While I have studied with many teachers, my greatest teacher is the one inside. That is the teacher I hope to help awaken in each of you; your own inner Guru. I invite you on an adventure to your true self; a space where there are no limits placed on you by a hardened heart or a confined mind. Step and even leap into the unknown, a space where you will experience yourself as pure light, love, power and peace.

LAURA WADE JASTER
Laura counts yoga as one of her greatest blessings. She draws her creative inspiration from dance, theater, improvisation, and nature, bringing a fluid and passionate expression to the art of yoga. In her classes, the body is the origin—and the vehicle through which the heart and mind is awakened to its pure essence.  She believes yoga can encourage a deeper understanding of our place in the world and with each other. She approaches each class as an inquiry into the realm of spirit, and enjoys connecting with students. She teaches a variety of classes, including beginner and prenatal.  Laura is a mother, Colorado native, and has been practicing yoga for twelve years and teaching for six.

We are proud to have Laura as an esteemed member of our teaching team for the Samadhi Yoga Teacher Training program.

SARA MESMER
Sara is a mom, clothing designer and graduate of the Samadhi Yoga Teacher Training program. She has the exceptional ability to touch hearts while strengthening and opening bodies in a way that gives every student the freedom to be all that they are. Her wonderful sense of humor and loving compassion make it easy for any student to find space within themselves to deepen and grow in a flowing and fun environment!! Her innate wisdom help guide the body, mind and soul through not only a powerful practice on the mat, but through an awakened life as well.

TINA AISNER PORTER
After years of living in the Middle East and NYC, Tina landed in Los Angeles where she practiced Power Yoga with Bryan Kest for 11 years in Santa Monica. Her Power Yoga class offers more variation to the Ashtanga series. A progressive sequence of flowing asanas that build functional strength, physically & mentally.

BLAIR VAUGHN
Blair's yoga practice began over five years ago.  She is a certified Jivamukti teacher, studied and assisted  Seane Corn, and she completed Baptiste power yoga teacher training boot camp with Baron Baptiste.  Finding inspiration from all teachers and students.  Her classes flow with prana, music, love, organic energy, and a southern draw.   It is her passion to help people relax, have fun, smile and open their heart.  To be a child of the world and forget responsibilities just for a few breaths in this yogic environment. Helping students find inspiration to live authentically every breath at a time.

Join us in helping Blair raise $20,000 in support of Cambodian Children's Fund. Visit our Samdhi home page for more info.

ANGELIQUE DESILVA
Certified in the Jivamukti style of yoga, Angelique is inspired to share this art with her students.

A Native of Mexico, Angelique is known for her warm and caring instruction. This transfers not just from her words, but also as she assists her students towards "Awareness." She brings a Latin spirit and loving devotion to her Jivamukti flow. Angelique has received extensive training and continues her daily studies in the philosophy, history, anatomy, and methodology of teaching various forms of yoga practices. She feels extremely honored to pass these teachings on to anyone who seeks yoga.

KAREN LERNER
Karen taught various modalities of fitness and dance since 1981. She taught in Denver, Boulder, New York City and Los Angeles. She began her yoga journey in 1997. In 2002 she received her first yoga teacher training culminating in 250 hours from Hansa Knox, specializing in the Kripalu method. Since then, she has studied Anusara with Mahduri Martin and John Friend. In the summer of 2006 Karen received a scholarship from The University of Denver to study yoga in Israel with Orit Sen Gupta. October 2006 she attended Level One training with Tias Little. In May of 2007 she received a 300 hour certification in the Jivamukti method founded by David Life and Sharon Gannon. Karen passes on the teachings of all her teachers encouraging her students to discover their true nature and be catalysts for change that our world so desperately needs. Karen also designs jewelry. Look for her pieces on the counter at Samadhi!

Lili brings to her teaching her experience in mediation, meditation, and energy healing. She teaches yoga as a method of opening to the fullness of what is, encouraging her students to be and grow more present and awake in each moment, thus deepening their awareness of the mind/body/spirit connection. Lili’s classes are a meditative flow of movements and postures integrating breath practices and mental focus with a challenging and joyous physical workout.

JESSIE VANDERWAL
After eight years working in the fitness industry as a personal trainer and teaching many different types of fitness classes Jessie began to seek for something deeper, more meaningful. There was never a moment in her extensive career in the fitness field that she would have ever thought that yoga would be on the list of fitness classes she would teach, but when she began to look for something more yoga was brought to her.

