I am a 2008 graduate of Downtown Yoga’s Advanced Studies/Teacher Training program and am finishing up the 500 hour program, also at Downtown Yoga. (2013). I been practicing Yoga since 2000 and teaching since 2008. In addition, I am a practicing Family Practice Physician but currently work part time in Occupational Medicine. I also hold a Masters degree in sports performance enhancement and sports injury prevention.

I am a martial artist and have earned a black belt in Shaolin Kenpo Karate and currently study the Japanese martial art, Aikido. I initially studied Yoga to improve my flexibility for Karate, but as we know, Yoga becomes a life of its own.

This varied background allows me to approach Yoga with a thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology (which I love and use in my teaching), as well as understanding the individuality of each body, the concept of centering, and the importance and use of energy and breath in our practice. To paraphrase New York Yoga teacher Cyndi Lee, “The body provides an obstacle for the curious mind to grow stronger and more stable. The pendulum swing of putting our body through various asana and the accompanying stabilization becomes smaller and smaller until finally the body, mind, and heart become integrated….and that’s Yoga. “

I continue to study with Kate Coughlin and frequently travel to attend retreats, conferences, and workshops to expand my own practice and incorporate new teaching methods.

I was born in North Carolina but grew up in Virginia on a farm with 2 brothers and 2 sisters-as the middle child! I was (and am) an avid horse lover. I married my husband half way through medical school in Virginia in 1977. We have 2 daughters, a son, 2 granddaughters, and my daughter’s brilliant service dog, Walter the Wonder Dog.

My husband and I love to sail, scuba dive, collect wine, explore other cultures, and of course study and practice Yoga. We bareboat charter a sailboat every year and have visited such places as Tahiti, Tonga, Greece, Belize, Italy and New Zealand among others.

In short, we love to live and experience life.

For Praveena, Yoga was a way of life growing up in India. Learning the art of pranayama, asana and meditation at the tender age of 11 was a priceless gift. She is a certified 200 hour Yoga Alliance teacher and studied with master teachers Donald Moyers, Mary Lou Weprin and Kate Coughlin.

Praveena is also a certified Judith Lasater's Relax and Renew restorative teacher. She completed her training for the Balanced Body 500 hour Comprehensive Pilates Instructor Training Course and is currently working towards her hours. Praveena holds a Master’s Degree in English Literature and Journalism from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.

Her philosophy towards teaching is to pay attention to alignment and form, technique and breath work that help students develop a deep understanding of their bodies and movement patterns. She believes in providing a safe space for students to explore and strengthen their mind and bodies. She enjoys the variety that Yoga and Pilates can provide for fitness and wellness enthusiasts, or someone who is recovering from injuries, or seeking relief from chronic pain, or prenatal and postnatal mammas. Being a mother of a nine year old, she appreciates teaching both movement healing modalities that fits perfectly into her busy life as a full time mom. She truly trusts in the energetic in her classes and life, and has faith in the transformational process of Yoga and Pilates.

Yogawithpraveena.com

Kate is a passionate and dedicated explorer of movement, meditation and yoga which spans 40 years.

She is an inspired practitioner who loves the precision of alignment, and teaches with a creative joyful approach.

Kate has been an inspiration to thousands of students during her 30 years of teaching. She has developed two Advanced Studies Programs with over 100 graduates who now teach throughout the U.S.

She has studied intensively with such wonderful teachers as: Donald Moyer, Erich Schiffmann, and Arunji of Bangalore, as well as teachers all over the Bay Area. Kate is also a world traveler including trips to India to study yoga.

Kate created and taught the yoga program at Stanford University from 1989-2001. She is the Founder and Director of Downtown Yoga in Pleasanton California. She is an international teacher offering retreats for inspiration and restoration.

Her students describe her as warm hearted, inspiring and caring. She is a radiant, beautiful soul who honors the beauty and presence of each and every moment.

Tricia came to yoga seeking relief from the stress of graduate school and subsequent counseling positions with home Hospice organizations. "Assisting hundreds of dying people and their families, I needed to recharge my batteries and confront my own mortality." Finding daily rejuvenation from a nourishing yoga practice, she stayed attuned to body-mind-spirit and the cycles of life and death for many years. "Yoga brings lightness, perspective and discriminative intelligence. My classes offer a strong foundation in asanas, breathing and relaxation and I am interested in deepening the yogis' connection to Self.”

Yogadelvalle.com

Stacy has been practicing yoga for over 8 years. She graduated Downtown Yoga’s Advanced Studies Program in 2007. She was first attracted to yoga after the birth of her second child. With a need to reconnect with her body, she began taking yoga classes and felt like she was “at home” with yoga after the first class. With over 15 years of experience as a personal trainer, Stacy enjoys bringing her knowledge of the body and wellness to her classes. She loves to share the inner journey with students and truly enjoys guiding people back to their inner selves through the movement of yoga. Stacy believes that yoga calms the mind and energizes the body. Her classes are taught with an emphasis on going within and listening to where you are in that moment through a vinyasa style yoga with an Iyengar influence.

