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Fantastic Yoga
Teachers
Our staff of qualified yoga
teachers have a common goal to provide every student a world
class yoga experience every time they visit us. Each
instructor is a registered yoga teacher or has more than ten
years experience.
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Amy Etzell
has been practicing yoga for nearly a decade. She came
to yoga through the fitness and wellness field finding
that adding yoga to her life decreased her injuries,
built her strength and calmed her down. Amy is a E-RYT
(experienced registered yoga teacher)
at the 200 hour
level through Yoga Alliance.
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Amy teaches vinyasa yoga.
She enjoys this style of yoga because the flowing
movements and ever changing sequence fit her personality
well.
Amy is the owner/director
of HeartWork Studio. Amy loves teaching yoga because of
its total life transformational qualities. Watching
students find their inner strength and peace is what Amy
enjoys seeing the most in yoga classes. She is also a
personal trainer and trains clients in HeartWork Studios
private fitness studio, where client and trainer work
one-on-one. The balance of fitness and yoga are a
fantastic piece in her life!
Amy has 4 children ranging
in age from 9-16. She and her husband are active members
of the Northfield community volunteering on many
committees and organizations. She enjoys running,
reading, and decorating.
AMY - amy@heartworkyoga.com |
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Gracia Gimse
McKinley
has been
doing yoga and meditation for almost three decades. Her
yoga practice has been a place where she knows she can
always come to find her center. Her passion for mindful
movement has lead her to pursue a career as a yoga
teacher. |
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Gracia has her 200 hour certification from the
Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago (her teachers are Kim
Schwartz and David Lipschutz) and is currently studying
yogic theory, philosophy, and mediation. She has been
teaching hatha yoga since 2005 and joined the HeartWork
faculty in 2007. Gracia has a great love
for deconstructing yoga poses and for relaxation and
restoratives. She enjoys teaching classes and helping
individual people adjust poses for specific needs in
private sessions. Gracia believes that anyone can
benefit from doing yoga, and that the world becomes
better and better with each savasana. Her interests
outside of yoga are spending time with her husband and
two children, visual arts, and travel. |
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GRACIA -
gracia@heartworkyoga.com |
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Kris Layman
has had an ongoing massage
practice for ten years. She received certification
at Cottonwood School of Massage Therapy in 1997.
She completed her yoga training at the Mind/Body Center
at Aurora Community College, Colorado, and has been a
registered yoga teacher since 2001. She
enjoys having a massage practice, teaching yoga and
classes on learning beginning massage techniques
and infant massage.
Kris enjoys spending time with her son; embracing the
'silliness', reading, hiking, camping, travel, and considers herself
blessed with wonderful family and friends. |
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"I love the variety yoga
can offer for each individual need. If you are looking
to have a more vigorous practice or to slowing it down
in a gentle manner. Plus, how yoga can benefit
anyone at any age. A person can start their practice,
from kids yoga to teens, to seniors. Yoga is a way for
us to move our bodies, freeing up from either emotional
or physical tension, to come back to a place of peace,
stillness. When we can remember that feeling within,
that is such a wonderful feeling at any age. When we
can begin to heal ourselves from the inside out, that is
so powerful. Taking what we experience during our yoga
practice into our daily life, taking a step-back away
from the chaos in life, to pause, remember the breath,
breathe into our bodies and be still and enjoy what is-
in that very moment." |
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KRIS |
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Sam
dabbled in yoga for
5 years before beginning to practice in earnest in 2005
while on sabbatical. Through a combination of
daily home practice and studio classes he discovered the
transformational power of yoga. Completing 200
hour RYT training in 2007, he now enjoys sharing his
passion for yoga through
 teaching and as an active
member of the yoga community. “I am in awe of how yoga
can be a physical portal to philosophical, psychological
and/or spiritual growth for so many people.” Sam enjoys introducing
people to yoga. And he loves to work with anyone
seeking to deepen a personal practice by learning about
the eight limbs of yoga, customizing a home practice, or
working on breath, form and alignment. In addition
to teaching at Heart Work he offers personal
consultation in his home studio. He is an avid
gardener, mountain walker, and swimmer. He has a
day job as a librarian and his two children and
grandchildren are lights of his life.
SAM - sam@heartworkyoga.com |
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Jeff
Woods is a registered yoga teacher at the 200 hour level
through Yoga Alliance. Jeff enjoys teaching an Iyengar
style of yoga. He says “I started yoga in 1974, or at
least I called it yoga. It was probably more like
stretching with the stereo blasting or the TV on. It was
only when I became a serious rock climber that I began
to fully realize the power and calmness that can be
developed between mind, body, and spirit with a
consistent yoga practice. Climbing became “vertical
yoga” for me, the focus and controlled body movements
were very similar to classical yoga. Over the last 20
years I slowly became aware that the Iyengar style of
yoga best suited me. My yoga practice has not
only changed my life, it has become my life. Of course I
enjoy the increased flexibility, but the main change
yoga has made in my life is the sense of liberation and
joy that comes with truly “letting go”.” Other than
yoga, Jeff enjoys riding and racing bicycles. He enjoys
backpacking and takes several trips a year to Wyoming,
Utah, or Montana to feed his addiction to the mountains.
He also loves lifting weights.
JEFF - jeff@heartworkyoga.com |
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Daisy
Christopherson is a physical therapist and a Registered
Yoga
teacher at the 200 hour
level through Yoga Alliance. She received her yoga
training at SunMoon Studio in Mankato, MN. Additional
training on the integration of physical therapy and yoga
with Matt Sanford and Marla Bookhout.
