Wendy Dion

My enthusiasm for yoga grew from a love of movement and formal training in modern dance and rehabilitation counseling. Although I learned ballet as a child, it wasn’t until I began modern and danced barefoot that I became hooked on dance as an art form. There was something about consciously being in my body and using the body as a medium to create beauty and elicit feeling, almost like sculpting clay, that transported me into a different zone.

I discovered Lilias Folan teaching yoga on television when I was sixteen, did headstands in the living room accompanied by my mother’s gasps and used yoga to heal in college after sustaining a knee injury in modern dance training that required non-arthroscopic surgery. Healing was prolonged, so rather than delaying entry into a movement therapy program I shifted my path and completed a master’s degree in health science/rehabilitation counseling at The university of Florida, Shand’s Health Center.

I continued yoga as a good balance for running, biking, and cross-country skiing. After moving back to the northeast, I learned about Patricia Walden and was immediately drawn to study with her. I eventually did my first teacher training, teaching certification, and study in India under her exquisite guidance and as my practice matured, discovered meditation as my true love and Ayurveda as an important area of study. When I met John Friend through Deb Neubauer in Northampton, MA, around 1998, I was captivated by his light heartedness, authenticity, and knowledge of the Tantric yogic system. I proceeded with a second 200 hour teacher training course with Deb and Anusara-Inspired teaching designation. John Friend continues as my primary asana teacher. My teaching is also influenced by Tias Little, Donna Farhi, and Sally Kempton. I am sincerely grateful to all of my teachers who have so generously shared their knowledge.

“Wendy Dion is simply the best yoga instructor that I have had the pleasure of studying under. She has a deep intuitive understanding of the needs of her students, balancing exceptional technical skill with the particular limitations of those in her classes. Her teaching style is gentle and persuasive, I am finding myself enjoying yoga on more levels than I had thought possible. Thank you Wendy!” ~ G.L.

Tyla Nattress

One of my many teachers, Denise Benitez, is known to say "Yoga is magic" in her classes. As you start to move, you start to feel and think in a different way. At different points in our life, we need this magic to help transform our lives. In 2006, after closing our business, having two children and finding myself a reluctant stay-at-home mom, I needed a little magic.

I signed up for a class with Anusara Certified teacher, Jodi Earls and found that her words and my movement were exactly what I needed to feel like myself again. I wanted to know what she knew and started a year long Anusara Immersion class, with Certified Anusara teacher Janie Falk. I completed the Immersion with two wonderful and talented Certified Anusara teachers at Seattle Yoga Arts, Denise Benitez and Elizabeth Rainey that would take me into the depths of Tantric philosophy and unique alignment principles inspired by John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga. I dove into their year long Teacher Training and graduated with 200 hours of training under my belt.

In November 2010 started teaching at the Coupeville Fitness Center knowing all along that I would love teach at the Yoga Lodge. Wendy has been a friend and mentor through my transition from student to teacher. I strongly believe in the yogic principle of "adhikara"; that to be a good teacher requires being a perpetual student. My intent is to strengthen my knowledge about the Anusara method, meditation, and life to best serve myself, my family and my students. Afterall, life is a process of refinement. "A teacher is simply a student who is further along the path". ~ John Friend

I am so delighted and honored to be a part of the teaching team at the Yoga Lodge. The Anusara method is designed to serve students at any level of experience or ability. Each pose is infused with a foundational concept that brings awareness to specific postural alignments to achieve balanced action between effort and ease, stability and freedom. Each class has a heart-oriented theme that has a meaningful connection to the grand spiritual purpose of the practice. I look forward to welcoming you to class.

Tyla Nattress
Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
360-678-2120
Email Tyla

Kate R. Casey, LMHC, Registered Yoga Teacher (200 hr level)

I was fortunate to have a mother who started doing yoga shortly after it arrived in this country in the 60's. She read one of the first books on yoga that was available in the United States. I remember her doing 'stretches' on the floor in the living room. Fast forward to the 70's and I was studying yoga (self-taught) and I stayed at that level for many years doing hatha yoga more or less, off and on, until I became a serious student in 2000. At that time I started attending classes and became devoted to my own practice.

I have been a psychotherapist for 25 years (my official title is Licensed Mental Health Counselor) and for the past 10 years I have been studying and practicing yoga with the intention of integrating Purna yoga into the work I do in psychotherapy. Purna yoga means whole or complete yoga that includes; alignment-based yoga as taught in the Iyengar tradition, philosophy and meditation as taught by Sri Aurobindo and others, and the teachings that I have learned from Aadil and Mirra Palkhivala at Yoga Centers (for more information on Purna Yoga go to yogacenters.com). In the past 2 years I decided to complete my training at the 200 hour RYT level and to begin teaching yoga for the joy and fun of sharing yoga with others. My belief about yoga is that it is ever evolving and unfolding in ways that continue to lead me towards a growing consciousness of my connection with myself,with others, and with the Universe.

In addition to working as a psychotherapist and teaching yoga I am also the human part of an animal-assisted therapy team. My dog, Honey, who is a soft-coated wheaten terrier, often joins me in my office while I am working. She is trained as a therapy dog and we spend time weekly at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, Washington visiting patients and their families, and the Hospice staff, providing comfort, respite, and humor. Honey is learning to be my assistant in yoga classes through demonstrating poses (she excells at downward facing dog) and lying quietly while class proceeds. She is also an enthusiastic greeter.

I look forward to sharing what I have learned and growing with you in the practice of yoga. For more information about me please visit my website katercasey.com.

Kate R. Casey, LMHC
1750 112th Ave NE, ste E168
Hidden Valley Office Park
Bellevue, WA 98004
425-643-0420
krc516@comcast.net

Doug McKenna

"And how did we get like this?" Doug was lying on his back, right leg lifted to its hamstring's legal limit of 45 degrees. The teacher was Julie Gudmestad from Portland. "College soccer and 30 years of running, m'am." That was six years ago at the Yoga Lodge. Determined to lengthen his hamstrings and live to 100, Doug left running behind and got serious about yoga. With a daily home practice and great teaching from Wendy, Doug discovered the power of yoga to generate new strength, balance, flexibility, and resilience, not just in the body, but in the mind and spirit as well. He observes, "I've been a psychologist for 35 years, and the science of yoga is the most reliable path I know to a life of joy, wonder, and compassion." Having taught psychology and leadership for many years, Doug decided to become a yoga teacher and share this amazing discipline with others. With Wendy as his mentor, Doug is in the second year of Anusara Yoga studies and teacher training with Denise Benitez and Elizabeth Rainey at Seattle Yoga Arts. He has a special (but not exclusive) interest in yoga for men. "I love the diversity of our yoga community at the Yoga Lodge. But I'd really like to get more men involved. Men need yoga: to unwind years of physical work and stress. With a little practice, we can rejuvenate our bodies and lose that cranky attitude that comes from a creaky body."

Dr. Doug McKenna
P.O. Box 338
Greenbank, WA 98253
360-678-7050
drdoug@oceansideinstitute.org