Early in life Shawna began exploring the benefits of exercise, particularly those associated with improved emotional and mental wellbeing. She worked in the fitness industry for seven years, taught exercise classes, and was certified by several nationally recognized exercise organizations. Although acquainted with the basics of yoga, it wasn’t until 2008 that she discovered a teacher who inspired her into a deeper appreciation of the practice and revealed that what she had always sought at the gym was actually waiting for her in the yoga studio. Yoga has turned out to be the mind, body, spirit connection that she’d been seeking and so, in 2010, she graduated from Brentwood Yoga Center's Advanced Yoga Studies Program and became certified with the Yoga Alliance. She also took her pursuit of yoga half way around the world when she accompanied Jim, Kate, and her teacher Sandy on their spectacular retreat to India. As a student first and a teacher second, she hopes to use her knowledge and enthusiasm to bring the life changing benefits of yoga to others. She currently lives in Discovery Bay with her husband, Mike, and two dogs, Jazmine and Bodhi.

Natascha is a Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher and graduate of Downtown Yoga's 200-hour Advanced Yoga Studies Program, with a focus on Iyengar-style yoga. Iyengar yoga is a form of hatha yoga that emphasizes alignment by using props, such as blocks, blankets, bolsters, straps, etc., to perform poses (asanas). This practice builds flexibility, and core strength, while calming the mind and helping practitioners to develop a peaceful inner sense. Natascha is currently training to become a Marriage & Family Counselor, after 20 years of working in high-tech marketing. Yoga and meditation have had a profound impact on Natascha's life and she enjoys sharing this passion with others to help each person discover a happier and healthier self.

Michelle is a 2012 graduate of Downtown Yoga’s 200-hour teacher training program and is a registered yoga instructor through Yoga Alliance. She has practiced yoga since 1997 and has tried many styles but prefers Iyengar instruction due to its emphasis on alignment and precision. She is also quite fond of Vinyasa Flow yoga because of the smooth way the poses link together and become like a dance. Michelle began practicing when a friend told her she thought she would like yoga. Over the years her practice has grown from one to two days a week to a deep passion for yoga and an asana practice nearly every day. Michelle believes every yogi has his/her individual path and relationship with yoga and is sure hers will continue to evolve.

Michelle resides in Pleasanton and is a regular studio practitioner as well as a teacher at the studio.

Jana earned her 200 hour RYT studying with Kate Coughlin at Downtown Yoga in 2013, and is currently pursuing her 500 hour RYT. She loves to learn and continues her studies through workshops with Carrie Owerko, H.S. Arun, Jason Crandell, and others. When she's not on her mat, Jana enjoys traveling, cooking, reading, gardening, hiking, and chasing her two kids.

Jessica believes that practicing yoga on a daily basis not only calms the mind and keeps you present but also aids our bodies with strength and flexibility, helping to avoid injury. She teaches with certainty and safe instruction, allowing her students to feel each pose as they move through their practice. Jessica has practiced Vinyassa, Ashtanga and Yin yoga over the years but is extremely inspired by alignment based yoga such as Iyengar.

Jessica has always lived a very active and healthy lifestyle. She has trained and competed in several triathlons, half marathons and countless swim meets and open water long distance swims. Outside of sport she also enjoys quality time with her husband and two teenagers and loves to cook healthy meals.

Have a look at Jessica's yoga blog as she continues to evolve through her practice of yoga. paradiseyoga.me

Kathleen discovered Iyengar Yoga nearly 40 years ago. She was looking for a meaningful practice to bring integrity and aliveness into her daily life. The practice of Yoga gave her this. Gradually, her practice of the postures, breathing and the study of yoga philosophy gave her the strength, balance, flexibility and serenity in her character as well as her physical body and helped her to develop a conscious mindfulness that brought with it a deeper ability to appreciate and be grateful for the truly valuable.

Wanting to share the powerful gift of yoga, she studied in the teacher training at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco for several years and then at the Yoga Room in Berkeley in their Advanced Studies Program for another three years where she received certification to teach yoga asana and pranayama in the year 2000. From there she moved to the Mendocino coast and opened the Fort Bragg Yoga Studio. She very much enjoyed the studio for three years, still, wanting to be with her family she was drawn back to the East Bay.

Kathleen has been teaching gentle, beginning, all levels, pre-natal, restorative yoga and meditation classes in Walnut Creek and Danville.

Kathleen also practices chi gong and she wears a humble orange belt in Aikido. She has studied Ayurvedics, the life science of yoga and hold certification as a massage therapist and as a Reiki Master.

Kathleen is very happy to be teaching the beginning yoga class at 9:00 on Sunday mornings at Downtown Yoga. There is a very special energy to Sunday morning yoga and she invites all who are interested to come and enjoy the experience with her.

She studied religious philosophy in college and graduate school as a quest for inner peace. She eventually met with yoga which integrated her mind and body.

Jin is currently in graduate school program studying natural healing. Her priority is yoga and meditation, but she also focuses on medicinal foods and natural healing methods.

Jin received her 200Hr Yoga teacher certification from Yoga Mountain in NY, and now is in the 300Hr program at Downtown Yoga in Pleasanton CA. She was trained in AntiGravity Yoga at Christopher Harrison’s Headquarter and finished a prenatal yoga training at Sonic yoga in NY.

She teaches at Crunch Fitness in Blackhawk/Danville and at Joya Yoga, as well as subbing classes at Downtown Yoga.  Jin looks forward to guiding people to have healthy bodies and minds.