Jennifer Harvey – Anusara-Inspired Yoga, Nia, Pilates

As studio owner and director, I welcome everyone to Laughing Dog. I hope the environment is such that people of all ages can benefit and experience the freedom and power of yoga and other movement and healing arts. I am committed to encouraging the creative growth of the Laughing Dog teachers –including myself- so we can be the best at what we do.

I teach what I love. I love the integrity and grace of Anusara Yoga, the freedom and inspiration of Nia and the core focus and sculpting of Pilates. I also draw on my many years as a licensed psychotherapist. In my classes, I hope to hold a space where we can all connect to the immensity of our hearts, the optimal strength and suppleness of our bodies, the joy of life and the creativity and fullness of the moment.

Though teaching and practicing yoga for more than 20 years, I found Anusara Yoga in 2000 and completed my Anusara Teacher Training in 2002. I continue to study with John Friend and many other incredible Anusara teachers. Other influences are the teachings of Tias Little, Rama Berch, Tom Alden, Patty Townsend, Bo Forbes, Doug Keller, Jenny Otto - to name a few. I am a Blue Belt in Nia and am continually amazed at the depth and joy of this practice. My Pilates training is through PhysicalMind Institute and West Coast Pilates.

Prior to opening Laughing Dog I practiced psychotherapy full-time. I was trained in both traditional and holistic models with an emphasis on Body-Oriented and Spiritual/Energetic Psychology and Expressive Therapy.

I also practice Yoga/Pilates Therapy and have studied with many great teachers in these incredible modes of healing.

I gratefully thank all my mentors along the way and all the students and teachers at Laughing Dog for helping to create such a life affirming and supportive community.

Anna Iatrides - Pilates, ZUMBA, Personal Trainer

A fitness instructor and personal trainer for 22 years, Anna brings passion and energy to each class she teaches and client she trains. Anna believes in the importance of cross training for optimal fitness and body awareness. Hence, she has been certified in and teaches Pilates, ZUMBA, BODYCOMBAT, BODYPUMP and spinning. Her certifications are from Stott Pilates, ZUMBA LesMills, Reebok, AFAA Fitness, and NASM. She uses her knowledge and expertise of body alignment, technique, functionality and movement to achieve her clients' and class participants' fitness goals. In addition, Anna earned an undergraduate degree in Economics from Boston College and an MBA in Finance and Management from Simmons College. She worked as a Senior Manager in the banking industry for 20 years. Anna is married to Christos and has a daughter, Victoria, and a son, Minas.

Cindy Scholz - Nia

I love teaching NIA. My greatest pleasure is sharing the joys of movement, the wisdom of yoga and the strengths of the martial arts with my students. I also enjoy integrating themes from my background in Design and Psychology.

I’ve trained as a Jazz dancer with Jeanette Neill for 30 years, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for Boston Youth Moves. I’ve practiced Anusara Yoga with Jennifer Harvey for 8 life transformative years, and have completed the Anusara Immersions with Deb Neubauer. I am currently studying the SvaTantra meditation teachings with Professor Paul Muller- Ortega.

My desire in NIA is to facilitate fun by creating an atmosphere of acceptance in order to give students the freedom to express their own unique beauty.

Cynthia Gramer - Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga/Meditation

Cynthia has been joyfully teaching yoga in and around Boston since 2002. Over the years she has trained in several styles, both rigorous and meditative, but her classes these days are oriented around breath, heart, and present moment awareness. In addition to teaching yoga, Cynthia works with individuals as an intuitive guide and Reiki practitioner and has participated in and led circles of women since 1998. An avid student of consciousness, freedom and love, Cynthia considers it a privilege to teach and creates space where students feel free, supported and connected to the teacher within.

