga practice, and she blogs about her own practice at www.theyogaguidetohappiness.com. [back to top]
Dawn Adams
Dawn Adams has been practicing yoga since the mid-1990s. She took her first class at the Alameda Yoga Station in 1996 and has since studied under experienced teachers such as Sandy Blaine, JoAnn Lyons, Donald Moyer, and Jill Miller. Dawn graduated from the Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley in 2009, became a certified Level I Yoga Tune Up® teacher in 2011, and continues to deepen her personal practice. Yoga has become an integral part of her life, especially because of its nurturing and centering aspects. Through practicing yoga, she has found that undoing is just as important as doing. In her teaching, she hopes to instill a sense of adventure and exploration of yoga, with a focus on finding balance and joy through practice. Dawn can be contacted at yogadawn@earthlink.net. [back to top]
Gretchen Corbin
Gretchen has been studying and practicing Iyengar, Anusara, and vinyasa yoga since 1998. She came to yoga looking for an antidote for the stresses from both active outdoor adventuring and working at a computer all day. While she found the physical effects she was looking for, she feels blessed to have also discovered a grounding and centering practice that brings her mind and body into alignment. It is this gift that keeps her personal practice strong and inspired her to take a break from 16-years in the software industry. Gretchen recently returned from a year-long sabbatical traveling with her husband in North, Central, and South America. For five of those months they lived in their VW Eurovan Westfalia. Ask her about camping on the solarium deck of an Alaska State Ferry; backpacking in Denali National Park; hiking in Peru; studying surfing, Spanish, and yoga in Nosara Costa Rica; or about "tanker surfing" in Galveston Bay, Texas. Gretchen is excited to be back in the Bay Area and teaching yoga. She has completed 500 hours of Teacher Training through the Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program and has experience teaching beginners, athletes, computer-users, and seniors.
Deborah Crooks
Deborah has practiced Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois for more than a decade, having discovered yoga while pursuing competitive cycling in Boulder, Colorado. Completely hooked by Ashtanga's ability to heal both mind and body while addressing the spirit, she's since traveled to Mysore, India, several times to deepen her practice with Jois and his grandson Sharath Rangaswamy. She has completed an Ashtanga Advanced Focus course with John Berlinsky, apprenticed with Vance Selover, and counts Tim Miller and Noah Williams as other important influences. A writer and musician, Deborah has published articles in Yogi Times and Yoga Journal, among others. She also performs with her band throughout the Bay Area. [back to top]
Erica Grevemeyer
A lifelong student of the breath, Erica Grevemeyer began practicing yoga as a support for her sitting meditation practice. Her playful and inquisitive nature comes forth in her classes as she supports her students in regaining dignity, balance, and perspective through the practice of yoga. A graduate of the Yoga Room’s Iyengar-based Advanced Studies Program in Berkeley, she continues to deepen and refine her practice, constantly exploring the question of how her practice reflects the rest of life. Erica draws inspiration from her teachers, both formal and informal, yogic and not. In the yoga world, these include Ada Lusardi, Sandy Blaine, angel Kyodo williams, and Donald Moyer. Contact Erica: http://yogaerica.com/contact/ [back to top]
Jan Hetherington
Jan has been teaching Feldenkrais® Awareness through Movement® classes for over 10 years, in Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley, Piedmont and Pleasanton. Jan came to this work after severe injuries and somehow "knew" in her body and mind that simply doing '”exercises” wasn't going to be enough to heal her. Thankfully she discovered the Feldenkrais Method® which allows (and encourages) you to move within your current abilities so that by feeling and sensing what YOU are doing, and by harnessing the power of your brain, you can improve and grow in exciting and surprising ways! Hundreds of different lessons explore the vast range of human movement, and you’ll love how you can move more easily, experience reduced pain or discomfort, and perhaps rediscover forgotten activities!
She also maintains a private practice in Oakland, which nicely complements the class work. Jan can be contacted at jan@moves-to-improve.com. [back to top]
Barbara Lande
Barbara Lande is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley. She studies with Donald Moyer, Sandy Blaine and Nancy Leigh-Smith, among others, and has 22 years of Pilates training, 13 years as a student of Jean-Claude West. Barbara became interested in movement as a teen gymnast and later taught gymnastics, flexibility and conditioning classes. She studied theatre dance in college with Broadway dancer Shamus Murphy. Her teaching style is patient and respectful. She breaks down the poses into attainable movements that add up to a stimulating and fun experience. She loves sharing her knowledge with her students. Contact Barbara via e-mail at barbara@downdogstudio.com. [back to top]
Katrina LaShea
Katrina attended her 1st yoga class in 1985 after experiencing a back injury and a need to increase her flexibility. Over the years, she has developed a passion for the art and science of yoga for self-healing. Her teaching is greatly influenced by the faculty at the Yoga Room in Berkeley, especially with her primary teachers Sandy Blaine and Mary Lou Weprin. In 2008 she graduated from the Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies program. She is currently the in-house yoga instructor for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Programs. She teaches an Iyengar-based class using props to discover the ease and peace that comes with one’s body when it is safely aligned and supported. [back to top]
Jon Morgan
Jon accelerated his study of Iyengar yoga after it brought continued functionality while suffering through herniated discs in 1999. A graduate of the Berkeley Yoga Room, Jon teaches from the perspective that yoga is for everyone, made accessible via appropriate propping. He blends his degrees in Biomechanics and Philosophy and Religion into alignment-based asana sequences informed by one's breath. [back to top]
Cristin Shea
Cristin started her unofficial training 18 years ago with mentor, Tim Thompson, of Monkey Yoga Shala. After six years of practicing a unique hybrid of Ashtanga and Iyengar, she went on to became certified in Ashtanga Yoga with Larry Schultz of It's Yoga in San Francisco. After graduating in 2005, she then lived in Maui for the summer training with Nancy Gilgoff and immediately became hooked on the benefits of Ashtanga yoga. After leaving Maui, she arrived home in Alameda and began teaching at Alameda’s Dance/10 studio. She has named her teachings ‘ahimsa yoga’ for the flow of moving meditation. She has come to share these twin tools of non-violence (ahimsa) and vinyasa (flow) to help navigate our ever-changing environment more peacefully and authentically.
