Continue training with some of your favorite instructors from Barefoot Movement…
Alek Trail
For info on classes with Alek, please send her an email:
Alek came to yoga in her late teens, and since then has been exploring and experimenting with the physical and mental practice as a way to stay curious, humbled, and connected. With a background in modern dance and improvisational movement, yoga has provided her different perspectives to approach and refine the body and mind in subtler ways.
With her teaching philosophy rooted in authenticity, kinesthetic awareness, and inquiry, her classes give her students a deeper sense of their inner landscape into which they can dive deeper intellectually, spiritually, and physically. She creates an experience for her students that allows them to hone awareness, drop in, and gain more mindful insight into their own unique personal practice. Alek received her 500-hr certification with Leah Gillman in 2014. Though she is now based in Austin, TX, she is currently a co-owner of Barefoot Movement and travels back frequently (keep your eyes peeled for her on the schedule!). She continues her personal studies in Shadow (Hatha) Yoga with Mark Horner in Berkeley, CA.
- Instruction style: slow-paced, alignment-focused vinyasa
- Alek’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students looking to find physical clarity and refine intentionality with breath
Alicia Mandac
For updates on Alicia’s teaching plans, please send her an email.
Alicia has been practicing hatha/vinyasa/flow yoga since 2008 and instructing since 2018. She originally came to yoga for the fitness elements, but stayed with the practice because of its ability to transform the soul from the inside out. Alicia decided to pursue teaching yoga as a way to help others learn how to be kinder to themselves and to cultivate a greater sense of mindfulness through the physical practice. She trained under Anuja Chaudhri at Alamden Yoga in San Jose, with a focus on hatha and vinyasa styles. Alicia is grateful for all of her yoga teachers, past and present, and honors them with every class she teaches.
- Instruction style: slow paced, compassionate, and accessible; focused on building strong foundation and alignment on the mat
- Alicia’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who are newer to yoga, students who prefer a slower practice
Disha Gupta
Visit Disha’s website HERE
- Instruction style: vinyasa yoga with attention to overall body awareness and curiosity
- Disha’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who are looking to increase understanding and awareness of their body, mind and emotions through physical practice
Gordon Jonas
Find Gordon’s teaching schedule HERE
Gordon has been practicing vinyasa and hatha yoga since 2009 and instructing since 2014. He stumbled upon yoga as an elective PE course in college, and found that it was a perfect counterbalance to his other physical pursuits – martial arts, basketball, and cycling, et al – as well as a catalyst for meditation and achieving a flow state. Gordon completed his 200-hour training at Barefoot Movement, and has cultivated his style from many of the teachers there, especially Leah Gillman, with whom he shares a martial arts training background that is very influential to his approach to movement. His sequencing is also very informed by a study of calisthenics and functional movement patterns, with an emphasis on balancing the development of strength and mobility. Gordon continues to develop his yoga practice at Barefoot Movement and throughout the wonderful East Bay yoga community.
- Instruction style: vinyasa with emphasis on breathing, alignment, and dynamic transitions
- Gordon’s classes will be particularly interesting to: people who enjoy a slower brand of vinyasa, strength work, and challenging transitions
- Classes taught: Advanced
- Available for private lessons
Hanna Malm, talar svenska
Visit Hanna’s website HERE
Hanna has been practicing Vinyasa yoga since 2000 and instructing since 2010. The birth of her first child was the life changing event that brought her deeper into yoga. After the birth of her second child, she invested in herself and took the Barefoot Movement Yoga Teacher Training with Leah Gillman who has greatly influenced her teaching style. The experience of the teacher training made her realize she had just scratched the surface of a lifelong journey with yoga. Teaching yoga allows her to share her experience with the practice: one that connects all aspects of self – body, mind, and breath – and by connecting to oneself on a deeper level we also connect to the world around us in a more true way. Her teaching style is encouraging, supportive, and honest, creating a space, a safe and grounded environment in which to grow and learn where you can get to know your body and expand its capabilities. Hanna has enjoys continuing education with Jason Crandell as well as with Jane Austen. Ultimately, Hanna’s students inspire her and teach her new things every day.
talar svenska
- Instruction style: Vinyasa, Prenatal & Postnatal Yoga with a focus on breath and alignment.
- Hanna’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students looking to explore and expand the capabilities of their body.
Joivida Ross
I’m not currently offering asana classes, but check out foodculture.org — there’s experiential programs definitely informed by my yoga study! Just not formally yoga.
