Berkeley Yoga Center Instructors

Instructors

Scott Blossom

Scott Blossom is a Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner, Shadow Yoga teacher, and Ayurvedic Consultant. He has been studying yoga for over eighteen years and teaching for twelve. His primary teachers are Zhander Remete, founder of Shadow Yoga, and Dr. Robert Svoboda, renowned Ayurvedic physician and scholar. Visit www.shunyatayoga.com to learn more.
Email: shunyatayoga@gmail.com

Tony Briggs

In the first 30 years of my own practice I was fortunate enough to study with some of the most accomplished yogins in the world--BKS Iyengar, Judith Lasater, Manouso Manos, Kofi Busia, Ramanand Patel, and Zhander Remete. In the last ten years I have also studied Hua Shan Taoist Qi Gong with Larry Johnson. Naga Yoga is the distillation of everything I have learned from these teachers and from over 30 years of my own practice and teaching.
See www.naga69yoga.com for more information.
Email: tonybriggs108@sbcglobal.net
(415) 488-1930

Linda Chrisman

Linda Chrisman is an authorized teacher of Continuum Movement and has been practicing holistic bodywork for over thirty years. She specializes in an integrative approach informed by her extensive training in Rosen Method Bodywork, Continuum Movement, Somatic Experiencing and other movement and touch modalities.
See www.somaticwisdom.com for more information.
Email: linda@somaticwisdom.com
(510) 507-2903

Jill Davey

Jill brings a sense of ease and joy to her teaching. Combining both the subtle and dynamic, her classes are active yet gentle. A graduate of the Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program, Jill focuses on correct alignment within the form and the effective use of props, making her classes accessible to people of all ages, abilities and body types. She combines her love of yoga with breathing awareness and meditation to create space for both body and soul.
Email: jill@jpdcom.com
(510) 540-5286

Chandra Easton

Chandra Easton has studied Yoga for seventeen years and began teaching Yoga in 2000 after training with Integrative Yoga Therapy (IYT) and Sarah Powers. She has studied Shadow Yoga for nine years. Her primary yoga teachers are Zhander Remete, founder of Shadow Yoga, and Sarah Powers. Chandra also teaches Buddhist meditation based on her fourteen years of study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Language. Her primary Buddhist teachers are H,H. the Dalai Lama, Gyatrul Rinpoche, Lama Tsultrim Allione, and B. Alan Wallace.
Visit www.shunyatayoga.com to learn more.
Email: shunyatayoga@gmail.com.

Rebekah Fessenden

Rebekah Fessenden has been a student of Iyengar-style yoga since 1998 and has taught since 2006. Beginning with a background in dance, she came to yoga with a degree of body awareness. But through the tradition of Iyengar yoga she soon discovered the ability to look deeper within, to go beyond the physical placement and engage the mind. As a teacher, Rebekah focuses on clarity of alignment but also brings attention to the flow of breath and energy within each pose.

Rebekah received her certification through the extensive 3-year long Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley. There she had the pleasure of learning from several great teachers: Donald Moyer, Mary Lou Weprin and Sandy Blaine, among many.

These days, yoga continues to enliven and support all aspects of life for Rebekah, including dance, which she performs professionally with Shahrzad Dance Company, a Persian-modern fusion troupe.
Email: chicabekah@hotmail.com

Bridget Frederick

Bridget Frederick began studying yoga in 2002 and is a graduate of The Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program. Her pursuit of yoga came after a back injury that pushed a chronic back problem past her pain threshold. She found relief from the Iyengar focus on alignment and she learned skills to strengthen and heal her back. Bridget has worked with students of all ages - from age nine to ninety-four - and has a strong understanding of different body types and abilities. Individualized attention to each of her students and her adept use of props allow for a comfortable experience of yoga. She draws inspiration from the extensive experience of her Yoga Room teachers: Donald Moyer, Mary Lou Weprin, Sandy Blaine, Gay White and Herta Weinstein.
Email: bridget.frederick@gmail.com
(510) 306-0126

Melanie Green

Melanie Green is a yoga teacher, mother and co-director of the Berkeley Yoga Center. She has been practicing yoga since 1992 and teaching since 2000. Melanie makes yoga accessible to all. While encouraging students to focus on their breath, she teaches her students to deepen their practice as they honor their bodies. She values the spiritual aspects of yoga integrated with the asanas. Melanie focuses as much on the profound inner lessons of yoga: attention to the breath, letting go of thoughts and ego and perseverance through practice, as she does on the physicality of the poses. This process has been informed by Melanie's own experience with scoliosis.

