Instructors
Linda Castronovo
Yoga arrived in Linda's life via Runner's World magazine in 1978 while she was still in high school. The article promised improved strength, flexibility, and injury prevention. She tried a handful of postures: warrior, triangle, cobra, downward dog, and child pose, but immediately felt calmer, more centered, and more alive.
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Linda studied exercise science in college and graduate school, worked as a personal trainer, a wellness/fitness director, and field hockey and lacrosse coach before transitioning to the classroom in high school science teacher and elementary education. She was certified as a Kripalu Yoga Instructor in 1991 and continues her study of yoga with many teachers, including Patty Townsend and Onatah Stoll. Her personal practice has evolved over the years and now includes daily meditation, pranayama, and asana. She values every opportunity to practice yoga on and off the mat.
Her classes are moving meditations designed to build strength, flexibility, mobility, and balance with the aim of guiding you to your own deep well of gratitude, compassion, and self-acceptance.
Chris Paradis
Chris Paradis is a lacrosse coach, yoga teacher and health coach. She came to her yoga mat 18 years ago to address her aging joints, and found a practice with healing qualities that go beyond stretching and breathing. Chris’s classes focus on the breath, alignment, and fluidity. She also helps students practice self-acceptance and how to take their practice off the mat in order to achieve greater ease and resilience in their daily lives.
Chris earned her 200-hour certification at Amherst Yoga Center under the guidance of Patty Townsend, and has also studied with Sara Rose, Karen Seaver and Shiva Rea. She welcomes students of all levels to come explore the beauty of being fully embodied.
Erin Schifferli
Yoga arrived in Erin’s life in the year 2000. The practice brought healing for her shoulder pain and a newfound sense of wellbeing. She was both inspired and curious! Breathing, balancing, and most powerful of all - being - fostered greater awareness and attentiveness in her life. Discovering this was part of her impetus to deepen her practice and attend teacher trainings to gather further insight. From the first pause on a mat, she sensed the power that Yoga has to offer individuals, communities, and the world. Erin
understood that Yoga impacts the practitioner, as well as the planet; the ripples of the connections continue to grow ever outward. Part of her ripple expansion is to share the practice.
Meditation, movement, and time outdoors in the wonders of Nature support her as a whole person, partner, mother of four, and business owner. Erin is grateful to have learned from many teachers and mentors over the years. She maintains a 500 HR E-RYT with continual life study and an ever evolving daily Yoga practice. Currently residing in Amherst, MA, she offers both in-person and virtual classes, private sessions, Yoga Therapy, Nutrition Education / Counseling, and Doula Birth Services, including birth education /preparation. To learn more about Erin or to schedule an appointment:
Kim Deshaies
Passionately weaving her studies in contemporary psychology and neuroscience with reverence for ancient yogic philosophy, Kim sparks curiosity in the roots of yoga practice and shares practical tools to help build resilience, support mental health and physical wellbeing. She takes a trauma-informed approach to yoga that aims to bring students into their bodies where they can make the decisions that are right for them in each moment, and hopes that students will leave class feeling celebrated and empowered to take their practice off the mat in ways that support their individual needs, lives, and work in the world. Kim is a registered yoga teacher (200 RYT) with a BA in Psychology and additional training in Yoga Therapy for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD and Yoga Nidra for Mental Health.
Tiffany Joseph
Tiffany Joseph is a multi-talented and multifaceted holistic health, wellness, and movement coach/instructor. She is no stranger to healing arts and movement and has a total of 20 years of experience in her portfolio. She is known for her authentic, compassionate, creative, non-judgmental, and energetic teaching style. She thinks of herself as a "conduit of healing energy, light, and love”.
Tiffany Joseph earned a Bachelor's degree in Communications and a Certificate in Native American studies as well as a Master’s degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Tiffany is a certified Yoga and Zumba instructor. She teaches a combination of Embody, Hatha, Prenatal Yoga, Restorative, and Yin Yoga. She is also a dance teacher and teaches various styles for several studios around the Pioneer Valley. Tiffany is a Shiatsu and Reiki practitioner and has been doing bodywork for four years. Additionally, Tiffany is an avid gardener and practices herbalism. She continues to do activism work around the community, providing educational workshops involving various social justice issues.
Tiffany intends that every student leaves her class feeling more deeply connected to their bodies, stronger, healthier, and growing through their healing journey.
Jennifer Vanderleeden
Jennifer Vanderleeden has been a student of yoga for the past twenty+ years and has been teaching in the valley since 2010. She is known for her calming presence, relaxing voice, and skillful guidance. Her classes are strong, upbeat and focused on alignment. Her teaching is steeped in mindfulness, precision, and the practice of loving kindness. Students will experience challenging, balanced sequences that enable them to be present and to let go of their daily distractions and doubts.
She aims to create an environment in which students are supported emotionally and are able to maintain the tools they need to feel strong, empowered, and safe in their yoga practice.
Jen welcomes you to come to your mat as you are, and to take your practice with you into your daily life!
