Instructors and Support Team
Alex
Alexandra "Alex" is a non-profit leader, mental health advocate, and E-RYT200/RYT500 yoga instructor in the South Florida community.
Since 2017, she has woven her spunky and authentic personality into trauma-sensitive teachings across yoga studios, substance-use treatment centers, schools, homeless shelters, senior centers, and more.
She’s trained in Trauma-Informed Yoga, Children’s Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Yoga for Athletes and Adaptive Yoga. She leads with compassion and creatively brings her students back into connection with Mind and Body. Alex’s journey to the mat comes from her own struggles with anxiety, depression, and substance-use, and she has vowed to share the healing tools of the yoga practice as a way to cultivate self love, resilience, and ultimately community.
Allison
Allison was introduced to yoga in college and has since been a life-long practitioner. Allison credits yoga with helping her to balance the many “hats” that she is fortunate to wear in her life. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, professional musician, and clergy, who believes that exercise and yoga can help one to balance life and age in a graceful healthy manner.
Along life’s path, Allison had a health challenge that led her to experience and discover the art of energy healing. She is a certified Reiki Master, Karuna Reiki practitioner, and Jewish Energy Healer. She uses many of these techniques in her yoga classes, and her students enjoy and receive the benefits of “chanting and sound healing” through her use of Tibetan and crystal healing bowls.
Upon retiring as a professional musician in 2018, Allison delved into her yoga practice with a passion. She studied and earned her 200 HR RYT Yoga Alliance Teaching Certification in June of 2018 and began to teach yoga privately and in South Florida studios. Allison is certified in Restorative Yoga and T.R.Y. Trauma Recovery yoga. She holds certificates in Face Yoga and Sound healing. She has recently completed her 60-hr Yin Yoga certification with Bodsphere Health and Wellness, teachers Samarthya and Preetika Bhatnagar. Classes that she teaches include Yoga for Beginners, Gentle Flow, Candlelight Yoga, Vinyasa, Happy Hips Yoga, Chair Yoga, Jewish Yoga, Yoga and Meditation, Restorative and Reiki (R & R).
Believing in the “he-ART” of Yoga, Allison’s classes combine a creative flowing sequence of poses including Pranayama (breath work) and meditation. Allison pays close attention to the alignment and safety of each student. It is her hope to inspire others to discover their mind, body and soul connection and to feel refreshed, renewed and balanced when they complete class.
The benefits of yoga are many including strengthening, toning, flexibility, breathing, mental acuity and stress release. Allison loves teaching yoga and believes its lessons continue when you step off the mat and out into the world.
Cathie
RYT 200
Cathie feels blessed to be able to combine her love of teaching (taught in the schools as a Speech Pathologist for 35 years and is still teaching at Nova Southeastern University) with her love of Yoga. Although Cathie discovered Yoga “later in life,” she acknowledges that many prior activities- including playing tennis, running, and weight lifting, have led her to this “perfect place!” When the first Yoga 1 teacher training was offered by Dar and Steve, Cathie seized the opportunity and feels it was one of the best decisions of her life (second to marrying Ricky, her husband of 48 years, of course!) She was hired to teach “Gentle” Yoga the week that she turned 70, making that “milesetone” birthday all the sweeter!
The skinny on Cathie: nicknamed “Chatty Cathie” for a reason, she loves to talk…… but she’s a great listener as well. Inversions are her passion…. She can even talk while upside down!
Teaching Yoga Since: 2014
Trained in: Hatha yoga
Cathie’s Teachers: Dr. Steve and Darlene Feinzig
Cathie instructs the following:
•Gentle Yoga
Jessica
Meet Jessica AKA The Foxyogi; Jess completed her first 200 hour Teacher Training with Shayna Palmer (Kelley) in 2018 and has been teaching ever since. In 2024 Jess traveled across the world to Koh Samui, Thailand to Vikasa and completed her 300 Hour Teacher Training with Jonah Kest in the Seven Doorways of Vinyasa Method. In Thailand Jess also trained with Daniel Rama, Kosta Miachin, Heidi Helmer, Mikey Lazano, Niki Lundberg, Alexy Vyazovov and Jovan Tevin. Jess has also co-facilitated 200 Hour Teacher Trainings in this method with Lesley Carney, 500 ERYT YCEP. Jess has advanced training in Anatomy and is a level II Reiki Practitioner as well as a level 1 Animal Flow Instructor. Jess loves sharing yoga with students of all levels; as a teacher but also as a forever student of yoga. Jess is a lawyer by trade and has worked in the field of Child Welfare for nearly 20 years. Being trained in the law taught her to be methodical and precise; yoga makes her feel free and this intersection is where she finds her balance.