Jovida has been practicing vinyasa flow yoga (and similar styles) since 2006, and instructing since 2012. She was first introduced to yoga as a child by her mother, who practiced Sivananda yoga. As an adult she turned to yoga as a holistic practice for steadying the body-mind and understanding oneself. Jovida completed 500 hours of Flow Yoga Teacher Training with Leah Gilman and other Barefoot Movement faculty between 2012-2013. Since 2014 she has studied intensively with Mark Horner at Hatha Yoga Shala East Bay. Additional yoga influences include Leah‘s alignment-attentive vinyasa flow that incorporates insights from martial arts and dance, and vigorous vinyasa teachers such as Stephanie Snyder and Naushon Kabat-Zinn. Jovida also practices 60-40 Stance, an applied mind-body technology that incorporates aspects of Mu-i Tai Ji Zen, with guidance from Norma Wong of the Institute of Applied Zen.
- Instruction style: Grounded flow with clear sequencing and support to explore subtleties.
- Jovida’s classes will be particularly interesting to: Someone who wants to dive deeper into the common building blocks of asana, within a well-rounded practice.
Karen Johnson
Contact Karen at Karen@heartsleap.org for affordable private instruction for healthy aging, kids yoga parties and children’s yoga classes. Karen Kangaroo currently teaches teeny yoginis at Heartsleap Preschool campuses and trains instructors at early childhood conferences.
Karen has been practicing hatha and vinyasa yoga since 1980 and instructing since 2008. Yoga classes led her to a career in modern dance. Dance injuries led her to the deepening of her yoga practice. Karen completed her teacher training with Barefoot Movement founder Leah Gillman in 2007. She is inspired by the neuroscience and inner connection of trainer Bo Forbes; the creative pulse that connects the rhythm of the breath with the rhythm of heart & brain waves taught by Shiva Rae; and the alignment principles taught by Leslie Howard. Karen’s classes are designed to develop the 6th sense (interoception – a mindfulness that is expressed in the body) and proprioception strength training using playful balances and inversions to soothe the nervous system.
- Instruction Style: Mindful Flow
- Karen’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who want to become more present and melt into motion while riding a wave of breath and asana
Leah Gillman
Visit Leah’s website HERE for info on her classes, retreats, bodywork sessions and beyond!
Leah has been practicing yoga for nearly 30 years and leading yoga classes for more than 20. She opened Barefoot Movement, in Oakland in 2010 and ran it until 2018 when she sold it to three Barefoot Movement teachers ands became an employee herself. She is a dedicated student and fan of Devorah Sacks. She also studied extensively with Mark Horner who greatly enriched her experiences in both yoga and backpacking. Her yoga classes often include methods and techniques from her dance, martial arts and bodywork training. She’s interested in engaging her students on an efficient path to more balance, ability and ease in their life.
- Instruction style: Leah aims to offer an accessible, potent practice that will improve students’ bodies and sense of well-being.
- Leah’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who prefer a mindful, engaging and challenging practice that will, with regular practice, make a fundamental difference in the way they move through their days.
Leonora Willis
Visit Leonora’s website HERE
Leonora began teaching Yoga in 2010 when she graduated from Barefoot Movement’s Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher Training program and prenatal Yoga since 2013. She’s taught for Barefoot Movement since then, corporate entities, not-for-profit organizations, schools, Yoga studios and for private clients, both in person and virtually. The foundation of all of Leonora’s teachings stems from her belief that Yoga is a practice that can be used to help uncover the self while providing balance to one’s physical, mental and emotional health and well-being. Her teaching influences come from a vast array of somatic healing modalities and other holistic practices: through Yoga asana, bodywork, acupuncture, martial arts, dance — and her teachers continue to teach her the ways of nature’s grace in movement mechanics, anatomy, breath, art, history, philosophy, culture, social activism, compassion, healing touch, and above all respect for the practices one immerses in and the wisdom gifted to us within those practices. As an indigenous person of color, this value of respect is of tantamount importance. Also, as a previous academic within the post-secondary education institution in California, Leonora marries this Yogic instruction to its historical cultural philosophy and theory.
Leonora is also a trained and practicing birth and postpartum doula and one of three proud owners of Barefoot Movement.
- Instruction style: vinyasa flow and alignment-focused yoga with hands-on assistance. Leonora will adjust her sequence and class outline depending on the class environment and atmosphere, time of day, day of week, week in the month, season, who is in the room and what energy they bring. Leonora will sometimes play music in her classes.
