Who We Are
Sasha, Founder, Teacher
Sasha holds a B.A. in Human Development and a M.A. Counseling Psychology and is currently working toward licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Her clinical work specializes, but is not limited to, perinatal mental health, supporting individuals and families through pregnancy, postpartum, and major life transitions. Her teaching and counseling are both supported and fueled by her extensive training in somatics; she identifies as being trauma-informed with a somatic approach that honors the body’s innate capacity for healing.
Sasha completed a 40-hour training with Hala Khouri in Trauma-Informed Yoga and uses this approach when teaching incarcerated youth and other groups of this nature. For the last 22 years, she has been in the birth worker community, as a doula, midwife intern, pre/post natal yoga teacher, and psychotherapist; all of this work and expertise support her passion for woman and families during the perinatal season. Sasha serves on the board of A Mother’s Village, where she leads a mom support group. She is one of the founding members of Community Pride and Peace. Both organizations are local non-profits, anchored in community growth and support.
Her hope in life is to improve the lives of those open and willing to roll out the mat and discover the magic of the practice and what’s within.
Her classes are appropriate for all practitioners who enjoy a physical challenge that leaves you feeling whole and alive!
The Dream Team
Albo Mussman
Albo has been dancing the 5Rhythms wave in Humboldt County since 2001. In 2019, he committed fully to the path of becoming a 5Rhythms teacher, traveling the globe to study and move alongside teachers of all ages and cultures. Since completing his Teacher Training in 2024, he's held weekly 5Rhythms Wave classes at his home studio, Blue Lake Sanctuary. For the past 20 years, he's also been part of local men's groups, holding space for men to explore their inner lives, emotional landscapes, and personal accountability through witness circles.
Find Carrie at reikihealingsociety.com
Carrie Varela
Carrie is a yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, Vedic astrologer, and founder of Reiki Healing Society. Yoga has been the thread through her life since 2004, evolving into a path of embodiment, self-inquiry, and spiritual awakening. With over 1,000 hours of teacher training and 5,000+ classes taught, her style is intuitive, accessible, trauma-informed, and rooted in the belief that every body belongs. For Carrie, movement is medicine, and her classes hold space for strength and presence without ever losing their sense of fun.
"There can never be too many badass, open hearted, hippie, warriors of love."
Gio Coelho
Gio is a music-driven movement instructor teaching Buti Movement, yoga, and group fitness classes, with a focus on building strength, stamina, and body awareness through high-energy training. His journey began in 2004 with meditation, evolving through tai chi and weightlifting before he found yoga in 2009. When he discovered Buti Movement in 2022, it brought everything he'd been exploring into one natural fit. He's a certified 200-hour yoga teacher and Buti Movement instructor.
Janine Melzer
Janine believes yoga is a journey that goes far beyond the mat. She first found the practice while searching for a way to manage stress in a fast-paced career, and now shares that same passion through classes that blend mindful movement with grounding breathwork. Her Forrest Yoga classes help students tune into what quality of energy they need to find balance, moment to moment. Whether you're new to yoga or deepening an existing practice, she offers a safe, inclusive space to move, breathe, and simply be.
Jenni Brown
Jenni has been teaching Vinyasa for 20 years, from an early Bikram phase in Seattle to becoming a certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy practitioner, drawn by yoga's potential to heal wounds stored in the body. She moved to Humboldt in 2010 and taught throughout the local community, including at Om Shala Yoga, now home to Yoga Botanica. She later earned a Master's in Counseling and now practices as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist alongside her teaching. For Jenni, yoga and therapy supplement each other beautifully.
Joan Richards
Her yoga and meditation practice began in 2001, at the suggestion of a therapist who recognized the healing power of holistic, body-centered work. She's been teaching yoga and playing the gongs since 2003, and more recently the gongs have become the heart of her offering, guiding community meditation. She's an RYT Certified Yoga Instructor through Yoga West and an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor & Herbalist, with additional training in Yin Yoga and Somatic Trauma Therapy.
