– TEACHERS –

Gay White is Director of The Yoga Room and Co-Director of The Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program. She has studied asana and pranayama from Donald Moyer since 1991, and she studied from Geeta Iyengar at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India. Gay’s classes and workshops are dedicated to alignment and awareness in a safe and creative mixed-level learning community. Gay also leads yoga retreats and intensives locally and in Mexico. She has been making dances since 1975, and is director of the Yoga Garden Dancers.

Debbie Gilman. M.A., ERYT 500, has been teaching at The Yoga Room since 2000, is on the faculty of the Advanced Studies Program there, and co-owns Innate Chiropractic & Wellness Studio in Albany. A life-long teacher, she loves sharing the movement-based mindfulness practice of yoga with her students. In recent years Debbie has been studying the history of yoga to deepen her understanding of the practice.

Bonnie Maeda, RN, teaches Restorative Yoga and co-teaches Yoga For Health at The Yoga Room as well as at several Bay Area hospitals and Women’s Centers. She is certified by the Arthritis Foundation and also as an “Advanced Relax and Renew” teacher from Judith Hanson Lasater’s program. Her approach is gentle yoga for health and healing as well as restorative yoga to promote relaxation and manage stress. She believes in the benefits of yoga for every age, body type, and ability.

Nicole Stone is a lover of movement and embodied spiritual practice. Yoga has been in her life since she happened upon a class in 1997. She has a background in Dance and for the last 11 years has studied and taught Qigong. She is delighted and honored to be graduating from The Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program this December.

Barbara has been teaching yoga since she graduated from the Berkeley Yoga Room’s Teacher
Training in 1996. For over 30 years, she’s been a dedicated student & practitioner of yoga, body
movement, and touch methods. In 2012 she completed a 500-hour yoga training with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen at The School for Bodymind Centering: Embodied Anatomy and Yoga; and Developmental Movement and Yoga. She is a graduate (2015) of the BMC Somatic Movement Education Program. Barbara has also worked as a licensed therapeutic massage practitioner in Berkeley since 1987. To me, yoga is a system of body movement and breathing awareness that helps to sustain andsupport your health and fitness as the body changes. I work with my students to bring about asense of enjoyment and balance as well as a deeper understanding of the connection betweenbody and mind.

Mary Lou Weprin has been teaching at The Yoga Room since 1980. As Co-Director with Gay White of The Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program, she continues the work she started with Donald Moyer in 1988 of training many of the Bay Area’s teachers. She also leads Intensives for out-of-town teachers to deepen their ability to observe and assist their students. She offers Practice Intensives and other workshops throughout the year, and leads workshops in the U.S. and Canada. From 2004-2007, Mary Lou was Co-Director (with Patricia Dewar) of the Yoga Central Teacher Training Program in Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

Mary Lou’s training has been primarily with B.K.S. Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar in India; Donald Moyer, Ramanand Patel, Judith Lasater, and the late Mary Dunn. She also studied with Dona Holleman in the US and Italy. She graduated from the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco in the late 70s, and was later part of their teacher training faculty, teaching asana theory and basic teaching skills. Mary Lou is currently certified as Intermediate Junior Level 3 with the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the U.S. (IYNAUS). She is registered with Yoga Alliance at the Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 level (E-RYT-500). Mary Lou is interested in aligning the body and sequencing the practice in such a way as to energize and nurture the inner body. She makes challenging poses more accessible using preparations, special sequencing, and lots of humor. Her classes are educational, challenging and fun.

Bridget Frederick began studying at The Yoga Room in 2002 and is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Program. She has worked with students of all ages, body types and abilities. Individualized attention to each of her students, a strong focus on alignment and core strength, and her adept use of props allow for a comfortable experience of yoga. Whether you’re brand new to yoga or a well-practiced regular, you’ll emerge feeling stretched out and stronger than when you came in.

