Alice Kennedy

Alice Kennedy is soon to be an Anusara-Inspired teacher. She encourages students to find their spectacular qualities inside and out, creating a community-filled, loving, and friendly environment. Grounded in a strong heart-body foundation, her students are surprised at how they can begin to do things they never thought possible, leading to more beauty and confidence on and off their mats. She has studied and worked at several yoga and buddhist centers internationally, and has been teaching 4 years. She has several teachers in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, as well as Darren Rhodes, Christina Sell, Simmin Joy Holland, and Kenny Graham in the Anusara tradition. When she isn't studying yoga, she is often roaming the kitchen, cooking up vegan treats, telling goofy jokes, and brewing watermelon kombucha-love! kennedy.alice@gmail.com

Allison Guevara

Allison's yoga practice and teaching is primarily rooted in the Ashtanga and Vinyasa flow traditions, as well as her own prenatal/postpartum experience. Her energetic and meditative classes focus on linking breath to movement through a flowing sequence of postures that encourage flexibility, strength, balance, and mindfulness. Typical classes include a mix of standing poses, balancing, core strengthening, hip opening, floor work, and inversions, with modifications for all levels of students. Her classes offer both a safe and challenging space that supports students in developing their own personal practice on and off the mat. www.yogawithallison.com

Annica Rose

E-RYT500, CHT, Ceritified Yoga Therapist

Annica Rose, Certified Yoga Therapist is a gifted healer with over 40-years of experience as a practitioner and instructor of Yoga. Founding director of the Adaptive Yoga Project, Annica maintains a successful private Yoga therapy practice in Santa Cruz County. She teaches specialized Yoga classes and mentors Yoga instructors interested in serving the special needs community. Annica’s spirited enthusiasm for Yoga, her keen intuition and a natural gift for engaging students are central to her work.

Her attentiveness to the unique needs of every student helps people of varying abilities become aware of their breath, improve balance and develop flexibility and function. This is accomplished with innovative adaptations of traditional Yoga postures often using props, like chairs, blocks and bolsters...

Annica’s training is based on classical Yoga principals, Buddhist studies and a ten year western medical career. She is very grateful to have studied with Allan Watts, Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, Indra Devi and continues to study with Baba Hari Dass. annica@adaptiveyogaproject.com

Aruna Peters

"The body is a boat which carries the soul in the ocean of the world. If it is not strong, or it has a hole, then it cannot cross the ocean. So the first duty is to fix the boat." - Baba Hari Das

Having immersed herself in the study of yoga, Aruna utilizes the various limbs to navigate through life in a balanced manner. Aruna began her training in the Ashtanga Vinyasa style of yoga with Bhavani Maki who was her initial inspiration into the exploration of yoga philosophy in addition to the asana practice. This inspired her to seek the guidance of Baba Hari Dass and continue her training at the Mount Madonna Center where she now teaches in their teacher training program. Her practice and teaching style have been deeply influenced by her time spent in India studying at the Tantra-based Bihar School of Yoga and by a number of other master teachers from a wide variety of traditions from all over the world. Aruna is currently teaching at PCC, Yoga Within and Divinitree in the Santa Cruz area. She has completed her 500-hour YTT and is currently working on completing a training in the Trauma Release Process (TRE). As a student of Baba Hari Dass, she has been encouraged to deepen her own yoga practice by living and sharing a holistic approach to yoga. She is inspired by weaving yoga philosophy into playful asana classes for all levels of practitioners. Recently Aruna has been deepening and sharing her love for sacred sound, especially in the form of Kirtan. arunalove@gmail.com / YogaAruna.com

Bridget Puchalsky

Bridget’s mindful yoga teaching is rooted in the reintegration of body, mind and breath to promote the health and happiness of her students. Her classes are a creative and inspirational combination of physical alignment, therapeutic principles and energetic balance. A practitioner of movement sciences for thirty years, Bridget is certified in Classical Ashtanga yoga through Axis Yoga Trainings in Colorado and Mount Madonna Center’s Ayurvedic Institute. As a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and Acupuncture student, Bridget’s yoga classes promote the conscious flow of prana and qi while stabilizing the nervous system.

As her spiritual teacher Baba Hari Dass writes, “Yoga is not one particular method. As soon as a person starts thinking ‘I want to be a better person’ that is the start of yoga.” Bridget teaches and studies to learn by way of trainings in the Hatha yoga traditions of Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, and Ashtanga Vinyasa systems. LiveSimplyYoga.com

Delana Thompson

Delana loves how yoga's unique blend of physical practice and mental training translates directly to everything in life. Originally drawn to teaching yoga as a way to teach peace, Delana's vinyasa flow and yin/yang yoga classes blend postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and chanting with the timeless philosophies of yoga and Buddhism. She loves sharing the life-changing power of yoga with others and seeing how the experience contributes to their health, happiness, and peace of mind.

