Our Teachers

Laura Blomquist, originally from Chicago, began practicing yoga her senior year of high school to heal a chronic running injury.  What started out as a physical therapy practice blossomed into a life transormative exploration. After graduating from DePaul University, Laura spent several years working in a corporate environment.

Later, she attended the Adiaya Yoga Santuary to pursue her 200-hour level program.  She spent several years working and studying under Chris Acosta of St Petersburg Yoga. She teaches a broad range of classes from restorative/therapeutic to power flow, incorporating body, mind & spirit.

Laura teaches at Sunken Gardens at 10AM on the second Saturday every month.

Laura Conley, RYT 200, is a passionate practitioner and joyful teacher of alignment yoga. Characterized by brightness and humor, her instruction resounds with unending love of Spirit and its profound workings within the human heart.

Laura has been blessed to study with several highly skilled and nationally recognized teachers, including Anusara greats Betsey Downing, Jaye Martin, Todd Norian, Ann Greene and St. Petersburg’s own shining gem, Rita Knorr. Laura also studies Iyengar yoga with master teacher Karin Stephan and loves continuing to learn from the area’s many gifted and inspiring yogis.

Laura teaches Alignment-Based Yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-9:15AM at our St Pete Unity Campus location.

Michelle is a certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher. She also trained with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in pre-natal yoga and Shakta Kaur Khalsa in the Radiant Child Yoga program. She holds a bachelor's degree in Accounting and a MBA from the University of Tampa.

She began practicing Hatha yoga in 1996 to help with a period of high stress and anxiety. It has now become a way of life for her and it's her passion to share the serenity, flexibility and healing benefits of yoga. She is also a Oneness Blessing giver and loves sharing this wonderful heart-opening grace. She extends peace, love and happiness to all.

Check out our Teacher Feature October 2011 for our interview with Ramjot.

Marianne began her love of hot yoga in the mid 1990s when a walking meditation workshop had an added bonus of a free hot yoga class. One class had her hooked and the Tampa Bay Yoga Studio became my home away from home.That led to a teacher training program and a RYT of 200 hours.

Marianne is also a certified Eden Energy Medicine practitioner.

Check out our interview with Marianne in the November Teacher Feature 2011!

Gomati and Vasistha are Oneness Blessing Trainers, who are qualified to train those who wish to assist this awakening process by becoming Oneness Blessing Givers. They have studied at the Oneness University in India, founded by Sri Amma Bhagavan, the avatars who have taken on the mission of awakening humanity at this time.

They are both dedicated in full-time service to the healing of the self, and the healing and awakening of humanity. They love their work and consider themselves blessed to be in service. As a team, they have unique gifts that complement each other well.

Gomati and Vasistha are senior teachers of Ishayas’ Ascension. They have been teaching Ascension since 1997 when they completed their training from their teacher, the late Maharishi Sadashiva Isham, the author of the five books published on Ishayas’ Ascension. They have traveled together around the world teaching Ishayas’ Ascension since then to bring this precious gift to those who are open and receptive. For more information, see www.ascendingtooneness.com

A 'Yoga for All' Approach

Jamey began practicing yoga in 1994 when natural health became a major interest of hers. Through the years, her yoga practice deepened, bringing with it health and steadiness of mind.

Jamey completed her 200 hour RYT training with Ally Ford at Yoga Village in 2009, and is also certified through the Radiant Child Yoga Teacher Program (RCYP-3) to teach children’s yoga. In addition, she holds a bachelor of science degree in botany and works in the natural health field as a writer and researcher.

Jamey believes yoga is for everyone. To her, the beauty of yoga is that each yoga posture fits to the individual’s body, and not the body to the pose, with the breath to facilitate movement, and link body, mind and spirit. She loves to help make yoga practical and accessible to all, often suggesting ways to bring yoga off the mat and out into life. Music often accompanies her classes to provide motivation, inspiration, celebration.

Check out our Teacher Feature April 2011: Jamey Jones.

Chanting and Breathing to Bring Peace

Christine was certified as a Kundalini Yoga Teacher at the 200 hour level in 2004. The Kundalini Gong and Meditation class she teaches provides students with an opportunity to deeply relax, breathe and meditate.

She especially enjoys teaching students the joy of chanting.

Christine is also certified as a Breathwalk instructor. Breathwalk is a walking meditation, which combines walking with patterns of breathing and use of mantra.

With a background as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she brings an understanding of emotional healing to her teaching, to facilitate deep levels of peace.

Check out our Teacher Feature May 2011: Keval Kaur.

Meets Challenge with Inspiration

Máre was involved in many aspects of sports and fitness throughout her life. She competed in equestrian events, golf, swimming and dance.

Those interests were eroded by her career in business and when she reached the age of 40, she weighed over 200 pounds. She joined a gym, lost the weight, and became a NFPT personal trainer. Her rigorous workouts were too much for her body and injuries crept in.

That is when she turned to Yoga. She is a 200-hour (RYT) and continues to attend workshops and practice with teachers who inspire her. Her focus is Hot, Power and Flow styles.

She also works at the front desk where she enjoys meeting and talking with the many Yogi’s and Yogini’s that come through the door.

