Bruce Symonds | Jayne Alenier | Nick Beem | Scott Adelman | Allison Wilmes | Adam Braun | Sarah Richelle Starnes | Julie Smerdon | Nickie Silk E-R.Y.T | Ruth Ann Grant | Marcia Bogolub
Bruce Symonds
Bruce Symonds graduated in 1994 from the 14 month Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Program with 500+ hours of certified training. In addition to being a Certified Yoga Instructor, he holds two certificates as a Meditation Instructor. Currently, he teaches meditation and six weekly yoga classes in his community and continues his studies with advanced yoga teachers from around the world. Bruce currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Kriya Yoga Hatha Yoga Teachers Training Home Study Program, and is on the Spiritual Guidance Staff.
JAYNE ALENIER, M.S., M.B.A., J.D., E-R.Y.T
Jayne began practicing yoga in 1994 as a means to manage her own chronic illness. Studying under the tutelage of Himalayan Institute trained instructors, she began to see the healing powers of yoga on a physical and spiritual level. She has since gone on to study many styles of Hatha Yoga including Iyengar and Anusara yoga. Her teaching style is heart centered, yet alignment oriented, with the goal of honoring each student’s uniqueness and empowering individuals to foster their own healing and wellness.
Jayne is Yoga Alliance certified at the “Experienced” level and is also a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She has completed many hours of training beyond her Yoga Alliance certification and continues to train with master teachers on a regular basis.
In addition to her yoga training, Jayne has a B.S. in Biology, and an M.S. in Nutritional Biochemistry and spent several years working overseas as a Nutritionist. After returning to the United States, she completed an M.B.A. and worked in Marketing, and Training and Development. Jayne is also an attorney, having practiced law in the Chicago area. After a number of years, she decided to devote her professional life to yoga through teaching group and private lessons.
Nick Beem
I believe that while yoga postures can and will create vibrant health, they are ultimately vehicles for growth and self-discovery that go far beyond gymnastic accomplishment. I hope students will leave my classes feeling more awake, more alive, and more empowered to meet the challenges of life with skill and grace.
I begin with breathing practices and thorough warm-ups, both to prepare the body and also help the mind transition to a more internal focus. I teach postures both as flowing series and individually with longer holds. The fundamental practices are alignment and breathing: training the body to move efficiently, pleasurably, powerfully. I encourage students adapt the postures to work in their bodies, rather than try to do it “perfectly.”
But the benefits of the postures extend beyond the physical. They connect us to the wordless language of the body, open the door to healing, and encourage positive mental qualities such as concentration, equanimity and self-love.
Deep relaxation is an essential part of a yoga practice, and I always leave time for a generous rest at the end of class. In deep stillness, the body is renewed and the mind refreshed.
I like to plan my classes around a theme: a principle of alignment, a metaphor from Nature, a poem, a philosophical teaching. I strive to make the elements of my class blend together into a unified, meaningful experience, rather than just a random assortment of poses. I have been a student of Buddhism for many years, and I incorporate teachings on mindfulness and compassion into my classes.
I am a certified Kripalu yoga instructor and will complete my Phoenix Rising yoga therapy training in February 2009. I draw inspiration from the teachings of Tom Gillette, Rod Stryker, Ana Forrest, Paul Grilley, Rumi, and Lake Michigan. Other influences include qi gong, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, improv theater, West African dance, whole foods nutrition, and a love of brain science and technology. I graduated from Brown University with a degree in, of all things, computer science.
Scott Adelman (Sat Atma Singh)
In his search for mind, body, spirit connection Scott was influenced in his youth as to the benefits of a yogic and vegetarian lifestyle by his uncle and teacher, Sri Ram. In 1995 he began studying in depth Tai Chi and Hatha Yoga, followed by intensive training in Bikram, Ashtanga and Vinyasa Flow. In 2001 Scott attended Summer Solstice in New Mexico with over 1000 yoga teachers and students. All day intensives in Kundalini Yoga and White Tantric Meditation transformed his spiritual practice and he was called to teach Kundalini Yoga.
Scott is also a family man, a successful general contractor and senior staffer for the New Warrior & Path to Sprit Trainings for men and women.
Allison Wilmes E-R.Y.T.
Allison teaches Iyengar-inspired hatha yoga. She apprentices in therapeutic applications of Iyengar yoga with Gabriel Halpern at Yoga Circle in Chicago, and studies regularly with nationally and locally renowned yoga instructors. She is Yoga Alliance certified at the “Experienced” level and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She teaches group and private yoga sessions throughout the Northwest suburbs, as well as leading yoga classes for at-risk youth at the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center. Additionally, she leads yoga workshops at yoga studios, libraries, and other venues.
Her classes are known for their focus on safe alignment, her sincere care for each student, and her droll sense of humor.
Allison enjoys swimming, biking, dancing, and cooking when she's not practicing, teaching, or reading about yoga.
