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We take the time to select exceptional, experienced teachers who genuinely care about you as an individual. Yoga practices are adapted to the each student's current needs. From seniors to seasoned yogis, from stiff hamstrings to stress relief, we empower you to connect with your own Yoga - to heal, transform, and renew.
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The caliber and quality of teachers is what makes Ojas Yoga Center a sanctuary where people of all bodies and experience levels come to receive deep healing and self-acceptance.
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Nicole Becker, Founder|Owner
HATHA YOGA | MEDITATION | RESTORATIVE YOGA | AROMATHERAPY Nicole has been studying classical Yoga (philosophy, movement, breath, meditation, devotion) and holistic healing for over 20 years, including extended education in anatomy, physiology, bio-mechanics, eastern & herbal medicine. She excels in observing the habits of tension and movement in each student's body and works patiently and enthusiastically with each person to demystify and free the body of tensions to reveal a "new normal". Nicole's unique classes are spiritual and meditative, informative, and humor-infused. Nicole assists people of all ages, experience, and fitness levels - brand new beginners, injured and adepts alike - to get curious, stay compassionate, and discover the appropriate practices to balance their particular constitution and lifestyle. Nicole teaches weekly public classes, private yoga & meditation, workshops and retreats. Learn more here |
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Rhoda Rossman
HATHA YOGA | CHAIR YOGA FOR SENIORS Be ready to be guided down a stream of postures and take a detour from your usual mental focus and competition. Along the way, each pose will be shown and fully explained. You will grow more sensitive and step up the abundance of your precious physical and spiritual resources. By the end of practice, you will arrive at a purified state of health and well-being. Rhoda took up Yoga in her late 30-s after a variety of athletic pursuits; she began with the Bikram form and later turned to Iyengar Yoga, which is her main influence. She started teaching in 2001 after completing the Yoga Alliance-certified Yoga Source Teachers Training Program. Her class is very nurturing and suitable for beginners as well as intermediate students. |
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James Michael Ryder
HATHA YOGA | MEDITATION James Michael Ryder is a dedicated student and teacher of hatha yoga and insight meditation. These potent technologies restore us to native embodied wisdom and an undefended heart. Yoga provides excellent tools (awareness practices, postures, extended breath, cleansing, energetic bonds, concentration and meditation) to refine attention, body and breath and, ultimately, the qualities of mind. As we grow steady, even faced with difficulties, we can begin to recognize the filters that obscure clear seeing of self and the world around us. This freedom, then, is the essential fruit of yoga practice. Come find out for yourself! www.jamesryderyoga.com |
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Adrienne Shamszad
HATHA YOGA | SACRED MUSIC Adrienne Shamszad has been a committed yoga student for nearly 15 years. She received her 200 hour teacher training certification in 2014 and is currently completing her 500 hour training with her teacher and mentor Nubia Teixiera. Adrienne combines her love of music, singing and dance with her passion for anatomy and all thing structured to make her yoga classes both liberating and grounding. Her classes are infused with lightness, humor, patience and healthy alignment principles. Adrienne’s main interest in teaching is in providing a safe and healing container for students to explore the range of their breath and movement. Students will be encouraged to approach the yoga practice with compassion and with curiosity as they explore new sources of energy within their bodies. Classes always include some form of chanting or singing and all are welcome to participate or simply listen. Adrienne is also a professional musician, songwriter, vocalist, music teacher and voice coach. adrienneshamszad.com |
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Melissa Felsenstein
SOUND HEALING “Silence is the root of everything. If you spiral into its void, a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.” This Rumi quote is the core of Missy’s own sound journey and teachings. Through the use of live sound with quartz crystal singing bowls and specifically tuned gongs, expect to indulge in conscious relaxation and sweet stillness as you explore the meditative like states induced by these unique instruments.Missy is a certified 700 hr yoga therapist through Loyola Marymount University and a Relax & Renew Restorative teacher. Her mission is to use sound and yoga to shorten the distance between yourself and your truth. More at www.innersoundsmeditation.com |
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Mitch Hall