Jessie began her journey five years ago when she stepped onto a yoga mat for the first time. “Since then I haven’t wanted to do or teach anything but yoga.”

Jessie’s powerful classes are infused with light as spirit merges with self. She encourages students to explore their physical practice with awareness, trust and faith, so that one’s journey may unfold through each breath with ease and grace. Jessie also brings her extensive knowledge of how the body works onto the mat and thus building a safe and beneficial class for all. “I am grateful everyday that I am able to bring the light of yoga into people’s lives.”

Jessie received her yoga teacher certification at Samadhi Center for Yoga and has completed over 400 hours of training recognized by Yoga Alliance. In addition, Jessie also carries certification in nutrition. She has over 12 years of experience teaching in group settings and working with individuals on personal physical needs and goals through exercise, yoga and nutrition. Most recently Jessie has finished an extensive certification in NY City to become a Bio-Metaphysical Therapist, Harmonyum Practitioner. She is currently the only certified, practicing Harmonyum Practitioner in Colorado.

DAVE FARMAR
Dave began practicing yoga in 2001 at a local gym, while looking for a temporary way to stay active after breaking his hand. While yoga may not have been the best choice for resting a broken bone, Dave did end up finding a true connection with the practice, which has grown to be an integral part of his life years later.  
 
In 2005 Dave decided to begin a new journey, leaving full-time architectural practice to teach yoga, attending Level 1 and Level 2 teacher trainings with Baron Baptiste. Dave has continued to work with Baron since as an assistant at teacher trainings and national conferences, and is an Associate Teacher with the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute. He has also trained with Seane Corn, and attended workshops by John Friend, Ana Forrest, Shiva Rea, and Rusty Wells.

For more information, class podcasts, and more, please click here.

CRYSTAL HINTON
A student of yoga since 1997; Crystal’s first hatha yoga class catapulted her interests in what yoga offers to the human body, mind and spirit. Completing the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training and Baron’s Level 1 and Level 2 Teacher Trainings, gave her a sound foundation and powerful insights to the path of a teacher.

2003 was a magical year, she was introduced to the heart opening and therapeutic powers of Anusara Yoga founded by Mr. John Friend. A method of opening to grace, creating more joy, more beauty and more love to serve spirit. Anusara brings awareness to all aspects of your being, harmonizing you into alignment with your deepest nature by being conscious and selective but also celebrating in the heart and freedom of each moment. This practice continues to blow her heart wide open.

Co-founder of The Chanda Plan Foundation, Crystal plans  to integrate the mind/body/spirit connection into our health care system, teaching this practice to our professionals. Back in school, studying integrative physiology and kinesiology (study of movement), deeply inspired by Matthew Sanford already paving the way (www.mindbodysolutions.org)

CHERYL DEER
Many have found themselves mesmerized by her passion, moved by her honesty and changed by her insights. Cheryl’s classes are fun and motivating, have great energy and will leave you awakened. She is known for great adjustments, teaching for all levels and delivering an intelligently sequenced challenging class.

Cheryl has studied yoga for 12 years and taught for 11. Her greatest teaching influence comes from her students. She completed Basic and Advanced Teacher Training Intensives with Ana Forrest and Ashtanga Teacher Training with David Swenson. She has also studied Iyengar, Power, Vinyasa, Anusara and Jivamukti yoga. Cheryl is a 500 Hour RYT with Yoga Alliance.

“I want to be present and pure enough to reflect to my students their own light so that they can be as touched and rejoiced by it as I am. I believe the truths and peace we find on our mats have an instant effect on the whole world!”- Cheryl Deer

COLLEEN McEAHERN
Colleen's gentle, compassionate approach emphasizes the portability of the practice…the idea that the benefits of yoga are available to all of us, at all times. The beauty of the yogic practice for Colleen lies not only in the constant uncovering of one's true nature, and the powerful exchange of energy that comes from practicing as a group, but in taking conscious awareness out of the studio and into daily life. The line between the two disappears, and our lives simply become the practice. "Yoga is not something we 'do' for an hour and a half, a few times a week. It is a portable, innate practice which guides us toward peace, personally and universally."

