Your Teachers at Spirit Bear Power Yoga

Sara Laroche

Yoga is my chance to be exactly as I am. Yoga fosters my most self-loving, exuberant, liberating and heart-expanding moments. I am blessed to be both a student and a teacher of yoga and grateful to be a part of the wonderful Spirit Bear community.

“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” -- Franz Kafka

 Come to your mat, breathe, believe passionately, and create what you desire.

Katie Flanagan

My first yoga experience is one I will never forget, I had not a clue what I was in for!  I had spent years abusing my body with eating and exercising disorders.  I had tried every activity possible; running, lifting weights, aerobics, kick boxing, spinning, etc. and I was running out of steam fast.  Two hours at the gym just wasn’t fun anymore, nor feasible with a 2 hour commute to my job each day.  A friend at work had mentioned prana to me in the gym locker room one day.  She handed me a free pass and off I went.  It was amazing; I was hooked from day one!!  I enjoyed the incorporation of hard work and rest, because all I knew was how to push myself to my limit each and everyday.  Yoga has been there for me when I felt like I had no one or nothing else.  Power yoga especially allows me to feel strong and comfortable in my body.  It’s been there for me through breakups, promotions, deaths, eating disorder demons, and life changing decisions!  Although I went back and forth about the teacher training in the beginning, I can’t imagine my life if I hadn’t done it.  After only about 6 months into it I began to realize how unhappy I was in my stressful job as a customer service manager, and transitioned into a yoga teacher full-time.  And although my parents were concerned with my decision to teach, my mother says to me now, “I always thought you should be a teacher.”  And here I am!  Thank you to yoga and teaching for helping me and allowing me the opportunity to give everything that I've learned and continue to learn, back to my students.

Ray Mucci

I found myself in a yoga class a few years ago in Southie.  My friend Jennifer dragged me along since I had been complaining about not being able to run due to an injury.   I had just eaten three slices of pizza but I thought, ok, it's only some stretching and meditating.  My first yogic lesson was learned that day, and I’ll happily pass it along to any student:  don't eat three slices of pizza and then go directly to a yoga class.  Other than the digestive issues I encountered that afternoon, I found that I really liked the class and thought it was a good alternate to running.   So... I was "yoga is a good workout" guy for quite some time. I didn't mind Oming and breathing and all that but I also didn't feel like I needed to take it to heart.   I built up my practice over that first year from once a week to almost daily.   I began noticing little changes in myself.  I was no longer getting that upset in traffic or similar situations, or if I did, it would pass rather quickly.  Hmm…Ok so maybe it's the yoga?  It was either the yoga, or the fact that I had fallen in love with avocados.  Subtly, I found my attitude shifting.  I’m a total klutz and am constantly falling, bumping into things and banging my head into stuff.  I found myself laughing one day after banging my head into a stairwell and then dropping three grocery bags worth of food into the stairwell (including avocados!).  Ok, definitely the yoga and this was the case throughout my life:  instead of becoming upset over trivial day to day life situations, unchangeable ones at that, I was light and I was laughing, even when applying ice to the egg on my head.   So I find myself here and now, still practicing, making time for it no matter how cluttered my schedule gets.  Yoga has changed my body, my mind and has cured me of chronic horrific low back pain that no doctor was able to diagnose.  I still love avocados too; I just try to not eat them right before class.

Krista Whalen

Krista is a long time student of meditation, relaxation techniques, and yoga. Her experience includes many different styles of yoga including Kripalu, Power Vinyasa, and Yoga/Pilates, and incorporates each into her life. A graduate of the ecclectic trainging at Frog Pond Yoga Centre, she brings their philosophy of 'teach-from-the-heart' to her classes and students. Krista believes that yoga meets you where you are and you just have to start from that space.

Fran Cote

At the suggestion of my daughter I went to a Baptiste Yoga class in Boston. It was incredible This powerful practice of movement & breath brought me to an inward contentment that I never realized possible. This powerful flow has become my passion and it became a natural progression for me to share this through my teaching.

I am 200 hour certified through Prana Power Yoga in Cambridge. I recently completed an eighty hour teacher training with Claire Este-MacDonald and Gregor Singleton at Baptiste Power Yoga Institute in Cambridge.
I have attended many workshops with Baron Baptiste, Bryan Kest, Beryl Bender Birch, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, and others.

Maura Matarese

Maura received her certification through Prana Power Yoga in Cambridge and has been practicing yoga for over 10 years.  Maura describes her style of teaching as hatha yoga infused with a creative and fun vinyasa flow.  As a teacher, she stresses the importance of the student following their own rhythm by tuning into their breath.  It's an approach of wait, listen, and then flow. She is a Licensed psychotherapist (LMHC) in the state of Massachusetts and registered yoga teacher (R.Y.T.) through the Yoga Alliance.  As a therapist, she specializes in both traditional talk therapy and mind body techniques including yoga therapy.  She has also informally studied holistic health and nutrition and can provide responsible information on where how to seek this kind of treatment.

Pat Donaher

I began practicing yoga in 1996, in my last year of college. I was a saxophone performance major, and while I was good at many things on the saxophone (still am, I hope), I often sounded like a dying quail when I played. One of my mentors, Michael Cain, had started taking yoga, and thought it might help my sound, so I went. I enjoyed classes, my saxophone sound improved tremendously and I was generally more flexible, but I didn't quite "get yoga", and drifted in and out of a yoga practice through my twenties.