HATHA YOGA | QIGONG Mitch began practicing Yoga in 1968 and meditation, Tai Chi and Qi Gong in 1970. Since then, he has continued exploring the integral cultivation of wellness, healing, and peace through mind-body practices from diverse spiritual traditions as well as from contemporary somatic therapies. As a holistic wellness counselor, he listens and responds with empathy and compassion, guides clients in mindful breathing, movement, and meditation, and uses sound healing. The Indian Board of Alternative Medicines, located in Kolkata, India, awarded him a PhD(h.c.) in Alternative Medicines. He has taught in training programs for yoga teaching and yoga therapy. Mitch loves teaching Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and meditation, and is known for his gentleness, warmth, humor, humility, care for students, advocacy of self-acceptance, and the soothing effects of his voice, chanting, and harmonic steel drum playing. His website is www.breathepeacefully.com |
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Mai Tran
HATHA YOGA Mai is a Yoga Alliance Registered yoga instructor who expresses a strong foundation in classical yoga philosophy and Vipassana meditation practice while staying open to new information that emerges about health and wellness. She believes learning how to nurture body and mind as a healthy home for the soul is crucial for life. Her experience as a teacher, as well as her genuine devotion to her students, resulted in a high level of teaching for many students at ashrams where she has lived and volunteered at since 2011. |
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Ashley Brown
HATHA YOGA Ashley’s approach to teaching is alignment and anatomy based, suited for the individual practitioner; investigating how the body can move to the fullest range of motion with awareness of placement and breath. Ashley’s classes, are inspired by her teacher Nubia Teixeira, where she encompasses all aspects of the yoga with chanting, mudras and pranayama (breathwork) honoring the tradition with it’s many different branches to self awareness. Besides practicing asana, chanting, and meditation, Ashley is a dance teacher at the Stapleton School of the Performing Arts and East Bay Center of the Performing Arts. Ashley is continuing her education with a mentorship from Nubia Teixeira, trauma sensitive trainings and teaching yoga to youth through programs with Niroga Institute in Berkeley. |
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Stephanie Sandleben
HATHA YOGA Stephanie’s love for Yoga began as a teenager growing up in a small Arizona town. Nurtured by hippie parents, a Kripalu-inspired Yogini and Sufi Sheikh, it grew into a lifelong passion that took root in New York City and now the Bay Area. Having taught for 15 years nationally and abroad, she is inspired by a multitude of gifted teachers, her travels to India, Amma, Reiki, and most importantly her students. The birth of her children began the next chapter in her path of service and ignited a deeper desire to explore the therapeutic potential of asana and pranayama. This path has grown to include Pelvic Floor Yoga, Postpartum Doula support, and healing sessions that are a synthesis of Yoga, Reiki, and Rebozo (traditional body wrapping). Her soulful classes are subtle, deep, and thoughtfully sequenced so that you leave feeling grounded and invigorated. www.thesamamama.com |
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Sierra Wagner
THERAPEUTIC YOGA Sierra Wagner, Yoga Therapist, E-RYT. Her yoga practice began at 13 years old and by age 18 Sierra had started teaching. Over the last 20 + years she has taught yoga and meditation workshops, thousands of classes and has developed a private yoga therapy practice, Sierra Laurel Yoga. As an advocate for equal rights she focuses her work as a therapeutic yoga teacher on serving older adults, the elderly and other under-served populations. |
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Dalila Solis
RESTORATIVE YOGA Dalila was born in Mexico, raised in Texas, and moved to California to study Anthropology and Art. She fell head over heels in love with yoga in 2003 and has been practicing ever since. Dalila is trained as a yoga instructor and continues to study and explore many different styles of yoga--Hatha, Vinyasa, Bhakti, Kundalini, Yin and Restorative. She weaves and synthesizes elements from these styles into her classes to include meditation, pranayama, mantra, mindfully linking breath with movement, and aligning the heart, body and mind. Dalila is a Reiki practitioner, a Certified Massage Therapist and a student of Ayurveda--living in tune with the seasons and elements. Her knowledge of Ayurveda, 5 element theory and the healing arts inform her yoga classes. She considers Mother Earth and nature to be her deepest inspiration and connection to the divine. |
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Giulia Divina
HATHA & RESTORATIVE YOGA Giulia Divina is originally from Rome Italy and has lived here in sunny Bay Area half of her life . In 2003 Giulia Divina obtained her 200 hours ashtanga yoga training certificate from IT’S YOGA in San Francisco while also pursuing a career as a personal trainer at the local Golds gym by Lake Merritt. Giulia combines different disciplines inspired by Hatha , Iyengar , Vinyasa and Ashtanga yoga . She also teaches restorative yoga and guided meditation drawing a more spiritual crowd in her classes who values and seeks a more gentle healing practice geared towards self care and self compassion. |
