Yoga Instructors
Julia McSheffery, RYT 500. Combining a strong understanding of the body’s structure and systems as well as offering extensive experience and skill in yoga
and its therapeutic potential, Julia provides her students with the opportunity
to easily understand and incorporate yoga practices into their lives in a
meaningful way. Originally interested in yoga as a means of recouping some of
the flexibility she lost becasue of sport rock climbing, Julia quickly realized
the benefits of yoga and its healing of injury and illness in her own life.
Besides being educated in exercise science, Julia is also registered with the
Yoga Alliance as a yoga therapy teacher (500-hour level, ShivaShakti Synthesis
with Janice George) and as a teacher of vinyasa flow (200-hour level, White
Lotus Foundation with Ganga White and Tracy Rich). Julia has also completed a
108-hour Anusara Yoga immersion (with Todd Norian and Ann Greene.) In addition
to these certifications, Julia is thankful for her training with David Swenson,
Shiva Rea, Donna Farhi, Amy Weintraub, Elise Browning Miller, Judith Lasater,
and Tom Myers. Her experience includes teaching various levels of yoga at
McConnel Heart Health Center, the OSU Center for Integrative Medicine, various
local yoga studios and fitness facilities, Columbus State Community College and
other Columbus locations.
Elaine Torrie, RYT 200, first found yoga in 2000 as a means of stretching out
tight muscles from bike riding, aerobics, and free weights. Over the years, her
practice deepened as she discovered the other wonderful benefits and aspects of
yoga, including pranayama (breath work) and meditation. Elaine has worked as a
trainer in the corporate world, and enjoys facilitating the learning and
discovery process in others. Her desire to teach yoga became clear as she worked
with a friend to prepare her for a major operation through yoga and mediation.
She is registered with the Yoga Alliance as a certified yoga instructor, having
received her 200-hour teaching certificate from Balanced Yoga. She is currently
working towards her 500-hour teaching certificate via the Yoga Therapy program
with Janice George.
Elaine’s passion is making yoga accessible to students of all ages and
backgrounds.
Carla Fox, RYT 200, KRI and Yoga Alliance Certified, tried her hand at various
yoga styles over the years, and then found her niche in Kundalini yoga. She fell
in love with the yoga, meditation and the effect it had on her life. She did her
teacher training soon after beginning her practice. Carla is specially certified
in pregnancy and postpartum yoga as well. She continues to grow as a teacher
and is currently working on her 500-hour certification.
Kimm Marks is passionate about yoga. She encountered the practice in 1993 shortly after beginning her graduate studies in dance and cultural studies at The Ohio State University. To relieve the stress of being in school again she started taking a yoga class at a local church. The teacher was amazing and the practice deeply compelling and it wasn’t long before she knew that she could find in her yoga practice what she had always sought in her dancing: the movement of the body and mind even in the deepest stillness. Abandoning plans to pursue a Ph.D in dance, she used the last of her student loans to enroll in yoga teacher training at Kripalu Institute of Yoga and Health where she earned her 200-hour certification. After ten years of teaching and continuing study, Kimm is nearing the completion of her 500-hour certification through Yoga on High. In addition to her work with EquiVita, Kimm currently teaches classes at The McConnell Heart Health Center, Wyandotte Athletic Club and at the North Broadway United Methodist Church in Clintonville. A particular area of interest for her is introducing older students to yoga practice. She feels that it is the perfect adventure for middle agers and up … “yoga helps us to re-connect to and re-discover the wonder of our bodies. In the process, we become not only achieve better health and vitality but also become more inquisitive and joyful!” She loves how yoga helps us to deepen our awareness of ourselves and, in the process, our awareness of others. Her classes are lively and engaging, and have a distinctive feeling of community.
In addition to her yoga practice, Kimm is an avid reader whose interests span literature, anatomy, philosophy and religious studies. She loves to be outside in the early morning, she enjoys cooking when she can and going to films at the Drexel. She lives quite happily in the company of her lovely and lively ten-year old daughter, Isabel, a very loyal Lhasa Apso named Roly Poly Pad-Ma, a slip of a cat named Streak, and a sweet little African pygmy hedgehog named Hazel.