Adam Braun
Intrigued by the spiritual practices of Yoga, Adam began down a path towards new Life. In the midst of his first Yoga class, Adam found himself falling in Love. Amazed by the clarity of mind, and the comfort of his body, he soon began to study the teachings of yoga. Upon the completion of a Yoga Teacher Training program at the Temple of Kriya Yoga in 2002 he began his real training, to teach! “They say that to teach is truly to be taught, and I have found nothing else to be truer than this.”
Studying in the tradition of Hatha Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga, Adam incorporates elements of alignment, vinyasa, pranayama, meditation, and lots of joy and laughter into his practice and teachings. “Continuing to grow and learn from every class that I teach, and every class that I take, I feel an ever greater sense of beauty, blossoming from within. Looking forward to sharing in this beauty, I bow with servitude to the light with in.”
Sarah Richelle Starnes
Sarah Richelle Starnes began practicing Hatha Yoga when she was 12, and has been teaching yoga since 1999. She is a Certified Anusara Yoga® Teacher.
Sarah has been leading Hatha Yoga Teacher Trainings in Illinois since 2004. Her deep, passionate connection to Anusara yoga drives her to diligently study and train with her teacher, John Friend and other amazing teachers multiple times a year.
Sarah is also a certified Reiki Adept Master Teacher and Nomena Healer through the Mystical Sciences Institute in Evanston, IL. She has taught yoga in the city and suburbs of Chicago, as well as in Kauai, Indonesia and Italy.
Sarah's teaching explores the energetic subtleties of a yoga practice, interwoven with optimal, anatomical alignment principles. The celebratory nature of her teaching style reflects her love for the practice and helps her students learn how to find the courage within to be themselves, while expanding their hearts to reveal the divine joy that is their deepest nature.
Sarah brings a fun, blissful and compassionate energy to her classes, providing a safe and empowering environment for students of all ages and levels of experience. She has extensive experience teaching pre/postnatal yoga, and has worked with many children and adults with special needs.
Sarah’s passions include Anusara yoga, essential oils, kirtan mantra and music, partner/acro yoga, Thai massage and other bodywork, tap dancing, hiking with her Love Frankie and their chihuahuas in the woody bush, rock climbing, horseback riding, writing songs and poetry, painting and exploring anything new to create, or learn and grow from.
Nickie Silk E-R.Y.T
Nickie spent most of her youth in dance and performing arts. Her love for movement guided her to the fitness industry in 1988. Nickie spent several years as a certified fitness instructor through ACE, AFAA, & Certified Personal Trainer through NASM.
During the 1990’s Nickie felt a profound calling to Yoga. Exploring what yoga had to offer became a life goal. As many have experienced, Yoga has helped Nickie through times of crisis and chronic medical conditions. She became a certified yoga teacher through The Temple of Kriya Yoga in May of 2000. Since completing her initial certification, Nickie has regularly attended teacher trainings and workshops, and has acquired many additional certifications. She teaches an eclectic blend of Hatha Yoga and Vinyasa flow. Nickie’s main inspirations flow from the teaching s of T. Krishnamacharya and the life and writings of Swami Rama.
“I feel blessed to be joined by those with whom I am able to share the love and wisdom given to me by all of my teachers and students. For whom, I am forever grateful to.”
Ruth Ann Grant
Ruth Ann Grant says yoga has truly given her the ability to connect her physical fitness with her mental fitness, and it allows her to fully accept her body for its achievements as well as its limitations.
She uses the principals and techniques of yoga to practice living yoga in her daily life off the mat and hopes to share that gift with her students. Ruth Ann received her 200 hours Hatha yoga training at Global Yoga in Chicago. The training exposed her to teachers of several styles of yoga, including, Anusara, Kripalu, Astanga, Bikram and Kundalini.
Ruth Ann’s goal is to use aspects of all to offer a safe and fulfilling yoga class to her students. In addition, Ruth Ann’s yoga teacher training included specialized instruction in Prenatal Yoga.
One of Ruth Ann’s passions is teaching yoga to expectant mothers. Like running, biking, hiking and swimming, yoga has become another healthful activity she enjoys sharing with her family.
A graduate of Iowa State University’s School of Journalism, Ruth Ann currently does freelance writing for the health care and medical fields. “For me yoga is about feeling something, feeling better and taking the time to honor ourselves so we have more to offer the loved ones in our lives,” says Ruth Ann.
Marcia Bogolub, PT, RYT
Marcia has been a physical therapist for almost thirty years. She began a study of yoga about eight years ago, and was profoundly affected by physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the practice.
Soon, her yoga practice informed her work as a physical therapist and her knowledge of physical therapy added an important dimension to Marcia’s study of yoga. Principles of anatomical alignment, which are key to both physical therapy and yoga, continue to be a cornerstone of her practice.
Now a certified yoga instructor, registered with the Yoga Alliance, Marcia aspires to provide her students with a balanced practice in a supportive environent.