Daniel Orlansky - Yoga

Daniel ERYT-500, a yoga teacher for 16 years, is certified in Meridian Yoga, Kali Ray TriYoga and Kundalini Yoga. He holds a masters degree in Expressive Art Therapy/Dance Therapy from Lesley University and has been a visiting lecturer in movement studies at Tufts University. A graduate of the Boston Shiatsu School, Daniel teaches regularly at the Kripalu Center, the Omega Institute, and in Europe, and also directs yoga teacher trainings worldwide. For info - www.yogaofenergyflow.com

Dayna Yorks – Personal Trainer/Coach

Dayna is a certified group fitness instructor with a passion for the body, health, and fitness. She currently teaches LesMills BODYPUMP and is a NASM-certified personal trainer. Dayna has been coaching softball pitchers in Newton, Needham, and surrounding towns for the past 7 years, including a number of high school and college pitchers as well as young beginners. She emphasizes the importance of solid mechanics and technique as the foundation necessary for successful pitching and employs the same values when instructing fitness classes and training clients. Dayna is considered by local softball instructors to be one of the most outstanding softball pitchers and players in Needham High history. She went on to be a vital part of the Wesleyan University, CT varsity softball team where she was a pitcher, first baseman, and captain her senior year.

In addition to teaching, training, and coaching, Dayna is currently the Manager of a Psychiatry research lab at Massachusetts General Hospital with plans of going to Medical School in the near future.

Diana Cullum-Dugan RD LD RYT – Anusara –Inspired Yoga, Yoga for Mindful Eating

Diana moved toward yoga to complement a strong physical activity practice resulting from years of teaching group exercise and strength training. Unexpected were the transformations that occurred at every level of her being. She explored all styles of yoga then was intensely drawn to John Friend’s Anusara style of teaching yoga from the inside out. She received her Hatha yoga teacher training in the Anusara style with Deb Neubauer, one of the first certified Anusara teachers, and is registered as an Anusara-inspired teacher. Diana offers a caring, dynamic, and passionate approach as a safe foundation for students to open their hearts to the present moment and live from that place, to explore a deeper experience in their practice, and join with their highest aspirations. Students will experience yoga as a celebration of the heart as they find optimal alignment through balanced energy.

Fez Aswat - Yoga

Fez's earliest investigation into the nature of reality dates back to Pakistan at the age of three in a heated discussion with his grandfather about "Row Row Row Your Boat" and as to whether or not "Life is (in fact) but a dream." He has been teaching yoga and meditation in the Boston area since 2001 and his study continues today with his teachers Tom Alden, Patricia Walden, Barbara Benagh, Arthur Killmurray, and Jin Sung of Oakland Yoga Studio. Whether it be recovering from grief, working through illness, or just repairing his body from playing too much music, Fez has continually found the yoga practice to be an invaluable source for healing and learning to “Livestrong.” With joy and a sense of humor, his class style integrates the mindfulness, stillness and insight of a hatha yoga and meditation practice into the vinyasa format.

Kathy Mongeau – Anusara-Inspired Yoga

Yoga led Kathy on a transformational journey from the moment she began practicing. The impact of that experience, more than a decade ago, gave her a new outlook on life and furthered self-realization. After having studied with numerous teachers, she found that the Anusara Yoga methodology resonated in her heart and was compatible with her knowledge of anatomy. She believes that by receiving tools that are physically healing and spiritually uplifting her students benefit in ways that can enhance their wellbeing and overall quality of life. She is also is an avid student and evolving teacher of the healing Science of Ayurveda.

Marissa Farrell – Vinyasa Yoga, Pre/Post Natal Yoga

Marissa holds a BFA in dance. She trained professionally in New York and graduated from the Ohio State University’s dance program. While studying dance, she was introduced to yoga to assist in flexibility and strength building. She found the effects to be both positive for the body and uplifting for the mind. For two years after this initial introduction to Yoga, Marissa studied and practiced Iyengar and Sivananda Yoga and began to delve deeper into meditation and Yoga philosophy.

Since that time Marissa has become certified to teach Ashtanga Yoga (primary series) by David Swenson. She has also studied Kripalu Yoga, Power Yoga, Anusara Yoga and various other forms of Hatha Yoga. She has been influenced by such teachers as: Shiva Rea, Patricia Walden, Baron Baptiste, Stephen Cope, Angela Farmer, Jennifer Harvey and Rodney Yee.

Marissa teaches Vinyasa style yoga, combining many of the forms of yoga she has studied as well as dance, Tai Chi and Aikido. Her class is always original from week to week as she constantly takes new approaches to the postures as well as to the spiritual and philosophical essence of Yoga.

