Chicago Yoga Teachers - Shanti Yoga Studio: 7646 West Touhy Chicago, IL 60631 (773) 774-8444

"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." A. Einstein

Our Teachers :

JENNY BERGOLD is a relatively new yoga instructor, but is no stranger to the beauty of yoga and the art of teaching. Jenny has been practicing yoga since 1999 and teaching students about the dynamics of television studio production. Now, she has combined these talents – yoga and teaching – to provide students a revolutionary form of yoga, meditation and relaxation. A graduate of the Heaven Meets Earth Yoga Studio in Evanston, Jenny defines her style of teaching as uplifting, motivational and restorative. Previous to her yoga instructor training, Jenny worked at WTTW Chicago Channel 11 as an associate producer.

BRIAN CARMANY wandered into a yoga class at his gym on a lark: suffice it to say that he was instantly hooked and his gym membership soon cancelled. Brian is grateful to share yoga with students at all levels, striving to create an environment that provides each student with an empowering, rewarding practice. He believes in the power of yoga to enrich, expand, and complement one's life regardless of age, flexibility, size, and physical abilities. His classes encourage others to strengthen and have fun, all the while integrating the body and mind. Having completed his Teacher Training at Yogaview.

Brian counts himself blessed with having had the opportunity to study under a number of amazingly gifted instructors, among whom he counts Joey Tran, Alie McManus, Claire Mark, and Sue Rexford.

Brian also heads the Global Yoga Foundation, a nonprofit organization bringing the blessings of yoga to refugee camps and underprivileged communities ... learn more at globalyogafoundation.com

Mary Lou Cerami is Shanti's Creative & Marketing Director. She has been creating webdesign and marketing since 2002. An avid kayaker and outdoor enthusiast, Mary Lou has combined her love of yoga and nature by leading kayak and yoga excursions all over the Chicagoland area. This past summer she partnered with Kayak Chicago and taught Standup Paddleboard (SUP) Yoga classes on Lake Michigan. Check out her Facebook page with photos and info about the sport.

Mary Lou's goal as an instructor is to create a sense of community while sharing the simple beauty of yoga and its path to self-acceptance through awareness of the body. She discovered a healthy active lifestyle can become part of all our lives when fitness itself is made fun and accessible. She strives to inspire that sense of adventure in each class she teaches.

PAT CONSTABILEO - The first Yoga class I taught was at Deerfield High School, Continuing Education when my Yoga teacher asked me to take her class because of health issues. That was over thirteen years ago; classes have grown to include Gentle, Beginning and Continuing levels. I taught for several years at the Himalayan Institute in Glenview.

I became fascinated with Yoga back in the 60's when Lillias Folan taught Yoga on Channel 11. I enjoyed her soft and gentle approach to yoga along with the challenge of the asanas.

Over time I knew yoga had found a place in my life and in my heart. One important way in which Yoga has changed my life is being able to share the many benefits of Yoga with my students.

Yoga has enriched my life by creating a balance and focus and by providing me with a vocation I truly love. Pat is certified at the 500-hour level through the Himalayan Institute.

RACHEL COPPOLA for the past 15 years, Rachel has been blessed with a beautiful career in dance. With a BFA from the University of the Arts, she moved on to do both company work and musical theatre on Broadway and around the world. To enhance a rigorous dance career, she discovered yoga as a way to stretch and warm up for performances. It did not take long for her to realize there was more to yoga than just the physical. Practice taught her that stepping onto a yoga mat is a statement to oneself: "I am here for me, to breathe, to connect, and to find quiet in the mind so I may experience peace if even just for a moment." A graduate of the Heaven Meets Earth 200-hour teacher training, it is with humble gratitude that she now shares a fun, nurturing, challenging, and creative vinyasa-style class with her students.

GINA FITZPATRICK received her certification through the Temple of Kriya Yoga. She is owner and operator of Yoga Break Chicago where she teaches lunchtime yoga on sight. She also teaches in public and private high schools all around Chicago. Gina admits that her teaching style changed dramatically after spending time with teenagers. Their willingness to be fearless made her realize the endless possibilities that we all possess. That all that we ever needed we already had.

CHUCK FRENKEL is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance and teaches Ashtanga based Vinyasa Flow and Yin Yoga. Chuck brings to his classes a feeling of spaciousness and lightness and offers the student the time to fully explore the inward journey during asana practice. He endeavors to uplift, inspire, and bring joy to the yoga experience.

Chuck's background as an athlete brought him into contact with yoga a number of times during his life– as an Olympic-style archery competitor and as a competitive cyclist. But he truly opened and committed fully to the practice in order to help rehab from a serious cycling accident. Not only did yoga "bring him back" from a broken body, but also helped to heal his mind and spirit.

For Chuck, the inward journey during asana practice is a beautiful meditation which brings him fully into the here and now, accepting the present and all that it offers. Yoga is now a calling for Chuck and the more he practices the more he grows to love and embrace it.

