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| Our Teachers Erin Mathiason received her Day-Star Method yoga instructor certification in 1998 and has taught at the Colorado Athletic Club, Schlessman YMCA and many other locations throughout the Denver area. She is a certified Counseling Clinical Hypnotherapist and a certified Holistic Health Practitioner. Her specialized skills focus on stress management and bringing her students into deep relaxation. Erin has also been studying Anusara Yoga and is incorporating its principles into her various classes. She offers our Friday morning Restorative Yoga class and will be teaching most of our Saturday morning classes this summer. Erin is the immediate Past-President of the Yoga Teachers of Colorado association (YTOC). Her Yoga Oasis students describe her classes as the "equivalent to a morning at the spa"! Come experience deep and nurturing yoga with Erin. Jan Ruscio joined our staff September 2006, offering our first class in Ashtanga Yoga in the tradition of the teachings of Pattabhi Jois. Jan studied with Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India in 2003 and completed an intensive Ashtanga teacher training this past spring with Richard Freeman. She also has studied with Tim Miller and David Swanson--all some of the best senior Ashtanga teachers there are. She, however, still considers herself a real beginner--always learning, always practicing--even after 16 years! Jeffrey Schubert Jeff is a highly qualified certified 500 hour Yoga Alliance instructor who blends deep stretching, structural spinal work and several styles of yoga into his classes. Each of his classes ends with a simple meditation focusing awareness on the present moment. We are very happy to welcome Jeff to the Yoga Oasis staff. Jeff never gave us a photo to share, but he loves dogs, so this one is going to have to work for now! Leanne Milliman began studying yoga as a way to build strength and reduce the stress of her job in the corporate world. She soon came to realize that yoga made her feel better in all ways and decided in 2005 to leave her job, become certified as a yoga instructor and dedicate her time and energy to sharing with others her love of yoga. Her desire for her students is that they will always leave class feeling better than they did when they came in the door! Leanne begins teaching our weekday Brand New Beginners class in July. Leanne certified with Hansa Knox in the Kripalu-based Contemplative style of yoga. Jessica ("Jess") Dushane originally began a yoga practice to find relief from chronic back pain, expecting primarily physical benefits. She found she also received significant emotional benefits and personal transformation that are experienced as the spiritual aspects of a deep practice. Jess certified through the yoga teacher training program at Samadhi Yoga in Denver and is Yoga Alliance registered. Jess' particular love is the practice of vinyasa style yoga with a focus on the spiritual. From her personal experience of working with pain, she feels it's important to educate students about being kind to their bodies, honoring their limits and finding the beauty in every pose. Jess teaches our Tuesday evening Spiritual Yoga Flow class and Wednesday afternoon Gentle Hatha. Linda Mars joins our staff to teach our Kids' Yoga class beginning January 17, 2008. Linda has over 25 years experience in the field of early childhood education and has been practicing yoga and teaching yoga to children for many years. She is certified through YogaKids International and combines her expertise in child development and her love of yoga to teach children tools that enhance their lifelong learning, ability to manage stress, fun ways to create healthy bodies and mind and to develop skills which increase focus, calm energy and allow present-moment engagement in activities. Jeanne Thornton, the owner and director of Yoga Oasis, has practiced yoga for over 30 years and has taught full time in the south Denver metro area since 1999. Following careers in social work and health care, she was certified to teach yoga at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts and taught for several years at The Yoga Connection in Littleton. Her teaching style integrates the ancient teachings of Yoga and other wisdom traditions with the realities of living Life in the present moment, honoring our Divine expression, attentively listening to our bodies and cultivating equanimity and compassion towards self and others. Her gentle, nurturing approach to the practice of yoga allows students to get in touch with who they truly are, not only in their bodies, but at all levels of being. Jeanne is the owner and director of Yoga Oasis and teaches our Wise Woman and Level 1,2 Kripalu Yoga classes as well as offering private instruction, retreats and workshops. . |
