Tucson Yoga

As a mama, friend, poet, teacher, and humble student of being-ness, Michelle has been merging her background in education, somatic therapies, yoga, psychology, and spirituality for the past 20 years. Her passion is offering experiential practices for students to explore the inner workings of the body, mind, and spirit. With a focus on embodied awareness, a deeper understanding of one’s physiology, and attention to one’s unique path Michelle brings a playfulness, and practicality to whatever subject she is presenting.

She began teaching yoga in 2001 after her first teacher training at Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. She continued her formal studies in Vinyasa Yoga with Shiva Rea and Corina Benner. Anodea Judith has been an inspiration and teacher in her exploration of the chakras. She has studied Yin Yoga with Sarah Powers, and pre-natal yoga with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. Jasmine Tarkeshi and Keith Borden of Laughing Lotus have been extremely influential in her deepening practices of creative sequencing, and bhakti yoga. Jennifer Welwood is a meaningful teacher on her path of psycho-spiritual inquiry, as well as Sally Kempton as an introduction to the path of meditation. The wisdom teachings along the Buddhist Path through Pema Chodron, and Tara Brach, and the poetry of the Sufi Mystics continue to nourish Michelle's sojourn. She is deeply humbled by her many teachers along this yogic path, most especially her children to whom she accredits for her greatest wisdom.

Michelle completed a 1,000-hour program for massage therapy in 1999 in Tucson, Arizona which was the beginning of her love affair with the human body. She completed her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology in 2012 and is a certified holistic mental health practitioner. She is currently in the HEART training with Organic Intelligence™, a unique theory and clinical practice of building human empowerment, resiliency, and compassion, studying with the masterful Steve Hoskinson.

Over the past 16+ years, Michelle has been offering skillful classes, heartful workshops, and both national and international retreats and has been running a private practice, Temple Love Yoga. Her classes are passionate and progressive, inspired by a long journey of showing up for life through all the blessings and inevitable chaos. She has a strong commitment to social action through years of volunteer work, fundraisers, and bringing awareness on and off the mat to the global impact of our personal choices.

Michelle lives the path of yoga as an everyday practice of weaving ancient wisdom with modern day living. Her view is one of continual commitment to a remembering of harmony, and whole-being health. Her offerings are with intent to bridge the tenets of yoga philosophy into daily experience inclusive of the mundane and those precious sparkling moments.

Yoga Teacher and Dharma Teacher, ordained by Korean Zen Master, Samu Sunim, Fran Jude has a post-graduate diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland. His eclectic approach is influenced by his study of a variety of Yoga approaches and over 40 years of Dharma practice, evidenced by his emphasis on mindfulness and compassionate action. His book, Mindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body, and Mind is the first to apply the Buddha’s mindfulness meditation teachings (satipatthana) to asana practice.

He has written for Yoga Journal, Shambhala Sun, Tricycle, Spring Wind, Namaskar and Experience Life, and has been anthologized in several books including 21st Century Yoga, Commit To Sit and Freeing The Body/Freeing The Mind. He has served on the Board of Directors for New Leaf Yoga Foundation, bringing Mindfulness Yoga to underserved communities throughout Ontario, Canada and has taught in many yoga teacher trainings including the first Pure Yoga training in Asia and is a founding faculty for Moksha/Modo Yoga.

Casey Shaw is passionate about helping others discover true soul alignment and embodied bliss in body and mind. She has formally studied over 700 hours of ancient and modern yoga philosophy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, healing modalities and practical teachings in India and beyond. She is also a trained Life Coach. Casey has over nine years of experience supporting others to relax, get unstuck, befriend the inner critic, set boundaries and keep them, find ease in their bodies, be kind to themselves and have more fun.
Find out more at Caseyoga.com

Diane is a visual artist and avid cyclist whose yoga journey began in 2006, at the same time she started her art career. She has been a faithful practitioner and artist ever since. Yoga has been a way of life these past 13 years with 12 of those at Tucson Yoga. During that time she attended many workshops from notable instructors as Michelle Marks and Joe Barnett.

She completed her 200-RYT Training in June 2019 at an immersion course in Oro Valley after making the decision that it was time to express and give back what she has been receiving and absorbing all of these years. There she studied Hatha, Gentle, Vinyasa and Yin Yoga. She learned Meditation techniques, Pranayama breathing techniques and was taught the Yoga Sutras and Yin Philosophy by local expert Pam Ronstadt. She continues to study on her own focusing on Buddhism, Eastern Philosophy, Anatomy and Chinese Medicine.
Diane enjoys guiding students in a practice that has physical benefits as well as helping them become more balanced and centered in their lives. She feels that teaching has become an extension of her creativity and her intention is for you to leave class feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and enlightened. She is available for private sessions and enjoys teaching yoga specifically for cyclists.

Lyndi Rivers, LMSW, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT has been practicing yoga since 1994. She has been teaching yoga since 2007 and offering yoga therapy since 2010. Lyndi is a licensed social worker (LMSW) and a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) as recognized by the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Lyndi first discovered yoga at her gym, and it was the doorway to exploring what it meant to live fully in her body, and the beginning of understanding what it means to be “whole”. She flirted with yoga for a long time - it took a serious car accident a week before her 30th birthday, years of chronic pain, challenging physical health concerns, and deep depression before she committed to a consistent yoga practice. After six months of a consistent studio and home practice, she had a decrease in the level of chronic pain, a complete reverse of a health issue, improved mood, was able to better manage stress at work. She also left a toxic relationship and felt more joy and energy than she ever had in her life. This was the true beginning of her relationship with yoga and her belief in its capacity to support healing on all levels of being.

