Meet Our Autumn Harvest of Yoga Teachers
Teaching weekly Monday through Saturday
Michaele Woodhouse
Information coming soon.
Kiesha Battles
Kiesha Battles (E-RYT 500) is Yoga Director at Charlotte Family Yoga Center and a full-time yoga teacher and trainer who studied with Maya Breuer and Kristine Kaoverii. Kiesha speciality is in Yin Yoga under training by Bernie Clark. Kiesha earned a graduate degree in Asian studies, with a certification in international business and a focus on Asian philosophy, religion, and modern language. Through her academic studies, she was exposed to Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and yoga.
Kiesha has taught for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte for eight years and was a R. O. S. E. Award recipient. She has been featured in the book Yes Yoga Has Curves, interviewed by the Charlotte Post and in Pride Magazine. In 2016, Kiesha was honored as an inaugural Self-Care Charlotte Ambassador. In her role, she promotes self-care for the purpose of nurturing healthy lives and relationships for individuals, families, and communities. In 2018, she was appointed Co-Director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color™ and in 2020 to the Board of Directors for Amplify and Activate.
Facebook: I AM YOGA
Instagram: iamyogaclt
Website: Kiesha Battles
Contact: yogadirector@kieshabattles.com
Bethany Goodson
Bethany Goodson (RYT 500) grew up in NY, received her yoga training in Denver, and currently lives in Raleigh. She teaches vinyasa, yin, align & flow, foundations, kids, and hot yoga, but she primarily teaches awareness and self-connection.
Bethany keeps coming back to her mat because it’s there that she feels completely free to be herself. As a teacher, her desire is to create the opportunity for you to experience that same sense of personal wholeness and belonging.
Facebook: The Free Hearts
Instagram: bethanygoodson
Website: The Free Hearts
Contact: goodson.bethany@gmail.com
Tiffany Cole Candioti
Information coming soon.
Amy Rockwell
Information coming soon.
JJ Gormley
JJ Gormley (MS, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500) is the SCHYS Executive Director of the training programs, where she acts as the main curriculum designer, program coordinator, and program director. JJ received a B.S. degree in Mathematics, an M.S. in Complementary Integrative Medicine, and a Graduate Certificate in Nutrition. She is a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), Registered with the Yoga Alliance as an Experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500), a Prenatal Teacher (RPYT), and Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT). She has been and continues to be a student of yoga (since 1979), teaching since 1989, and running teacher training programs since 1994. Her teacher training programs have been registered with the Yoga Alliance since 1999 and her Yoga Therapy Certificate Program with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) since 2017.
JJ has studied from some of the world’s leading teachers and has studied from many of the major yoga traditions including Integral Yoga, Kundalini, Iyengar, Anusara, Ashtanga, and Viniyoga. She was the event coordinator for the Yoga Therapy Summit in 2013 and 2017. She has presented at the annual Symposium for Yoga Therapy & Research (SYTAR) and the Yoga As Medicine conference in Washington, DC, taught an eight-week series on yoga philosophy for the Smithsonian Institute’s Resident Associate Program, and served on a panel on Yoga for Systemic Lupus at the National Institute for Health in Bethesda, MD. She is currently serving on the IAYT’s Accreditation Committee and is on the Advisory Board for Yoga Therapy Today magazine. She has also published many VHS and DVD recordings, a CD, multiple training manuals, co-authored Holistic Healing with Yoga Therapy, and has been featured in numerous magazines and articles. In her spare time she loves to go on walks and hikes, or can be found reading, knitting, gardening, or hanging out with friends who like to play cards, enjoy good food and good company.
Facebook: JJ Gormley
Instagram: yoginijj
LinkedIn: JJ Gormley
Website: Surya Chandra Healing Yoga
Contact: j@schys.yoga
Briana Young-Roane
Briana Young-Roane is a colorful character. Born in Inglewood, CA, she is now an east coast girl and has flavor that mixes both coasts to give you a worldly and fun flare. She started as a modern dancer and, after an injury, was introduced to yoga for recovery. After healing, she decided that yoga was her path.
