YOGA TEACHER TRAINING

Kierstie’s entire life has become centered around sharing and connecting through Yoga. She treats this practice as her sacred duty and has happily dedicated her life to nurturing her craft. She combined her athletic background with several in-depth philosophy, yoga & meditation trainings to build a repertoire of uplifting yogic healing skills. Kierstie is 500 HR YTT Certified with over a thousand of hours of teaching and trainings under her belt. She teaches a range of classes, yet she is most known for her dynamic, sensation-based, music-centered vinyasa as well as her thought-provoking yin classes and meditations. She thrives in encouraging her students to meet their edge and soften around it, creating inspired change and equanimity. Kierstie channels her light-hearted yet grounding spirit into her offerings while holding true to the ancient lineage of ashtanga yoga via the 7 Doorways. Her mission is to be a catalyst of connection for those who seek to live out their Dharama and eliminate the barriers that hold them back from the liberation we all crave. Through  mental, physical and spiritual alignment, Kierstie believes “we are the teacher we have been waiting for” and all we need to do is get out of the way to let our true nature break through.  

Michelle René started her yoga journey 20 years ago in the middle of the ocean on her way to India while aboard Semester at Sea in 2003. She studied various styles of yoga and Eastern philosophy for the next several years at her alma mater. She started her teaching journey at Corepower Yoga in Fort Collins, CO in Power Yoga and then returned home to north county San Diego to help open the Encinitas CPY studio where she taught for ten years — accumulating over 5,000 classes on-site. She became certified in hot yoga, yin yoga, and continued her education through Yoga Journal Conferences, intensives, workshops, and lots of reading!

She served as Studio Assistant, Assistant Manager, and Studio Manager over the years but found her biggest passion in training teachers to teach yoga in various formats. She has been a teacher training facilitator in 25 CPY TT programs and has taught at international meditation destinations like Rancho Valencia (CA) and Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, MX. Professionally Michelle is Global Operations for Gentle Somatic Yoga® |Somatic Wellness™ and is the Assistant Manager at locally-owned Mello Yoga where she will be part of the 2023 Fall Teacher Training.

In Michelle’s classes, you will get a layer-based, grounding foundation in alignment and anatomical cues, juxtaposed alongside unexpected sequencing to promote presence and body awareness in creative mandalas and evolutionary flows. Michelle teaches a blend of restorative, yin, Hatha flow, and vinyasa styles predominantly, but has also studied the healing style of viniyoga (yoga therapy) as a side passion for years. As an English master, Michelle infuses her classes with poetic use of imagery exemplifying the yogic philosophical tenets while teaching not only how to do the postures, but how to connect deeply to your body, mind, and heart.