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Eugenia Park
HATHA YOGA Eugenia Park believes in Yoga's power to heal, transform and re-member our whole nature. After years of intensive studies in Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, Qigong, dance and healing therapies, Eugenia offers a full-bodied practice to help connect us to all that is alive and available in the present moment. By using simple and effective physical postures, breath, meditation, sound & sensory practices, we clear the way to inhabit our bodies more fully and rest more intimately in ourselves. Through yoga, we deepen and expand into our energized, embodied and empowered selves. Eugenia brings her passion for bodywork, anatomy, kinesiology, injury rehabilitation, postural alignment, holistic wellness and trauma studies to support greater ease, balance and integration. Her classes prioritize safety, body positivity, inclusivity and dignity for each and every body. For details on classes, bodywork sessions and workshops, please visit www.EugeniaPark.com |
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Stina da Silva
HATHA YOGA | MEDITATION Stina began practicing yoga 20 years ago, and ever since it has become an integral part of her lifestyle. As a way to heal both physically and mentally, and a path to connecting more deeply with the self - Stina has witnessed miracles from the discipline of yoga. From these experiences, she has decided to share what she has learned about yoga with her Bay Area community, hoping to enrich other people’s lives with the calm focus and groundedness she receives from her own practice. Stina received her 200 hour YTT from Yoga Garden in San Francisco in 2016. She teaches both Yin and Hatha yoga, with emphasis on bringing awareness to one's own breath through the practice. |
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Dawn Constantine
MEDITATION Dawn has been helping individuals and groups navigate the surrendered inner journey with somatic awareness for over 30 years as an RN, lay midwife, herbalist, and is certified in the modalities of Clarity Breathwork, Color and Sound Therapy, RYT 200hr Meditation Teacher/36hr Yoga Nidra Teacher from Yoga Essence in Rishikesh. Usui Reiki Master. She holds precious the teachings from all these wisdom practices that each share the invitation of resonance. When we create the outward vibration of stillness and harmony, everything inside our bodies and our minds will automatically work to align with this vibration. Our intentions and heart centering practices help to anchor this alignment into our daily lives. Find out more about Dawn at Soulvoyages.org |
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Elizabeth McKinley
HATHA YOGA | MEDITATION Elizabeth is a Certified Yoga Therapist and Registered Yoga Teacher exploring the intersections of physical, mental, and emotional health. Her teachings emphasize the body-mind-spirit connection, weaving together the traditions of Hatha, Restorative, and Therapeutic Yoga. Elizabeth has been leading holistic healing groups since 2009. She has shared yoga therapy with individuals of diverse backgrounds in residential treatment programs, through case management services, in substance abuse programs, in mental health outpatient clinics, with youth alternatives programs, and in medical clinics, as well as in yoga studios and on retreat, guiding her students to recognize and build upon their inherent wholeness. www.elizabethmckinleyyoga.com |
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Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, C-IAYT, DMCT
HATHA YOGA Susan has been a certified teacher of adult, children, and family yoga classes for over ten years. In 2013 she obtained an additional certification in Curvy Yoga, a size-positive hatha yoga approach. In 2015 she completed a rigorous two-year Yoga Therapy training program and is certified by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Her classes integrate body-affirming yoga instruction and a deep respect for the therapeutic benefits of the practice to support health and stress resilience. She is also a certified Dynamic Mindfulness Facilitator, and has a Master’s in Clinical Psychology, utilizing both in her work as a yoga teacher. Susan’s classes are trauma-informed, and she is committed to making yoga accessible to all bodies and abilities. She brings compassion, a dedication to community building, joyful humor and respect for the innate wisdom of the body to her classes that celebrate the body in all its expressions. www.susanweineryoga.com |
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Kristina Forester Thorp
QIGONG Kristina is a certified 500 hour massage therapist with specialized training in Traditional Thai Massage, Somatic movement and Aquatic Therapies. As a former professional cellist Kristina found Qigong, Taiji and somatic modalities to be the perfect vehicle to train her body to wellness from a long career in music. She received her music training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has a passion for working with musicians and performers in her somatic therapy practice. She trained at the Institute for Internal Transformation receiving teaching permission for Qigong in 2008. You can find her Qigong classes in Berkeley and around the Bay Area, please check in at www.Forestersomatics.com |