Instructors

Margaret kornack 

Margaret was formerly the founder and Yoga teacher at Pipal Leaf Yoga in Needham, MA for 11 years.  Her love of Yoga began many years before she completed her Yoga Teacher Training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA. She completed her 500 RYT training there 12 years ago and continues to assist numerous programs there during the year. In addition to her formal Yoga Teacher Training she has completed trainings in Yoga Nidra with Jennifer Reis (Kripalu), Yin Yoga, Yoga for Depression with Amy Weintraub, Green Tara Initiation with Lama Migmar Tseten (Buddhist Chaplin at Harvard University, and continues to meditate at Wellesley College and assist Jack Kornfield at Insight Meditation Retreats.

Her practice is Kripalu based (meditation in motion/the Yoga of self inquiry) which allows students to experience the full spectrum of asanas (poses) while being at their own “edge,” and while assisting them to bring a feeling of safety in their practice. Her teaching style is very approachable for all levels, bringing the beginner to a place of  comfort, and challenging the student that may desire to go deeper. Props are always an option! There is an ease in her classes as well as an underlying presence of spirit. She strongly believes in the Kripalu acronym - B.R.F.W.A. (Breathe, Relax, Feel, Watch, Allow). 
Yoga is her dharma - her “true nature.”
 

Jane Strickland 

Jane is a Yoga Alliance 500 hour Registered Yoga Teacher (500RYT) in the Hatha Yoga tradition and a Reiki practioner. She discovered yoga in her early twenties and has been influenced in her training and her teaching by the Iyengar School. Jane completed her 500 hour teacher training with Cathy Mann, a certified Yoga Therapist and Director of The Yoga Studio in Millis. She has trained and taught under Cathy’s direction since 2012 and assisted Cathy and taught in the advanced teacher training program for 5 years. This work resulted in over 300 hours of additional training including how yoga is used for therapeutics. She has also taken advanced teacher training in yoga for healing and wellbeing. Since 2012 she has taught at various times at The Yoga Studio in Millis, Pipal Leaf Yoga Studio in Needham, the YMCA in Needham and the Jewish Community Center in Newton.

In her classes Jane combines breath awareness, stretching exercises, and varying postures and relaxation to develop strength and flexibility and to establish a deep connection between breath and movement. She believes that the practice of yoga postures provides an opportunity to consciously control physical movements in order to create balance and improve the quality of daily life activities. She teaches from her heart and seeks to establish a safe and healing environment that meets the individual needs of each student. She incorporates some form of healing energy work into each class.