Leigh Ann Johnson
LMBT NC#11705, CNRT-M
When I was teaching Pilates to private clients and in small groups, I noticed that movement alone was not enough to help people get out of pain. In my own body I noticed that I had to work harder and harder to keep myself pain free. I eventually failed at keeping chronic pain at bay with movement only and started to expand my interests looking for something that worked. I found the Gyrotonic Expansion System® which appealed to my inner dancer and I found RedCord® which rapidly rewired the neuromuscular signal. I was starting to see benefits in my own body. I then made the decision to go to massage school and my world changed. I was introduced to the intricate workings of the musculoskeletal system and my way of thinking of movement shifted to include fascia, the connective tissue in the body. After massage school, I sought to fold all my modalities into one cohesive way of working with the body, to decrease chronic pain and discomfort and create greater ease in the body. I began to see that the movement practices that I liked and saw benefit with were either based on manipulating the nervous system in relationship to the muscles, or that it was focused on engaging and lengthening the fascia. My movement and massage world merged into an understanding of how to leverage the nervous system to reset muscle tone, and how to affect a change in the hydration level of the fascia for more support and integrity in the whole system. My curiosity is constantly expanding as I continue my exploration of the fascinating inner landscape of the body. I am currently studying Fascial Conduction with Libby Outlaw. More info at www.metaformmovement.com
LMBT NC#11705, CNRT-M
When I was teaching Pilates to private clients and in small groups, I noticed that movement alone was not enough to help people get out of pain. In my own body I noticed that I had to work harder and harder to keep myself pain free. I eventually failed at keeping chronic pain at bay with movement only and started to expand my interests looking for something that worked. I found the Gyrotonic Expansion System® which appealed to my inner dancer and I found RedCord® which rapidly rewired the neuromuscular signal. I was starting to see benefits in my own body. I then made the decision to go to massage school and my world changed. I was introduced to the intricate workings of the musculoskeletal system and my way of thinking of movement shifted to include fascia, the connective tissue in the body. After massage school, I sought to fold all my modalities into one cohesive way of working with the body, to decrease chronic pain and discomfort and create greater ease in the body. I began to see that the movement practices that I liked and saw benefit with were either based on manipulating the nervous system in relationship to the muscles, or that it was focused on engaging and lengthening the fascia. My movement and massage world merged into an understanding of how to leverage the nervous system to reset muscle tone, and how to affect a change in the hydration level of the fascia for more support and integrity in the whole system. My curiosity is constantly expanding as I continue my exploration of the fascinating inner landscape of the body. I am currently studying Fascial Conduction with Libby Outlaw. More info at www.metaformmovement.com
Alexandra DeSiato
Alexandra DeSiato (E-RYT 500) has been teaching movement classes for nearly 10 years. Drawn to Pilates and yoga to heal a running injury, she quickly found that a regular yoga practice meant faster and easier running—and fewer injuries overall. While her yoga practice began as a way to heal physically, over time it became much more, and she started to appreciate the way yoga worked in subtler ways on her attitude, spirit, and heart.
Feeling her body change with age and with becoming a mom shifted Alexandra’s yoga focus to two primary areas: yoga for healthy aging and yoga for women seeking strength-building and re-connection postpartum.
She partners with her mentor and co-writer, Sage Rountree, on writing projects including a book on yoga and healthy aging, Lifelong Yoga, and a book on theming and enriching yoga classes, Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, both published by North Atlantic Books.
Her passion for prenatal and postnatal yoga led her to co-create Whole Mama Yoga (wholemamayoga.com) with Lauren Sacks. Whole Mama Yoga offers prenatal, postnatal, and mama-focused classes, and is a Yoga Alliance-certified Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training program.
Alexandra is available for private sessions. Contact her at yogainsaxapahaw@gmail.com or find out more at alexandradesiato.com.
Alexandra DeSiato (E-RYT 500) has been teaching movement classes for nearly 10 years. Drawn to Pilates and yoga to heal a running injury, she quickly found that a regular yoga practice meant faster and easier running—and fewer injuries overall. While her yoga practice began as a way to heal physically, over time it became much more, and she started to appreciate the way yoga worked in subtler ways on her attitude, spirit, and heart.