Delana gives thanks for all of her wonderful yoga teachers. Those who have most influenced her practice include Kelly Blaser, Sarah Powers, Mark Stephens, Amrito Cross, Phoenix Artemisia, Erich Schiffmann, Scott Blossom, and especially, the students in her classes. She dedicates her teaching to the benefit of all beings. For more information, please visit www.yogawithdelana.com

Gabriel Benjamin

Gabriel Benjamin is the son of Tri Yoga® Instructor Martha Posey, who quite wisely exposed him to the practice at the age of eleven. During young adult hood, Gabriel experienced chronic hip and back injuries that drew him deeper into the path of yoga and healing arts. Gabriel has been teaching yoga since 2001 and holds four levels of certification in Yoga and a certification as an Ayurvedic Consultant. As a former competitive cyclist Gabriel understands the needs of athletes and or students dealing with injuries in yoga practice. Gabriel assists teacher trainings, teaches group and private classes, as well as workshops, in Santa Cruz, The Bay area, and Southern California. Classes are designed to have equal parts strength and flexibility with an unbroken stream of breath awareness to create a challenging, healing, and meditative flow.

Jamie Ackley

Jamie is a certified massage practitioner and yoga instructor who completed teacher training with Donna Farhi and through Integrative Yoga therapy. Her classes create a supportive space for students to gently challenge themselves and reconnect with their own internal wisdom through body-mind centered movement.

Jessica Zovar

Exploring yoga since age 16, Jessica Zovar first completed yoga teacher training at the Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Santa Cruz and began teaching in 2003. Building on this initial foundation, she studied intensively under Sara Ivanhoe and other teachers at Yoga Works in Santa Monica and Los Angeles while continuing to hone her teaching skills in a variety of settings, including working with teens, individuals with injuries, as well as with friends, family and co-workers. Jessica’s style draws from multiple yogic disciplines, incorporating a focus on breath, alignment, and the interconnection between mind, body and spirit, allowing students to work at their own pace. Jessica’s classes are physically challenging, safe and fun. She views yoga as a path to relieve stress, build strength and emerge feeling refreshed. Jessica’s mission as a yoga teacher is to inspire greater health, self-love, community and play.

Kathryn Keller

Practicing yoga since 1990 and teaching since 1993, Kathryn is a registered yoga therapist. Her experiences with yoga, mediation, Feldenkrais, and gerontology allow Kathryn to offer a diverse and non-dogmatic approach. Kathryn has personally experienced yoga to be a powerful way of learning, healing, and transformation and she encourages a playful and noncompetitive attitude in all of her classes. Her style is inspired by a blend of Anusara, Integrative Yoga Therapy, and the Feldenkrais method. As an offering she states, “In gratitude to all of my teachers, I bow to the power and beauty of the practice of yoga.”

Kelly Blaser

Kelly's formal study of Yoga began in 1989, and she began studying with Kofi Busia, Senior Iyengar instructor, in 1995. She has a background in meditation, primarily guided by the Zen approach of Cheri Huber. Kelly began teaching yoga after her first teacher training at Mount Madonna Center in 1997. She has since continued her intensive training, primarily with Kofi, Sianna Sherman and John Friend. Kelly has been deeply influenced by the teachings of Anusara.

In addition to teaching throughout the Bay Area, Kelly has led dozens of retreats, both locally and internationally. Kelly has also taught yoga philosophy, advanced asana and yoga therapeutics modules, for Anusara Trainings and for the Mount Madonna Teacher Training Program.

Kelly is a Marriage Family Therapist Intern. The study of Shaivism, Buddhism, and Classical Yoga Philosophy has shaped Kelly's therapy practice. Despite all this rather intense study, Kelly remains mostly amused by the life experience. www.yogawithkelly.com

Mangala Norskog

RN, RYT 500, ALC, CMT

Mangala is a student of Baba Hari Dass, and continues to “Teach to Learn” as one of the senior instructors at Mount Madonna Center since 1996. Her instruction integrates devotional intention, anatomical reference, and subtle body physiology into the classical methods of traditional pranayama, meditation, and asana practice. Mangala is enthusiastic and dedicated to service as an articulate and compassionate advocate for others’ health, safety, and well-being. Her practice bridges classical training in Ayurveda & Yoga and experience as a Registered Nurse. In addition to being a yoga teacher trainer at MMC, she leads weekend workshops in “Asana & Sacred Sound” and serves on the Yoga Administration of Pacific Cultural Center. She instructs privately and in group settings to a variety of age groups.