Melanie's yoga background includes extensive study in Ashtanga. She has also trained in Iyengar, Pre/Postnatal and Vipassna Meditation. Her daily practice informs her teaching and gives her an abundance of experience from which to teach others. Melanie always finds ways to integrate lessons from her own yoga practice into her daily life with her children.

In addition to her regularly scheduled classes, Melanie also offers private instruction and workshops. For more information about Melanie and to see her full teaching schedule, please go to www.melyoga.com.
Email: melyoga@hotmail.com
(510) 368-3581

Erica Grevemeyer

Erica Grevemeyer is a lifelong student of the breath and 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

Jonothon Gross

Jonothon, a psychiatrist and yoga teacher, has focused on the connections between mind and body for more than twenty years. He continues to wonder about the elusive nature of the human soul.
Email: jonothong@msn.com
(510) 236-8612

Jessie Holland

Jessie Holland is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor and a certified Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist. Her yoga classes emphasize the precise alignment taught in the Iyengar system, along with sustained reflection on the connection of the body, mind and breath. She also integrates her studies of Ayurveda into class, helping students to harmonize the systems of the body with the rhythms of nature.

Jessie has a private Ayurveda practice on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. She studies regularly in India with the Iyengar family and renowned Ayurvedic physician, Dr. Vasant Lad. She has brought home much knowledge to share, and is eager to introduce students and clients to this ancient wisdom. See www.jessieholland.com for more information.
Email: hollandjessica@yahoo.com 510.926.0577

Iris Bhagvati Lange

Iris Bhagvati Lange began studying Kundalini Yoga in Hamburg, Germany in 2000. She completed her teacher training in Berkeley, CA in June 2006 and has been teaching since. To Iris, Kundalini Yoga is a complete lifestyle that enables her to live consciously and happily. She teaches because of her desire to share this great science, and to support others as they connect with their inner wisdom.
Email: bhagvati.kaur@yahoo.com

Ada Lusardi

Ada Lusardi creates an inviting environment in her classes and workshops combining expertise, compassion and exacting individual guidance to provide a challenging yet accessible practice for students of all abilities and ages. Based on more than 15 years of meditation and yoga training, and with her extensive knowledge of physiology and anatomy, she guides students to new levels of growth and healing. Her passion for movement springs from her experience as a professional dancer, Pilates teacher, Iyengar yoga instructor, and yoga teacher trainer. Ada is inspired by the dedication of her students, and is deeply grateful for the guidance provided her by her teachers: Donald Moyer, Patricia Sullivan, Mary Lou Weprin and Judith Hanson Lasater, among others. She leads classes and retreats throughout California's Bay Area, and, more recently, Portland, Oregon. See www.adayoga.com for more information.
Email: info@adayoga.com
(510) 552-0155

LeeAnn Mallorie

LeeAnn Mallorie is a Blue & Green Belt Level Nia teacher and Executive Coach, who specializes in facilitating transformational movement and conversation. Her Nia students value her precision in movement, her musicality and her playful spirit. Once a regionally renowned movement artist, she believes in the power of committed ongoing practice paired with joyful curious exploration, and is skilled at creating the right environment for genuine mind-body transformation to take place. LeeAnn brings a lifetime of movement training to her work, including ballet, jazz, modern dance, Latin dance, baton twirling, yoga and aikido. She has an MA in Social Psychology, is certified as a Somatic Coach through the Strozzi Institute, and is currently pursuing a Sound and Voice Healing Certificate at the California Institute of Integral Studies. LeeAnn also writes a weekly blog, called Living in Motion that offers practical exercises to help students to bridge the mind-body divide. For more information see www.iamlivinginmotion.com/nia.
Email: lmallorie@gmail.com
(415)342-6003

Scotty McCaulley

Scotty is a graduate of the Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program. He has been teaching Iyengar-style yoga for the past 10 years. Scotty was a late-comer to the practice of yoga and hence offers classes that are suited for both beginning through intermediate level studnets regardless of age. His intention is to teach classes which are available and welcoming to everyone. Scotty's teaching motto has become: "IF I CAN DO IT THEN YOU CAN DO IT TOO."
(510) 684-2007

Mark Pasley

Mark Pasley has been a yoga enthusiast since 1987, when he moved onto the same block as an Iyengar yoga studio in San Francisco. He took weekly Iyengar classes for years, until he moved to Berkeley and discovered Kundalini Yoga 11 years ago. He found the breathwork, chanting, mudras and meditations of Kundalini Yoga so liberating and energizing that he was soon hooked on the practice. He became a teacher 8 years ago and loves sharing this empowering and unique form of yoga with others.

