Sarasvati Buhrman, PhD.Pranayama, Meditation, Ayurveda, Yoga Philosophy Dr. Buhrman is the Co-founder and Senior Faculty member of the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda, Adjunct Professor (Hatha Yoga) at Metropolitan State College, and has also taught at Naropa University, International Yoga College, Mount Madonna Center, the Salt Spring Center, and Ananda Seva Center.
She holds B.S. (College of William and Mary) and M.S. eq (University of Illinois) degrees in biology, and a Ph.D. in Psychological Anthropology (University of Colorado, Boulder). A National Ayurvedic Medical Association-registered Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner who has been in private practice as an Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner and Classical Yoga Therapist since 1987, she was trained and granted permission to practice Ayurvedic medicine by Professor R.P. Trivedi who was Professor of Ayurvedic Medicine at Benares Hindu University. She has also studied Ayurveda with Dr. Vasant Lad and Dr. Sarita Shrestha, as well as received certification through the Yoga of the Heart Program as a Yoga Therapist for Cardiac patients.
Sarasvatiji met her spiritual teacher, Sri Baba Hari Dass, in 1976, completed Yoga teacher training and advanced Yoga teacher training at Mount Madonna Center in 1979-1980 and continues to study with him at every available opportunity. She took the vows of a Yogic renunciate in the Vairagi order of North India in 1990. Her teaching specialties include Yoga History, Philosophy, and Psychology; techniques of Pranayama and Meditation from Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, and classical sattvic Tantra traditions; Classical Yoga Therapy; and Ayurvedic Medicine.
Dr. Bharat Vaidya, B.A.M.S., M.D.
Dr. Vaidyis a skilled Ayurvedic physician who received his basic Ayurvedic medical training in Mumbai and received his medical degree in the Netherlandsand comes from an Ayurvedic family who was instrumental in the establishment of modern Ayurvedic universities in India.He has practiced medicine in India, in Europe, and in the U.S., and specializes in history of Ayurveda, pharmacology, gerontology, rejuvenation and other branches of Ayurveda.
Hansa Knox, R.Y.T.Classical asana, Asana therapy left the corporate world in 1988 to pursue a career in holistic health, and received her yoga certification at the Kripalu Center For Yoga and Health. She is currently a trainer of Yoga teachers in the Kripalu tradition , serves on the board for Kripalu, and is past president of Yoga Teachers of Colorado. She is the propriator of Gentle Touch Body, Mind, and Spirit Connection in Denver, and her theraputic work integrates yoga therapy, massage, and homeopathy. She is an executive board member of the Yoga Alliance.
Michelle Corielle ( RYT E-200), is the owner and founder of Harmony Yoga, a studio in Denver, Co., which won Best of Citysearch 2007 and was named on Top 5 on the Denver A-List in 2008. A teacher whose students continually speak well of her professional caring and individual attention during asana classes, Michelle will teach the Wednesday evening asana instruction portion of the200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, as well as being the assisting teacher in the weekend programs. A former high school English teacher, Michelle received her Yoga certification from the Community College of Aurora's Teacher Training Institute for Classical Hatha Yoga in 2003, is a certified prenatal teacher, and completed RMIYA's Professional Yoga Therapy Training in 2008. She currently serves as Vice President of Programs for Yoga Teachers of Colorado.
Ysha Oakes, PPAD. Postpartum AyurDoula Care is a certified Maharishi Mother and Baby Practitioner, Ayurvedic doula trainer, and essential oils therapist who has been in practice since 1991. She has practiced Transcendental Meditation and advanced techniques for over 30 years. Ysha is the author of 42 Days for 42 Years, Ayurvedic Keys to Rejuvenation After Childbirth, currently under rework into a two volume set including cookbook and handbook, and numerous articles on the subject. Her website, www.sacredwindow.com, offers free listings for Ayurvedic Doulas and interns, plus a wealth of information for parents and practitioners.
Sonya Bastow is a certified Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula through the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda. She recieved her training with Ysha Oakes and Saraswati Burhman. She is an accompished Ayurvedic doula and has been using the Ayurvedic doula techniques for 7 seven years. She also trained with CAPPA for their Birth doula, Postpartum doula and the Lactation Educator programs. Sonya is a mother of two has lived in Boulder with her family since 1993 and and has served families in the area for 14 years.
