The Yoga Center Staff

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Anne Blanchard

Dancer, movement lover, and self-proclaimed body geek, Anne has loved moving and being in her body since she was a wee child. In 2013 she took a Yoga Beginner’s Series as a part of her own personal journey out of trauma. Within a few weeks of experiencing Yoga, her life completely turned around. In 2017 she received her 200-hour Soma Yoga Certification from her teacher Elizabeth Ruff in Bellingham, WA.  In 2018, Anne returned home to Augusta after being away for nearly 30 years.  Searching for a place to practice, she found The Yoga Center and knew this would be her place. She is a lover of learning and is currently enrolled in the Pranakriya Yoga 200-hour teacher training and will graduate in June, receiving her second 200-hour certification.  Anne says "Combining breath with movement is life!  For me, Yoga is energy medicine."  She imparts to her students experiences and practices on the mat that they can take with them off the mat to incorporate into and improve their everyday lives.

 

Pause Boden

After years of taking yoga classes in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans, Pause began her formal yoga training in 2018 at The Yoga Center.  She completed her Pranakriya 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at The Yoga Center in 2020 under the instruction of Vladimir Tchakarov and is already on her path for her 300-hour Certificate.  In addition to yoga, Pause has studied Earth and Planetary Sciences and Planetary Geology at Johns Hopkins University and Tulane University, respectively.  She has led a varied life as an actor in musical theater productions, and a fire performer and hulahoop dancer in NYC, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Augusta, GA.  Pause has chosen to become a yoga instructor to share the deep sense of wellbeing, purpose, and clarity that she has experienced through her personal yoga practice. 

 
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Claire Blumig

Claire Blumig took her first yoga class at 19 and was immediately drawn to the practice. She has since done extensive training in Kundalini and Iyengar yoga. After several years off the mat, she returned to her practice when her daughter was in high school. Claire has her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification from Princeton Center for Yoga & Health, and her second 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Certificate from the Kripalu Center in Lennox , MA. Claire is also certified in Yoga of the Heart, developed for cancer and cardiac patients by Nischala Joy Devi collaborating with Dr. Dean Ornish, who developed the internationally acclaimed Reversing Heart Disease program. She continues to take workshops to deepen her understanding of yoga and strives to share all she learns with her students.

 
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Marcia Daum

In her early twenties, Marcia fell in love with yoga immediately after attending her first class at a yoga studio in Miami, Florida.  However college and her young family began to take precedent over her yoga time.  After a move to Grovetown and working for a local corporation, Marcia found her way back to yoga.  Facing new challenges in her life, she felt the need to reconnect with her inner self and began searching for a yoga studio. She found The Yoga Center where she felt supported in maintaining her peace of mind.  Marcia enrolled in The Yoga Center’s Pranakriya Yoga Teacher Training program graduating in 2015 and feels the training program was one of the best things she has done for herself.  Marcia feels this yoga practice helps her grow a vast inner awareness providing a strong foundation to guide her life’s journey.

 
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Krissy Dopson, ERYT

Krissy has a contagious enthusiasm for loving life and exploring one’s inner depths.   Born in South Carolina and raised traveling around the globe, she is a wholehearted citizen of the world and spiritual adventurer.  Krissy is a Parankriya Experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT), a Pranakriya Yoga Therapist, Pranakriya Prenatal Yoga Teacher, and an energy/body healer with a background in Thai Yoga Therapy and Bio Energy Healing.  Krissy has been teaching and practicing yoga since 2008. She serves as a Pranakriya Yoga Director who travels the Eastern seaboard teaching Yoga Teacher Training Programs.

Through yoga, she became more connected to her inner self — spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.   She leads transformational classes, one-on-one private sessions, and workshops with practical ways to promote inner peace and strengthen the body.  Krissy’s intentions are to positively impact every person she encounters and make the world a better place, one yoga practice at a time. 

 

Cammy Fisher

Cammy Fisher has been teaching Pilates for the past 11 years to children, athletes, and adults. She received her Certification in Pilates from the Physicalmind Institute.   Cammy is a former professional dancer who has toured with Theatre Ballet of San Francisco, and the Augusta Ballet.  She has taught dance for over 30 years in our community and has a deep understanding of how proper alignment keeps students safe.  Cammy believes that Pilates strengthens her students physically and mentally, and encourages their efforts to maintain a healthy body.