- Leonora’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who want to delve more fully into themselves in a full body practice that builds strength and flexibility in a compassionate, self-reflective manner.
Mary Beth Ray
Visit Mary Beth’s website HERE
Mary Beth Ray (MB) 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. MB finds that with a consistent yoga practice she sleeps more soundly, her health has improved, and she is genuinely happier with an ability to be more present and move through her life with a bit of grace.
She has been teaching since 2009 and is registered through Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 and YACEP. As a teacher MB shares yoga as a day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of tuning your awareness to the presence and quality of your breath. In her classes and workshops, she guides you with subtle alignment cues, gentle hands-on adjustments, and suggested modifications that will help you develop your own inner and outer strength and flexibility.
MB has been part of the teacher training faculty at both Barefoot Movement and Square One Yoga in the SF Bay Area teaching foundations of asana, Sanskrit basics, introduction to the Yoga Sutra, and Ethics.
MB is also certified as a Yoga for Osteoporosis teacher by Dr. Loren Fishman, MD and certified in Accessible Yoga by Jivana Heyman. In addition, she is a member of International Association of Yoga Therapists, and a certified holistic nutrition consultant and Board Certified Functional Medicine health coach, and a peer educator for American Bone Health .
She is currently in Yoga Therapist training at the Yoga Well Institute under the guidance of Chase Bossart, student of Mr. Desikachar in the Viniyoga tradition.
Practicing with MB you will hone a healthy balance between effort and ease and discover a more graceful engagement with your everyday life.
Natalie Russell, se habla espanol
I’m taking a break from public classes for a bit. If you want to be updated when that changes, you can email me HERE. You can also find some pre-recorded content as part of the Yoga teacher training program at HERE. If you are interested in my PT services, you can find me at HERE (currently serving folks who identify as women).
Natalie has been practicing various styles of yoga since 2001 and instructing since 2012. Though initially drawn to the physical aspects of the practice, she continues to return to her mat for yoga’s many intrinsic lessons in self-awareness, honesty, vulnerability, and dedication. Her formal training began at Barefoot Movement with Leah Gilman and Mary Beth Ray, and she has continued her training at Yoga Tree and Love Story Yoga in San Francisco. Natalie’s practice and teaching are influenced by her experience as a student of Jason Crandell, Garrick Peters, Leah Gillman, and Mary Beth Ray. Her teaching is further influenced by her education as a physical therapist. Her classes emphasize focus and precision while maintaining a light-hearted approach. Natalie’s pronouns are she/her.
se habla espanol
- Instruction style: Vinyasa
- Natalie’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who are interested in a steady-paced class with a technical focus
Tako Oda
Visit Tako’s website HERE or follow him on Instagram HERE
Tako’s classes will be of interest to: students intentionally growing their skills — As Tako gets to know you and your practice, instruction will become more personalized, meeting you where you are.
Some instructors are still adding classes to their schedule, check back soon for updates!
Alison Ray
Alison has been practicing vinyasa yoga since the late 1990s and instructing since 2020. After dabbling in yoga for several years, Alison found a yoga home at Barefoot Movement in 2011 and has had a committed practice ever since. Alison’s yoga instruction is influenced by all faculty at Barefoot Movement; in particular Leah Gillman, Leonora Willis, and Alek Trail.
- Instruction style: slow vinyasa yoga with attention to body awareness
- Alison’s classes will be particularly interesting to: those new to yoga & interested in exploring how bodies move
Brianna Wilson
Brianna started her vinyasa journey a couple of years ago in search of solace and healing. As a lover of nature and the outdoors, Brianna was quickly drawn to yoga and its dichotomy between tranquility and challenge (in both the psychological and physiological realms).
As Brianna rooted herself in daily practice, she discovered her purpose was her awakening. At this divine time, an opportunity to deepen her practice by completing a Teacher Training Program via Barefoot Movement came about, which lasted a full human gestation period — 9-months!
Brianna takes pride in representing a demographic which conventionally goes unseen in today’s yoga society. Now Brianna seeks to share the practice with not only enthusiasts, but with Black and Brown communities who are oppressed, underrepresented, and marginalized as a reminder that yoga is for all.