Jessica Quigly
For Jess, yoga is an invitation to come home to the breath, the body, and the quiet wisdom within. What began as healing after a car accident grew into a journey of self-discovery and connection. A Humboldt native, she believes healing happens in community, weaving mindful movement and conscious breath into classes that help students soften and reconnect with themselves. Jess completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training through Tosha Yoga and teaches from a place of empathy and deep respect for every path.
Justine Sophia
Justine is a licensed Acupuncturist based in Arcata who wholeheartedly embraces a holistic, personalized approach to healthcare. She treats the root cause of illness, using physical and emotional symptoms to diagnose imbalances, always working to make sure each client feels truly heard. Through Acupuncture, Cupping, Moxibustion, and Herbal Medicine, she draws on Chinese Medicine to restore balance to body and mind. After a decade of study, she's passionate about Chinese Medicine's power to treat the whole person.
Laura Doyle
Missing Bio + Photo
Find Lena at phantommoonholistics.com
Lena Schmidt
Lena grew up in the Bay Area and moved to San Diego in 2002 to study Ethnic Studies at UCSD, later earning her MA in Women's Studies at SDSU. Along the way she taught dance, volunteered with the IRC, and served with AmeriCorps, before deepening her yoga practice through teacher training in 2011. She's since completed her 500-hour certification, an 85-hour prenatal certification, and the Prison Yoga Project training, drawn by yoga's power to cultivate peace and positivity from within. Lena moved to Humboldt in 2021, where she loves hiking in the redwoods.
Find Peggy at peggyprofant.com
Peggy Profant
(E-RYT 500, C-IAYT) Peggy has been a seasoned yoga teacher since 1997 and co-founded the original Om Shala Yoga in 2008, the space that now houses Yoga Botanica. As a Certified Yoga Therapist and international Lead Yoga Teacher Trainer, she brings a wealth of deep movement wisdom to every class. Her style is sensibly dynamic, blending precise therapeutic alignment with heart-centered themes. Peggy's thoughtfully structured classes and private sessions help students safely drop into a deeper sense of self with compassion, trust, and joy.
Mary Gifford
Yoga has been a grounding force in Mary's life for over 25 years, helping her cultivate and align with her authentic self. Since she began teaching Buti in 2020, her focus has been creating a welcoming, judgment-free space where students of all levels can connect with their breath and move with intention. She believes Buti is for every body, and strives to make each practice accessible, supportive, and uplifting. Her goal is simple: that every student leaves feeling stronger, more energized, and inspired, both on and off the
Find Roxanne at roxannemiranda.com
Roxanne Miranda
Roxanne is a Subconscious Repatterning Expert who helps women name the patterns they've been circling for years, often before they say it out loud. She works with women who've done the therapy, the mindset work, the coaching, and still find themselves building a life that doesn't quite feel like their own. Through her S.O.U.L. Method™, a blend of hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, and intuitive channeling, she helps women shift old patterns with more speed and lightness than they expect. Her work is for anyone quietly sensing there's more freedom, more ease, more life waiting for them.
Stephanie Klein
Stephanie has practiced yoga since 2008 and taught since 2016, founding Humboldt Yoga in 2018 to share the traditional 26&2 series of the Ghosh lineage. Her training includes study with Bikram Choudhury and Esak Garcia, along with Yin Yoga and Ayurveda certifications. What began as a physical practice has grown into a lifelong path of mindfulness and self-inquiry, taking her from Rishikesh to Mexico City while keeping her deeply and humbly rooted in Humboldt County. She's committed to accessible classes built on disciplined technique, guiding students toward strength and clarity.
Suzie Marie Nye
Suzy Marie has practiced yoga for more than two decades, first discovering asana as her doorway into the mind-body connection, a territory she's been exploring ever since. She completed her 200-hour YTT in Rishikesh, India in 2013 and has studied across traditions, though her teaching stays rooted in traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa. Currently a graduate student in integrative psychology, she loves how a devoted practice offers a chance to meet yourself anew each day. She teaches all levels and all bodies, no experience required, just a willingness to let the practice light the way home to your heart.
Find a Class
Every body welcome, every entry point honored. Whether it's your first class or your thousandth, there's a spot on the mat for you.