John O'Hearn, M.D.holistic medicine received his MD in 1980 & completed an Internal Medicine residency at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1983. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine & Sports Medicine. In 1987, he completed a 2,000 hour physician training program in holistic/integrative medicine at the Himalayan Inst of Yoga Science and Philosophy. He was trained there by Rudolph Ballentine, MD, John Clarke, MD, Swami Rama and many other noted teachers. Dr O'Hearne served as a staff physician & lecturer for the Himalayan Institure & the Center for Holistic Medicine in NYC from 1986-1992. He has been in private practice in Holistic Medicine & classical homeopathy in the Boulder region since then. In addition to teaching classes at RMIYA, he is available for private consultation.
Sarita Shrestha, M.D., B.A.M.SInternal Medicine, Gynecology, Ayurveda received her medical training at Benares Hindu University, India, and at Gwalior, India, with a specialty in obstetrics and gynecology. She is currently employed in the government hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, and has published papers in the use of Ayurvedic medicine in the treatment of diabetes and has special training in the management of leprosy, mental retardation, and the use of Yoga Therapy to treat asthma.
Louise Sanchez, M.F.A.Ayurvedic pharmacist is the Ayurvedic pharmacist for the RMIYA clinic. She received her degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder , and has dedicated her life to her two main interests: art and holistic healing. She has studied Ayurveda for a number of years and is a TM teacher and 35- year student of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Sita Sharan, PujariRitual and Mantra Following the death of her guru Neemkaroli Baba, Sita remained in India for eight years, where she studied Yoga philosophy, meditation, ritual, classical music, and Sanskrit, with several teachers in the north Indian Vaishnava sect of which she is a member. She writes occasional articles for Yoga Journal, and is one of the few women to be trained as a pujari of Hindu rituals such as the Yajna, or fire ceremony.
Nischala Joy DeviYoga therapy for Cardiac patients is a yoga teacher who spent 18 years living as a monk in an ashram, spending much of her time developing methods for integrating the healing aspects of yoga with western medicine. She developed the yoga portion of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and served for seven years as Director of Stress Management for that program, and co founded the award-winning Commonweal Cancer Help Program. She is author of The Healing Path of Yoga.
Alakananda Devi (Ma), M.B.B.S. Alakananda Devi, affectionately known as Ma, was born in 1951 in Melton Mowbray, U.K. and was raised in both the Jewish and Christian faiths. In 1976, Alakananda graduated as a physician from St Bartholemws Hospital Medical College, London University. She then spent five years in Catholic convents and Abbeys, making her novitiate in Holy Cross Cistercian Abbey, England, before travelling to India to study with Father Bede Griffiths at Shantivanam. There she met Sadananda who introduced her to Raghudas Maharaj, the hidden master who was to be her guru. She also met Dr. Vasant Lad, her Ayurveda teacher in Poona in 1980. Through her studies with Dr. Lad, Alakananda became one of the first western physicians to take up Ayurveda, and became one of Dr. Lad's first students.
Alakananda's subsequent adventures during the five years on pilgrimage in India are described in her book Pilgrimage to the Mother. During this time she stayed at many temples, ashrams and shrines, studying yoga, Hinduism, Sufism, Jainism, Ayurveda, Homatherapy and Hindi. Alakananda studied devotional singing with Sadananda and lived as a wandering renunciant or sadhvi. At one point she ran an experimental therapeutic community for psychotic Western youth at Om Yeshu Niketan in Goa, and served as “Physician to the Hippies”. At the conclusion of pilgrimage, she was told by Pujya Ganguthai, a kanya disciple of Upasani Maharaj, and by Kamalabai, the chief disciple of Raghudas Maharaj, “Go to the United States and there make an ashram for Raghudas Maharaj”.
Arriving in the United States with Sadananda, eighty dollars in their pockets and two Indian musical instruments, they travelled to Boulder, Colorado, to found their first ashram in a tipi. Alakananda practiced homatherapy and learned astrology. Moving to Tucson Arizona in 1986, they re-started Alandi Ashram in a two-room, back-alley appartment.
Again moving in 1988 to a remote cabin in the Rocky Mountains, she made numerous RockyMountain wildflower essences, becomming the first physician since Dr. Edward Bach—discoverer of flower remedies—to research and make her own flower essences.
In August of 1990 she and Sadananda restarted Alandi Ashram in its current location in Boulder, Colorado. In 1997 the Ashram grew into a residential community, having nine resident members and an additional three full time student participants. In 1998 they began to develop Alandi Ayurvedic Gurukula.
