We sat down…
with some of our teachers to ask them a few questions, and with a combined total of over 200 years of experience what they said is definitely worth sharing. Vistara Flow is very proud to be holding space with these beautiful souls that speak from the heart, and we are certain you will too. Have a watch, and find out for yourself.
Enjoy!
Teachers
Sarah Ezrin
Sarah Ezrin is a freelance writer, yoga educator, and mama based in the Bay Area. Her willingness to be unabashedly honest and vulnerable along with her innate wisdom, make both her writing and her classes great sources of healing and inner peace for many people.
Sarah brings a wide spectrum of life experiences into everything she does. She is unafraid of sharing all sides of herself or life and, in doing so, gives others permission to be their most authentic self. At this time, when honest self awareness is so important, Sarah’s is an essential and exemplary voice.
Her work has been published in national magazines Yoga Journal and Mantra Magazine. Sarah is also a regular contributor for the award-winning media organization, Yoga International, as well as parenting and wellness sites, Healthline and Mind Body Green.
Sarah is an E-RYT-500 and has been leading yoga teacher trainings for nearly a decade. A world traveler since birth, she has led trainings, workshops, and retreats locally and across the globe.
Sarah is changing the world, teaching self-love one person at a time!
Instagram: @sarahezrinyoga
Twitter: @sarahezrinyoga
Facebook: @sarahezrinyoga
Jeanne Heileman
MA, 500-ERYT, ParaYoga Level II Certified, was introduced to yoga as a dancer and actress. Facing ongoing pain from scoliosis, yoga allows her tools for physical realignment and acceptance of difficulties. In her quest for a deep and meaningful connection to all that yoga has to offer, she studied extensively in Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, ParaYoga, Vini and Tantra Yoga; each adding a deeper element of meaning to her practice and teachings.
She specializes in discovering the needs of an individual and gently guiding each student to their own grace and balance. She creates a safe haven for students to dive deep, find their edge, and transform. Jeanne teaches with sensitivity, generosity of spirit and a good dose of humor. Founder of Tantra Flow Yoga™, Jeanne brings together over 35 years of practice and over 24 years of teaching experience into a style of yoga inclusive of asana, Ayurveda, mindfulness, with the added focus of the poses’ energy.
Founder of Tantra Flow Yoga™, Jeanne tours internationally teaching her teacher trainings, workshops and retreats, and is a guest teacher for many other yoga schools. Based in Los Angeles, she is a featured teacher on the International Yoga site and teaches at YogaWorks when not traveling.
For more information go to:
Steph Crochet
When I took my first teacher training in 2012, it was never my intention to teach yoga full time. However, after completing 500 hours of training through the YogaWorks method with my mentor and teacher Kia Miller, it was obvious that I would leave a very cushioned corporate job as a successful recruiter to pursue my passion in teaching. Since then, I’ve devoted my time to studying and practicing yoga, having traveled to India many different times to complete another 300 hours of training with Radiant Body Yoga. I love reading yogic texts, experimenting with different breath and meditation practices to truly understand what works for my body, mind and spirit.
My Vinyasa flow classes provide for a positive, challenging and encouraging environment where students can thrive. My style of teaching is influenced by the trainings of my mentor and love of pranayama, otherwise known as breath work or life force. My goal is to help students understand the importance of linking movement to breath. This helps calm the nervous system and taps into a more spacious, stress free, and compassionate way of life. I believe that when we live from that place of being calm, clear minded and stress free, we can live authentically and connected to our own unique light.
Certified Yoga Teacher in the 200HR & 300HR YogaWorks Teacher Training
Certified Yoga Teacher in the 300HR Radiant Body Yoga Teacher Training
Laura Conley
Laura Conley is a certified Life + Weight Loss Coach and a Certified Yoga and Meditation Teacher. She is obsessed with helping her clients lose weight for the last time through her proven Yummy Mummy Method. She specializes in working with mamas who have "yo-yo-ed" their whole lives to help them rewire their brains, decrease their desire for food and balance their hunger hormones so that weight loss is permanent and so that they can pass on a healthy food and body image legacy to their kids. Her clients love this approach because it is new and different and it works. She makes the work of having your dream come true body and cultivating true personal freedom permanent, easy and FUN.