Ilana Beigel
Ilana is a 500-hr Kripalu Ayurvedic and Vinyasa Yoga teacher, teacher trainer, and life coach known for making ancient wisdom accessible to modern life. With a background in psychology and nearly three decades of experience in yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, she offers practical tools to cultivate ease, strength, and purpose. As a longtime medical speech therapist, she has supported thousands of patients through upheavals and trauma, deepening her understanding of resilience and transformation.
Her classes are often described as meditation in motion—deeply nourishing and soul-stirring. Afterward, students leave feeling more vibrant in their bodies, at ease in their minds, and deeply connected in their hearts.
Ilana’s studies include the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, Ayurveda, and dharma. She is also a Reiki practitioner, aspiring author, and—perhaps her most treasured role—a mom to three young adults.
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IG and FB: @ilanabeigel
Jen Larsen
Jen Larsen is the founder of Innerglow Wellness, LLC. Through holistic life coaching and trauma-informed yoga instruction, she is dedicated to helping individuals unveil their “inner glow” and embody their greatest potential in body, mind, and spirit. Her education includes graduate work in the psychology of consciousness and psycholinguistics, professional certification through the International Coaching Federation, and she has more than 17 years as a certified yoga and meditation teacher with special training in yoga for trauma and regulation of the nervous system. She has worked with a variety of populations from cancer patients to veterans to professional athletes and everyone in between. In addition to coaching and teaching yoga, she is a public speaker and former radio personality on the topics of health and wellness, particularly the power of the mind and the effects of gratitude and positive thinking on physical health.
In her downtime, you’ll find her creating healthy concoctions in the kitchen, exploring local trails, and spending quality time with her kids, cats, and dog.
FB and IG: @lightyourinnerglow
YouTube: Innerglow Wellness
Diana Peters-Ross
Diana began her yoga journey in college seeking a way to heal her body. As she developed a regular practice, she noticed many positive physical changes including more flexibility and strength. After a year of consistent practice, she became aware of the many ways yoga changed her life, including improved focus and a deeper sense of peace.
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With a desire to share yoga, Diana completed the 200 hour instructor certification at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in 2003. After the teacher training, she continued to assistant at Kripalu for a couple of years.
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Now Diana enjoys sharing her love of yoga with others at a regular class at Hampshire Athletic Club, as well as outdoors at Andrews. Diana's classes weave together mindfulness, pranayama, flexibility, balance and strength. Diana supports participants to find more ease in their bodies, as well as compassion and resilience both on and off the mat.
Diana holds certificates in "Yoga Dance" and Prenatal Yoga, she also has a Masters Degree in Special Education and currently works full time in the public schools.
Pierre Rouzier
Pierre Rouzier is a primary care sports medicine physician is his mid 60s who’s been practicing yoga for over 15 years. He was introduced to yoga at age 50 by his then college football playing son who started with yoga for injury prevention. Several years later when his younger son completed yoga teacher training after a number of soccer injuries and said “Dad, I think you’d really like doing this”, Pierre went to the Nexus Institute in Costa Rica for his 200 hour YTT.
His interests lie in yoga for fitness and injury prevention and to help people understand the scope of their injuries and learn adaptive asansas to accomplish their goals. Pierre has used breathwork for working with anxiety, depression and performance enhancement. He committed himself to learning more about the chakra system and integrating this into his practice and teaching.
Pierre’s medical career has focused on “Exercise as Medicine”, helping people make lifestyle changes and work with their injuries. He is the author of a patient education book, “The Sports Medicine Patient Advisor”, and a children’s book, “Henry Gets Moving”.
His classes will be energetic and enthusiastic (regardless of your level and which asanas you choose) and they’ll work on nearly every muscle group and joint in your body.
Liz Lacey
Liz Lacey has completed a 500-hour yoga teacher certification at Shiva Yoga Peeth in Rishikesh, India in 2018, and has completed two additional 500-hour teacher training sessions at Maa Shakti Yog also in Rishikesh. Her training included Ashtanga, Iyengar, Hatha, and Yin yoga. Liz currently focuses on alignment, flexibility, and strength through slow movement. Besides asanas, she is passionate about breath work which she includes in her daily practice.
Sebastian Merrill
Sebastian is a poet and an enthusiastic yoga practitioner. He studied yoga in India in 2010 and holds a degree in South Asian Studies from Wellesley College. He received his 200 hour yoga teacher certification in 2018 from Adhikara Yoga School & Teacher Training, where he studied under Molly Kitchen and Jacoby Ballard. Sebastian’s yoga classes are alignment focused, rooted in yoga philosophy, social justice oriented, and trauma informed. All levels welcome.
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Credentials & Certifications: RYT 200, Trauma-informed
Learn more about Sebastian at www.sebastianmerrill.com/yoga
Sebastian teaches a drop-in weekly Queer & Trans Yoga Class at
Translate Gender in Northampton on Mondays // 6-7:15 PM.
Sign up link: https://SebastianMerrillYoga.as.me/QTYoga
Sebastian teaches weekly classes at the Yoga Sanctuary in Northampton on
Tuesdays at 5:30 PM and 7 PM and on Thursdays at 9:15 AM.
Sign up here: https://www.yoga-sanctuary.com/schedule