- Instruction Style: Vinyasa Yoga with an emphasis on breath and stillness
- Brianna’s classes will be particularly interesting to: practitioners of all levels who seek to find a balanced practice
Cometria Cooper
Cometria has been practicing yoga since 1999 and instructing since 2020. While she actively participated in sports as a child, it was during her undergraduate years that she took a yoga class at the university rec center and immediately experienced an openness that she did not know was possible. She continued to practice yoga as a supplement to martial arts, running, and samba. It was not until she was pregnant that yoga became a pivotal part of her life. Cometria completed her 200-hour training at Barefoot Movement, the community that welcomed her during her pregnancy. Her sequencing is focused on a thoughtful and complete energetic experience. Cometria continues to share and develop her yoga practice at Barefoot Movement and with her community.
- Instruction style: vinyasa with emphasis on grounding, alignment, movement of energy, and core strength
- Cometria’s classes will be particularly interesting to: people who crave a space for themselves to feel supported and challenged, people who care for others, and people of color
Darlene Horgan
Darlene has practiced yoga for decades. Through the years, she has experienced a variety of disciplines including hatha, Iyengar, yin, vinyasa and a variety of teacher-inspired variations. Starting her journey with little knowledge or understanding, she learned first and foremost that the breath is paramount to every yoga practice which aligns mind, body, and spirit. This knowledge has remained central to her practice, allowing Darlene to incorporate breath as a vital ingredient into every style she explores.
For Darlene, yoga is a life-long commitment. She continues to learn and grow from teachers and fellow students. In 2019, she joined Barefoot Yoga’s Teacher Training program to expand her own knowledge and experience as well as learn how to apply both to help others engage in their own practice. She is excited to add teaching to her yoga journey.
- Instruction style: focused, supportive, descriptive and accessible; focused on yoga being accessible and beneficial for all.
- Darlene’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who have no knowledge of yoga or students who want to focus on foundational elements in their practice
Gehry Oatey
Gehry has been practicing ashtanga/vinyasa yoga since 2000. He just recently completed the teacher training at Barefoot Movement with Leonora Willis/Alek Trail. He has studied locally with Annie Carpenter, Charu Rachlis, Leonora Willis, Melina Meza, and Laura Camp. Gehry is a former dancer and middle school teacher who found yoga to be a healing medium for physical and emotional trauma in the body while deepening an understanding of oneself. In addition to teaching yoga at Barefoot Movement, Gehry teaches to yoga to seniors in low income housing, turns shipping containers into cafes, and develops his parenting humility.
- Instruction Style: Vinyasa Yoga with attention to restoring balance and strength.
- Gehry’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who are deepening an understanding for the connection between physical and emotional well being.
Henry Lu
Henry has been practicing Vinyasa yoga since 2005 and instructing since 2010. After training in the martial arts in his early years, Henry found yoga to be an ideal progression of body discipline and body awareness. He completed his 500-hour certification at Barefoot Movement in 2015 and has been heavily-influenced by Leah Gillman.
- Instruction style: Vinyasa yoga with focus on mindfulness.
- Henry’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students looking for a Vinyasa class with a emphasis on movement, mindfulness, and exploration.
Hilary Near
Hilary has been practicing yoga since 2000 and instructing since 2017. She found a yoga home at Barefoot Movement in 2013. As many Western practitioners, Hilary was drawn by the stress-reduction and physical benefits. Since deepening her personal practice through the support of the Barefoot Movement Cultivate Your Practice and Teaching Skills training 2015-2016, she embraced a more comprehensive practice of yoga as a spiritual path. She is currently a student at Shunyata shadow Yoga.
- Instruction style: vinyasa yoga with attention to alignment
- Hilary’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who appreciate a balanced practice, incorporating mindfulness and breathwork
Jaime Adler
Jaime has been practicing vinyasa style yoga since 2011. She came to yoga as an adult to fill an innate need to move and stretch her body after practicing dance as a child. Jaime’s yoga journey is an example of “showing up” to the mat. The more she practices, the more she uncovers how much yoga has to offer in transforming a busy mind and in transforming one’s relation to the world. Jaime sees herself as a life-long learner whose teaching style is to hold space in class for others to explore their practice.
Jaime’s style is influenced by the Barefoot Movement style of Leah Gillman, yoga teachers across the Bay Area, and by Carrboro Yoga Company in North Carolina. She completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training at Barefoot Movement and has completed additional trainings on energetics and breath at Nest Yoga.
