Amy has been practicing and teaching yoga since discovering Ashtanga in 1999 and completing her first teacher training with Larry Schultz at It’s Yoga, San Francisco. She has practiced and taught up and down the California coast, sharing her love of the practice with people of all ages, abilities and intentions. Amy and her family happily settled on the Monterey Peninsula in 2009, where she found her teachers, Adarsh and Heleen Williams, and the wonderful community of yogis at Monterey Yoga Shala! Amy is the Owner and Director of Monterey Yoga.

Amy’s experience as a social worker over the years has allowed her to integrate yoga into her work supporting adults with developmental, physical, neurological and cognitive challenges. Her experience as a mom inspired her to teach yoga to kids of all ages and abilities. She truly believes the power and benefits of this practice are accessible to anyone with the intention and motivation to delve deeper into their internal landscape. Amy’s classes strive to offer an accessible and compassionate guide into this system, allowing students the space to find and connect with their own breath, their own practice, and their own unique way of being in the world.

Angelynn started her Ashtanga practice in 2009. Since then she has followed a practice of yoga and meditation every morning and it has become a fixture of her daily routine. She studied the Intensive Yoga Teacher Training under Adarsh and Heleen Williams and is honored to accept a teaching position at Monterey Yoga Shala.

Angelynn loves to share her experience of yoga with others. She hopes that with regular practice and support, she can help her students achieve stillness of mind and feel peace in their daily living.

Andrea was a practicing attorney, and a law school professor and dean. Her professional career helped her to hone her ability to explain and deconstruct unfamiliar concepts. Later, surgery and post-surgical treatment for breast cancer left her with a deep appreciation for the power of empathy and concern for others, which helps her to support her students.

Her teaching technique emphasizes coordinating breath and movement to help students cultivate strength, stability and flexibility.  She brings a mindful and gentle approach to sharing the Ashtanga practice with you, helping students discover this powerful tool and use it in their lives outside the studio. She is able to convey the Ashtanga techniques in a way that is empowering and supportive, allowing both beginning and experienced practitioners to develop a confident self-practice.

A former triathlete, Andrea came to Ashtanga to complement her intensive training in running, swimming and biking. As she learned and practiced, she came to realize that the spiritual depth and power of Ashtanga goes well beyond the physical discipline, and she has become passionate about sharing it with others.

Andrea aims to make Ashtanga accessible to all practitioners. Although her teaching is based on a foundation of tradition, she takes a practical and non-dogmatic approach. Classes are taught at a pace that allows and invites awareness and focus.  She brings fresh eyes to your practice, guiding you through the sequence while providing tips on how to make the sequence work for you. Andrea wants to inspire you and help you deeply connect to your practice.

Besides teaching beginning, intermediate and advanced Ashtanga students in the Shala and in her home studio, Andrea continues her own in-depth asana and yoga philosophy studies with her primary teacher, Leigha Nicole, a Senior Authorized Ashtanga teacher in the tradition of Sri K Pattabhi Jois.

Vanessa Burkleo has been teaching restorative and corrective yoga for 2 years and is excited to expand her skills at Monterey Yoga. She currently holds a 200 hr yoga teacher certification from Monterey Yoga with a focus in Ashtanga Yoga. Vanessa started taking yoga in Seattle, Washington where she studied vocal performance and received her Bachelors of Arts in Music. Since then, she has been practicing and applying yoga to many facets of her life and found that yoga can improve concentration and overall performance levels.

Vanessa also holds Associate’s of Arts degrees for Kinesiology and Dance from Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. She is a licensed massage therapist with a strong background in medical massage and corrective exercise and she is a member of the Carmel Delights Dance company in Monterey. Vanessa has a zest for learning and a love for connecting with others to create joy.  Finding balance can be difficultIt in our modern world. Vanessa practices yoga to “live spherically, in many directions,” yet remain calm, centered, and peaceful in her core.

After practicing yoga for most of her adult life Robin Enochs began teacher training solely to deepen her personal practice.  Throughout teacher training she gained amazing friendships and developed a love for the tradition of Ashtanga Yoga and sharing it with others.Her teacher, Terry Johnson, introduced Robin to practicing with Greg Tebb and Manju Jois, all of whom she has an amazing amount of respect and gratitude.

“I love Ashtanga, I just makes since to me!  I have a lifelong commitment to healthy eating cooking and being physically active.  Yoga has become a large part of my life which I enjoy sharing with others.  I respect the science of Ashtanga yoga; the physical practice (asana) and the mind body connection, the challenge of the strengthening and the comfort of the calm.  The practice helps to keep me grounded, focused and in the present, it feeds my soul. I also see the value in customizing “flow” and sequences for those not on the “Ashtanga Train”.

 I have much gratitude for my teachers who have given me so much and who continuously challenge me to further my own practice both on and off the mat.  I love teaching, working with individual bodies and guiding others through their own practice.  Everybody is different and yoga is for every ‘body’!

 Robin is also a certified massage therapist.  Her experience with body work and knowledge of anatomy and movement aid in her teachings and working with individual students.