Santosha Yoga Taos

 

Jennifer began studying Ashtanga Yoga when she was 21 at the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, CO, while she was a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After graduating college she left Boulder and returned several years later to resume studying with Richard Freeman, her first teacher. In 1997 she moved to Taos and began teaching Yoga in 2000. She is extremely dedicated and focused to practice from a strong heart connection with the teachings.  As a teacher herself, she strives to help people find alignment with their own truest Selves, physically, emotionally, and energetically.

 

 

Alana started practicing Iyengar Yoga at the Silent Dance Center in Hawaii in 1987 and over the last 25 years has explored many Hatha Yoga styles. She teaches a blend of Hatha Yoga approaches with respect to each student’s individual needs and limitations. As an American Council on Exercise-Certified Group Fitness Instructor Alana has taught most modalities of group fitness from aerobics to Pilates over the last 10 years and also works as a Personal Trainer, LMT and Wellness Coach. Alana has enjoyed a well rounded career in wellness support for over 20 years, practicing as a LMT since 1990. She studied Eastern medicine at the New England Shiatsu Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Nursing Program at Kauai Community College. She has developed and ran several wellness programs for UNM, the YMCA, as well as for Dr. Harvey White in Albuquerque before moving to Taos the summer of 2011. She is a proud mother of five children and also performs as a singer/songwriter throughout New Mexico.

 

Julie Cortopassi completed her Yoga Teacher Training Certification with UNM Taos in May 2011, and is excited to be teaching a very gentle Yoga Therapy-oriented class.  She has lived in Taos for 11 years, and has two children, Juniper and Santiago.  Julie is inspired by the power & grace of Yoga which has truly transformed her life.  Julie had practiced yoga off and on as a teenager and young adult, but after the birth of her second child she became more dedicated to the practice and has worked over the past few years to deepen her knowledge as a yogini.  Namaste!

 

 

Rajinder has been studying and teaching Kundalini Yoga since 1982.  She was able to learn directly from Yogi Bhajan as well as studying in an Ashram in San Diego, Ca. You will find her style easy going with an emphasis of safety, good posture, deep breathing and learning the wonderful aspects of meditation.  She is also a Certified Pilates Instructor  and offers classes in Taos.  

 

 

Shira, co-founder of Santosha Yoga, fell in love with yoga 12 years ago doing a video at home. She loved how Yoga made her feel, so she began studying & attending classes.  She has since completed two Yoga Teacher Training programs and continues studying with advanced teachers. Most of Shira’s training is in the Iyengar method and in Universal Yoga. Shira is passionate about the science of mind-body connection, the power of Yoga to increase awareness, and has studied movement, anatomy and psychology in many other genres (including Shiatsu Massage and Somatic Psychology). Shira feels that nothing has transformed her life in a more positive way than practicing yoga. It has helped her effectively fight depression, find relief to chronic back pain, realize a level of physical fitness unmatched by other exercise, and gives her life an overall sense of peace, contentment and strength. Her dream is to share this tradition to increase health & happiness in her community and beyond.

 

 

 

Olympia began studying yoga in her twenties to complement her dance practice and with each passing year became more and more dedicated to the yoga practice. She thrived under the Iyengar- style yoga instruction of Mary Lou Weprin, Donald Moyer, Gay White and Richard Rosen, and received her yoga certification in 2001 from The Yoga Room in Berkeley, California.She credits her yoga practice with nourishing her from the inside out so that she has the physical and spiritual energy to do the work she loves. She discovered that supporting her yoga practice with a holistic approach to self-care and integrating Ayurvedic healing principles into her daily life has enhanced her health. Olympia is a practicing Ayurvedic facial therapist. She holds a master’s degree in Clinical Holistic Health Education.

 

 

I started doing yoga about 12 years ago after a car accident left me with intense neck and back pain. After discussing my options with a doctor for mainstream treatment and its ultimate ineffectiveness, I decided to investigate alternative treatments. Several sources of information presented Yoga as a means of alleviating pain & stiffness. It started as a physical exercise for me. I started taking basic yoga classes wherever I could. After a couple of years of practice, I began to notice changes and benefits beyond just the physical. I have more energy, I am calmer in general and feel stronger. I also realized at some point that Yoga (Asana) was something I was actually good at. About 5 years after I started practicing here in New Mexico, my primary teacher, Michele Marien, had hip replacement surgery. When she returned to teaching after her recovery, she would ask me to demonstrate postures and sometimes lead parts of Sun Salutation. This planted a seed for me and I went looking for a teacher for yoga teacher certification. Another teacher of mine, Rob Stewart, introduced me to Sean Tebor through several workshops that were offered at Santosha. Sean brought my practice full circle – teaching Yoga with an emphasis on posture placement adjusted for healthy anatomical alignment. I started training with Sean about a year later and will complete training for my certification Spring 2o12.

 

 

 

Kirstie started practicing yoga in the mid-nineties and hasn’t stopped. She teaches Myofascial Yoga which is alignment based yoga based on the Anatomy Trains methodology developed by Thom Meyers. She is Chair of Integrative Health & Medical Massage where she co-founded the UNM-Taos Teacher Training Program and founded the Integrative Massage Therapy Program. She brings her experience as a bodyworker into teaching asana (yoga postures). She is passionate about continuing her education as a yogini and shares this with her students. Myofascial yoga encourages longer holds in the asana to open up specific lines of the myofascial body e.g., superficial back line. For info: http://www.balinesetraditionalmassage.com

 

 

 

Rob started taking yoga classes in 1996 as an art student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was certified to teach by the Chicago Yoga Center in the year 2000 under the direction of his teacher Suddha Weixler. Rob has consistently taught and practiced an integrated style of yoga drawing from classical Yoga systems, infusing his knowledge of functional anatomy, structural alignment, and most importantly the breath. This fusion invites the beginning as well the advanced student to find insights into their own practice. Rob is also a licensed massage therapist with a passion for Craniosacral and Myofascial release.