Feeling her body change with age and with becoming a mom shifted Alexandra’s yoga focus to two primary areas: yoga for healthy aging and yoga for women seeking strength-building and re-connection postpartum.
She partners with her mentor and co-writer, Sage Rountree, on writing projects including a book on yoga and healthy aging, Lifelong Yoga, and a book on theming and enriching yoga classes, Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, both published by North Atlantic Books.
Her passion for prenatal and postnatal yoga led her to co-create Whole Mama Yoga (wholemamayoga.com) with Lauren Sacks. Whole Mama Yoga offers prenatal, postnatal, and mama-focused classes, and is a Yoga Alliance-certified Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training program.
Alexandra is available for private sessions. Contact her at yogainsaxapahaw@gmail.com or find out more at alexandradesiato.com.
Eleanor Dillon
Eleanor grew up running, biking, and swimming regularly. She first came to yoga as a way to improve her breathing, but soon found it was the perfect expression of what she enjoyed most about exercise: meditation through movement and also connection with the divine. Since then, yoga has been a constant through many life changes, including and perhaps most significantly, through a twin pregnancy and the subsequent recovery. The mind body spirit connection and the ability to breathe and meditate through difficulties and challenges are invaluable teachings. She is humbly aware that she will forever be a student with the desire and ability to learn more, even as she shares teaching with others.
Her classes encourage self expression and a spirit of gratitude, joy, love, healing and personal strength. She teaches a warming and invigorating class with emphasis on breath, intention, core strength, and balance, as well as listening to and honoring your body. She hopes to leave students feeling relaxed and uplifted.
She was certified through Yogaworks in the summer of 2012 and her teaching style has been influenced by Kundalini, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa flow. She is grateful to all the teachers who've inspired her over the years, especially to Alexandra DeSiato for her kindness and encouragement and Hollie Sue Mann for her passion, intensity and beautiful chanting.
In her spare time you can find Eleanor doing henna art, fairy hair, reflexology, creating delicious plant based desserts, or sharing time and a laugh with her husband, friends, or darling twin girls.
Learn more at www.hand-over-heals.com
Eleanor grew up running, biking, and swimming regularly. She first came to yoga as a way to improve her breathing, but soon found it was the perfect expression of what she enjoyed most about exercise: meditation through movement and also connection with the divine. Since then, yoga has been a constant through many life changes, including and perhaps most significantly, through a twin pregnancy and the subsequent recovery. The mind body spirit connection and the ability to breathe and meditate through difficulties and challenges are invaluable teachings. She is humbly aware that she will forever be a student with the desire and ability to learn more, even as she shares teaching with others.
Her classes encourage self expression and a spirit of gratitude, joy, love, healing and personal strength. She teaches a warming and invigorating class with emphasis on breath, intention, core strength, and balance, as well as listening to and honoring your body. She hopes to leave students feeling relaxed and uplifted.
She was certified through Yogaworks in the summer of 2012 and her teaching style has been influenced by Kundalini, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa flow. She is grateful to all the teachers who've inspired her over the years, especially to Alexandra DeSiato for her kindness and encouragement and Hollie Sue Mann for her passion, intensity and beautiful chanting.
In her spare time you can find Eleanor doing henna art, fairy hair, reflexology, creating delicious plant based desserts, or sharing time and a laugh with her husband, friends, or darling twin girls.
Learn more at www.hand-over-heals.com
Sarah Horton-Campbell
Sarah Horton-Campbell has been practicing yoga since 2003, and completed the Skill in Action 200 hour yoga teacher training with Michelle Johnson in 2018. She believes yoga is for everyone, and that yoga can be an empowering and transformative practice both on and off the mat. Sarah lives with her family on a sustainable farm in Snow Camp. She teaches Yoga for Motherhood, Baby and Me, and Flow Yoga series classes at The Bridge.