Daisy instructs beginning, vinyasa, as well as offering
private sessions.
"I started practicing yoga regularly 2 years ago, after
a trip to Thailand. I saw the way that the Thai people
did not get so worried about little things as we do in
America, and how they were happy with much less. I
wanted to preserve a piece of this life in my own, and
the yoga I had learned on the beach there from another
traveler seemed the perfect avenue." |
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Before I found yoga, my
exercise was mostly intense and aerobic. As a physical
therapist, I realized that I was developing muscle
imbalances, but, like most people, I didn't like
stretching. Yoga, of course, has helped with my
flexibility, but has also provided countless other
benefits, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It
brings peace to my analytical mind and deeper meaning to
my daily activities and relationships. I am able to
relax in the happiness of the present moment and,
through teaching, share this with others.
Besides yoga, I enjoy outdoor activities with my husband
Michael and dog Willie. We love to backpack, kayak, run
trails and adventure race. I also enjoy reading novels,
traveling and studying languages.. |
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DAISY -
daisy@heartworkyoga.com |
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Alice Highman
has been practicing
yoga for 33 years. She is a registered yoga teacher at
the 200 hour level through Yoga Alliance. Alice teaches
vinyasa yoga. She is known by her students to
continually challenge them to become stronger and more
mindful, always bringing new poses and breath work to
her class.
Alice says “yoga is the best way I know to stay feeling
young". It makes me feel strong
and flexible. Through yoga I’ve learned the power of
meditation, and the miracle that the human body is. As
an instructor I really enjoy all the different,
wonderful people that come to class. Alice is an avid
gardener. She enjoys quilting, reading, grand kids,
pets, and hiking in parks and woods. |
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Alice -
alice@heartworkyoga.com |
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Mary
Werner started practicing yoga in 1972. She has had a
daily practice since 1996 and began teaching in 2003.
Mary is trained in Kundalini yoga and completed the
Master’s Touch training with Yogi Bhajan in 2002. She
finished her 200 hour level in last year. She is
presently studying with Matthew Sanford and Helena
Ragubhir Eyre.
She has also taken
workshops from Guru Dev. She studied and taught in India
with Russill Paul’s “Yoga of Sound”. Mary says “I enjoy
teaching yoga because of what it opens up in peoples
lives.” She likes to play with her grandkids, read,
travel, eat chocolate and laugh. |
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MARY |
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Elizabeth Child
has trained in
several styles of yoga including Vinyasa, Anusara and
Viniyoga. Elizabeth is a registered yoga teacher at the
200 hour level through Yoga Alliance. She has an
additional 200 hour certification with Maggie Kessel of
Riverbend Yoga in St. Paul, to be completed in 2008. She
has also taken Anusara, Immersion I and intensive
workshops from John Friend, Baron Baptist, Patricia
Walden, Judith Hanson Lasater and Doug Keller. Elizabeth
says “For me, the physical practice of yoga is separated
from other fitness exercise by the focus on breath. The
attention to breath puts me in the moment while making
me feel both awake and relaxed. It creates an awareness
of my body that allows me to work carefully, in
alignment, to heal and not stress my body- or my mind.
Ideally, yoga is more than a way to get fit. It is a way
of living life. |
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Recently I’ve been
studying Patangali’s sutras, chanting, pranyama and
breathwork as ways to affect my mind, my mood and my
energy. The sutras say yoga is a method to focus the
mind so you can direct your life toward what you want.
I’m finding the broad complement of yoga techniques
taken together create a powerful, holistic practice.”
Elizabeth owns a marketing communications business for
educational institutions and other mission-driven
organizations. She enjoys nature walks, golf, reading
fiction and poetry, hanging out with her husband and
cat, and intimate talks and playtime with friends. She
likes having the kids to dinner when they are home, and
spending time in the azure blue waters of the Caribbean
whenever possible. |
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ELIZABETH
- elizabeth@heartworkyoga.com |
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Candy
has been teaching yoga for the past eight years. Her
RYT Training took place at Sun Moon Yoga Studios in
Mankato. Candy is an E-RYT at the 200 hour level
thru Yoga Alliance.
Training in Intensive Workshops with Judith Lasater:
Restorative Yoga, Shiva Rea: Asana Flow, and Elise
Miller: Breath-Work have enabled me to discover my areas
of passion. Teaching my students the importance of
breath as it guides the flow of the asana practice is a
key goal in my classes. Through focused effort on
breath flow, a deepened practice is achieved. |
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As an instructor, I have
taught at Sun Moon Yoga Studios in classes that include:
Gentle Yoga, Introduction to Yoga, Yoga for Strength,
Vinyasa Flow, Basic Hatha and Hot Yoga. I have
also been involved as an instructor in their Teacher
Training Program. I currently teach at Northfield and
have loved becoming involved with a new yoga community. At Heartwork,
she currently
teaches Yoga Stretch and Hot Yoga.
Her greatest enjoyment
comes from helping students find their practice as a
means to find their true self. - Namaste
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CANDY |
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Susie
received her
certification through YogaFit.
Susie currently teaches Vinyasa (mixed), Slow Flow, and
Beginning Yoga. Yoga has been a part of my
life for about 8 years.
My life has changed with yoga. It has given me
strength, flexibility and balance. I like the idea that
you can adjust your practice when feeling under the
weather, have sore muscles or are just short on time. To me it's such a
healthy life style.
I also enjoy camping, traveling and spending time
with my family and friends. |
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SUSIE -
susie@heartworkyoga.com |
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