Facebook: BriYoga
Instagram: @thegypsyyogamama, @breatheyogava
Websites: Gypsy Yoga Mama Brand, Breathe Yoga Studio
Contact: briyroane@gmail.com, questions@breatheva.com
Courtney Gendron
Courtney Gendron has a background in dance and started her yoga practice as a warm-up for modern dance class without even realizing she was practicing yoga. She enjoyed the benefits of yoga and continued her practice at local Washington, D.C. studios until moving to Charlotte, NC. She continued her practice and, in 2017, began to pursue her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. She completed her RYT 200 certification in the Tantra Lineage. She is an Accessible Yoga Ambassador and is certified in Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED.
Courtney continues to grow as a teacher with her current enrollment in a 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training, focused on social justice. Her goal is to provide yoga to those that would otherwise not practice yoga.
Website: Yoga Courtney
Facebook: Yoga Courtney
Instagram: @yoga.courtney
LinkedIn: Courtney Gendron
Contact: ortney@gmail.com
Anita Haravon
Anita, founder of All Beings Yoga, uses her yoga training and health care background to make yoga accessible to all. Her teaching style ensures that students practice with care to prevent and avoid injuries. Anita was a clinician and researcher in audiology and communication disorders for over twenty years and received her doctorate in Speech & Hearing Sciences from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. Anita was a certified EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and has volunteered with Central Park Medical Unit and the American Red Cross.
Her advanced certifications include: Accessible Yoga (techniques to make yoga accessible to all), Mind Body Solutions (adaptive yoga for people with spinal cord injury and mobility impairments), FAMI (Functional Anatomy for Movement and Injuries), and Buddha Body Yoga (yoga for people of sizes).
Facebook: All Beings Yoga
Instagram: allbeingsyoga
Twitter: allbeingsyoga
Website: All Beings Yoga
Contact: Anita@allbeingsyoga.com
Anand Bhatt
Information coming soon.
Kristen Rae
Kristen Rae (C-IAYT) is the founder of Yogi Oasis in Garner, NC, a certified Yoga Therapist, E-RYT 200 from Sumits Yoga (AZ) and E-RYT 300 from Yax Yoga Concepts (VA) with over 10 years and 10,000s classes taught. Kristen offers many formats of classes, workshops, and private instruction virtually and in-studio. She offers free/donation classes weekly and serves the Veteran and Cancer populations with free classes every Friday morning with the help of You Call This Yoga. When Kristen isn’t teaching yoga, she is hanging with her husband, french bulldog and parrots, probably making some kind of fancy tacos or enjoying the outdoors. In her past-normal, she enjoyed traveling and teaching abroad yearly in Jamaica, Australia, and Indonesia.
Facebook: Yoga with Kristen Rae
Instagram: kristen.rae, yogioasis
Website: Yogi Oasis
Contact: info@yogarner.com
Anjana Rathores
Information coming soon.
YogaFest Online All-Stars teaching on Friday at noon
Julie Tuomisto-Bell
I have been practicing yoga since 1999. I started my practice in a hot yoga room and after 9 years of practicing decided to become a teacher. I received my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) certification in 2010. I completed a 500-hour YTT training in 2013 with David E. Oliver and Cheryl Oliver, with an emphasis on the practice of aṣṭāṅga vinyāsa. While I have a regular āsana practice, my special interests are in the more subtle and spiritual side of yoga.
My teacher, Dave, awakened in me a deep passion for the Hindu mythology stories and their connection to yoga and the postures. These stories lend to insight into the relationships we build with others, as well as the relationship we have with our own selves. They can help us see that we are not alone in the challenges we might face throughout our life. I consider myself to be a student of yoga and am honored to be a part of this virtual yoga festival sharing my passions.
Facebook: Julie Tuomisto-Bell
Instagram: julietuomistobell
Contact: tuomistobell@cox.net
Paige Gilchrist
Paige has been practicing yoga and meditation for more than 20 years. She received her yoga teaching certification nearly a decade ago and went on to earn advanced certification in yoga therapeutics. She teaches public classes, leads workshops and retreats, works with private clients, and is on the staff of the teacher training program at Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, NC.
Her commitment to helping make yoga available to under-served populations includes leading a weekly class at a men’s medium security prison and coordinating yoga and wellness programs at a county jail. Paige’s classes are known for their meditative quality and deeply supportive and restorative atmosphere.
In response to students repeatedly asking for a way to “take a bit of class home,” in April 2019 Paige launched her podcast of free audio offerings, Embodied Meditation.