Sarah Horton-Campbell has been practicing yoga since 2003, and completed the Skill in Action 200 hour yoga teacher training with Michelle Johnson in 2018. She believes yoga is for everyone, and that yoga can be an empowering and transformative practice both on and off the mat. Sarah lives with her family on a sustainable farm in Snow Camp. She teaches Yoga for Motherhood, Baby and Me, and Flow Yoga series classes at The Bridge.
Janice Durand
Janice Marie Durand is a NC Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist #1349 and Certified Somatic Therapist with a private bodywork practice outside Hillsborough, NC. She has guided movement and embodiment classes for over 20 years, including Gentle Energy Yoga, T’ai Chi, Chi Gong and Moving Meditation practices. Her passion and intention is to empower students to listen to their body’s internal rhythms and wisdom. She is the founder and Director of Tree of Life Center which offers professional development & Continuing Education for bodyworkers specializing in 'whole brain,' experiential learning thru Energy healing and Wellness classes since 1999.
Her clients say: "In Janice's energy yoga classes, I have discovered a supportive space to explore my body on many levels and layers. These classes are a beautiful integration of yoga and other energetic movement practices. Janice offers gentle guidance and modifications for students of every level. Her classes have been a very valuable addition for deepening my personal yoga practice and my own healing journey. I am so grateful for these offerings!” -- MJ
www.TreeofLifeCenterNC.com jmdchi@mindspring.com
Janice Marie Durand is a NC Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist #1349 and Certified Somatic Therapist with a private bodywork practice outside Hillsborough, NC. She has guided movement and embodiment classes for over 20 years, including Gentle Energy Yoga, T’ai Chi, Chi Gong and Moving Meditation practices. Her passion and intention is to empower students to listen to their body’s internal rhythms and wisdom. She is the founder and Director of Tree of Life Center which offers professional development & Continuing Education for bodyworkers specializing in 'whole brain,' experiential learning thru Energy healing and Wellness classes since 1999.
Her clients say: "In Janice's energy yoga classes, I have discovered a supportive space to explore my body on many levels and layers. These classes are a beautiful integration of yoga and other energetic movement practices. Janice offers gentle guidance and modifications for students of every level. Her classes have been a very valuable addition for deepening my personal yoga practice and my own healing journey. I am so grateful for these offerings!” -- MJ
www.TreeofLifeCenterNC.com jmdchi@mindspring.com
Eva Giorgi
Eva’s dedication in cultivating an integrated, creative practice in relation to land, cosmos, plants and people weaves her holistic approach in facilitating personal discovery, healing, and communal well-being.
Eva began formal training with Katonah Yoga founder, Nevine Michaan in 2004. Katonah Yoga is syncretic, with roots in various lineages and philosophies; each thread embroidering every modality Eva studies and uses in her practices. She studies and has received accreditations in other yoga lineages as well as herbalism, aromatherapy, physical theater and sustainable/regenerative agriculture.
Eva collaborated with Nevine in developing the Katonah Yoga Teacher Training program in which she serves as a guiding light and mentor for those in training as well as for Katonah Yoga teachers whom compass Nevine’s material globally. She considers the yoga space a place to cultivate the common good through remembering and perspective: wellness-culture accessibility, inclusivity, shared resources, and empowerment.
Eva’s dedication in cultivating an integrated, creative practice in relation to land, cosmos, plants and people weaves her holistic approach in facilitating personal discovery, healing, and communal well-being.
Eva began formal training with Katonah Yoga founder, Nevine Michaan in 2004. Katonah Yoga is syncretic, with roots in various lineages and philosophies; each thread embroidering every modality Eva studies and uses in her practices. She studies and has received accreditations in other yoga lineages as well as herbalism, aromatherapy, physical theater and sustainable/regenerative agriculture.
Eva collaborated with Nevine in developing the Katonah Yoga Teacher Training program in which she serves as a guiding light and mentor for those in training as well as for Katonah Yoga teachers whom compass Nevine’s material globally. She considers the yoga space a place to cultivate the common good through remembering and perspective: wellness-culture accessibility, inclusivity, shared resources, and empowerment.