Instagram: @lauraconleycoaching
Facebook: FREE group - finding food freedom, ending body drama and weighing your dream come true weight
Anne Van Valkenburg
I started practicing yoga in 1999 and have been teaching at Yoga Works since 2003. I teach public classes and personal clients in Los Angeles, as well as travel nationally and internationally teaching the Yoga Works 200-Hour and 500-Hour Teacher Training Programs. The heart of my teaching is alignment-based vinyasa taught with thematic sequences that tell a story and that challenge students to slow down. I am passionate about teaching the nuts and bolts of the physical practice, as well as weaving in the philosophy of the "Eight Limbs of Yoga." I enjoy creating a space for students where they can define their own meaning of yoga. My hopes are to inspire students to look beyond the physical and to use the whole practice of yoga as a means to deepen the connection with one's true self. Ultimately yoga teaches us to go inward, and by creating an attitude of santosha, or contentment, we are able to embrace all of the parts of our self and can harmonize with the world around us. We can be grateful for not just one thing, but everything. The practice of yoga teaches us how to live with an open heart and with a willingness to dig deeper.
Jessica Miller
I have been teaching yoga for 11 years. I completed 500 hours of teacher certification through Yogaworks and began teaching classes and private lessons in the greater Los Angeles area. I was also inspired to take Yogaworks’ Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) training which teaches Restorative Yoga, incorporating Reiki and Essential Oils. Through this process, I have learned more about yoga & healing in the human body than I ever knew existed just a few years ago, and how to bring healing and relaxation to others. I currently work with and bring UZIT to patients at UCLA's Motion Picture Television Fund in Woodland Hills, CA. I have seen amazing healing in my student's & patient's minds, bodies and spirits and I can’t wait to share these gifts with everyone.
Instagram: @jessicamilleryoga
Facebook: Jessica Miller Yoga
Jocelyn Solomon
I am many things. Mother. Friend. Coach (sober, health, life). Yoga teacher. I am committed to moving through the world authentically, always striving to be better, do better. In a market saturated by shiny images, my goal is to remain a woman of integrity. kindness, and excellence. I am unafraid to speak my truth and strive to empower my students and clients to do the same. I walk my talk and do not tolerate bigotry. I love strong coffee, green juice, no bullshit conversations, long sweaty runs and yoga, snuggling with my family, and a good night's sleep. I have been sober and practiced yoga for over twenty-three years. Before becoming a 500 RYT and Lead Teacher Trainer at YogaWorks, I was a trial attorney for many years, tenacious, brave, passionate. Now I am an advocate for my students and clients, bearing witness for them as they dig deep and discover their own truth and manifest through hard and honest work a fulfilling and incredible life that brings them satisfaction and joy. Think of me as your most loyal advocate, biggest cheerleader, boldest big sister who will raise you to your highest standard so you can uncover and own your very best, most authentic, incredible Self.
Pete Lee
C. Pete Lee, CPCC, RYT is a Los Angeles-based certified professional Co-Active Life Coach, certified Great Story coach, certified and registered instructor of Sacred Energy Arts, Kundalini, Restorative Yoga and Meditation, Energy and Sound Healing practitioner, Interactive Imagery Guide, and an occasional food writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly.
Pete coaches, mentors, supports and guides heart-centered and soul-inspired individuals who wish to see and live life as a great adventure that continues to evolve and unfold. Through coaching, gentle and restorative yoga, meditation, contemplative soul and self-focused exercises, and journaling, Pete supports his clients on a nourishing journey in reclaiming the role of the author of their lives - creating, designing and living fulfilling lives they love; to strengthen the body, mind, nervous, glandular and energy systems; to restore deeply and relax completely; and, to share tools and practices that cultivate spaciousness, groundedness, and ease in every moment, with every delicious bite, and with every nourishing breath.
Pete is a graduate of The Coaches Training Institute’s (CTI) Co-Active Coaching program and Lucid Living’s Great Story Coaching and Mastery Programs, which he is a part of its leader team as a mentor coach.
As a certified energy healing practitioner, Pete graduated from Clearsight's Energetic Medicine program as a Master Healer. Pete has also completed levels 1-3 of Eric Pearl's Reconnective Healing program as well as levels 1-2 of Richard Bartlett's Matrix Energetics.
As a certified and registered instructor of Sacred Energy Arts, Kundalini and Restorative Yoga, Pete has trained with Matthew Cohen, Gurmukh, Tej Khalsa, Rachel Sat Siri Dougherty, and Jillian Pransky. He teaches regularly at Yogaworks and Equinox Fitness Centers throughout Los Angeles.
Instagram: @cpetelee
Romy Phillips
Romy Phillips, MFA, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, began teaching yoga in 2001 in Los Angeles. She leads workshops, trainings and retreats in the US and Asia. Since 2012, Romy has lead teacher trainings in Japan, China, and Vietnam for YogaWorks, as well as Yoga Formaâ workshops and intensives in the US and for First Ship Yoga School in Tokyo.
She is the author of Yoga Forma: A Visual Resource Guide for the Spine and Lower Back. Romy is an avid Ashtanga practitioner, meditation instructor and yoga therapist.