- Instruction Style: Accessibly paced; connecting mind, breath, and body; encourages students not to take themselves too seriously
- Jaime’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students who like a slower class; students who want to explore the depths of asana (poses) and explore what yoga is beyond the poses
Jinah Choi
Jinah has been practicing hatha / vinyasa yoga since 2013. She initially practiced yoga as a physical exercise and a way to listen to and honor her body. While regularly attending yoga classes taught by Madoka Hara at the YMCA, her curiosity and love for yoga grew beyond the physical. Wanting to deepen her understanding of yoga philosophy and energetics, Jinah completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training through Barefoot Movement in 2020 under Leonora Willis and Alek Trail. She practices yoga on and off the mat in order to continuously connect with her body and mind, and find ways to authentically connect with the world.
- Instruction Style: Alignment focused practice with attention to the breath
- Jinah’s classes will be particularly interesting to: Students who seek well-rounded practice and deep inquiry into self
Kara Contreary, se habla espanol
Kara has been practicing vinyasa flow yoga since 2002, and instructing since 2017. Injuries from a lifetime of sports that focused on strength and speed brought her to yoga, which has provided patience, humility, and a sense of wonder about the human body. She found Barefoot Movement in 2015 and was captivated by Leah Gillman’s synthesis of yoga, martial arts, and dance. In 2016 she completed Barefoot Movement’s 200-hour teacher training program. She believes yoga is both physically transformative and a rich path towards knowledge of self and compassion for others. She continues to learn and is influenced by her teachers at Barefoot Movement, Mark Horner Yoga, and Shunyata Yoga.
se habla espanol
- Instruction style: vinyasa flow
- Kara’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students looking for a balanced practice with creative sequences and plenty of opportunities to explore
Katie Issel Pitre
Katie Issel Pitre has been practicing Vinyasa and Jivamukti yoga styles of yoga since 1999, and instructing yoga since 2016. Katie has also trained in Modern Dance, Ballet and Hip Hop in CA and NY at the pre-professional level until a knee injury took her out of dance. Wanting to keep movement in her body Katie came to Jivamukti Yoga, a combination of Hatha, Vinyasa and Ashtanga and found the movement home she was looking for as a former dancer. Jivamukti Yoga offered her spiritual, physical and social community that nourished her and set her on her yogic path. Inspired by the teachings of Sharon Gannon and David Life, Jivamukti founders, Katie trained with Rima Rabbath, a Jivamukti senior teacher, and her mentor Lady Ruth in NY. Katie also trained with Dharma Mitra in NY helping her learn more advanced asana variations. Personalized instruction, authenticity, chanting and a deep personal practice informed their classes – and provide inspiration to Katie in her classes. An egoic pursuit of an outer shape caused Katie to sustain an lower back injury during her NY training – which prompted her to look more deeply at the teachings of yoga, and how she could deepen her practice towards proper alignment and support. Katie currently trains with Barefoot teachers, and various other teachers in the Bay Area when she can. Mostly, Katie develops her own style blending her technical training as a dancer, and yoga in her home practice. Having birthed two children at home, Katie’s pursuit of genuine experiences inform her body knowledge and physical expression both in prenatal and open level classes. Katie’s classes focus a lot on transitions between the asanas – weight exchange, stabilizer muscles, core and parallel strength, movement informed by back body awareness – as inspired by the teachings of Leah Gillman and Alek Trail. Katie keeps the class dynamic incorporating gentle, pedestrian and asana-informed vinyasa flow style. Katie plays music, and encourages students to connect with her and each other to build yoga community. Katie trained Prenatal Yoga with Cybele Tomilnson in 2016, and with Alek Trail in a 7 week mini-teacher training in 2017.
- Katie’s classes will be particularly interesting to: A yogi who wants to deepen his or her own practice, gain deeper understanding of alignment, personalize the asana in their own bodies, find a graceful dynamic flow between asana, and connect authentically will find a home in Katie’s classes.
Leah Curran
Leah has been practicing vinyasa yoga since 2001, and instructing since 2015. She took up yoga during college to supplement her training in ballet and modern dance. The attention to alignment, breath, and building strength and flexibility was excellent cross training and helped tremendously with injury prevention and recovery. Over the years, Leah’s practice has deepened beyond just a physical expression, to helping to work through life’s ups and downs, manage anxiety, prepare for the birth of her two sons, and navigate the trials of parenthood after birth. She has found a passion in teaching prenatal and postnatal yoga – which she began in 2015 while pregnant with her first son – and finds great joy in nourishing the bodies and spirits of mamas during their pregnancies and into the postpartum period. Leah has extensive training in pelvic floor and core health (especially for the pre and postnatal body) and incorporates a lot of this expertise into her classes. Leah has trained in yoga instruction with Barefoot Movement, prenatal yoga with Cybele Tomlinson, yoga for the pelvic floor with Leslie Howard, as well as in Luna Mother Co’s method for pelvic floor and core health. In addition, Leah is certified as both a personal trainer and nutrition coach through NASM. Leah’s classes are athletic – engaging the full body and breath – and incorporate elements from her dance, somatic and fitness background.