Jess sees yoga as a beautiful practice of discipline and control harmonizing with surrender, flow, and acceptance; it is a blueprint for living where people have space to connect to their higher selves and understand that we are in the driver’s seat as to how we navigate the highs and lows of life. Yoga helps us develop our equanimity; a state of composure and calm no matter the situation. Jess loves teaching all levels; believes yoga is for every body and loves alignment and anatomy. Jess teaches power, vinyasa, Ashtanga, yoga 101, slow flow, restorative and yin. Jess believes in honoring your body and that your practice can look different every day; that learning to breathe consciously in conjunction with intelligent sequencing of poses can help get your body in shape, change your perspective and calm the mind. Connecting with students through their stories and the evolution of their practice is incredibly gratifying. Jess loves that yoga can never be perfected or completed, her mission is to make classes accessible and humorous yet challenging and help students achieve balance in their lives.
Katie
Katie Doyle is the founder of Bloom Burst, a wellness advisor and yoga teacher who works at the intersection of health, healing, and wellness to be able to support her client's mind, body and spirit.
Katie is a registered yoga and meditation instructor, holistic health coach, sound healing and reiki facilitator, and a workplace wellness advisor. Katie has been a student of yoga for over 15 years and has been teaching since 2019. She is an advanced yoga teacher having earned her RYT 200 teacher at the Asheville Yoga Center in 2019 and her CYT 300 hour yoga teacher certification at 305 University in North Miami, FL in 2024.
She believes in making yoga accessible to people at all levels and from all walks of life. As a teacher she focuses on building community, creating a welcoming environment and honoring Yogic principles. Katie believes that Yoga is a practice that we carry off of our mats and into our daily lives instilling the yoga we practice into our day-to-day interactions.
She is also South Florida’s only certified Mindful Outdoor Guide, utilizing the healing powers of nature to help restore balance and joy to people’s lives. Her goal is to make whole-body wellness attainable, approachable, and accessible. She is passionate about holistic living and the healing powers of nature as well as using alternative modalities to tap into our deepest and truest self. Katie believes that laughter is truly medicine, good friends are family, life is too short to NOT pursue your passions and the darkest moments in your life are springboards for greatness.
Kim
Kim is an original member of our Yoga 1 community. As her interest in yoga grew in the early years, she expanded her practice by completing teacher training with master teachers Jordan Bloom, Christy Nones McKenzie, and Peter Barber. Kim continues to grow her yoga practice by practicing with and learning from many skilled yoga teachers in our South Florida yoga community and beyond.
Kim leads a challenging, yet approachable, and thoughtfully-sequenced flow class, with an emphasis on alignment, breath, balance, and building strength and flexibility. She weaves life-affirming themes into her classes, along with a hint of yoga philosophy, a dollop of inspiration, and a pinch of humor. Kim invites you to “come as you are and leave feeling better.”
Kim’s Teachers: Jordan Bloom, Christy Nones McKenzie, and Peter Barber
Kim instructs the following:
•Mixed Levels Yoga •Power Flow Yoga
Kiyona
Kiyona is a native of Chester, Pennsylvania. She moved to South Florida in 2021 to expand her yoga career. Her yoga journey began at age 10 when she began meditating as a way to decompress after the school day. She was introduced to yoga asanas over a decade ago as a form of exercise. Through her personal practice, she experienced that transformational healing power of yoga. Her curiosity and desire for more led her to pursue workshops and training. She is certified in Vinyasa, Trauma Informed Yoga, Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga and is a certified sound healer. Kiy is a strong supporter of community which led to her cofound the Black Yogis of South Florida as a platform to pour into families through wellness and community.
Kristin
RYT 200
Kristin started practicing yoga in 2011 and loves the emotional and spiritual aspects as much as the physical elements of yoga. For years people would tell Kristin that she could become a yoga teacher, so when Steve and Darlene offered Teacher Training in 2017, she decided that would be her 60th birthday gift to herself!
Kristin loves the history, philosophy, anatomy and Sanskrit she learned, as well as the strengthening and deepening of her physical practice. She truly appreciates the support of all the Yoga 1 teachers and students in her ongoing yoga journey.