After grad school in Boston my practice was reignited when I found the Baptiste yoga studio and its excellent teachers, and my wonderful teacher David Vendetti. David sometimes describes his teaching as the Body Awakening; Baron Baptiste talks about personal revolution. Either set of words works. I found in yoga a new connection to and appreciation of my body and what it could do. I feel now that at 32, I'm physically in the best shape of my life.

For more information about Pat, please visit http://www.patdonaher.com/

Marifer Manns

Yoga came to Marifer’s life in a very natural way, where surrender and strength met. With her compassionate teaching style she offers a new path for new and advanced students to discover the jewel inside each person. Her classes are a transformational journey from the inside to the outside, encouraging students to free themselves. She believes that yoga is the art of breathing with intense, yet graceful movements. She challenges students to find their edge, not only on their yoga mats, but in daily life with joy and peace. She has had the honor to study and to grow by the direction of her yogi, Jonny Kest, in metro Detroit and her wish is to share the beauty of yoga to everyone. After her teacher training in Asthanga/Vinyasa yoga with the 200-hour level through Yoga Alliance Marifer has attended workshops with Matthew Sanford, from whom she has learned that an asana does not end where the fingertips are; it goes beyond towards a spiritual level. She also studied the anatomy of the body and yin poses with Paul Grilley where she enjoyed his sense of humor. Recently, Marifer attended a workshop with Deborah Spielman on chakra shakti, where she experienced how the physical power elevates when we bring awareness to the energetic wheels in our bodies.

Lesley Reilly

Lesley has devoted her free time to fitness after leaving the Corporate world in 2000. With an overall love for exercise and well being she spent most of her time weight training, personal training, spinning, and outdoor cycling. It didn’t take long for these high impact sports to wear on her joints and create significant physical limitations; leading to two knee surgeries. During the healing process, Lesley was eager to rebuild her strength when she entered her first power vinyasa yoga class. She immediately felt a rush, renewing surge of energy. A transformation had begun; she became a student of yoga. As she developed her asana practice, she felt better physically and emotionally and was met with an awakening of mind. The practice has taught her to slow her pace, be still, feel and to BREATHE. She soon found meaning to “the present moment”. This power vinyasa style of yoga was the most physically and mentally challenging experience she had ever encountered; thus her new passion emerged.

Lesley’s inner connection with yoga and being present in the moment led her to want to share this gift with others. After being inspired by Shawn Shaw, she began her teacher training with her at Metrowest Yoga in the fall of 2007 and Lesley has been sharing her passion ever since. She recently completed Level 1 teacher training with Baron Baptiste, Baptiste Power Yoga Institute Assistant training; The Art of Alignment and Assisting with YogaThree; Baptiste Power Yoga Institute “Anatomy of Bones” with Clair Este MacDonald. She has taken various workshops and all day intensives with yoga masters; Desiree Rumbaugh, Rolf Gates, Beryl Bender Birch, Coeli Marsh, Karen Kozlowski (Iyengar Master); and Heather Tiddens which has impacted her growth in teaching. Lesley brings power, grace and enthusiasm into her yoga classes as she encourages and guides her students to go to the edge and beyond, to take the journey within. She leads through a deeper connection to the true self and her energy is infectious.

Jenna Jolnerovich

Yoga is a beautiful space in my life where I can always find peace and calm in the middle of uncertainty and chaos - whether it's external or internal. I initially introduced yoga into my life as a form of exercise to keep fit but as a result found so much more. I found a way to accept who I am, let go of judgment and ego, and just live in the moment.  Take it one movement and one breath at a time. After a consistent practice this awareness carried itself off the mat, out of the classroom and into a place where I brought more and more awareness and attention to what I do, what I think, and what I believe in. I had to learn how to let go of attachments and see what's important to me and what's not. I had to let go of a lot and start looking for things that nourished my life, body and soul in a much healthier way. And I am still learning. That's the beauty of yoga, it's an ongoing practice. You can always keep going and growing. And you can make mistakes. My goal is to encourage a fun, supportive and non-competitive atmosphere in each class where students can feel free to open up, no matter where they are on their mats or in their lives. I want to create space where students feel free to go within, with an open heart and mind, and enjoy the process of becoming more body, mind and spiritually aware. I want to be there to witness personal, physical, and emotional transformations, to see others develop, change and realize their inner potential.

Judith Ellen

My mantra is "yoga is for Every Body."   It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from---every part of your being and experiences can make yoga fulfilling and life changing.   Yoga has taught me self-awareness and most importantly, body consciousness.  Meaning, I am conscious of the difference between pain, discomfort, and when it's appropriate to push myself physically and emotionally.  I teach from the place that I am.  To that end, I infuse my classes with energy, focus, and joy, while paying attention to proper alignment and injury prevention.  My instruction is inspired by various styles of yoga.  I have had the privilege of studying yoga in different parts of the U.S. with knowledgeable and inspirational teachers. I am a certified personal trainer, hold two yoga certifications and am an activist for issues related to social justice and health and its effect on women and urban communities.

Whether you are new to yoga or an experienced practitioner, come prepared to restore and revitalize your body, quiet your spirit, and free your mind!

Adela Hruby

Bio to come...

Christy - Studio Owner and Teacher

Bio to come...