Deborah has been practicing yoga since the early 1990's and teaching yoga since 2002. She completed the Body Balance Yoga Therapy Program and has received her 200 hour and 500 hour certification in an Anusara® Yoga program. She is also certified in Dr. Loren Fishman's method of Yoga for Osteoporosis. She brings her experience as an Adult Nurse Practitioner into her classes as well to create a safe therapeutic class environment to promote health and overall well being. She completed the teacher training program and the advanced teacher training program at Willow Street Yoga Center in the Anusara Tradition. Deborah has studied ParaYoga extensively with Rod Stryker. She also runs a yoga program at Friends House Retirement Community in Sandy Spring, MD and is the owner of Bluberry Gardens Healing Center in Ashton, MD.
Diana found yoga in 2001 as a way to balance marathon running and soon discovered the impact of yoga beyond the mat. She has been teaching since 2016. She believes yoga is accessible for all and welcomes students of all abilities to her classes. She is especially inspired by her work with the blind and visually impaired community. Through this work, she has learned it is easy to get caught up in the visual world and lose sight of our inner wisdom. Diana encourages all students to explore yoga, beyond asana and use their inner wisdom as their guide. You will find her classes blend alignment in asana with breathing to building stronger bodies with personal agency.
Erica teaches a dynamic vinyasa practice where she carefully
instructs the integral alignment of each pose, while using creative
sequencing and focusing on the breath. In this intelligent vinyasa
class, geometry and architecture of each asana are a big part of
her instruction, yet there is still time to find the flow and
moving meditation often set to a curated musical playlist. Although
this class can be challenging, it can also be modified for
beginners. Strengthen the ability to focus better and sharpen the
mind, while fine tuning your awareness, proprioception, intuition,
and attention. There is often a fun and philosophical approach. It
is always advised that you go at your pace, honor your
capabilities, and listen to your body.
Erica is a native New Yorker and graduate of Howard University in
D.C. as well as Laughing Lotus Yoga School and Kane School of Core
Integration in NYC. She has studied with many great teachers
including Schuyler Grant & Nikki Vilella of Kula Yoga Project
in NYC.
Galen (e-RYT 200) believes in the transformative power of yoga to help us learn who we are, and relate to the world with positivity and gratitude for the gift of being alive. A graduate of Willow Street Yoga Center's teacher training program, Galen focuses on the connection of mind and body through the breath, teaching with clarity, attention to sound alignment, and a sense of humor. His intention is to help each person find the practice that best serves them, here and now.
James is passionate about the alternative healing arts. He has
been studying personal development for more than 16 years and his
practise and teaching combines elements of Yoga Asana, Yoga
Therapy, Pranayama, Meditation, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Cranial
Sacral Therapy and Shamanics. These diverse practices; although
different, have many parallels in their underlying basis of unity,
integration and wholeness.
His approach to yoga is based on the work of Vanda Scaravelli, an
Italian who studied with J Krishnamurti, BKS Iyengar and TKV
Desikachar. The approach is based on awakening the spine through an
intelligent practice, which focuses on the natural forces of the
breath, gravity and release.
James is an E-RYT 500. He has taught classes, retreats and
workshops in 9 countries and his classes are suitable for all
levels, beginner to advanced. His teaching is simple and
straightforward, instructions are clear and the healing and
energetic benefits are perceived quickly and easily.
Email James at jamesfoulkes@hotmail.com or
visit his website, www.jamesfoulkes.com.
Janice Levitt, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, EML, CHHC, is passionate about helping people to feel vibrant and radiant through whole foods nutrition, a clean lifestyle, and radical self-care. She offers transformational individual coaching, group coaching, and four seasonal cleanses. She loves supporting people to listen to and honor their body's messages, find balance amdist stress, increase energy, lose weight, improve digestion, cook delicious food, or manage chronic illness through making gradual nutrition and lifestyle changes. She specializes in supporting women over 40 to take charge of their health and embrace their vitality as their bodies are changing.
Janice lives in Takoma Park, MD with her husband Dan and their organic garden. Her favorite room in the house is the kitchen!
Joe Miller, E-RYT500, draws upon his 20 years of yogic exploration and study of anatomy to recognize and celebrate our endless potential to align with the intelligence of the body. With humor and lots of individualized attention, Joe uses his deep understanding of Hatha Yoga, Tantric Philosophy, and Ayurveda to give students practical tools to experience fully this gift of life. Joe co-leads Willow Street's Teacher Training program, and continues to deepen his own practice by studying with his principal teachers and his amazing family.
Laura Banks is inspired by and seeks to strengthen the capacity to thrive and find meaning throughout life, especially through the cultivation of compassion. Life has been her greatest teacher as she raised her family around the world in a multitude of circumstances. In 2018, Laura completed teacher training to become a Certified Compassion Cultivation Training© (CCT) Instructor, dual-certified by Compassion Institute and Stanford University. Long before this, however, time at Willow Street Yoga as a student and graduate of the yoga teacher training program (2011) informed her exploration of embodied compassion. For this, she is forever grateful. Laura is honored to return and come full circle in sharing lessons learned and evidence-based practices to cultivate compassion. Joyful things in Laura’s life include her family, their dog Harold, running and yoga, poetry, time with friends, and tasty food prepared and shared with others.