CARYN CIAGNE GALLAGHER has been practicing and teaching yoga for 25 years and could not imagine life without it. As an undergrad at University of Michigan, she turned to yoga to de-stress. Those early classes ignited a passion to learn more and then pass it on to others. Caryn earned her certification through the esteemed Moksha Yoga program in Chicago. She has had the good fortune to study with many nationally known yogis including Shiva Rea, Baron Baptiste, Andrey Lappa, Ana Forest, Gary Kraftsow and more.

Caryn believes that she is an all-together better person thanks to yoga. "Yoga brings me great joy and peace in my life, keeping me centered in the midst of chaos raising three young children." She enjoys sharing her passion and expertise with students of all ages and abilities. Her goal is to guide students to find their own passionate practice on their mat; and to prepare for life's challenges once they step off. Caryn's comprehensive experience has prepared her to teach students of all ages in small and large groups, or in private sessions for students looking for individualized attention. Time (being the greatest gift) suggests being "present and connected" with your complete self and surroundings is the ultimate state of being. Caryn would love to guide you on your journey to find that "place".

LiLi has a long and diverse experience with yoga. Her immersion was immediate by discovering a world inside the world, an inner space inside the body and a calling toward the beauty of the soul. Her practice began 30 years ago in France with J.M. Judge Master in Supramental and Hatha Yoga. To perfect her technique and her knowledge she participated in many workshops and made an initiatory journey in India.

In the nineties, she discovered the Sophro (a structural holistic therapy using relaxation and breathing techniques, concentration, visualization and simple movements, a combination of Western relaxation techniques and Eastern meditation.) and yoga with Y. Perez--opening the path to a new field of consciousness. She is also a student of Ashtanga Yoga, dance and Viet Vo Dao a Vietnamese Martial Art. A move to Chicago in 2007, brought her to Shanti Yoga Center where she has been deeply involved, first as a daily student, and now as a prenatal teacher and regular substitute.

All these influences lead her to develop a traditional but innovative practice and style of teaching based on the profundity of the movement, the awareness of the body and the harmony of the postures.

ANNE POTTS comes to yoga via the internist's office. A benign but persistent irregular heartbeat prompted the doctor to suggest, "Try yoga." That sounded as good a suggestion as any, and soon she, like so many who come to yoga, fell in love but didn't know why. The asanas challenged her body, and the focused breathing forced her mind to let go of its innumerable "vritties."

After a few years of practice, she enrolled in Moksha Yoga Center's teacher training. Under Daren Friesen's direction, she quickly saw how much more there was to yogic practice and philosophy. As the director of Shanti Yoga Center, she considers herself a humble, lifelong student who wishes to joyfully share that knowledge with others. Her yogic inspirations include Gary Kraftsow, Daren Friesen, Mac McHugh from Niyama, Kim Wilcox and Dorie Silverman.

GOSIA RYZEWSKA is a devoted student of Kriya Yoga - (a path of self-study, self-control, purification, and meditative attunement). She seeks wisdom in every action and continues to deepen her understanding of yoga through study of Kriya, Hatha, Astrology, and Sacred Scriptures. Gosia teaches traditional Hatha with strong principles of alignment (bones and muscles are the starting points in hatha yoga), breath and mindfulness.

Her gentle approach takes students on the journey through self- exploration of physical body, astral body, and causal body which is significant in developing a deeper understanding of transcending everyday consciousness. Gosia is certified Hatha Teacher. For over three years Gosia, was involved in apprenticing and assisting to the teacher trainings. She also assisted Daren Friesen in the Moksha/Shanti Teacher Training 2009/10. Gosia continues to enhance her personal practice and teaching skills with trainings, classes and workshops with locally and nationally recognized master teachers.

REGINA WIEDLIN-WADIA's introduction to yoga began early on with a park district class taken while in high school. Memories of that class were long forgotten until she again signed up for a park district yoga class while pregnant with her second child in 1998. It was that class and specifically that yoga instructor that profoundly influenced Regina's path into a deeper and more knowledgeable practice. "The teacher makes the difference, no matter where you might stumble upon a class, no matter how lovely or bare bones the space you practice in is, it is all in how the teacher guides you, effects you, influences you".

Regina hopes to inspire and influence her students to evolve and grow in their practice and to, most importantly, find their own practice not just in the studio but in the way they live their life as a whole. "We are all facing a myriad of challenges, stresses, blessings, demands, etc. and if we can live our lives facing all that is in front of us with equanimity then we are able to grow and move through life in a peaceful way and find ourselves alive & living to our fullest potential."

Regina has studied and continues to study with many different teachers/gurus to whom she is profoundly grateful and would particularly like to acknowledge the influence of her husband who continues to enlighten her and humble her with his own practice. She is grateful to be offered the opportunity to teach at Shanti.

KIM WEBER Practicing yoga challenges Kim to stay present in each moment and to address the fluctuations of mind, body and spirit in one energizing pursuit. One breath at a time, yoga gently awakens the divine self, even if all you were initially looking for was a better butt. Kim teaches a vigorous Astanga-inspired flow class that will definitely sculpt your backside, while leading you along a subtle, yet joyful, path to greater awareness off your mat.

Kim trained at Yogaview and North Shore Yoga. In addition to Sharyn Galindo, Geri Bleier and Tom Quinn, she counts her four young children and husband among her most challenging teachers.