Facebook: Paige Gilchrist
Instagram: gilchristpaige
Contact: pmgilchrist@gmail.com
Poonam Bhasin
Poonam Bhasin (E-RYT & YACEP), also known by her brand name Dhyana-Grhá, is passionate about yoga and wellness. As a keen believer of yoga philosophy and practice, she is the founder of Dhyana-grhá, which translates to “Meditation House”. Poonan, who thoroughly enjoy spreading the teachings of Patanjali, actively strives to personally manifest the spiritual quotient. She is a Certified Meditation teacher and Sound Healing practitioner, specializing in Sound Baths, Sound Immersion Meditations and Sound Massages. In 2004, she completed her Certificate in Yoga Teacher’s Training Course from the Academy of Yoga in India and subsequently completed the refresher 250-hour YTT certification.
Her journey to Dhyana took her to various places, externally and internally. Deciding to look within and reorder her time, her life, and live her passion to serve, she quit her high profile fashion/retail job and decided to continue her calling to Yoga and Meditation. A while later, Dhyana-Grhá was conceptualized and soon established in Vancouver, B.C.
Website: dhyana-grhá
Facebook: dhyanagrha
Instagram: @dhyanagrha
Twitter: @dhyana-grhá
LinkedIn: Poonam Bhasin
Contact: poonam@dhyanagrha.com
Johanna Tilly
I am Johanna, a mum, a yoga teacher specialised in pre- and postnatal yoga and yoga for stress and anxiety management, a hypno-birthing teacher, a postpartum doula, and a career/life advice coach for parents! I LOVE all these different things that I do and always give my all. I am based in Brussels, Belgium, but happy to work anywhere! In yoga, my passion lies in bringing yoga to those who need it but would probably not otherwise find their way to it. I bring yoga to offices and organisations to help people relieve stress and anxiety. The same goes for schools: for all staff, and kids, and teens of all ages. Using breathing, relaxation and mindfulness techniques, I support people in finding their inner calm so they can feel ready for anything coming their way. I love pre- and postnatal yoga as it is a way of reaching many women who are new to yoga and supporting them during a very special but also often overwhelming time in their lives. In these classes, I focus on mother, partner, and baby connection, as well as mental and physical wellbeing rather than fitness. These days, I have moved all my classes online — even my prenatal teacher training — and I love having people from all over join me.
Facebook: Johanna Tilly – Mum, Baby, Yoga & more
Contact: johannatillycoaching@gmail.com
Amma Fandiño
Amma Fandiño (RYT 500) has been a devoted yogini for over 28 years and a passionate biologist for 27 years. She holds a master degree in environmental sciences from Yale University and is a certified Integral Yoga and Accessible Yoga teacher. She is also trained in Therapeutic Yoga, Yoga for Arthritis, Yoga of Recovery, Lifeforce Yoga, Prison Yoga, and Mindfulness. Amma’s passion is to share yoga with communities with challenges and conditions of vulnerability on a physical, mental, and emotional level. Amma has been dedicated to teaching cancer patients and their caregivers. Amma’s inspiration is bestowing support to patients in order to improve their quality of life as well as their ability to cope with the difficult circumstances associated with the disease.
Another facet of Amma’s vocation is teaching yoga to people with anxiety, depression, and addictions. Currently, she teaches in two prisons in Bogotá. She dedicates her efforts to provide a space that promotes empowerment, rehabilitation, and healing of those deprived of liberty, as well as supporting their addiction recovery processes. Amma is contributing to the Accessible Yoga (AY) program since 2015 and is a regional representative of the AY group in Spanish. As a Yoga Accessible Trainer, she feels honored and fortunate to support the training of yoga teachers in the Spanish-speaking community. She lives in Colombia with her husband and two kids and loves to spend her free time in contact with nature.
Website: Amma Fandino
Facebook: Accessible Yoga- Español
Contact: amma@accessibleyoga.org
Sara de Miguel Hernández
Sara de Miguel Hernández is a Life Coach, corporate yoga teacher, and Founder of Flowithme. Often known just by her brand name, Flowithme, Sara lives in Cork, Ireland where she helps people to navigate their wellness journeys.
Her technique incorporates the practice of chair yoga, life coaching, and cooking with Thermomix, helping her clients to reflect, rebalance, and refocus in any area of their life. Sara works in English and Spanish, both with individuals online, on a one-to-one basis, and with larger corporate groups.
Website: Flowithme
Facebook: Flowithme
Instagram: @_flowithme_
YouTube: Flowithme
Contact: sara@flowithme.com