- Instruction style: vinyasa yoga with attention to alignment and breath
- Leah’s classes will be particularly interesting to: those who are pregnant and students interested in building or refining their yoga practice and technique through a focus on alignment.
Martha Breen
Martha Breen discovered Hatha yoga in Southern Indiana; it was 1972 and Southern Indian was not a hotbed of yoga training. She took classes from a young Yugoslavian boy. There still was a Yugoslavia. After moving to the Bay Area, she returned to yoga after studying martial arts for more than a decade. In the late 80’s-early 90’s she studied Iyengar with Rodney Yee, Donald Moyer, and Mary Lou Weprin. In 2008 she met Leah Gillman and discovered Vinyasa yoga. She took the Cultivate Your Practice training at Barefoot Movement in 2016 with Leah Gillman, Leonora Willis, Mary Beth Ray, and Karen Johnson. She has expanded her practice to include Ashtanga which she studies with Mary Beth Ray and Ava Roy.
- Instruction style: Focus on classical shapes and poses that move in a three-dimensional space.
- Martha’s classes will be particularly interesting to: People who are looking for a practice to calm the mind, soothe body; a practice that is grounded, well rounded, and fun.
Tamara Dukes
Tamara Dukes has been practicing yoga since 1999, and has dreamt about deepening her practice and becoming a yoga instructor for over 10 years. She is excited to have finished her 200 hour teaching qualification with Barefoot Movement this past year.
Having played tennis competitively in her earlier years, Tamara came to yoga to heal an unexpected neck injury, While she was very inflexible at first, and downward dog was her nemesis for too many years to count, she immediately loved the calm afforded by savasana/corpse pose and could glimpse at the inner knowledge provided by yoga that transcended its beneficial effects on the body (though she loved those too!). Over the course of practicing yoga, Tamara has spent time in different Vinyasa traditions, including Ashtanga and Anusara, and incorporates those lineages and the wisdom gleaned from Barefoot Movement teachers into her own practice and class offerings.
In addition to teaching yoga at Barefoot Movement, Tamara is an educator/leadership coach in Oakland who has been working in service of young people even longer than she has been on the yoga mat. From both practices she has learned the power of deep listening, and the belief that the best teachers allow space for students to tap into their own brilliance and honor their own journey.
- Instructional Style: Vinyasa flows that link breath to movement and invite exploration and discovery of the physical body and beyond.
- Tamara’s classes will be particularly interesting to: students striving to improve strength, flexibility and body awareness, and balance challenge and ease in their practice.
Theresa Kelly
Theresa encourages building and understanding one’s foundation in each and every asana. She utilizes her love and knowledge of anatomy to dive in to the inner workings of the body, knowing that every day is different, and every body is unique. Theresa has a background in theatre and is currently on the path to becoming a physical therapist, so she balances her focus on the science of things with playful exploration and a lighthearted attitude. Her style encourages spending time finding the poses; using self-massage techniques and thoughtful sequencing to deepen the students’ grasp on their own foundational alignments.
Theresa received her 200 hr. and 500 hr. teaching certificates from Barefoot Movement, has over 1800 hours of teaching experience, is trained in children’s yoga (miniyogis® training Program), Pre and Postnatal yoga, develops and leads workshops, and teaches in Barefoot’s Teacher Trainings.
Tina Parija
Tina has been practicing yoga since her college years at UC Berkeley. Though she initially came to yoga as a primarily physical outlet, her relationship with her practice has grown to emphasize mental and spiritual well being. Using a regular yoga practice to stay in tune with her own body and intuition, Tina was able to navigate multiple career changes before finally entering a doctorate program in Clinical Psychology. Tina is enrolled at the Wright Institute to become a licensed psychologist and hopes that her yoga background can help clients navigate challenges with deep awareness of their somatic selves. She also hopes to bring her schooling into her yoga instruction, helping students come into their bodies in a trauma-informed and psychologically safe manner. Tina is a NARM informed professional and is working towards a NeuroAffective Touch certificate. Tina trained in yoga instruction with Barefoot Movement, her home studio since 2018.