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OUR TEACHERS

Love Yoga Center offers yoga classes daily by the finest yoga teachers in Naples, Florida.  We provide the Naples yoga community with a variety of styles and levels. We love to teach everyone, from brand new beginners to advanced seasoned practitioners. 

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Mende
Owner/Director

Mende took her first yoga class in a small, unassuming studio in West Boylston, Massachusetts in 1997. At the end of class, as the instructor lovingly helped her into a Supported Bound Angle restorative pose using props from the studio, a life-long love affair with yoga began. Mende has studied with many teachers in many different styles over the years. She completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training at Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, MA. She is also a Spiritual Healer, Meditation Teacher, and Master Reiki Practitioner. 

She moved to Florida in 2016 with the dream of owning her own yoga studio. Being the owner and director of Love Yoga Center in sunny Naples is the culmination of life long passions of yoga, small business, and sunshine! She is so excited to bring Love & Light to this community.

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Chrissie
Stu
dio Manager

Chrissie took her first yoga class as a teenager with her mom. Throughout the years she continued to find herself returning to her mat. Chrissie could not pass the opportunity to complete her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training at Rhinebeck Yoga Center with Carla Olla in April 2021. Chrissie has a contagious laugh and smile that can be found both on and off the mat. She is excited to teach at Love Yoga Center, where you can still find her practicing alongside her mom!

 

When not on the mat or working full-time in nonprofit she enjoys spending time outside paddle boarding the Gulf of Mexico or hiking the Everglades.

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Nancy Reilly

Nancy’s knowledge and practice is grounded in the spiritual roots of yoga which intuitively guides her students into a state of balance. Her classes including, Basics, Gentle Flow and the mindful Sunset Slowdown, are done in the authentic Hatha yoga style with an emphasis on alignment. By offering detailed cues, love and compassion (and even a little humor) in her teaching, she helps students move beyond the phrase, “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga.”

 

Her love for the practice began over 20 years ago and completed her 200 hour Yoga Teaching Training in 2018 at Love Yoga Center with Lahoma Nachtrab and Carla Olla. She uses her practice to help stay balanced and flexible in her own busy life while being a mom to two kids, a part-time marketing consultant and a volunteer. 

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Susan 

Susan received a Yoga Alliance Certification in Vinyasa Flow and has been teaching Yoga ever since with students of all abilities. Susan continues to develop her yoga practice by attending workshops at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Mass. In 2010, Susan began learning the Chinese self-healing practices of Tai Chi and Qi Gong. These practices became an integral part of her daily routine for her health and well-being. Susan received her first certificate as a Qigong Facilitator in 2011 and studied with many teachers since then and currently incorporates Qi Gong and Energy Medicine practices with her yoga routines. 

Susan hopes to empower people of all ages to use the tools of these mind-body practices to achieve radiant health and well-being. Susan is a cancer survivor and contributes her own vibrant health to these practices that nourish the body, mind and spirit.

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Tara

Tara found yoga as a college freshman in 2002. From, her first time stepping onto the mat, she felt like she had found home. Since Tara grew up as an athlete playing soccer, softball, lacrosse, running and dancing, she loved how different yoga made her body and mind feel. A couple of career paths along the way finally led her to her dharma: becoming a yoga instructor. In 2019, she completed the BambooMoves 200 Hour 'Road to Yoga' Teacher Training which completely changed her life. The training taught her to let go of fear and judgment, while acquiring compassion for herself and others. In 2021 she studied injury management and prevention with Jason Crandell and acquired a Yin Yoga Foundations Certification from Daniele Gates of Yinsa Yoga. In July of 2020, Tara moved from Baltimore with her husband and young daughters to Naples, FL to be closer to family and the beach.

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Peggy

Peggy Sealfon originally studied Hatha Yoga at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York’s Greenwich Village and later studied with world-renowned Yogi Master Gurudev Amrit Desai. She is certified by the Amrit Yoga Institute in Amrit Yoga and Yoga Nidra/Integrative Relaxation and teaches Quantum Breath Meditation She has also been trained in Tai Chi and Qigong and is certified in several energy healing modalities including Reconnective Healing.

 

She is a wellness specialist, life integration coach, trainer, writer, author and spokesperson. She specializes in stress management, pain relief and sports performance. Her most recent focus is on the corporate environment bringing integrated wellness programs to the workplace to lower stress and improve productivity. Peggy teaches every Tuesday, Yoga Nidra at 3:30 PM

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Julie

Julie Miller (Har Dharam) first experienced the simple and profound power of yoga and meditation during a study abroad trip in 2007 in Chennai, India.

 

Since then she has continued the practice of meditation, breath work, and yoga in her daily life.  She immediately fell in love with the practices of Kundalini Yoga during her very first class in 2009.  She received her original Kundalini training with Krishna Kaur Khalsa and Keval Kaur Khalsa in 2015-2016.  

Since then, she has continued to teach and share and has completed several additional trainings such as “Superhealth: Yogic Science to break habits and heal addictive behaviors” with Mukta Kaur Khalsa, PhD.

Inspired through her personal experiences and the experiences of her students with the stillness created through the practices of Kundalini Yoga, she has also trained in the art and healing modality of Sat Nam Rasayan with the guidance of Siri Simran Khalsa and others. 