Teaching Yoga Since: 2018
Trained in: Hatha yoga
Kristin’s Teachers: Dr. Steve and Darlene Feinzig
Kristin instructs the following:
•Gentle Yoga •Livestream Gentle Yoga •Restorative Yoga •Yin Yoga
Laura
Laura parle français
Laura has been teaching yoga since 2008, and is certified in various forms of practice including hatha, hot yoga, vinyasa, yin, mindfulness and meditation. Her love for yoga started as a child, and remains a part of her approach to living mindfully with compassion every day. Laura's other loves include acting, dance, baking, travelling, her family and her two dogs, Kai and Frankie.
Lesley
Lesley teaches breath-centered classes that stimulate the mind, body, and heart. She’s been teaching yoga and meditation to adults and children for over 15 years and is registered with Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT 500, RCYT, and YACEP. She spent 5 years traveling the world teaching yoga teacher trainings and is super stoked to now call South Florida her home. She has trained extensively with Jonny Kest as well as Tim Miller, Gopala Amir Yaffa, and Francoise Freedman. When it comes to classes, she loves to teach a full range of energetic volume — from deep, meditative Yoga Nidra to powerful, sweaty Hot Vinyasa. Lesley always leads from the heart and teaches classes with meaningful messages
Mari
Mari is a registered yoga teacher (RYT 200) trained in Hatha Mindful Alignment by Yoga One in Hollywood, Fl.
She has been practicing yoga since 2012, and her journey with cancer inspired her to share her passion for holistic wellness through yoga, nutrition, meditation, and Ayurveda.
Her yoga classes focus on foundation alignment, breath, and meditation.
As a breast cancer survivor, she believes in the power of yoga to begin a healing process that comes from deeply understanding your body, mind, and spirit connection.
Mari creates a safe and inspiring practice that elevates the quality of life for those who want to improve their overall health.
Mari is also trained as:
- Holistic Health Coach certified by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.
- Ayurvedic Lifestyle Instructor certified by the Chopra Center.
- Meditation Instructor, certified by the Chopra Center.
Currently instructing:
Yoga Basics
Mariella
Mariella is a passionate 12th grader with a love for photography, yoga and extra golden doodle - Samson. As her family’s in-house photographer, Mariella has an eye for capturing the beauty in every moment. With a heart full of enthusiasm, she embraces the art of yoga and is excited to embark on her own journey as a yoga instructor.
Mariella’s warm and friendly nature makes her a natural at connecting with others.
Maura
Maura will be our front desk support on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Maura has a true passion for the Florida Panthers hockey team. Her love of exercise began as a 6 year old where she began gymnastics and cheerleading. In her spare time she enjoys reading and traveling to new places.
Maura has two dogs Koda and Stella and eventually would want to become a yoga instructor and further her practice
Maya
Maya has been a part of the Yoga 1 community as our front desk receptionist since 2020. Her love for yoga and meditation comes from an academic background in Religious Studies. With a BA and MA in Religious Studies, her research focuses on mysticism and spiritual healing within numerous religious traditions. Maya's literacy in Sanskrit and yogic philosophy gives her a deep appreciation for yoga's spiritual and philosophical roots. She loves reading, connecting with nature, and listening to music.
Michele C.
E-RYT 500 & YACEP
Michele C. is a native New Yorker who loves to cultivate her artistic and creative core with the spiritual and meditative teachings of yoga. Her two top character traits include, “Learner” and “Achiever”, as she truly enjoys being a student, almost as much as teaching and sharing yoga. After twenty years as a media- marketing professional in the corporate sector, Michele opted to use her business savvy and solid interpersonal skills to cross over into the healing realm that yoga provides. She received her RYT 200 certification in “Hatha Mindful Alignment” from Yoga 1 in 2014, with her teachers Dr. Steve and Darlene Feinzig, and her RYT 300 advanced yoga training, as part of “The Alchemy of Flow and Form”, from the San Marcos School of Yoga, with Christina Sell and Gioconda Parker, in 2017. Most recently, she has completed her E-RYT 500 hour accreditation, and has received certifications for: Yoga for First Responders | Kidding Around Yoga (KAY – kids yoga) | Y Medica - for students undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment | Yoga Nidra | Yin Yoga - with Master Paulie Zink, and later this year will study with Bernie Clark. Her teaching style fosters a safe and supportive class environment for students to develop and practice yoga at any level. She continuously works to provide a class balance that utilizes solid foundation and alignment with modifications and progressions, allowing students to “deepen” their practice, as they see fit. Her goal is for students to leave every class – smiling and feeling great.
Michele holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from New York University – Stern School of Business, and is an avid animal rights advocate, who works with local and national rescue groups.
Michele S.
Michele S. is certified in Savroopa Restorative ~ Therapeutic yoga, Hatha yoga, Yoga for Recovery & Sobriety. Michele is also a Level 3 Reiki Practitioner.
