Yoga Instructors
Astrud Castillo
Astrud had been teaching Yoga for over 15 years. She experiences Yoga as a direct participation with life. Her class is a mindful flow, initiated deeply by the breath. She explores the balance between Asana (postures), Pranayama (mindful breathing), Dhyanna (meditation) as well as Mantra and Kirtan (using sound & music as a transformational tool). The culmination of these practices enables us to awaken a sense of peace, equanimity, and unity in body and mind. We then can acquire freedom in our lives not freedom from it.
Astrud has been inspired by her long time relationship with teacher Mark Whitwell and her long time friend and teacher Jasmine Tarkeshi. She has studied Vedic chanting in India with TKV Desikachar, and leads retreats to India and around the country, as well as leads her Kirtan group Astrud and the Cosmic Caravan. Visit her website.
Jan Beange
Originally from New Zealand, Jan is a 500-hour American Viniyoga Institute educator, with a long-term dedicated yoga and Shambhala meditation practice. Energymind Yoga™ integrates these practices into a fresh new approach that Jan is offering for people just like you!
Alex Crow
Alex’s deep passion for movement, as a form of expression and a source of healing, inspires her daily life on and off the mat, on and off the stage, and in and out of the roles of teacher and student.
As a trained Laughing Lotus Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist, Alex’s classes will challenge you as much as they will nurture you; if there is one thing you are sure to find in her classes, it is balance. With her extensive practical knowledge of the human anatomy along side her insight to yogic wisdom, she intends to offer her students the soul food they need to come back to their practice day after day. She is so grateful to call Laughing Lotus her home-base on the west side, and bows infinitely with gratitude to her teachers Keith Borden, Jasmine Tarkeshi, and so many others that have helped her to see how we can always be a light unto ourselves.
Mary Dalton
A long time Bay Area resident, Mary completed the Laughing Lotus College of Yoga in 2011. Since then, she has been teaching the Lotus Vinyasa Flow, which connects breath with movement and relates the asana sequencing to the chakras. Recently Mary completed Laughing Lotus’ Advanced Healing Training at the Shambhala Meditation Center in San Francisco.
Mary has studied meditation for many years and find inspiration through the writings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, including Meditation in Action and Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Mary has practiced Therapeutic Yoga with Arturo Peal, participating in several of his workshops at Laughing Lotus. Yoga brings wholeness, health, and happiness.
Josh Ehrenreich
Josh wants to move yoga beyond the studio. He believes in the importance of integrating practice into your every day life and enjoying all the benefits of yoga regardless of whether you’re in athletic pants or jeans. Josh is an RYT 200 and teaches classes and workshops in San Francisco. Beyond yoga, Josh spends his free time biking, playing soccer, and listening to hip hop.
Katie Hutchinson
Each class begins with the breath and extends outward into the physical asana. Katie’s classes combine the dharma, tapas and svadhyaya (self study). She believes that by practicing yoga you will be able to look at life through different dimensions of understanding. Arguments that were painted black and white will shift into an unending multitude of colorful forms.
Katie received her 200-hour teaching certification from Laughing Lotus in San Francisco.
Patsy Hutchison
Patsy’s love of yoga has completely transformed her life. Finding yoga for herself, she knew that she wanted to share the joy that is Yoga.
Patsy graduated from Laughing Lotus Teacher Training in Fall 2010 and has been teaching ever since. She has taught all over the Bay Area, in New York City, Minneapolis and rural Wisconsin. Her teaching ranges from beginners to advanced practitioners. Patsy’s yoga teachings are naturally and gently infused with her spirit, which has been described as akin to a butterfly with a jet engine—a blend of peace, playfulness and power.
Patsy bows down to the many powerful teachers, who have helped her along her path.
Andrew Keeler
Andrew creates an atmosphere of gentle awareness, heartfelt healing, and loving growth with his students. He holds space for people and the process, encouraging them to be active participants in their healing. The qualities of stillness first motivated Andrew to practice Yoga.