Kim is a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor.  She has been teaching at Yoga Village since the center opened. She works as a Hospice nurse, helping people through their transition at the end of life. She also specializes in using yogic technology to help people recover from addictions.

Check out our interview with Kim in our Teacher Feature July 2011.

Asana as Meditation

Kerry is certified in Dharma Yoga (Austin, TX), a style that emphasizes minfulness. She has also studied Ashtanga, Iyengar and Yin Yoga, as well as being currently enrolled in Leslie Kaminoff's online Yoga Anatomy Course. She studies the Yoga Sutras online with AG Mohan.

Kerry's teaching style stresses breath support and functional alignment, which allows each student to feel the internal forms of poses. Awareness in each posture tends to encourage more spacious movement and breath patterns. From this perspective, asana is a tool that facilitates increasing awareness of oneself.

She draws inspiration from Yogic and Buddhist philosophy, yet resonates most directly with the sciences of Neuroscience, Psychology and Evolutionary Theory (particulary the work of Steven Pinker, Oliver Sacks and Richard Dawkins). She teaches a naturalistic approach to this ancient practice.

Check out our interview with Kerry in our Teacher Feature April 2010. Check out her website at kerrywillsyoga.com.

Sweat, Serenity and Mindfullness

Karin discovered Yoga following an injury.  After her first class, she realized that she was at the beginning of a life long journey of self discovery and has now been practicing and teaching for more than 10 years. 

Karin's powerful vinyasa classes are a blend of sweat, serenity and mindfullness.  After completing  Baron Baptiste's power Yoga teacher training, she went on to study with Duncan Wong, Betsey Downing and Rodney Yee along with many other wonderful teachers. 

She holds an E-RYT certification and believes that the study and practice of Yoga facilitates a peaceful life.

Check out our Teacher Feature June 2011: Karin Kern.

A Restorative, Therapeutic Approach

Jo-Ann Sloan (RYT-200) teaches the gentle path of wholeness through the union of mind, body and soul.

She has used restorative and therapeutic yoga styles in order to heal a back and neck injury. This has been her inspiration to facilitate healing for others. Her classes and workshops are based on her studies in Yin Yoga, ViniYoga and Restorative Yoga amoung others.

She has taken many workshops from diverse teachers including Sarah Powers, Patricia Walden, Karin Stephan, Baxter Bell, Paul Grilley, Biff Mithoefer, Beryl Bender Birch, Gary Kraftsow, Rod Stryker, Cyndi Lee, Liz Koch, Angela Farmer, and Judith Lasater. She is also a certified life coach.

Check out our interview with Joanne in our Teacher Feature March 2010.

Sharing the Many Benefits of Practice

Becky has been an athlete and fitness instructor since 1990. She started practicing Yoga in 1996.

As former marathon runner, her initial interest in Yoga was to increase flexibility and prevent running injuries. She soon discovered that these were only some of the benefits of practice. She began teaching Hatha Yoga in 2001, in part to share these benefits with others.

Becky teaches Vinyasa Flow, an energetic class appropriate for all levels.  Becky also teaches Introduction to Yoga and Yoga Basics for Flexibility and Strength, a class that covers posture foundations.  Her teaching emphasizes increasing strength and flexibility to create balance. She instructs students to observe how breath awareness assists movement.

She has earned a certification in Yoga, personal training, aquatic exercise instruction and is registered with Yoga Alliance.

Check out Becky's interview in our Teacher Feature: July 2010!

Kundalini Teacher Trainer

Deva Kaur Khalsa is a Lead Trainer in the Aquarian Teacher Training Program, a member of the Kundalini Research Institute’s Teacher Training Executive Committee, and a member of KRI’s Board. Starting when she was just 17, she has served the Kundalini Yoga community tirelessly in South Florida for more than 35 years. With her husband Deva Singh, she has two beautiful children, both graduates of Miri Piri Academy, India.   She is co-owner of Yoga Source in Coral Springs, FL and can be reached at www.MyYogaSource.com.

Kundalini Teacher Trainer

Awtar Kaur Khalsa has been living, studying, and teaching in Kundalini Yoga ashrams since 1972. She sat at the feet of Yogi Bhajan with a notebook, timer, and camera, prompting him to remark, "She has perfect notes." She is a senior teacher and has taught throughout the United States and overseas. Awtar uses generous doses of humor to inspire her students to expand. Awtar has been married over 30 years and has a daughter who is also a Kundalini Yoga teacher. She is the director of The Kundalini Yoga Center in San Francisco and teaches prenatal and post partum classes, Conscious Pregnancy Teacher Training, and Aquarian Teacher level 1 & 2 classes. She also specializes in Sikh Dharma Teachings.

Kundalini Teacher Trainer

Guru Meher Singh Khalsa works with yoga teachers and practitioners to accelerate personal transformation.  He has been teaching Kundalini Yoga for 30 years. He founded and directed Teacher Training for 15 years at Yogi Bhajan’s original studio in Los Angeles, and trains teachers at Level 1 and 2 internationally.  As a professional Life Coach, Guru Meher works with individuals, couples and smaller groups, and teaches “Emotional Liberation,” a yoga-based method to find the power and peace our thoughts and feelings can bring.