 
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Yvonne Harrison, Business Manager

Yvonne received her 200 hour Pranakriya Yoga Teacher Certification in 2010 at The Yoga Center (formerly Radiant Well-being).  She was introduced to Pranakriya and to Yoganand and Amy Carroll through a friend and student of the studio.  From her first class, she developed a deep and abiding love of the practice as taught through the Pranakriya tradition.   She began teaching Gentle Yoga at the studio in 2010 soon after receiving her certification, and continues to work toward her 300 hour certification.  Yvonne’s desire is to continue to share her love of this practice, and is overjoyed that the Pranakriya tradition has continued to thrive at The Yoga Center.

 

Veronica Johnson

Veronica became interested in yoga as a means of exercise, but quickly discovered that through her practice she was able to calm the "noise" in her head and explore the depths of herself. Yoga teaches ahimsa, that one must not harm any living creature, a concept many of us tend to overlook when dealing with ourselves. So from Veronica’s beginning experience with yoga, she was learning to be compassionate and loving toward the being she is. Once she began treating herself with care, it was easy to look beyond herself and treat others the same way. Veronica decided to deepen her practice and knowledge of yoga, and took the Pranakriya Teacher Training course. She has learned that teaching yoga is "not just about telling folks where to put their feet and hands." It is about sharing your own love of yoga and life with others while respecting and helping them on their own yogic journey. Veronica is very interested in bringing yoga to those with larger bodies, so that they too, may benefit from the power of yoga.

 
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Cindy O'Brien, Owner

After retiring from the non-profit arts world as a Teaching Artist, Arts Education Director, and Executive Director of The Art Factory, Cindy found herself back in a yoga studio. After a long absence, Cindy began practicing at Radiant Well-Being Yoga Center founded by Yoganand and Amy Carroll. Being in Amy’s classes renewed her passion for yoga and soon she found herself signed up for the Pranakriya Yoga Teacher Training program. After graduating from their 200 hour program, Cindy became the new owner of the yoga studio as Yoganand and Amy were ready to move on. She has since taken up the teaching mantle again and recently became a 500 hour Pranakriya Yoga Teacher. Cindy is grateful for the opportunity to continue the work that Yoganand and Amy began in 2003 –sharing the peaceful art of yoga.

 
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Satyajit Joel Peters (RYT-500)

Joel is an experienced professional 500-hour yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Satyajit Joel has teacher certifications in both Pranakriya & Kripalu yoga and is also a certified Kripalu Yoga Dance teacher.  He has journeyed twice through India experiencing ashram life and is certified as an IAM Yoga Nidra teacher & facilitator.  Satyajit Joel has been a keynote speaker several times on Yoga Nidra & the Spiritual Principles behind wellness at the International Wellness Conference in southern India.  

Satyajit Joel has had a successful career as a computer scientist. He teaches to share the transformative benefits of yoga and is currently growing as a health advocate & coach, speaker on the spiritual principles behind living and dying, and a yoga workshop/retreat presenter.

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MJ Richard

MJ began practicing yoga at 16, driving her first car to a local gym for women where she took her first class.  Over the years, she would periodically drift away from yoga, but every time she came back to her mat she would fall in love with the practice again.  After moving to Augusta, MJ began taking classes at The Yoga Center where she was introduced to the connection between breath, body and inner awareness.  This was also where she first learned the concept of practicing yoga off the mat.  In 2019, MJ began to seek space outside of her corporate career to deepen her recently reclaimed spiritual practice when she found The Yoga Center was offering their 200-hour yoga teacher training course.   She enrolled immediately knowing it would benefit her mentally, physically and spiritually, as well as give her the opportunity to teach others and be of service to her community.  MJ is a lover of learning and looks forward to continuing her yoga education in the Pranakriya tradition as she graduates in July 2020 with her 200 hour Pranakriya Yoga Certification.

 
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Nicole Troutman

Nicole studied architecture and worked in several large firms, but left the corporate world to pursue her own architectural computer rendering business. Nicole has always been active running, or mountain biking, but found yoga helped her ease the stress of a deadline driven career. When she became pregnant, Prenatal yoga became an intricate part of her life as she developed a deeper understanding of yoga’s mind/ body connection. After moving to Augusta in 2009, she became a stay at home mom, painting as a creative outlet and attending “fitness” yoga at the local gyms which left her longing for a deeper practice. In January 2015, she joined the Pranakriya Yoga Teacher Training at The Yoga Center to find that deeper connection she was searching for. She recently completed her 500-hour certification and enjoys sharing her love of yoga with students of all levels.