She currently resides and teaches in Maryland.
To learn more about Romy, please visit:
Joan Hyman
Joan Hyman’s grounded teaching style seamlessly supports her students as they emerge from their practice with the rich and bright energy that yoga has to offer. Joan’s teachings come from an organic and intuitive place, as she draws upon the combined studies of Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga as well as Ayurveda and meditation. An authentic modern-day yogi, Joan's love and devotion show up in her practice and throughout her teaching, you will leave her class feeling transformed and deeply aligned. Joan spent fifteen years as a distinguished YogaWorks Senior Teacher before bringing her expertise to Wanderlust as the Director of Teacher Trainings in 2016. Now, with over twenty years’ experience leading retreats, trainings, and international workshops, Joan continues to travel the globe leading her own signature trainings. In addition, Joan partners with yoga schools in various corners of the world on their teacher training programs. Joan’s open-hearted approach to teaching yoga keeps both her inner spirit and her students continuously evolving.
As a leader in the Los Angeles yoga community, Joan also contributes to popular blogs such as The Daily Love, Elephant Journal, and Wanderlust. She has been featured in Yoga Journal, ORIGIN Magazine and Women’s Health for her advice and expertise on health and wellness. Joan’s openhearted approach to teaching yoga keeps both her inner spirit and her students continuously evolving.
Szymon Wojcik
I've been practicing yoga since January of 2013. I remember suffering through my first few classes as I had no idea what I was doing, having no yoga background at all. I came to my first class with Szymon a few weeks after another student recommended his class. She said it was fun, enlightening and that his class would help me understand each of the basic poses. A few months practicing under Szymon's guidance, I understood what yoga really is. He always reminds me that yoga is more than just a physical practice, it's an infusion of awareness throughout the entire body and mind.
Szymon teaches intelligent yoga. Movement with intelligence. Knowing when to push and challenge a student and also knows when to stop, be aware, respect and listen to the body. He helped me transform my practice from a "flying chicken" to an intelligent chicken.. lol 7 months into practicing with him, I learned how to bring awareness, sensitivity and responsiveness in both body and mind.
Szymon observes, provides attention to all students in class, adjusts poses to better alignment to avoid injury and asks each of us to pay close attention to what we're doing and not just do the pose as it defeats the idea of what yoga really is.
Liz Holman
Liz completed her Hatha teacher training with Sivananda in Virindavan, India in 2011. A disciplined and devotional approach to yoga revealed that I had much to learn, much to release and unlearn. I spent time in Dharamshala in a Buddhist monastery studying myself and the noble truth of a buddhist path.
After this I travelled alone for a year before arriving back in Sydney. I completed a Vinyasa Flow teacher training with Power Living and officially began my teaching journey in 2012 and in 2014 opened a small and humble studio in the heart of the Sydney CBD to share my love of wellness and connecting to oneself through movement. I have since completed training and workshops in Yin & Restorative to better learn, experience and share the importance of rest, rejuvenation and recovery in a world that moves so fast.
I love to teach a class that is slow, strong and playful. I teach with a light heart. I have always moved and love to bring movement to people's lives and share the same joy. The yoga mat reveals everything. When I see students regularly and watch them transform I know that it is this revelation that they always come back for.
Qualities that are the most important to me as a human are being authentic, being child-like, humble, connected to self and daring.
Kiyomi Takahashi
Kiyomi was born and raised in Japan, growing up as an athlete and earned her BA in Tokyo, MA in San Francisco. She began her corporate career in 2001, and Yoga quickly became her refuge during a busy corporate life. With her strong desire to understand the healing capacity of this practice more in-depth, she completed her 500-hr teacher training at YogaWorks in 2007.
In 2009, Kiyomi took a plunge to pursue her deepest desire to share this transformational practice of Yoga with others and never looked back since. She continued her study to complete the Yoga Therapy RX course at LMU, as well as 220-hr Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training. Kiyomi feels that Yoga is a gift for all, mentally, physically, and spiritually. She is passionate about living, learning, and sharing this transformational teaching.
Kiyomi teaches breath-focused flow classes with detailed attention to safe alignment respecting individual needs and uniqueness, as well as Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. Kiyomi currently leads Teacher Training, workshops, and classes both in English and Japanese. She is dedicated to touching as many people's lives as possible with this teaching to expand their potential to live their lives with joy and peace within.