Julie's classes are designed to be heart-centered and nourishing for body, mind and spirit and welcoming to all levels.  Sharing these practices are some of her greatest joys.

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DamaDé

DamaDé Amanbir calls upon a dance background and her twenty four years of experience as a yoga instructor to co-create a luminous and often profound experience for her students. Her teaching philosophy straddles the old-world yoga philosophies of the Himalayan tradition and today’s “nouveau yoga.” 


Naturally curious about the ways in which yoga science heightens awareness and can be applied in a practical way to everyday life, she integrates this knowledge into both private lessons and group sessions. 
Students have said that DamaDe' guides them intuitively—with intelligent, mindful sequencing of postures that thread various pranayamic (breathing) techniques throughout each session. 


She reveres her teachers: Swami Rama, Swami Veda Bharati, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Yogi Bhajan,  all the masterful teachers from the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association, as well as others who have inspired her path through their teachings and writing: Tias Little, David Swenson, Duncan Wong, Caroline Myss, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Katherine Woodward Thomas, Barry Long and other amazing teachers. DamaDe' formally studied at the Himalayan Institute and through the Kundalini Research Institute. She also leads workshops and team-teaches for yoga instructor training.

DamaDé Amanbir leads Kundalini Yoga and KundaFlow® at Love Yoga

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Margaret

Margaret leads a slow flow vinyasa class for all levels.  Margaret's passion for yoga is evident in her personal practice which she attributes to her spiritual and physical health.  Margaret brings her compassionate and caring nature to the yoga classroom.  She has a clear and gentle style of teaching informed by her nurturing spirit.

 

Her teaching style is influenced by Ashtanga and Kripalu yoga which promotes balance, awareness, mindfulness and self discovery.  Kindness and simplicity inspire her life and her yoga.  Margaret is thankful to share all she loves about yoga with her students.  She has her 200 hour teaching certification under the direction of Beryl Bender Birch of the Hard and Soft Institute and with Sheila Magalhaes of Heartsong Yoga.  Also she earned a 200 hour certification under the direction of Power Yoga of Cape Cod.  Recently Margaret has published her first Novel "Gret's Rock".  She recently earned a yoga certification with Love Your Brain Foundation.

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Tatiana

I am an economist and have worked for 20 years in multinational companies and in 2001 I met yoga while looking for a way to deal with my stressed business life. In 2013 I decided to dedicate my life to what I love and began teaching yoga for adults and children.

I am a dedicated student of Dany Sá (Level 2 KPJAYI Certificate) since 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I started my ashtanga yoga practice in 2005 and have been a devoted student to Ashtanga Yoga method and Mysore style since then. I also studied with Diego Koury, Kino Mac Gregor, Mark Robberds, Tim Feldman, Day Christensen and Eddie Stern in several workshops totaling more than 300 hours of formal certification. In 2019 I spent 5 weeks in Mysore, India, practicing with Sharath Jois.

I have my practice of ashtanga yoga as a philosophy of life and I believe that through daily practice, we seek self-knowledge and become better and happier people.

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Kahley

Kahley found yoga during college after a decade-long pursuit of happiness & freedom in her body again and it was love at first practice. After many years of living with a spine injury from a gymnastics incident, yoga felt like the missing link to a physical wellness she had been missing for so long. With daily practice, the physical injury had dissolved and her spiritual practice had begun to evolve. 

She began her first yoga training in 2013 with a 250hr hatha yoga certification and has been able to travel and share her love for yoga all around the world since. In 2014 she completed her 250hr vinyasa training, as well as a partner yoga training. 

Over the next several years she prioritized yoga, spirituality, and wellness through vipassana meditations, cellular regenerative detoxification school, and becoming a reiki master over the course of a 5 year study. Most recently and finally her biggest accomplishment throughout this journey has been becoming a mother. Kahley moved to Naples with her family to be near the ocean and grow with the tides of this ever changing life. She gives great thanks to all of her teachers, mentors, and guides, and is excited and humbled to meet you on your mat. 

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Becky

Becky knew from her first Ashtanga class in 1999 that yoga would be a part of her life forever. She began teaching because she wanted to share the benefits of yoga with others. Certified in Ashtanga/Vinyasa , Hatha, and SATYA, Becky has over 600 hours of training. Becky studies with Tias Little of Prajna Yoga in Santa Fe. She now focuses her teaching on the more physical and emotional healing gifts of yoga. We are so grateful Becky shares her transformative teaching with us here in Naples from early fall to late spring. Maybe eventually we will convince her to sweat it out with us here over the Summer. So make sure to get in as many of her classes as you can during season, before she returns to Michigan each summer. You will be so glad you did!

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Rosh

Rosh Mishra: is originally from India, the birthplace of yoga, and has lived in upstate New York until she moved to Florida in 2017. She is devoted to teaching and to everything to do with yoga! She has been practicing yoga since 1990. She has been certified to teach yoga since 2008, getting her yoga training from Saraswati River Yoga in Bucks County, PA. Her yoga lineage is from the philosophy of Kashmirian Shaivism. She has a Ph.D. in Public Policy and has been trained in teaching trauma-sensitive yoga. The focus of her life's work has been the engagement of yoga and mindfulness within all communities. Her teaching style is based on Hatha, Vinyasa, and Yoga Nidra. All styles are rooted in the origins of yoga which is to create a union or yoke of the mind, body, and breath. 

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