Mark is also a massage therapist and shiatsu practitioner based in Oakland, CA. www.RelaxedEnergy.com
Email: mark@relaxedenergy.com

Herdis Pelle

Herdis is Danish by birth and co-founder of The Berkeley Yoga Center. She has been a student and teacher of Yoga and meditation for over 30 years. Throughout her life Herdis has been unwavering in her pursuit of True Nature. Some years ago, her life was changed in an instant: the Ground of Being was spontaneously revealed to her as her very Self. A few years later, Herdis was plunged into physical darkness through a rare eye-lid disorder. She was functionally blind for nine months. With the support of her yoga practice, meditation and other healing modalities, including modern medicine, Herdis has emerged from the darkness, sees with greater clarity, and speaks with authenticity and passion. These events have left her greatly humbled by the mystery of life.

Herdis brings to her classes a grounded and joyful presence. She invites her students to sense their bodies, moment to moment, welcoming with curiosity what comes and goes within the vaster field of awareness, which is always unchanging. Yoga practice with Herdis is an opportunity for transformation. Not always easy, but always authentic.
Email: Herdispelle@pacbell.net
(510) 649-9812

Mary Beth Ray

Mary Beth (MB) Ray has been exploring yoga as a physical practice and philosophy since the early 90s. Over the years, she has studied with wonderful teachers from various styles of Hatha yoga including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Yin, Viniyoga, Anusara, and Vinyasa Flow. She is especially drawn toward the moving meditation of the classic Ashtanga Vinyasa system and since 2006 she has been practicing in the Mysore tradition of Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois. This daily meditative practice, grounded in the Yoga Sutras, deeply informs the many facets of her life, especially as a mother, step-mother, and wife. MB shares the traditional Ashtanga sequencing with alignment cues, adjustments, and modifications that will help you develop your own inner and outer strength and flexibility. She believes that by attuning your awareness to the presence and quality of your breath during class you hone a more graceful engagement with your everyday life.
See www.mbryoga.com for more information.
Email: mb@mbryoga.com
(510) 387-6211

Jonathan Reynolds

Jonathan Reynolds has trained with the White Lotus Foundation, Erich Schiffmann, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is currently enrolled in JFK University's Graduate Counseling Psychology Program, and hopes to further integrate the practices of meditation, therapy, embodiment, and conscious relationship into his own life and work. Jonathan's teaching is born out of a deep gratitude for the inner relief and freedom that his own practice has provided over the years. Drawing on many wisdom traditions, his teaching and counseling sessions are centrally rooted in Buddhist Vipassana Meditation, the Classical Yoga of Patanjali, and the Nondual Advaita Vedanta teachings of Shankara. Generally speaking, Jonathan's teaching is greatly informed by his love of India, the cultural present and historical context of this sacred and enchanting land. His manner of teaching meditation is greatly influenced by time spent in the presence of Jack Kornfield, whose wisdom has infused Jonathan's voice with compassion, playfulness, and story. Jonathan is a founding teacher of the Learning To Listen Yoga & Meditation Center, a San Francisco-based Nonprofit Teaching Collective committed to offering tools that promote conscious living. He is a husband and a father, and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he offers private counseling sessions, teaches meditation and yoga, enjoys drinking tea, and leads retreats both locally and worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.ayogisway.com & www.learningtolisten.info.

Cybèle Tomlinson

Cybèle Tomlinson is a teacher and the co-director of the Berkeley Yoga Center where she offers classes and workshops. Her yoga journey began in her twenties when she discovered Kundalini yoga; later she studied Iyengar, Ashtanga, Vini and Yin Yoga. Yoga has enhanced Cybèle's life in so many ways--by supporting vibrant health, emotional balance, and mental clarity--and ultimately leading to lasting inner transformation. It has acted as an essential support for living well in a complex, changing world, while also providing a refuge. Mostly, her practice has led to a life that is more authentic and free.

Cybèle's teaching is directly inspired by her own experiences with yoga. She teaches in a clear, simple way, inviting students to skillfully explore and work their own "edge." She provides an open, nonjudgmental atmosphere in which to become more aware of the various layers of inner experience. Teachers who have most influenced and inspired her practice and teaching are T.K.V. Desikachar, Erich Schiffmann, Sarah Powers, Richard Miller, and Donald Moyer.

As well as teaching, Cybèle also writes; she is the author of Simple Yoga and Ayurveda Wisdom. She is currently deeply immersed in the Diamond Approach, a contemporary spiritual teaching. She lives with her husband and two sons in Berkeley. Email: cybeleb@hotmail.com
(510) 558-6936