• Janice Gates, Founding Director
Filled with wanderlust and a quest for truth and freedom, Janice set off for Asia in 1988 where she found her way to a ten-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Thailand. It was here that she discovered the power of meditation and was exposed to the practice of hatha yoga — she has been integrating the two ever since. For the past twenty years, Janice has continued to explore both soma and psyche and how the body and mind reflect and affect each other. She currently teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, as well as at retreats around the world. Janice has recently served as President of The International Association of Yoga Therapists, is author of Yogini, The Power of Women in Yoga and is a frequent contributor to Yoga Journal. She is co-founder of Metta Journeys, an organization dedicated to empowering women around the globe.
While Janice’s studies span the traditional streams of the hatha yoga tradition (Iyengar, Ashtanga Viniyoga), over the years her teaching has evolved away from formulaic approaches to one that honors the intuitive wisdom of the body and integrates her studies in Buddhist meditation and somatic psychology. Her classes are an invitation to move slowly and mindfully, challenge your edges and dive a little deeper into this experience of embodiment. For more about Janice, her retreats, events and writings, go to janicegatesyoga.com
• Patricia Craves, RYT 500, has spent most of her life as a dancer. She began studying Yoga in 1979. She graduated from the teacher-training program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and has a BFA and MA in dance. Patricia is gifted at working with a wide range of students, making the practice accessible to all. Her teaching reflects years of personal practice, a depth of knowledge of the philosophy of yoga and her interest in Ayurveda.
• Ford Peck has been practicing yoga since 1986 and teaching since 1990. His passion for teaching arises out of the huge impact yoga practice has had on his life. After some months of dedicated practice, Ford was surprised to discover that, not only was his body changing and becoming more healthy, but his mind and emotions were changing as well, becoming more balanced and clear. In addition to Hatha yoga, Ford has done intensive study and practice in Tibetan Buddhist meditation and in modern non-dual spirituality. His yoga teaching is inspired by his love of these spiritual traditions, and he aspires through his classes to help students gain a simple and clear experience of their own inherent depth and beauty.
• Catherine Henry came to Yoga after a lifetime as a dancer and professional gymnast. Coming from the physical she has moved towards the yogic balance of the breath, body and mind. Her classes are a combination of breath, flow and alignment converging with the management and direction of energy. A great patron of music, she incorporates music that breathes with us, to invigorate, soothe or stimulate self-reflection. Catherine has had the opportunity to study with many great teachers, and special training in Yoga for back care (the protocol used for an NIH study), which she brings to her healthy backs class and private sessions. Catherine is a full-time certified Yoga teacher and Yoga therapist, with a heart of devotion for the ancient and sacred art of Yoga.
• Margaret Kuffel began her training in yoga 17 years ago and has been teaching for the past eleven. Her teaching style is a balance between meditative flow and mindful structural alignment, customizing the class to best meet the individual needs of the students. Margaret believes the breath is the foundation of the yoga practice, giving us inner strength and a sense of expansion to our practice and our lives. She brings a depth of experience in both yoga and massage therapy and to her yoga and back care classes and private sessons. Her work is deeply healing and informed by her studies in bodywork, yoga, developmental movement, restorative and therapeutic yoga. Her teaching is influenced by the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (body-mind centering), Donna Farhi, JJ Gormely, Judith Lasater and Kausthub Desikachar.
• Romi Marks is a seasoned practitioner and teacher who began her journey with yoga in 1996 and became certified as a teacher at Kripalu in 2001. She brings a rich background in yoga and meditation having trained in Prenatal and Restorative yoga with Judith Lasater, completed a Yoga of the Heart training with Nischala Devi, and studied with master teachers Angela Farmer, Jean Marie Hayes, Stephen Cope, John Friend and Sylvia Boorstein. Romi's classes are gentle, deeply nourishing and powerfully healing. She most recently taught for seven years at Yoga Source in San Rafael and is now needing more room for her growing classes! We are excited to have her join our teaching faculty and welcome her to our sacred space.
• Ashley Sharp attended her first yoga class in 1990 in a summer dance workshop. Yoga was for me a natural segue from dance - an opportunity to continue living fully from within the body in a healthy integrated way. Ashley began practicing yoga in 1997 and began teaching full time in 2000. She completed two teacher trainings, one with Erich Schiffmann and another with Sat Santokh Sing. She studies asana with Bay Area teachers such as Tony Briggs, Ramanand Patel and Patricia Sullivan. Fascinated with the philosophical underpinnings of the asana practice led her to India in 2005 to study Advaita Vedanta with Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Currently she is enrolled in the Spirit Rock Yoga and Meditation Training Program in order to understand and deepen the connections between yoga asana and meditation.
• Nubia Teixeira started practicing Yoga at the age of 16 and has spent many years teaching Yoga in her home country of Brasil. She began her studies with Bhakti and Hatha Yoga and has since been deepening her studies through books, pilgrimages, workshops, and teacher trainings around the world including two trips to India where she studied both Yoga and Classical Indian Dance. Borrowing from different traditions, teachers and cultures, she has developed a teaching style, which is flexible, spontaneous, and sensitive to the needs of her students. Her classes are rooted in the heart of Bhakti, incorporating the alignment of Iyengar Yoga, the fluidity of Ashtanga Vinyasa, and a passion for all forms of dance.
• Lynn Weinberger began her study of yoga during the 12 years she lived in India in the 1960s with her husband Jon. For over 40 years she has practiced yoga. Before studying the teachings of the Krishnamachara lineage with Gary Kraftsow and the American Viniyoga Institute, she had completed three other certified teacher trainings. She has completed the 1000 hour teacher training and yoga therapy certification of the American Viniyoga Institute. For over ten years now Lynn has been teaching and holds the highest certification with the Yoga Alliance, the ERYT. She is a certified yogatherapist and is a member of IYAT. She is featured in Gary Kraftsow’s two DVD series on the National Institute of Health-sponsored clinical study on the back and sits on the American Viniyoga Institute’s board of directors. She teaches at the Yoga Garden and SMC, Marin and sees students privately.
• Tammie Winter is a licensed and certified yoga instructor. She has a Masters in Occupational Therapy (OT) and has been practicing pediatric OT for over 7 years. Tammie applies her yoga training and OT experience to bring an integrated approach to children and families. She completed her first yoga teacher training in 2004 with The Samarya Center and has continued on to train with Barefoot Bodies where she studied a multi-style approach, both Yoga Alliance Certified. She has also studied with Jane Austin in the bay area for pre and post natal yoga.
<— BACK TO CLASSES