Phoenix Artemisia

Phoenix began practicing Yoga devotedly in 1994 under the instruction of teachers from the Ashtanga tradition of Baba Hari Dass. Her personal studies in Eastern philosophy, shamanism and sacred mythology buoyed her through the completion of a BA degree in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. Phoenix received her first teaching certificate at the Kali Ray TriYoga Academy in 1999, then completed a 200+ hour Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training at Mt. Madonna in 2003. She has also completed teacher training modules with Senior Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, Kofi Busia, who she considers a beloved primary mentor.

In 2005, she earned a 200+ hour Certificate with honors from Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. She has been studying Vedic chanting and Indian philosophy intensively in India for the past three years and leads Yoga trips and teacher trainings in northern India to bring students to the source of Yoga by the sacred Ganga river.

She holds the Reiki Master level attunements and brings her passionate interest in anatomy, subtle energy work, years of daily meditation practice, and love to the adjustments given to each student. Her intention is to honor the individual practitioner and to create a traditional atmosphere in which one can experience the complete system of classical Yoga and enjoy a sense of sacred community, or sangha, as a support for a joyous, conscientious and wholistic life. www.phoenixyoga.net

Rachael Shishido

Rachael’s class focuses on utilizing the breath with asanas to cultivate a practice that serves in bringing greater vitality, peace, and presence of mind. Her instruction offers options of therapeutic variations to classical asanas so that the student may develop on their path in a way that honors their individual body type. Variations are also used to challenge particular muscle usage. Her instruction encourages alignment and awareness. Yoga has personally been instrumental in her healing and transformation and she is grateful to share her love of the practice.

Rachael brings over 18 years of experience as a teacher. Her first teacher training was in 1991 with Rod Styker and Erich Schiffman. From 1992-94 she completed her studies with Gary Kraftsow’s Viniyoga teacher training. She was deeply moved by the vedic chanting taught in the Krishmacharya lineage and continued chanting and text studies with Lisa Goodwin from 1993-96.

Her passion for studying yoga continued over the years with senior Iyengar teachers as well as teachers in Pattabi Jois tradition of Astanga yoga (1st and 2nd series).

Influential meditation practices with teachers such as Mother Meera, Prema Dasara (tibetan Tara and Vajrasattva practices), taoist Sifu S.K. Lew and Sifu Jerry Alan Johnson provides stable ground for her commitment to evolving with greater compassion and clarity. rachael.shishido@gmail.com

Rachel Sonnenblick

Primarily trained in the Iyengar tradition, Rachel has studied with teachers from a wide range of schools to deepen her understanding of the practice of yoga. Rachel’s classes focus on body awareness and alignment, and the integration of movement with breath. Her teaching style encourages a fun, inclusive atmosphere in which students of all levels and abilities feel supported in their practice.

Treea Clements

Treea utilizes yoga asana with breath awareness to help students find their unique alignment with the practice and with themselves. Her style is a creative blend, growing out of 18 years of practice. She has had many talented teachers from the Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, and Integrative Yoga Therapy styles. She has completed teacher trainings with Mount Madonna Center, Integrative Yoga Therapy, Erich Schiffman, and most recently Paul Grilley. Additionally, she has completed an Anusara Immersion, and an Anusara prenatal teacher training.

Treea began teaching in 1998, then added specialty classes Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga in 2005. Treea emphasizes healthy body alignment for each individual, rather than having an ideal version of the pose that everyone strives to achieve using the same alignment techniques. She also teaches breath awareness as a way to align the mind with the physical body and its inner presence of peace. In honor of some of her most inspirational yoga teachers, Treea encourages a light, open-hearted, focused, and playful approach to the practice, on and off the mat.

Valerie Moselle

Valerie began teaching prenatal yoga during her first pregnancy with her daughter, Poppy. An advocate of natural childbirth, her teachings focus on the development of strength and flexibility in both body and mind in preparation for labor. Through yoga she encourages women to become present to their changing bodies, and grounded in the emotional, energetic, and spiritual aspects of pregnancy as a way of preparing for birth and motherhood.

“One of the greatest gifts any yoga class can offer, especially one designed for a woman preparing to give birth, is the opportunity to trust one’s self.” Says Valerie. “When we take the time to become intimately involved in our experience –moment to moment-- we lay the foundation of self awareness, and the opportunity to recognize just how truly amazing we really are.”

Valerie has lived and studied yoga in Southern California, India, and San Francisco. Valerie's most influential teachers include Pulak Ranjan Shukla, Max Strom, Colette Crawford, and Paul Grilley. She holds advanced certification from the Interdisciplinary Yoga Institute in Costa Rica, and has also trained with Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty at Yoga Works in Santa Monica. Valerie is an Experienced Yoga Alliance Registered Teacher at the 500-hour level (E-RYT500) with an additional emphasis in Prenatal Yoga (RPYT). She currently teaches in Santa Cruz, CA where she lives with her husband and two young daughters.