Lauren Brennan
Lauren began teaching yoga in 2011 after leaving cardio-based group fitness class instruction. She was initially drawn to the higher intensity Power Yoga and Baptiste style asana practices modeled after the Ashtanga Yoga sequence. Her practice has evolved over the years to include more intuitive movement, gentle sequences, and music driven movement. Lauren earned her 200hr YTT from Asheville Yoga Center in March of 2017. She moved to Philadelphia shortly following and began teaching and practicing yoga in a number of studios throughout the city. After diving more deeply into the eight limbs of yoga, Lauren now approaches the Asana practice as a means to explore the body’s full range of movement and strength in order to find physical and mental peace in stillness. She’s excited to be back in North Carolina to share her practice, her joy, love and light! Lauren is available for private instruction. Contact her at brennan.la@gmail.com
Davida Reid
Davida is a professional dancer and yoga instructor, who began her visual, performance, and choreographic studies at the age of 7. She is a graduate of the esteemed Alvin Ailey School of Dance, where she studied many other dance techniques; namely Horton, Graham, contemporary, African, and Dunham while becoming greatly influenced by the Gyrotonic method which she has studied for over 20 years. Her classes involve the fusing of yoga, Gyrotonic, and many dance techniques to given attendees improved well-being through total body awareness. She is also a certified Dementia Practioner who has worked in various adult day facilities doing programs and teaching movement. As a physical thinker, she is truly honored to be able to share her choreographic expression to others in a way that grants empowerment through movement.
Davida is a professional dancer and yoga instructor, who began her visual, performance, and choreographic studies at the age of 7. She is a graduate of the esteemed Alvin Ailey School of Dance, where she studied many other dance techniques; namely Horton, Graham, contemporary, African, and Dunham while becoming greatly influenced by the Gyrotonic method which she has studied for over 20 years. Her classes involve the fusing of yoga, Gyrotonic, and many dance techniques to given attendees improved well-being through total body awareness. She is also a certified Dementia Practioner who has worked in various adult day facilities doing programs and teaching movement. As a physical thinker, she is truly honored to be able to share her choreographic expression to others in a way that grants empowerment through movement.
Cora Passanisi
Cora discovered her love for yoga 25 years ago, when the wear and tear from years of dancing led her on a search to discover new ways of maintaining strength and flexibility, while at the same time taking care of injuries. In the years since, Cora has found in yoga a deeper means of connection between mind, body, and spirit that has been a source of deeper healing throughout. As a psychotherapist working with trauma survivors, Cora has found a deep appreciation for the transformative power of yoga and mindfulness in supporting the healthy integration of traumatic experiences in the process of trauma recovery. She has trained in Trauma Sensitive Yoga approaches over the past six years, and in the Summer of 2019, at long last, completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. In this, Cora has found a missing piece and true resonance, and she is excited to bring her love for yoga to her students through a gentle, intuitive, and organic approach to teaching. Cora offers Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, Restorative, and Yoga for Trauma classes, and is available for individual sessions upon request.
corawillow@gmail.com
919.259.1896
Cora discovered her love for yoga 25 years ago, when the wear and tear from years of dancing led her on a search to discover new ways of maintaining strength and flexibility, while at the same time taking care of injuries. In the years since, Cora has found in yoga a deeper means of connection between mind, body, and spirit that has been a source of deeper healing throughout. As a psychotherapist working with trauma survivors, Cora has found a deep appreciation for the transformative power of yoga and mindfulness in supporting the healthy integration of traumatic experiences in the process of trauma recovery. She has trained in Trauma Sensitive Yoga approaches over the past six years, and in the Summer of 2019, at long last, completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. In this, Cora has found a missing piece and true resonance, and she is excited to bring her love for yoga to her students through a gentle, intuitive, and organic approach to teaching. Cora offers Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, Restorative, and Yoga for Trauma classes, and is available for individual sessions upon request.
corawillow@gmail.com
919.259.1896