He shares as an Artist, Musician, Sound Healer, and empowered Reiki Master/Teacher. His love and reverence for Mother Nature and Father Universe is often brought into class, transporting students from their mats to the outdoors and back to the inner workings of their minds and bodies. Andrew has completed 500+ hours of training including Laughing Lotus Flow, Yogaspirit, and Yin.
Josie Lazo
Josie is a certified vinyasa yoga instructor through Laughing Lotus San Francisco. Her classes lead the student through all the chakras in a beautiful dance-like creative flow from the ground up through standing, open, neutral, balancing poses and inversions. Her classes offer the beginner or intermediate practitioner a feeling of body awakening and a calm, centered mind through meditative movement and pranayama. Josie is there for her students with gentle assists and alignment cues. The class ends with deep relaxation in savasana.
Josie hopes to bring yoga to people who are searching for a deeper meaning, more movement and freedom in their lives.
Jaime Moreland
Jaime enjoys teaching the signature Lotus Flow style infused with a breath of Bhakti influence. Her warm guidance is certain to make even the newest student feel supported.
Jaime found her way onto the yoga mat in 2003 in Colorado, and dove into her practice at a pivotal point in her life. She followed her heart west to the Gold Coast where she deepened her meditation practice and discovered her beloved Shambhala sangha here in San Francisco.
Both Jaime’s yoga and meditation practices have helped her claim her heart and her voice. She aspires to create space for healing, assisting others rediscover their connection to the treasure buried deep within.
Jaime holds a Master’s Degree in Communication from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is a Certified Reiki Master. She is earning a certificate in Contemplative Psychology through Karuna Training. Jaime is eternally grateful to her teachers Jasmine Tarkeshi, Keith Borden and Emily Stone. She also attributes her growing capacity to radiate confidence and wisdom to the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and Pema Chödrön.
Laura Schadler
Laura began practicing yoga over a decade ago, and found it instrumental in healing from a serious illness. She believes that yoga’s transformative power is accessible to everyone. Our practice can remind us that the process of change is constant, while also allowing us to reside fully in the present moment. Through awareness, and letting go, Laura’s Vinyasa Flow classes aim to create a sense of spaciousness around the body and mind. Laura’s teaching is inspired by the chakra system, mudras, music, poetry, and silence, as well as all of her incredible teachers.
When she isn’t practicing yoga, Laura writes fiction and is hard at work on her second novel.
Alex Vogt
Alex found yoga after years of long distance running began to take its toll on her knees. She needed a gentler form of movement, and yoga offered enough to fend off her complete restlessness. It became a vehicle for a deeper exploration of both mind and body.
As tension in her hips, chest, shoulders, and legs relaxed through the practice of yoga, she noticed her patience and compassion for others strengthening. From practicing a deeper awareness of the breath, intimacy with other subtleties awakened.
Now, as a yoga teacher, Alex is honored to hold space and encouragement for others to relax into their truest, most compassionate, most inspired selves. She teach in the Lotus Flow style, a dance-inspired Vinyasa that weaves spirituality into movement. Alex is deeply grateful to continue learning and growing from studying with my great teachers, Jasmine Tarkeshi and Brima Jah.
Mireia Yogimani
Originally from Barcelona, Yogimani is a yoga instructor that serves diverse communities through yoga events in San Francisco and abroad. As a kid, Yogimani took martial arts, dancing classes, and developed a great appreciation for nature. As a teenager, she traveled internationally, discovered yoga, and kept it constant.
Mireia has worked in hospitality, airlines, & tourism throughout Europe, and in human resources, technology, and finances in San Francisco—the entire time continuing her yoga and meditation practice. In 2011, Yogimani combined her professional background with yoga and became a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200).
Yogimani has been formally trained in such a variety of yoga styles and has worn so many different professional hats that her capacity to adjust to new places, cultures, and circumstances will leave you in awe.