Alakananda is a co-founder,spiritual mother, teacher, Ayurvedic practitioner, flower essence maker and storyteller. She is also an accomplished writer with many published articles. Alakananda has written and is self-publishing her autobiographical trilogy Patchwork Mandala. The first two volumes, Pilgrimage to the Mother, and The Rainbow Bridge, are available and well-loved. Her future book plans include, Ayurveda for Elders and Ayruveda for Couples.
Swami Mukti DharmaTherapeutic Yoga - Yoga Nicha is the director of Vij y Stallings in New Zealand and is a life long disciple of Swami Satyananda of the Bihar School of Yoga. The Bihar School is particularly renouned for its therapeutic application of yoga, and swamiji's specialty is the yoga nicha process, which can be views as a yogic counterpart to Western psychotherapy as well as a powerful tool for physical healing and mental quietude.
Swami Mukti DharmaTherapeutic Yoga - Yoga Nicha is the director of Anahata Retreat center in New Zealand and is a life long disciple of Swami Satyananda of the Bihar School of Yoga. The Bihar School is particularly renouned for its therapeutic application of yoga, and swamiji's specialty is the yoga nicha process, which can be viewed as a yogic counterpart to Western psychotherapy as well as a powerful tool for physical healing and mental quietude
RMIYA Guest Faculty:
Patricia Hansen M. A.
Patricia Hansen, M.A., RYT (E-500)
Patricia Hansen, M.A. E-RYT500, is a Yoga therapist, Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and Lifestyle Consultant and National and International Yoga Teacher and Lecturer. Patricia has been studying and teaching yoga in Denver for over thirty years. Patricia started teaching at the local YMCA in 1967 and in 1969 started teaching at the Jewish Community Center. She developed the first prenatal yoga classes in the early 1970’s. Patricia established first academic yoga classes in America through Metropolitan State College and the University of Denver. She received her master’s in Religious Studies from the University of Denver and her certification as an Ayurvedic Practitioner and Lifestyle Consultant from the Ayurvedic Institute under the direction of Dr. Vasant Lad. Patricia is a past President and founding member of Unity in Yoga International and Yoga Teachers of Colorado; a founding member of National Ayurvedic and Medical Association and International Association of Yoga Therapy; a member of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico; an executive board member of International Yoga Studies; past President Emeritus of the Yoga Alliance, co-founder, co-director and faculty member of the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda; faculty member of American Yoga College; and currently is sharing her Yoga knowledge and skills by serving on the Board of Sanga, a local non profit yoga educational organization while still serving as a faculty member at Metropolitan State College and maintaining a private Yoga and Ayurvedic practice. Patricia studied with Swami Satchidananda, Yogi Bhajan, Rama Jyoti Vernon and many other teachers. She integrates all the teachings to offer a beautiful yoga experience.
Mangala Warner, M.S., RYT (500) has a Master’s Degree in Human Performance (Exercise Physiology) and an extensive background in biomechanics, exercise testing, health research, and programming, She is a certified Structural Yoga Teacher Trainer and Cardiac Yoga Teacher. Her diverse background includes managing university and corporate wellness centers and teaching college level exercise and science courses. She has a private Yoga Therapy Practice and manages a corporate fitness center for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Jnani Chapman, R.N.Yoga therapy for Cancer patients received her bachelors of science degree in nursing at the University of San Francisco and has for fourteen years served as senior staff member of Commonweal Cancer Help Program (which was featured in Bill Moyers' PBS special on health and healing.) Jnani also teaches yoga to women with breast cancer through the Breast Cancer Personal and Lifestyle Support Program of the University of California, San Francisco, and the California Pacific Medical Center. She is the former executive director of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.
Deborah Quilter, C.Y.T. Deborah Quilter is an author, consultant, and certified yoga teacher. She has written two books, The Repetitive Strain Injury Recovery Book and Repetitive Strain Injury: A Computer User’s Guide and has made many appearances in the media. Ms. Quilter has presented her work both in the U.S. and abroad, and has helped many people with RSI recover more use of their upper extremity without exacerbating pain. Ms. Quilter studied Ergonomic Guidelines for Computer Use at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Biomechanics of Human Movement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She founded a program to teach yoga to senior citizens at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City which was featured on the Martha Stewart show and was offered a Diversity in Teaching Yoga grant by Kripalu for this program.