I began my personal yoga practice at 62 years of age using the method inspired by BKS Iyengar.  In 2013, I graduated from the Berkeley Yoga Room’s 500 hour Advanced Studies Program. I then started teaching at numerous East Bay yoga studios as well as hospitals, the Hayward Area Recreation Department's Aikens Senior Center and the Castro Valley and San Lorenzo public libraries. I am committed to yoga as community service and I believe in the healing and sustaining power of yoga for myself, my family, and my community. I am also a certified Yoga for Healthy Aging instructor and a Yoga 12-Step Recovery Class teacher.

Deidre O’Brien has been practicing Iyengar-style yoga and meditation since 1991. She graduated from The Yoga Room’s 3 year 1,000-hour Advanced Studies Program in 2009. Deidre has assisted the Yoga for 55+ class at The Yoga Room taught by Herta Weinstein, M.D. since 2007. She specializes in adapted and modified poses to allow individuals of all ages and abilities to experience the joy of the practice of yoga.

Sandy Zirulnik, RYT 500, E-RYT 200, YACEP, leads yoga classes that explore structure, movement, strength, and balance through the practice of asanas, breathing awareness, and the study of anatomy. They are enjoyable and appropriate for students of all ages and interests. No experience or special level of flexibility is required. Sandy began studying Yoga in 1998 and graduated from The Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program with a 500-hour certification. His teachers include Ada Lusardi, Donald Moyer, the faculty of The Yoga Room, Jonothon Gross, Sandra Razieli, and Laura Camp. Often he can be seen riding his bicycle in the Berkeley hills or more distant places.

Linda Burnham has practiced and taught yoga for decades and is also an avid student of African and African diasporic dance. In addition, she is the National Research Coordinator for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and she brings decades of experience as an activist, writer, strategist, and organizational consultant.

Tasha Hansen has been teaching yoga for more than ten years. She is a graduate of the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Teacher Training Program in Boston; has studied at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India; and was certified by Sivananda in Quebec. Her classes combine attention to detailed alignment in individual poses along with occasional unbroken sequences of poses inspired by Gay White and a love of dance. Tasha’s succinct instruction provides clear guidance, yet offers generous moments of silence to deepen internal awareness. In addition to yoga, Tasha teaches academic writing and research skills to international graduate students.

Sara Saberi is an alignment-based Hatha yoga instructor, dedicated to fostering a deep connection between individuals and their bodies in a nurturing and safe environment. Her teachings and gentle adjustments foster a deep understanding of the body anatomy, guiding you to tap into your inner wisdom. Sara's journey into yoga began nearly 15 years ago as Elham Badrian became her first yoga teacher at the Tehran Iyengar Institute. In 2014 she embarked on a one-way journey to India, where she dedicated two transformative years to practicing and learning yoga under senior instructors, including Sharat Arora of HIYC-Dharamsala and Surrender Singh of Swasti Yoga-Rishikesh, ultimately earning her 200-hour certification. Upon her return to Iran, she opened a humble studio in Tehran to share all she had learned. Sara was fortunate to achieve her 500-hour certification under the guidance of esteemed teachers in the Bay Area at The Yoga Room Berkeley. Beyond the world of yoga, Sara is a professional musician, classically trained in traditional Persian music since the age of 11.

Jim Stockton has been teaching yoga in the San Francisco Bay Area, in a number of therapeutic and clinical settings, since the end of the 1990s. In 2003, he graduated from the The Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program. Since then, he has worked within and outside of the Iyengar community, primarily with Mary Lou Weprin and Michael Lucey, but also attending extensive retreats with Tias Little, Sarah Powers, and Dharmanidhi Saraswati. Jim has further studied within Zen, Vajrayana, and Vipassana meditation traditions. Most recently, Jim’s work has focused on trauma recovery: in a San Francisco mental health clinic (Department of Public Health); working with Veterans and PTSD; and observing Japanese yoga teachers working with trauma survivors immediately following the Fukushima tsunami/nuclear accident. For over 10 years, Jim ran a Yoga Program for a pain clinic in Oakland, California.