ASHLEY CURRAN
Ashley Curran has been teaching yoga for five years. Ashley received her hatha yoga training through Denver Institute of Integrated Yoga. Ashley takes inspiration from many different styles of yoga. She has studied with many different teachers with a variety of styles and backgrounds. Her vinyasa class combines a good mix of pranayama, asana and yoga theory with extra special attention on alignment. Ashley strives to guide her students to have their own experience with yoga. Ashley is the mother of two wonderful children, Caroline and Jack and finds herself practicing yoga off the mat everyday while raising her family.

LISA SCHLELEIN
Lisa has been a student of yoga since 2000 when she discovered Bikram yoga in San Francisco.  An instant devotee of the ancient practice of yoga, she began to expand her practice throughout the following years to include power, vinyasa, anusara, and jivamuki until finally embarking on becoming a teacher. 
Having completed her training in April 2007 through Samadhi Center for Yoga, Lisa is now looking to share her deep love and admiration for yoga with the world.  Her classes are a wonderful paring of all of her experiences and include lots of love, laughter, and movement infused with a deep sense of spirituality to help build strength, flexibility, and awareness.   Let’s dance!

ERIN HANRAHAN
Erin believes in the transformative power of yoga, and as a teacher she encourages students to explore its power in their own lives. Erin offers a well-rounded class, blending asana, meditation, and pranayama practices with an emphasis on yoga practice 'off the mat'. Her love of yoga is evident in her classes which are fun and challenging for dedicated yogis and those new to the practice. Erin is a graduate of Samadhi's Yoga Teacher Training program where she drew upon the guidance of many of Denver's finest yoga instructors. Outside of the studio, Erin weaves her practice into her home, fiddle playing, work in the community, and gardening.

SHANNON EARTHTREE
Shannon EarthTree has been practicing yoga since 1994. In 2001 she entered Yoga Teacher training to become a Hatha Yoga teacher. She trained first at Gentle Strength Yoga, then at Shoshoni Mountain Retreat Center. She continued to teach Hatha Yoga until she walked into her first Kundalini Yoga class. After this transformative experience she decided to devote all of her energy to Kundalini Yoga. In 2002 she went to train with master Kundalini Yoga teacher, Yogi Bhajan in Espanola, New Mexico. Shannon spends her days nurturing and loving her beautiful baby Indigo Shakti, practicing and teaching Kundalini Yoga and also teaches reading in an after-school program.

HUKUM SINGH
Hukum teaches Kundalini Yoga in the style of Yogi Bhajan. Deep and forgotten energies within are stirred and transformed while the heart is given the opportunity to open and expand.

Hukum brings the added art of his other life as musician into his classes with inspirational chant and harmonium. His strong devotion to the practice of traditional Kundalini Yoga is contagious. Let his love and passion for this powerful science inspire you!

WENDY CORREA
Wendy Correa LMT, RYT, CCCE is a licensed massage therapist certified in Swedish, Prenatal, HotLavaStone and Ashiatsu massage; Yoga Alliance registered yoga instructor (hatha, vinyasa flow, prenatal, gentle); nationally certified childbirth educator, breastfeeding counselor, CPR instructor and doula (labor support). In addition she has training in hypnosis for childbirth and is a contributing writer for Mothering Magazine.

For more information about massage, yoga, "Comfort Measures for Labor" and "Breastfeeding Basics" please contact her at 303-335-7086 or wendy@urbandesigner.com.

CASEY FEICHT
Casey believes this life is a precious gift and makes the most of it. Through training breathe, body and mind we can live our life to its fullest and find the peace that we all long for. Finding balance in the mind and body is simple, but not always easy. Focus, being goal oriented, tenacity and determination are the skills that have brought Casey to a place of balance, and it is her goal to serve others in finding much of the same. Casey began her yoga practice and teaching in 2000 with the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, as well as becoming a Jivamukti Certified Instructor at the month long training in New York. Casey is grateful to be teaching at Samadhi.

For more information about Casey please check out her web site http://www.funandhealthylifestyles.com

IAN MAXWELL
Ian teaches a heart based vinyasa with a emphasis on pranayama and alignment. He has studied under Baba Hari Dass, and currently practices in the Anusara yoga system. On and off of the mat, Ian emphasizes turning inward to find greater freedom in all aspects of life. He has proudly been teaching at Samadhi since 2007.