Lyndi began her yoga teacher journey in 2007 and completed a 250-hour program in classical hatha yoga. She went on to receive additional training in Kids, Prenatal, Yin, Restorative, and Women’s Yoga.

Lyndi’s goal as a yoga teacher is to mirror back the inherent goodness and inner wisdom of her students. She knows that while she may be guiding a class, the best teacher is the one that lives within each of her students. She loves to inspire her students to love themselves exactly where they are in their life and have an embodied practice that they can take with them off the mat and into their daily lives. She holds space for her students to allow for healing, laughter, personal insight, and individualized practice.

Lyndi was drawn to yoga therapeutics due to her experiences as a social worker and has her 800-hour certificate in Integrative Yoga Therapy. She has additional therapeutic training in Functional Yoga Therapy, LifeForce Yoga®, Pain Care Yoga, and Pelvic Floor Yoga. She has been teaching therapeutic yoga classes focusing on pelvic health and mental health since 2011. Lyndi blends her social work and yoga knowledge to create safe space for individuals to honor their shadow and light and to embrace their inherent wholeness and health. She specializes in working with individuals with trauma, depression, anxiety, chronic pain issues, pelvic floor disorders, postural misalignment, breathing issues, and nervous system disorders.

Lyndi believes deeply in the magic of essential oils, body glitter, temporary tattoos, poetry, affirmations, and love and shares these liberally with students.

Lyndi is the founder of Radiant Root in Tucson, Arizona. Learn more about Lyndi at www.lyndirivers.com

Joanna Carichner has practiced yoga since 1992 and credits this practice as the catalyst for healing from severe depression and anxiety. For her, yoga has been her most challenging teacher and most soothing balm. Perhaps, the greatest gift she has received through her practice is her community. Most of the deepest connections in her life, including her loving husband Ben, can be traced directly or indirectly back to a yoga studio.

Her practice is ever-evolving. As she grows and learns, yoga takes on new and different meanings in her life. She has embraced various approaches including Kripalu, Sivananda, Yin, Vinyasa Flow, and Restorative. She was first inspired to share her expressive approach to yoga during a four-month residency at Kripalu Center for Yoga in Massachusetts.

As a yoga teacher and Certified JourneyDance Facilitator, Joanna leads groups on transformational retreats including an annual week at Omega Institute. Joanna believes yoga can be enjoyed by people of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. Her passion is empowering her students to embody their natural expression and create their practices through inner experience rather than outward aesthetics.

Joanna is also an intuitive healer and bodyworker. She helps people relieve pain, find more mobility, emotional freedom, and life purpose using Vibrational Healing Massage Therapy, Breema Bodywork, Akashic Readings, and Scientific Hand Analysis. You can reach her at www.AkashaHealingArts.net

Joe Barnett travels nationally and internationally year-round offering presentations and training on yin and yang (Vinyasa) forms of yoga.

Weary of the physical pain in her body from hard athletic training, Leah began the formal practice of yoga in 1998, though she had stumbled her way into several sustaining meditation and mindfulness practices ten years earlier, as a teen. While the yoga asana and pranayama (posture and breath practices) were utterly transformative to both her athletic performance and the pain that she later learned was fibromyalgia, what most moved Leah was the shift that she observed happening on the more subtle layers of self.

By the mid-2000s, the anxieties and exhaustion of life as a graduate student moved her to leave the world of triathlon and delve more deeply into the study of yoga, working through the major scriptures and philosophical treatises in yoga and Tibetan Buddhism. Leah also had become troubled by differential access to yoga studios for diverse populations, so began to focus on expanding access to yogic practices for those not usually able to make it to a studio. She co-founded and directed YogaReach, a nonprofit that brought free, on-site yoga to underserved high schools with students or teachers who wanted to try yoga and began a ten-year program of teaching for elders and dementia patients in assisted living facilities. It was with great joy that she accepted the invitation to begin teaching at Tucson Yoga in 2007.

Leah remains intensely committed to making yoga accessible, affordable, and physically, mentally, and spiritually available and empowering to all who are interested in exploring any dimension of the practice. She specializes in teaching asana, pranayama and meditation practices of all types and levels, including yoga for athletes, activists, mamas & babies (creating the first, ongoing Mama-Baby class in Tucson), teens, school teachers, healthcare providers, social workers, elders and others with limited mobility, the marginalized, and the traumatized. She grounds these teachings in the philosophical and ethical foundations of yoga, including its convergence with the teachings of various arms of Buddhism and Sufism. Her teaching fundamentally understands yoga to maintain an impetus toward social justice and to encapsulate the imperative of our collective work for the liberation from spiritual and socio-political oppressions of all beings.

As a medical anthropologist and professor of Integrative Health research and complexity science in the UA College of Nursing, she is constantly considering and incorporating the therapeutic insights developed at the convergence of Eastern traditional practice and Western clinical research. Curious about the latest clinical research on meditation? pranayama? Ayurvedic diet? Ask her!