Gigia KalouchAyurvedic cooking has taught cooking and recipe development classes emphasising natural, healthy foods and ethnic flavors for the past eight years and is owner of the Narural Pantry. Although her first love is hands- on teaching in the art of cooking, she also publishes articles and recipes in national cooking and lifestyle magazines.
Indira Gupta, M.S.W.Ayurvedic cooking a native of West India, has taught Indian regional cooking for more than 20 years. Her creative, modern style and technique address today's concerns for fitness, creativity, ecology, and Ayurveda. Indira teaches with an approach that feeds the whole person in body, mind, and spirit.
Vasant Lad, M.A. Sc.Ayurvedic Physician
Shar LeeStructural/Iyengar Asana, Asana Therapy Shar Lee, CYI, has been practicing yoga for over 30 years and teaching for over 27, both in the USA and internationally. Her classes cover a wide variety of yoga related subjects including: asana of all levels, Yoga Therapeutics, Anatomy and Yoga, Doubles Yoga, Ayurvedic Massage and Marma Points, Meditation, Yoga Teacher Training and Certification, and Pre- and Post-Natal Yoga. Her own studies encompass many different forms and modalities of yoga with many of the senior yoga teachers world wide, including extensive studies in the US, India, and Nepal.
Amadea Morningstar, M.A.Ayurvedic Nutrition and Cooking
Terra Raphael, Registered MidwifeMidwifery and Ayurveda is a registered midwife who has been teaching midwifery for the last ten years and played a major role in creating curriculum standards for the state certification of midwives. Terra, who also has an undergraduate degree in experimental psychology, is co-author of Pregnant Feelings: The Emotional and Social Changes of Becoming a Mother. Terra is a disciple of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and serves of the board of the local Siddha meditation center.
Aja Thomas, N.D.Sanskrit is a senior staff teacher at the American Sanskrit Institute founded by Vyas Houston and has been teaching Sanskrit for the last eight years. Aja is also an ordained vedic priest through Bhaktivedanta Gurukula in Vrindavan. He and his wife and children live in Portland, Or.
Om Prakash Tiwari, M.S.History and texts of Yoga is Director of the government-supported Yoga Research Institute of the Kaivalyadhama Association, in Lonavla, Maharastra (India)which his guru, Swami Kuvalayananda, founded in 1923. In his capacity as director, he sits on governmental committees for the propagation of Yoga in India and is currently directing a project for development of yoga teaching in public schools and editon of Yoga-Mimansa.
Felicia Tomasko, R.N.
Felicia Marie Tomasko is currently the editor in chief of LA YOGA Ayurveda and Health magazine (www.layogamagazine.com), a position that combines her interests and passion in Ayurveda, Yoga, education and writing. She has been practicing yoga for over 20 years and teaching since 1997. It was yoga, and Deepak Chopra’s books that first introduced Felicia to Ayurveda, which she began studying in 1993. Her studies include the practitioner, pancha karma therapist, educator, yoga therapy and Ayurvedic mother and baby care programs at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda as well as at Alandi Ayurvedic Gurukula, both in Boulder, Colorado. She continues her studies with a number of different teachers and credits them for her implementation of the practice.
Felicia’s additional background includes a degree in nursing and one in biology and work in integrative medicine, neuropsychology research, biochemistry research and journalism and writing. She is also on the board of directors of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association, the editorial board of Light on Ayurveda journal, and has a private yoga therapy and Ayurveda practice in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California. Felicia@LAYogaMagazine.com
Judy Hein, RYT, has studied and taught yoga for 35 years. She was the founding President of Yoga Teachers of Colorado and has served as an executive board member of Unity in Yoga International, International Yoga Studies and Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga. She was also active in the formation of Yoga Alliance and is a member of International Association of Yoga Therapists. Judy was introduced to the concept of Restorative Yoga by Judith Lasater. The technique of restorative asana, or passive poses, supported by blankets and bolsters is very useful in therapy for people with injuries, chronic illnesses and flexibility difficulties. Judy's approach is particularly focused on individual needs.
GARY TREMAIN, BS is a retired geologist and a certified Ayurvedic Practitioner through the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda and studied with Drs Shrestha, Buhrman, Alakananda and Lad. His is co-director of the Center for Wholistic Health and has been practicing in Lakewood Colorado since 2000.