Lori Wilen is life-long educator and learner, yoga lover, and mama. She is a RYT-200 yoga teacher who graduated from Willow Street and also completed a ChildLight yoga program to teach children. She began her yoga journey in an Iyengar practice about 25 years ago and became more interested in meditation almost 15 years ago. Lori is an experienced educator and facilitator. She was an elementary classroom teacher for ten years and has worked with teachers, administrators and others in education settings since. Lori aims to bring love, joy and peace into her yoga practice for herself and with others. She strives to build a warm community in her teaching and focuses on alignment, breath, and attention to the mind and spirit. Lori is also passionate about taking yoga off the mat and enjoys exploring the idea of yogic parenting with her own two little ones and with other parents.
Marvin is a Russian Kettlebell Certified Instructor (RKC) and is
a National Council of Strength and Fitness (NCSF) Certified
Professional Trainer (CPT). In 2006 Marvin achieved the RKC Level-1
and the following year in 2007 achieved the Level-2 certification
from Pavel Tsatsouline, (pioneer and founder of the RKC, Russian
Kettlebell Challenge). Marvin is the owner and Chief Instructor of
the Bowie Kettlebell Club (BKC) in Bowie, MD. He has been in the
fitness arena for many years achieving high ranking in various
martial arts and offers a course in Self Protection Training as
part of his curriculum at the BKC. Marvin has introduced
Kettlebells to:
yoga students - martial artist - runners - strength enthusiast -
weekend warriors - and people just looking to get a little more
functional body movement out of everyday life.
His unique approach to Kettlebell exercises, proper breathing, and
joint mobility has helped many students better understand how
Kettlebells can be used to improve yoga strength, running and
walking endurance, all purpose flexibility, and proprioception
awareness in everyday events.
Marvin has been seen introducing Kettlebells on the “Absolute Body
Power Series” aired on Montgomery Co. cable TV. Kettlebells have
been here in the US for a little over a decade and the correct
usage of the Kettlebells is still hard to come by. The magic is in
the detail. That's all we do!
Marvin joins us again in Dec, 2018!
Philip Bender (YACEP, E-RYT 500) creates yoga and meditation
classes to facilitate greater joy, confidence and connection in the
lives of beginners and experienced practitioners alike. His clear
style, dry humor and occasional irreverence allow him to share
traditional teachings in an accessible way that inspires students
to deepen their own relationship with what lies within.
An initiate of the Himalayan tradition, Philip Bender currently
follows the embodied path of Dharma Ocean. He leads workshops and
retreats as well as weekly hatha yoga and meditation classes at
Willow Street Yoga, the Freer Gallery of Art, and Anne Arundel
Community College where he offers teacher training through
Yoga4Life. Philip's asana practice is inspired primarily by
Viniyoga and ParaYoga, but he draws from many sources including
Buteyko breathing, his degree in philosophy, experience as a
performing artist, eleven years as a dad, and long-term personal
practice to impart the profound yet practical wisdom of moving
inward.
Rebecca’s journey with yoga and meditation began more than twenty years ago when she took precepts with the Zen Buddhist Society of Compassionate Wisdom, finding that a vigorous yoga practice was the only way to keep her chattering mind quiet on her meditation mat. As those practices expanded into helping her with the stresses of school, and, later, work and family life, she has been exploring the benefits of her practice on and off the mat ever since. Forever a student, she brings a beginners mind and an awakened heart to her practice and teaching. Compassion, empathy, humor and joy are at the core of all of her classes. Her focus is on alignment and mindful movement with breath in both a traditional hatha as well as vinyasa style. Rebecca completed her RYT-200 training at Willow Street Yoga in Takoma Park, MD, an 85 hour Yoga Alliance pre and post natal yoga teacher training with Debra Flashenburg of the Prenatal Yoga Center of New York City and a 20 pelvic floor teacher training with Leslie Howard. As a mother of two young boys, she is impassioned to support other women in their journey into motherhood through the mindfulness and body-centered practices of yoga and meditation. As birth and postpartum doula, she emphasizes childbirth education and body awareness in her pre and postnatal classes, bringing these practical aspects together with a warm, nurturing teaching style.
Terri Shuck is a graduate of the Willow Street 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training and a certified Let Your Yoga Dance instructor sponsored by the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Terri began practicing yoga 14 years ago and it changed her life by providing a path for self-care, centering, and well-being in the context of a fast-paced career in Washington, DC. Now she is dedicated to sharing the life-enhancing experience of yoga as a student-centered practice that is accessible to people of all ages. Her Let Your Yoga Dance classes are designed to enliven our bodies, brains, hearts, and souls with the joy of music, movement, and community.
Tricia is a graduate of Willow Street and Body Balance Yoga teacher training programs (RYT 500), and is a certified Yogahour teacher and certified Body Balance Yoga Therapist. Her classes focus on dissolving tension in the body, creating optimal alignment, and connecting with the breath. She clearly articulates alignment instructions based on her knowledge of anatomy and exploration in her own practice. Tricia is so grateful to share the healing power of yoga with her students so they feel more balanced and vibrant in their bodies, minds, and hearts.