ELIE JOHNSON
Perhaps partly because she is a stay-at-home mom with three children, ages eight through one, Elie invites her students to experience yoga with a child-like eagerness and curiosity. A graduate of the Samadhi Yoga teacher training program, Elie believes yoga is both sacred and an invitation to play. Although discipline and attention to detail certainly can enhance the yoga experience, she believes we can sometimes take ourselves too seriously and guards against that happening in her classes. She constantly reminds students of the importance of breath, invites communion in that sacred place of oneness, God-consciousness, Samadhi – but be prepared to laugh, rediscover your inner child. Elie’s goal is that her students leave class relaxed, grounded, smiling more, frowning less and better able to enjoy the power and peace of their own light and more determined to share that light and warmth with someone else, off the mat. She is honored to be among an amazing group of teachers at Samadhi. Elie teaches vinyasa, pre-natal and mommy and me.

Mike Matsumura

MIKE MATSUMURA
In March of 2003, Mike, a native New Yorker, walked into a yoga center in the Lower Eastside of Manhattan wanting to get into an exercise class. That yoga center was Jivamukti Yoga Center. He didn't know exactly what he was getting himself into but he thought it would be a great place for light stretching and a workout. What the class had for him was nothing he had ever experienced in his life. At first, Everyone just sat there and the yoga instructor started preaching some stuff that he didn't understand at all, and then the class started chanting the word "Om." He was confused and initially, he didn't like it at all. He didn't know anything about yoga, meditation, chanting, or spirituality. At first, he was turned off by this chanting and mediation stuff. He felt it was not his thing but kept doing it anyway. He tried to keep an open mind and then he started to understand it little by little. "If you allow yourself, you can learn anything and everything from anyone and everyone." That was the beginning of his Yogic Path. In 2005, Mike met his guru (teacher), Sri Dharma Mittra, with whom he studied in NYC at Dharma Yoga Center (www.dharmayogacenter.com). Mike eventually became a Yoga Alliance 500 hour advanced certified teacher in Dharma Mittra Yoga Level 1-3 and also became initiated as one of Sri Dharma Mittra's disciples right before he left NYC for Colorado, to be with his wife. Sri Dharma Mittra gave Mike the Sanskrit name "Sadhu Om," which means the righteous and holy. Mike is constantly continuing on his yogic journey, keeping his teachers and their teachings with him along the way.

SHRUTI ARORA
Born in India and raised in Los Angeles, Shruti grew up with the practices of meditation and the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. When she found yoga as an adult, it felt like the perfect complement. Through the practice of yoga Shruti has discovered methods to manage daily stresses, as well as control a chronic pelvic pain condition.

Shruti received her teaching certificate from the Samadhi Center for Yoga under the direction of Chris Muchow and Laura Wade Jaster. Shruti believes that yoga can be practiced by all, and intends to reach different audiences through her teaching practice

ALANNA KAIVALYA
Alanna teaches exclusively in the Jivamukti tradition.  Her classes, solidly based in the Jivamukti method also include the implementation of her studies of Nada (the yoga of sound and listening), Ahimsa (kindness), Bhakti (devotion) and Shraddha (faith).  You can feel her intense passion for yoga clearly in her teaching, as well as her hands-on approach, as she assists you in your journey toward the highest. Certified by the creators of Jivamukti Yoga, Sharon Gannon and David Life, Alanna has received extensive training in Yoga methodology, philosophy, history, as well as anatomy of the body, mind and spirit.  Her classes feature an unyielding spirit for bringing yoga off the mat and into the world.  Her face forward, charismatic style is the perfect platform for classes that are masterful, artistic, and always feature an element of mystery.

Alanna has moved to NYC to teach at the Jivamukti Center but returns to offer special events at our Samadhi Center. Keep your eyes peeled!

MARK GIUBARELLI
Mark Giubarelli teaches a fun, flowing and powerful Vinyasa class with focus on strengthening and stretching all the major muscles and joints in the body safely and smoothly. He has dedicated many years to the study and real understanding of this ancient art and has taught thousands of students over time.

Experience guided meditation with a wonderful Scottish accent and understand the enlightened goal of Samadhi. "I enjoy teaching yoga at Samadhi because it is one of the nicest Yoga studios in Denver. A real effort has been made in making its surroundings beautiful. What results is great class experiences."

Mark has moved to Maui, but returns to teach in our Yoga Teacher Training program and offer special workshops from time to time. Stay tuned to the Special Events page for updates.