Teachers

Kendra Hadden

Kendra is a 500 hour trained yoga teacher who teaches a challenging, inventive, vinyasa flow class. She enjoys teaching students how to safely open their bodies and gain strength as well as flexibility while still keeping the practice light and fun. Kendra believes in taking the knowledge that you learn from the physical and mental challenges in yoga and applying those principles to your everyday life, making you happier and healthier!

Cheryl Simcox

Cheryl is a certified teacher of Vinyasa Yoga, she trained at Saraswati’s Yoga Joint with Mitchel Blier. Additional studies and certifications were done with Mitchel as well as with Sadie Nardini, for Core Strength, Joe Barnett for Yin and with Jillian Pranksy for Restorative. Classes are a cultivation of the breath, the asana, the mind, the body, the spirit and more. It’ll be up-tempo and fun, alignment based with creative sequencing with food for thought, hard work, fun and some awesome music.

Sarah Koch

Sarah Koch can’t wait to share yoga with you! She is a passionate pioneer of wellness who is committed to promoting holistic health and the playful spirit within us all. The practice of yoga has been a positive force in her life for both healing and well-being. As an overweight only-child and an unfulfilled 20-something she often felt insecure, self-critical, or alone. It wasn’t until she found yoga several years ago that she bloomed and began to exude her true inner-beauty. Sarah believes that teaching yoga to individuals, young and old, in a supportive community will fill them with more confidence, strength, and love.

Sarah is a registered dietitian and yoga teacher. She trained with YogaWorks to teach adult and prenatal yoga and with ChildLight Yoga to teach yoga for kids. You can find Sarah living happily in Norwalk, CT with her husband James and her dog Rosie.

Lyn Girdler

Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Lyn has traveled the world in search of home and a place to take a deep breath. She found it on a yoga mat, on a coastal town in North East U.S.A.

While running a successful home furnishings business for many years, her love of her personal practice of yoga led her to the 200YA Teacher Training at Saraswati’s Yoga Joint, in Norwalk, CT in 2007, and then her 500YA certification in 2011. This love, like all good ones, continues to grow and she now teaches full time in CT & NYC. Having experienced lower back pain, on and off, for years Lyn offers her students an understanding of the limitations that can be put in our way, but also a deep, personal knowledge that one has power and strength beyond our perceived abilities. She believes every person who steps on the mat can evoke that ability to move beyond. With humor, and a very ‘real world’, grounded style of teaching, along with healthy alignment, intelligent sequencing, and pranayama , her classes leave a thought-provoking and memorable impression on her students. Lyn continues to study with her teachers; Donna Jackson, Mitchel Bleier and Tracy Bleier.

Caroline Graham

Caroline has been practicing yoga for more than ten years. She was hooked after her first class with Gail Cohen. After a move to London, Caroline’s practice intensified, studying Jivamukti yoga with Stewart Gilchrest and Alessia Avellino. She completed her 200-hour training at Kaia Yoga with Gina Norman and Stan Woodman. Caroline leads a vigorous vinyasa flow class, helping her students grow their strength, balance and flexibility through the connection of breath and movement – and encouraging them to take these attributes off the mat and into their lives.

Lindsay Durfee

Lindsay has been practicing yoga since 1995, when she first stepped onto her mat and realized what life changing principles and connections yoga has to offer. She spent many years as a student, but in 1999 began her journey as a teacher as well. Lindsay completed Yoga Zone’s 500hr Teacher Training Certification with Yogiraj Alan Finger. Before moving to CT from NYC, she was a senior teacher at Be Yoga/Yoga Works (formerly Yoga Zone).Lindsay then completed the 200hr training at Saraswati’s Yoga Joint with teachers Mitchel Bleier, Tracy Bleier and Donna Jackson in 2007.

Lindsay brings to her class humor, energy and lightheartedness. She combines an athletic vinyasa flow with attention to alignment, breath and meditation. All while encouraging her students to take their yoga off of their mats and into their everyday lives.

Corti Cooper

Corti Cooper is a YogaWorks Certified Teacher who has continued her studies under Leslie Kaminoff in the T.K.V. Desikachar tradition. Her classes are centered around breath awareness and combined with mindful vinyasa flow. Corti’s background in gymnastics and her training in Capoeira bring elements of strength and acrobatics to Corti’s classes. Her flows are invigorating and fun while bringing into focus the stillness that is present within each of us.