Jorge Luna
I was born and raised in Mexico City before moving to Los Angeles at a young age. Growing up in beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula, I developed a great love & connection for nature. By my teenage years, my affinity for artistic and spiritual endeavors grew into a defining personality characteristic. My university years at the University of Pennsylvania helped cement my education and personal ideals. It was also at this time that I began working in the field of fitness, receiving my first group exercise and spinning certifications. After receiving a B.A. in International Relations & French (and a minor in Fine Arts), I moved to San Francisco to work at the Mexican Consulate as an attache. During my years in San Francisco, I continued to pursue my passion for fitness, becoming a certified Personal Trainer and working privately in the fitness community. I also developed a true love for world cuisines and culinary arts!
I moved to Los Angeles to attend USC School of Law. But after graduating law school, I decided to enter the world of Fitness and Health full time. Although I was already a certified personal trainer, I became certified in Pilates, Indo Row and other modalities, so that I could offer my clientele a more varied perspective on fitness and movement.
In 2004, my world was transformed. I began to shift my focus from fitness to total health and wellness. I completed my first yoga teacher training with Seane Corn, Vinnie Marino and Annie Carpenter, specializing in Vinyasa Yoga. I was also greatly influenced by the brilliant teachings of Max Strom. My appetite for spiritual teachings, both new and ancient, was voracious. I also earned my full yoga teaching credentials from Yogaworks.
Continuing my studies of wellness and spirituality, I completed a two-year certification in Yoga Therapy from Loyola Marymount University in August of 2010. It is here in the field of Yoga Therapy, that I believe I have found my greatest calling. Yoga Therapy is a return to the holistic and traditional yogic teachings of Sri Krishnamacharya. This lineage differs from western power yoga in its therapeutic value and overall understanding of optimal health. In 2013 I became a 500 hour certified Krishnamcharya teacher. Its foundations lie at the heart of ancient yogic texts and its practices help ailments of all kinds: diabetes, obesity, endocrine problems, infertility, neurologic disorders, cardiac disease, gastro intestinal issues, emotional/psychological imbalances and much much more. Yoga Therapy works on the physical body, the breathing body, the intellectual/learning body, the personality/wisdom body and the emotional body simultaneously. This practice is completely customized to the individual and their specific needs. I am thrilled to announce that I am continuing studies at Vanderbilt School of Alternative Medicine in 2014 where I will be participating in a full Indian tradition Yoga Therapy program.
It is my greatest wish to inspire and motivate my students and clients. My personal faith is based in the mutual exchange of the teacher student relationship. I am only a reminder that everything you need for joy and peace is already in you, together we will find the right way.
Sean Gray
The foundation of my teaching is expansion in all aspects of the Self. Expanding ourselves physically, energetically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually with intention, commitment, courage, and compassion. Yoga is a tremendous tool for change- to show us what is, give us the way to do things differently, and monitor the development of what it is that we’re changing. And just like with any tool, with practice and refinement, we can eventually master the tool and use it for not only our own personal benefit, but for the benefit of all. To practice yoga is to practice living, and we can use our practice to help us with how we live, within our own body and mind, as well as how we live within our communities and the entire collective itself. Thanks to my non-yoga background, I am able to relate to my students, no matter their level or capabilities, and demonstrate how students can use the physical part of the yoga practice (asana) as a way to move into any and all aspects of our practice, and into our lives. I truly want my students, everyone really, to grow and thrive, and live their authentic lives filled with exploration, joy, balance, and most of all love.
Kali Alexander
A beloved Los Angeles based yoga teacher, licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, wellness expert, and mama of three, Kali has the unique ability to make the “woo-woo” approachable to the yoga novice, fence-sitters, seasoned practitioners, and the everyday Jill and Joe. Her capacity to apply her knowledge of ancient Eastern modalities and make them relevant and effective for contemporary living in a Western world creates a unique synergy that resonates within a modern lifestyle. As staff acupuncturist for Altamed Health Services she works alongside medical doctors in the treatment of infectious diseases, pain management, and emotional imbalances. Applying her knowledge of energetic channels, esoteric and gross anatomy, as well as practical mother wit, Kali’s yoga classes are marked by creativity, community, strategic effort, and smart practical application to help her students build a sustainable yoga practice that endures a lifetime. She has been featured in the Huffington Post’s Moms Change the World, Yoga Journal, MANTRA Yoga + Health magazine, USC Annenberg’s Neon Tommy, the web-series Yoga Intervention, Elephant Journal, The Daily Quirk, Journey of Possibilities podcast, LA Beez, and was honored with the 2013 Leimert Park Legacy Award for her contribution to the community in the areas of health and wellness. In 2012 she created Yoga Classes for the Masses–a project to take yoga to untraditional communities to reach people of all ages, stages, shapes, and sizes. She holds both a Master’s Degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCLA. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500-hour level and has studied with master teachers in the Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Vinyasa systems. She credits her personal practice and studies with Purusha Hickson, Pagan George, and Jorgen Christiansson as her primary influences.