She specializes in mindfulness, chakra alignment, guided relaxation, meditation and energy and frequency balancing.
Her passion is teaching self-kindness and peace in the present moment, raising our inner beings frequency & light with ease.
MusTafa
MusTafa Türkçe konuşuyor.
MusTafa spricht Deutsch.
MusTafa has over 15 years of practice experience, his extensive yoga training started in California and continued in Florida. He completed his 200 YTT at I Love Yoga in 2018.
He is born in Germany, originally from Turkey, living in South Florida for 25 years, He is blessed with a wonderful daughter, Layla. His specialty is Vinyasa and Hot Yoga. He believes in Play Explore Love in Life with harmony.
Feel free to drop into any of his all-levels classes for a unique, balanced yoga experience and connect in Joy.
MusTafa creates a unique environment for vinyasa which allows for exploration of the body through movement. You will be guided by a dynamic flow sequence in coordination with the breath.
Hot Yoga- Yoga modality which takes place in a hot room where you can push your body to desire limits through a vinyasa inspired flow. Come in and enjoy the connection with your inner self.
Rita
Rita has been teaching yoga since 2012 after completing her teacher training at Yogaworks in New York City. She continued her education by completing a 100 hour Restorative training with Jillian Pransky. Rita is a native New Yorker, and moved to South Florida in 2014 to live a life with more sunshine and less stress. She teaches vinyasa flow with a strong focus on alignment and breath. While she loves teaching all levels of yoga, Rita has a special place in her heart for those just starting on their yoga journey. Yoga has the power to transform us on many levels and Rita feels that watching this process in her students is one of the greatest gifts of teaching. mba®
Rosie
Owner of Yoga 1 - RYT500
Rosie’s fitness career began as a teenager instructing an assortment of dance classes in high school and continued through college while earning her degree in Modern Dance. She spent the next 20+ years in commercial aviation holding various leadership positions and earning her BSBM from the University of Phoenix. With each promotion came less and less fitness and self-care in her daily routine.
Then came Covid! Like millions of others around the world, the slow-down allowed Rosie to take time to gain perspective. Rosie has set out to make it a mission to make a difference through mindfulness, health and fitness. As such she now holds a Certified Group Fitness Instructor Certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (AFAA-CGFI), YIN and Restorative Certifications from YogaRenew, and has a variety of Zumba licenses.
Rosie is laser focused and committed to bringing joy, happiness and mindfulness for those she interacts with
and is the proud owner of Yoga 1.
Hatha, Vinyasa, Restorative and Yin Yoga as well as Licensed in: Zumba®, CIRCL Mobility™, Zumba Gold ®, Zumba Toning®, and Plate by Zumba®
Sophie
Sophie parle français.
Sophie aspires to help those around her in a more balanced lifestyle, bring peacefulness and inner harmony in our busy life and challenging times. She has the enthusiasm and desire to share some of her tools: Sound and vibrational therapy and Qigong Flow practice.
Her path in energy work started 17 years ago with a strong foundation in Ayurveda (Ayurvedic Lifestyle Coaching and Ayurvedic Dietetics) she also received the 200 hour certification in Kundalini Yoga in 2012.
Suffering from a neck injury she started to look for gentle therapies and softer practices. She discovered the sound and vibrational therapy using tuning forks on acupuncture points and experienced their profound effects. Shortly after she became a practitioner (Acutonics) and combined this therapy with a variety of sound healing instruments. She has been leading private and group sound journeys since 2015.
Naturally she expanded her knowledge in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and energy work practicing Qigong: a safe practice for all, combining gentle movements with conscious breath to cultivate our life force energy (Qi) and allow it to circulate smoothly throughout our body and energy fields. She discovered Qigong in 2019 and “fell in love” with the practice. Since then she has been practicing on a daily basis, studying and teaching it, to become certified in 2022. Qigong flow has become her core practice as she has experienced its benefits in her daily life. She is excited to share with others this practice that is becoming more and more popular but that is not yet well-known. Truly a practice to discover and experience!
Besides her knowledge in yogic breathing techniques, Sophie learned Buddhism and Daoist breathwork, and was also certified as a Conscious Connected Breath (CCB) facilitator in 2023. CCB is a specific breathing technique to help release energies that no longer serve us and connect with our True Self, our inner wisdom.
Sophie is inviting you to a journey of learning, practicing and experiencing through sound healing therapy and Qigong practice: When balance and harmony set in, it results in a sense of well-being and peacefulness, it enables our self healing abilities!
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