Peggy Lyons

Peggy holds an MA in Fitness Management from N.Y.U. with a concentration in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. Her career in the industry began with developing and managing corporate health and fitness programs, teaching group fitness classes and working as a personal trainer. A life-long athlete and former modern dancer, Peggy’s interest in yoga began with a curiosity of the physical practice, but she soon realized how the multi-dimensional benefits of a regular yoga practice would impact her life on many levels. She was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in 1997 by Val Schneiderman and became a certified Ashtanga instructor five years later, teaching in several area studios, including at her own space “Energy”. Concurrently, she began to explore Vinyasa yoga, and became a certified Vinyasa instructor under Mitchel Bleier’s training in 2006. Peggy continues to study and blend various techniques into her teaching, including Anya Mind/Body Yoga, Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga, and Pilates. She has taught for Equinox for the past ten years as well as develop yoga modules on the Power Plate at Saugatuck Studios. Her classes are a fusion of athletic power, graceful flow, physiologically sound alignment, creative sequencing, strong connection to the ‘core’ and a focus on mindfulness, breath and meditation. Peggy is a certified Heath Counselor through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and the creator of the “Lean With E.N.V.Y.” Program (Exercise, Nutrition, Vision, Yoga). She is an avid runner, swimmer, Pilates instructor and an aspiring vegan cook. She is continuously inspired and humbled by her two beautiful daughters.

Talor Wales
Talor spent the better part of her life in the pool. After finishing her college years competing on the swim team at the University of Michigan, she joined the U.S. National Team and had the fortune of competing (and traveling) around the globe. She found yoga a few years later as an alternative to being wet in the water and has never turned back! The love she has for practicing on her own mat led her to study with Gina Norman and Stan Woodman at Kaia Yoga in Westport, Connecticut.

Talor teaches an upbeat, flowing Vinyasa class, incorporating breath, alignment, and mental focus along with energetic music and humor. Classes are geared toward opening and strengthening the body, lengthening the breath, and calming the mind. She encourages her students to use the tools gained while practicing yoga both on and off of their mats.

Ashly Hevesy

Ashly has been practicing yoga since 2006. She originally found yoga with the intention of the physicality, but quickly realized the mental and emotional benefits. This led her to SYJ’s 200 hour teaching training in Norwalk where she studied with Mitchel Bleier of MB Yoga. She blends together a strength based vinyasa flow, alignment principles, breath awareness and music into each of her classes. Ashly works to create a safe environment for students to explore movement and discover the many benefits of yoga.Ashly balances her yoga teaching with personal training and holistic health coaching.

Heather Vernik

Heather Vernik’s breath/body connection, eclectic oriented approach to yoga stems from her deep and articulate alignment-based Vinyasa practice.  She received her teacher training certification from at Saraswati Yoga Studio in Norwalk, CT.  As a former sales executive, Heather utilizes her humor and upbeat energy to provoke students to reach beyond their perceived capacity and redefine their limits. In combination with healthy alignment and yoga philosophy, she incorporates a synthesis of breath inspiring movements, with movements enhanced by breath, as taught in the traditional Vinyasa Flow Yoga approach.  She places an emphasis on finding a deeper connection with the dynamic movements of energy available within each pose and each moment.

She offers a wide range of classes sensitive to the needs of every student. Heather teaches at several studios in lower Fairfield county and offers private and group lessons.  Heather also teaches and offers corporate yoga as part of her repertoire.

Victoria Chamberlin

Victoria Chamberlin is certified in mat pilates as well as apparatus pilates (reformer, cadillac/tower, chair, barrels).  She has extensive training in anatomy and biomechanics as well as special populations and pre/post natal pilates.  After putting well over 500 hours toward her training, Victoria’s certification was awarded by Pilates Academy International through Pilates on Fifth in NYC.  When Victoria is not teaching pilates you can find her behind the Venture Yoga reception desk warmly welcoming clients.  She is also currently taking the required courses necessary to apply to chiropractic school.  Victoria’s philosophy is simple: she believes in healing and wellness from the inside out.