She also teaches children’s yoga and pre/post natal yoga. While pregnant with her son, Marissa began creating a practice for pregnant women who were looking to either maintain their present yoga practice with special modifications, or for women looking to yoga to assist in their physical, mental and spiritual well being during and after their pregnancy. She has since designed a complete program of pre and post natal yoga as well as become a Certified Doula and Childbirth Educator.

Mary Kaye Chryssicas – Children and Teen Yoga

Mary Kaye teaches children and teen yoga and is the author of Breathe: Yoga for Teens and I Love Yoga, a book for children. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in human development. After leaving a career in Boston as an advertising director, Mary Kaye discovered the transforming effects of yoga and was quickly inspired. She decided to focus on a more family friendly career of writing books and teaching children yoga. She has studied ashtanga, kundalini, hatha, iyengar and anusara yoga and completed several levels of teacher training through the Radiant Child Yoga Program. Drawn to the creative, peaceful and heart opening aspects of yoga, Mary Kaye hopes that her passion for yoga is shared by the kids that she teaches. Her classes are playful, soothing, challenging, outrageous, energetic and soulful all at the same time. She has spent over 15 years teaching and coaching children in various sport and yoga programs. Mary Kaye is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. A kid at heart, her entertaining sense of humor and innate understanding of yoga and children make her popular classes fill up quickly. To enroll in her classes, check out her website at www.buddhafulkids.com.

Robin Maltz – Nia, 5 Stages of Self-Healing

Robyn has been a Nia teacher for 15 years. She began doing Nia as a way of befriending her body after years of over exercising and generally over doing everything! She has completed all of her belts, white, blue, brown and black as well as a 400 hour vinyasa yoga teacher training. She is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has been in private practice for 28 years. She uses her Nia and yoga training in her work both individually and through offering workshops designed to help individuals heal themselves. She is very interested in how Nia affects body image and self-esteem.

“Nia has been the door for much transformation in my life. I am calmer and emotionally richer as a result of my practice. I also have so many wonderful friendships through this work and this may be the most valuable aspect of my Nia practice – being a member of the NIa community.”

She is married to Ira and has a wonderful dog whose name is Mae.

Tal Banayan - Yoga

Tal has been practicing yoga since 1998 and teaching since 2002. He has explored different methods of practice, all of which inform and blend into his style of teaching. Main influences include various Vinyasa styles, Anusara Yoga, Tias Little, Mark Whitwell, Ken Wilber's Integral Theory, and contemporary non-dual spiritual teachers such as Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Adyashanti, Mooji and Gangaji. In the yoga room, Tal tends to emphasize alignment in the context of breath, which he sees as the heart of the practice. Tal finds that giving attention to the breath frees us up from struggling with life and opens us up to being present to life and to its wondrous gifts. On the mat Tal invites students to find an intimate encounter of mind, body, breath, and awareness and to realize it as the gift of yoga to this world: an opportunity to directly experience our true essence as life itself; to find an internal recognition that is greater than our individual perspectives, limitations, and conflicts. Practicing from this recognition yoga becomes a celebration – a willing participation in life as it is rather than as a discipline to be mastered for self-betterment.

Wendy Cook - Yoga

A break-up with a boyfriend on New Year's Eve, 1986, in the jungles of Thailand, led Wendy to a Buddhist forest monastery for a 10-day silent meditation and yoga retreat, an experience that set her life's course. Experiencing a debilitating injury in 1997, Wendy connected more deeply with the transformative and healing effects of yoga and meditation. Already with a background in nursing, massage therapy and tai chi, she completed a Yoga Works teacher training in Santa Monica, CA in 2001 and has done numerous workshops, trainings and retreats since. She has studied in the Vinyasa, Yin, Iyengar, Ashtanga and Viniyoga systems in the USA, India and Australia. She is indebted to her numerous yoga teachers, especially Sharon Cardamone, Maty Ezraty, Lisa Walford, Patricia Walden, Richard Freeman, Gary Kraftsow, Liz Owen, Sarah Powers, Paul Grilley and TKV Desikachar. She was recently the Director of the Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Medford for six years and is currently pursuing a three-year course of study in the Alexander Technique. Her classes encourage you to connect deeply with body, mind and heart, to listen keenly to your inner wisdom, to cultivate a comfortable breath, to pay attention to healthy and helpful alignment, and to practice from an authentic place of awareness and kindness.