Teachers

  • Aaron Parkening & Eileen Webb

    Yoga Instructors, RYT

    Aaron & Eileen have been studying yoga since college, and completed the 200-hour RYT training in 2011. Their approach is very anatomy-focused, using the body to explore issues of support and release, stretching and strengthening, stability and fluidity. Classes are generally team-taught, with one person leading the class and the other assisting students and giving adjustments in poses. Aaron holds a 2nd Dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and both study Tai Chi with Ken at Rising Spirit Yoga. They live in Littleton on a tiny farm with some very loud poultry.

  • Carolyn Smith

    Yoga Instructor, RYT

    Carolyn has been practcing yoga for over ten years and completed her 200hr certification with Joy at Rising Spirit Yoga. She is also a certified Chakra Yoga teacher and a certified Childrens Yoga teacher.

    Carolyn’s classes are dynamic and challenging, with the intention to laugh, sweat, and connect to one’s true self. “I believe I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me. I am grateful for the calming and empowering effect of yoga and strive to give this gift to my students. I believe yoga is an ongoing self-study and a universal path, offering the experience of being in sync with mind, body and soul” Carolyn lives in North Haverhill, NH on a 100 acre organic farm, Green Bough, with her husband and two sons in NH. When she is not teaching yoga or preschool she loves to read, garden, farm, and play!

  • Chaya Thanhauser

    Yoga Instructor, RYT

    Chaya grew up in Newbury, Vermont, moved away as a teenager, and is surprised and happy to find herself back. She has practiced yoga for eleven years and completed her yoga teacher training with Alison West in 2010, and Judith Lasater’s Restorative Yoga training this June. She has taught yoga in New York, California and now Vermont.

    Her classes focus on lengthening the spine, strengthening the body, deepening the breath and quieting the mind.

  • Clarissa Elliott

    Little Sprout Yoga, RYT

    Clarissa became interested in yoga after she had her oldest daughter in 2008. She began taking a Baby & Me yoga class and I really enjoyed how yoga made me feel. Clarissa completed the RYT 200 yoga teacher certification in June 2011 and is currently the owner of Little Sprout Yoga. Clarissa was pregnant with her youngest daughter throughout the majority of the teacher training – “the deep connection with my body was amazing. I can’t even describe how helpful yoga was throughout my pregnancy” Practicing at home while her oldest daughter was a toddler, made her really interested in yoga as well. “I absolutely love working with children and young adults. I have had so much fun this year teaching children. That is definitely where my passion is right now” Clarissa teaches a well rounded class, including yoga, singing, dancing, playing, story time, and lots of movement and fun! Clarissa lives in Ryegate with her husband, Nick, two daughters, two kitties, and half a dozen chickens! She enjoys scrapbooking, crafting, biking, being outdoors, playing with her girls, and cooking.

  • Joy Whalen Fichiera

    Yoga Instructor, E-RYT

    Joy has been studying yoga since she first took a class in college fifteen years ago. It was then that she first experienced the stillness and clarity within that yoga can bring and which she hopes to bring to her students’ lives. Joy blends many styles of yoga into an uplifting and soothing yoga practice. Joy graduated from Brown University with a degree in Health and Society and received her yoga training at the Southwest Institute for Healing Arts Scottsdale, Arizona. She currently is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT) as recognized by the Yoga Alliance and is a certified Pregnancy Yoga Teacher and a Teacher Trainer for YogaEd. Joy teaches and directs the 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program at Rising Spirit Yoga.
    She lives in Arizona with her husband, Paul, and children, Tyler, Lucas and Haley.

    www.joyfichiera.com

  • Ken Parker

    Tai Chi Instructor

    I lived in Woodsville, NH as a kid and attended grade school there. I visited Wells River many times growing up. I have lived in the area for most of my life and reside n Lyman, NH. I am a twelve-year student of William Bernsen. Mr. Bernsen has studied under Master Tung Kai-Ying for thirty years. Master Tung Kai-Ying is the grandson of Grand Master Tung Ying-Chieh who studied with Master Yang Cheng-Fu for seventeen years. The secret to the Chinese martial arts is to know, honor, and respect the lineage.I study under Mr. Bernsen regularly throughout the year and study directly under Master Tung Kai-Ying and Master Tung Chen Wei through quarterly seminars held in New Hampshire.In my classes, I emphasize form, structure, opening of the joints, sinews and the mind.