Barbara Steiber
Barbara Steiber has been a student of yoga for 20 years, and has been teaching since graduating from the Yoga Room in Berkeley in 1996. Her teaching style is influenced by studies over the years with Rodney Yee, Angela Farmer, Mary Paffard, Pattabhi Jois in India (1992), and Anusara yoga. Most recently she has been in a 2-year training, Embodied Anatomy and Yoga, with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
In her classes Barbara focuses on a sequence of asanas to maximize the body's natural ease and aliveness in each one of the forms. She works with students to bring about a sense of enjoyment and balance, as well as a deepening of the connection between the body and mind. Barbara views yoga practice as system of body movements that will help the sustain and support the well-being of a person health and fitness, over the many years of one's life. [back to top]
Johanna Svedberg Lafferty
Johanna grew up in Sweden naturally curious about the connection and relationship between the human body, mind and spirit. Her drive to explore this deeper eventually led her to Yoga, Mindfulness and Psychology. After many years of passionate study, she earned certifications as a yoga teacher, mindfulness and meditation instructor, and a master’s degree in clinical psychology. From her explorations and self-discoveries, her life purpose evolved to integrate the body-mind-spirit relationship, facilitating others on their journey to discover and live this connection.
Johanna’s classes weave together a vibrant breath-centered hatha flow, pranayama, and mindfulness with a variety of guided self-reflections aspiring students to find their own personal, authentic expression of yoga. Johanna receives inspiration from the dedication of her students and the wisdom of her teachers: Pema Chodron, Janice Gates, Erich Schiffmann, among others. Johanna teaches seasonal workshops, group, private and corporate yoga classes. She is a practicing MFT intern psychotherapist with an office in San Rafael.
Rebecca Trissell
Rebecca began practicing yoga 1998. In 2007 she completed her 200-hour training at Yoga Tree located in San Francisco, studying under Elise Lormir, Darren Main, and Janet Stone. Through her teaching she hopes to reconnect students with their divine spirit encompassing joy, love, laughter and tranquility in all her classes. She welcomes all levels and abilities. Rebecca's website is: http://yogaalameda.com. She can be reached at yogawomyn@yahoo.com. [back to top]
Kathy Yoshida
Kathy began practicing yoga over 15 years ago to ease back pain that had bothered her for many years. Since she began practicing, she has learned that yoga not only can help heal her back, but also create greater ease in the rest of her body, mind and spirit. A graduate of the Advanced Studies Program of the Berkeley Yoga Room, she feels privileged and honored to have studied under teachers such as Sandy Blaine and Mary Lou Weprin. Recently, she has joined a team of yoga teachers who teach healing yoga to women with cancer. Kathy's hope is to spread the message that yoga can be practiced by anybody, and to help others find comfort in their own body, mind and spirit. [back to top]
Elina Zimmerman
Elina has been practicing yoga for 12 years and is a graduate of the Piedmont Yoga 200hr Teacher Training Program. Her journey into yoga began when she needed to address chronic pain resulting from a neck injury. Over the years, she has developed a unique perspective on yoga based on her experience as a larger woman. Her approach is gentle, mindful and strongly influenced by the Iyengar style. For Elina, one of the primary purposes of asana is to deepen one's connection with the true self. She has worked with a range of individuals including people with Parkinson's disease as well as plus size people. back to top]
Beth Zygielbaum
Beth first limped into yoga in 2001 hoping to heal a severe knee injury. She quickly realized that yoga had the capacity to heal more than just her knee “From class one, yoga gave me space between thought and action, to let my wiser-self have a chance of governing my life.” Beth became certified as a yoga instructor in 2008.
Beth’s classes have been described by a student as “Deep practice with a light heart.” She weaves inspired themes into each class. A trained scientist, Beth enjoys getting nerdy about alignment and is well versed in modifying poses for injuries. She encourages students to love the body they have, while expanding their comfort zones and capabilities. She is open about her own practice and she’s not afraid to fall on her keester while trying out a challenging arm balance—right along with the class. Beth plays DJ at home, crafting playlists for class, an homage to her former career in the concert industry. Recently, Beth began teaching pre-natal yoga. “Becoming a mother in 2009, and again in 2012, rocked my world in every way. Since then, I’ve been bringing extra attention to the way yoga can be used to keep women healthy and supported in pregnancy and into motherhood. It takes a village to support a mama”.
Beth is available for studio, private, classroom and workplace instruction. She can be contacted at yogawithbethz@gmail.com. Go to Beth’s Facebook Page. [back to top]