Instructors, FYTT II
Carrie Adams
Carrie came to yoga via a circuitous path. Her first occupation was as a student of Nature. This grew from a childhood love, where she raised a wide variety of critters in her very tolerant parents’ garage and yard, into a passion and a career. Her love of the outdoors led her to learn to scuba dive, which led to a degree in biology from UCSC, which in turn led to a Masters degree in Marine Science. She has been fortunate enough to have worked at the Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz City Museum, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Oakland Museum.
A combination of a deep belief in the interconnectedness of nature and a love of dance and movement led Carrie try her first yoga class in 2001. Since then she has been been a dedicated practitioner, and received her first teaching certification in 2002. In 2006 she became a certified Anusara Yoga teacher.
Carrie has taught people of all all ages and levels of fitness in a variety of locations in the Bay Area, including studios, senior centers, the Berkeley Public School System, and the YMCA. She believes in the power of yoga to change people’s lives, as is grateful to be able to offer back what she has so graciously been given from her teachers.
Carrie lives in Berkeley, with her husband, a 14 year old son, and a Guinea Pig. In addition to practicing and teaching yoga, she enjoys telemark skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, and dancing of any kind.
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: [email protected]
Jim Donak
Jim Donak’s fascination with the human body began at an early age. He began teaching himself anatomy and physiology at age 8 and studying Gung Fu at age 14. Since then, he has committed himself to in-depth studies of the healing arts, ranging from Tai Chi, kinesiology, and The Alexander Technique, to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, manual orthopedic and osteopathic techniques, and musculoskeletal therapy.
His dedication to clinical knowledge is matched by his passion for dynamic movement, including practices such as Chinese martial arts, circus arts, sports, dance and outdoor recreational activities.
Jim teaches anatomy and physiology, structure based bodywork technique’s and sports applications for Tui Na and at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, and trampoline skills at San Francisco’s Circus Center
He leads the popular Extreme Stretching class and teaches private instruction for personal fitness and related skills.
Jim also maintains a private practice in Berkeley and San Francisco focusing on musculoskeletal healing using manual and exercise therapies. www.DivingBuddah.com
Kristyn Marshman
Kristyn is a long time student of Richard Freeman, having studied at the Yoga Workshop for 7 years where she assisted Richard regularly and completed Richard’s first teachers training in 1999. She lived in India for one year. She has taught Mysore style Ashtanga yoga in Boulder, New York City, San Francisco and Berkeley. She refined her understanding of alignment and giving adjustments by developing a “listening touch” through the study of Rosen Method Bodywork. Her touch contacts the students physical blocks in a pose, while also honing in on the aliveness that occurs in the moment the student is accessing the inner form. She continues to be passionately interested in the way the body holds to protect and minimize our experience as a way of coping with life. And she deeply values the practice of yoga, psychotherapy and Rosen method for accesssing these deep rooted protections that infringe on our aliveness.
Kristyn resides in Berkeley with her three children and husband and is a Rosen Method Practitioner. Schedule a session with Kristyn by calling (415) 706-7255.
Leah Gillman
Leah is the founder and director of Barefoot Movement. She began using the name, ‘Barefoot Movement’ in 2004 to encompass her yoga teaching as well as her Barefoot Bodywork practice (a form of massage where the practitioner uses her feet to work on the client’s body). In 2010, Leah opened the current Barefoot Movement studio at Broadway and 17th Street in Downtown Oakland and in 2013 remodeled and expanded the space.
Leah has focused practices in: Ashiatsu, from which Barefoot Bodywork was developed, since 2000; in White Crane Silat, a form of Indonesian kung fu, since 2008; and in yoga with Mark Horner, since 2010.
In her earlier years, Leah pursued a career in modern dance and choreography. She began practicing yoga in 1994 and in 1999 she began teaching yoga classes and studying massage. In 2006 she began teaching Barefoot Bodywork and in 2008 she began training new yoga teachers. Leah’s Flow Yoga classes have evolved to include elements from kung fu and dance to better prepare the body for traditional yoga asana.
The focus for Leah’s yoga and Barefoot Bodywork classes is on taking students, efficiently, into a clearer state of physical and mental being while expanding their abilities and awareness. For beginners, the focus is on the gross-level placement and movements of the practitioner. Over time, as the blueprint of the modality becomes increasingly inherent, the focus of the practice shifts toward more subtlety and receptivity.
Leah lives in Berkeley with her two teenage daughters, Naomi and Olivia.
Mary Beth Ray
Mary Beth (MB) has been exploring yoga as a philosophy and physical practice for many years. She has studied with wonderful teachers and participated in classes and workshops in various traditions including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Yin, and Anusara. She is especially drawn toward the moving meditation of a vinyasa style of practice and since 2006 she has been a dedicated student of Ashtanga Vinyasa in the classical self-paced Mysore tradition of Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois.
As a teacher MB wishes to share yoga as a day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of well-being. In her classes she guides you through dynamic sequences of movement while you play with the subtle alignment cues of the postures, and most importantly tune your awareness to the quality and presence of your breath during both exertion and stillness. Through the practice she encourages you to discover balance between effort and ease, to develop your own inner and outer strength and flexibility, and hone a more graceful engagement with your everyday life. In this way “yoga” can become a daily practice both on and off the mat. www.mbryoga.com
Melina Meza
Melina has been exploring the art and science of yoga and nutrition for over 20 years. She combines her knowledge of Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, whole foods nutrition, and healthy lifestyle promotion into a unique style called Seasonal Vinyasa.
Prior to moving to Oakland in December 2011, Melina has been teaching yoga full time at 8 Limbs Yoga Centers (Seattle, Washington) since 1997 and is the Co-Director of the 8 Limbs Yoga Centers 200 and 500 – Hour Teachers’ Training Program. In addition to leading group classes, workshops, and private sessions, Melina facilitates year-round yoga retreats in extraordinary sanctuaries around the world. Retreats and sabbaticals are also vital to Melina’s personal practice and bring her deeper reflection and inspiration.
Seasonal Vinyasa is Melina’s original offering to the yoga community. Each yoga class, workshop, or retreat with Melina emphasizes the importance of sequencing and being in alignment with nature. In addition to asana practice, they include insights on physical health and nutrition as well as how to inspire self-knowledge that allows for the conscious adjustment of day-to-day choices. Her devotion to yoga and eating well, to teaching and nutritional counseling, and to traveling and experiencing different cultures combine to create a colorful and hopefully enlightening perspective from which to share that which she loves about yoga in its entirety.
Melina is the author of the Art of Sequencing books. She has also created the Yoga for the Seasons video series, which premiered in September 2009 with the release of the Fall Vinyasa DVD. Both the books and the videos are practical, affordable, and enjoyable wellness tools that can help practitioners connect to physical health on an ongoing basis.
Melina holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from Bastyr University, where she deepened her interest in the world of whole foods nutrition and is a certified Ayurveda Health Educator from the California College of Ayurveda. While attending Bastyr, she found what her body, mind, and spirit had been waiting for—yoga. From her very first class in 1993, she have never stopped exploring the physical, mental, and spiritual practices passed down from the ancient sages. Yoga has been the “launching pad”—as one of her teachers Gary Kraftsow describes it—that has rocketed her into a life journey of cultivating the disciplines necessary to gain insight and wisdom necessary to be healthy, compassionate, and radiant, and then how to share those gifts with others.
www.melinameza.com