    Master Tung says, “T’ai Chi Ch’uan is not a display of strength, power or violence. It is to attain serenity, tranquility, and discovery of one’s self. It is truly an exercise of the mind.”
     

  • Linda Boudreault

    Yoga Instructor, RYT

    Linda Boudreault has been practicing yoga for 25 years. She has studied with Patricia Walden, Peentz Dubble, Ramadan Patel, and Jill Johnson. She has completed a two-year qualified teacher training course with Janice Vien of the Yoga Connection, and has been teaching yoga in the Upper Valley for over two years. Linda has also been a professional singer for 32 years. Most of Linda’s training is in the Iyengar method which focuses on alignment and the philosophy of yoga. “I feel that gaining the mind/body connection gets us one step closer to our center, our spirit. With compassion and awareness “Every Body” can experience the gifts from a yoga practice”

  • Michelle Fredrickson

    Nia Instructor, PT, DPT, LLC

    "I love movement and its ability to heal the body. I teach because my love of movement bubbles fourth in such a way that I need to live it and share it." ~Michelle
    I am in constant awe of the body, and followed this passion by studying the human form in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Franklin Pierce University. While completing course work here, I cared for my own body, mind and spirit by taking as many fitness and wellness classes as I could always trying to expand my knowledge of the body through sensation and experience. During this period, I took my first Nia class, and I fell in love. It was a class that combined multiple movement forms in one exciting class. It was gentle and liberating and just what I needed. I continued to take Nia for 3 years before I went on for my own training and completed my white belt in 2010. I now have experience teaching Nia, chair yoga, and yoga and love how much teaching teaches me. I also find great joy working one on one combining movements into individual physical therapy treatment programs.
    Green Belt Nia Instructor training (2011), Yoga for the Rest of Us teacher training (2011), White Belt Nia Instructor training (2010), Doctor of Physical Therapy (2010), Yoga instructor and trip leader for Wyonegonic Camps (2008)
    Photo courtesy of http://www.katherinewardlephotography.com/

  • Nicole Boucher-Mitchell

    Yoga Instructor, RYT

    Nicole has been practicing yoga for ten years. She has recently been trained by Joy Fichiera as an RYT-200 certified yoga instructor, completing the course in June 2011. She has been trained in mindfulness meditation and yoga for addiction and trauma at Kripalu. Nicole also teaches yoga to individuals struggling with addiction at Valley Vista in Bradford, VT where she is a Liscensed Alcohol and Drug counselor and Assistant Program Director. Nicole graduated from Dartmouth in June 2010 with a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts, focusing on holistic treatments for women suffering with addiction and co-occuring disorders. In May of 2011 she had her first child, just before completing her yoga certification. Nicole teaches an eclectic style of yoga suitable for everyone, focusing on pranayama, asanas and stress reduction through mindful awareness.

  • Susan Kapp Monaghan

    M.Ed., Yoga Instructor

    Susan began practicing Hatha Yoga in 1997, before her daughter Eve was born. She has studied Astanga Yoga with Stephen Leslie, Beryl Bender, Kathy McNames, David and Doug Swenson and many others over the years. She completed her Astanga Primary Series teachers training with David Swenson in 2000. Susan brings to her daily practice over 25 years of dance training, specifically modern and contact improvisation. Other areas of interest include triathlon training, racing and mountaineering. Moving meditation has enabled Susan to balance her life with her partner John, as a mother, artist, engineer and teacher. Susan has been teaching Astanga and Hatha Yoga classes in the Upper Valley since 2000. When she isn’t in the studio her practice includes tutoring and teaching mathematics for VSAC and the White Mountain Community College. She hopes to pass on her love of learning, movement, and the bliss we all seek in a balanced life.