Laurie Wondra

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Laurie Wondra

Laurie Wondra has been performing therapeutic sound healing for groups and in private sessions for over 20 years. She is also a world-renowned psychic medium and intuitive, author of several books, and acknowledged master that works with energy healing modalities. Laurie’s passion is to provide experiences that open and support personal growth and transformation. She firmly believes that we are all one within the universe, and the energies of one affect the energies of all. Balance of these life energies are vital for spiritual and emotional health.  

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Carolyn Vinup

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Carolyn Vinup

Carolyn Vinup is a respected master of sound healing and a visionary in the creation of rich and multi-dimensional sonic tapestries, skillfully weaving sounds and vibrations. With a legacy spanning two decades, she serves as a guide for seekers on sacred sound healing journeys, delving into the depths, and unlocking the hidden realms within. Through immersive ceremonies, transformative workshops, and enlightening training, Carolyn elevates consciousness, dissolving barriers and orchestrating sacred spaces whereupon souls are free to dance in unison, bathed in the radiance of harmonious vibrations. Her nurturing guidance serves as a catalyst for personal metamorphosis, enabling individuals to embrace their essence, awaken their spirits, and illuminate the world with their radiant presence.

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Marcia Appel, E-RYT 500, YACEP

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Marcia Appel, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Marcia, co-leader and senior faculty member of Green Lotus' school, says yoga deepens her connection to herself and to others. Marcia encourages all students to try many class styles and deeply believes that yoga asana (poses) are an extension and beautiful expression of breath and meditation. In May 2013, she completed a two-year study of the integration of yoga and mindfulness meditation at Spirit Rock Retreat Center in California. The faculty included Dr. Richard Miller, Anne Cushman, Janice Gates, Mark Coleman, and Phillip Moffett. Her other certifications include Judith Lasater’s Relax & Renew® (restorative yoga), Baptiste Power Vinyasa (Level One), and iRest ® Level One (Yoga Nidra). Marcia is a partner in Green Lotus with her beloved friend Merry Beth Freienmuth .

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Elizabeth Bayer, E-RYT 500

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Elizabeth Bayer, E-RYT 500

Elizabeth is a yoga teacher and retired Green Lotus licensee. Following a vibrant career in high-tech, Elizabeth Bayer opened the doors to her Green Lotus Yoga & Healing Center in Annandale, Minnesota, in 2017. She is a graduate of Green Lotus’s 200-hour and 300-hour yoga teacher-training programs. She is a noted lecturer, workshop leader, and author of two non-fiction books dealing with self-discovery – her 2003 memoir Wednesdays at the Fluff 'n' Fold and 2016's Yoga Expression Spirit in which she chronicles the three pillars of her life. In 2020, Elizabeth and her husband founded the Annandale Art and Textile Center, the non-profit home of the Heart of the Lakes Weavers, a vocational-weaving program employing individuals with social and developmental disabilities.

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Merry Beth Freienmuth, E-RYT 500, YACEP

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Merry Beth Freienmuth, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Merry Beth is director of Green Lotus' Yoga Alliance-certified school and a senior faculty member. She has been practicing yoga since 2000. She found the physical asana practice to be the perfect transition for her aging body that could no longer tolerate a classical ballet practice. She taught ballet for more than 15 years, then she began teaching Body Flow, Pilates, and yoga in 2002. Merry Beth also has experienced the more subtle benefits of yoga; it has given her the strength and balance to navigate a full-time career in corporate America and to raise her children into adulthood. Now she devotes her work time to being a Green Lotus partner and teacher. 

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Shelagh Burke, E-RYT 200

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Shelagh Burke, E-RYT 200

Shelagh initially was drawn to yoga for the physical benefits of increased strength and flexibility. She quickly came to realize that yoga was having a positive impact on her mentally and spiritually. As a stay-at-home mother of four busy kids, coming to her yoga mat became a time to rejuvenate. Over the years, Shelagh has developed a deep appreciation for the self-discovery and subtle life lessons yoga has to offer. She is particularly drawn to the intuitive nature of a vinyasa practice, linking breath and movement to create a joyful moving meditation. 

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Tracy Hovde, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP

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Tracy Hovde, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP

Tracy has a background in dance, bodywork, aromatherapy, martial arts, and personal training. After a dance injury led her to yoga for physical healing, she found that her yoga practice not only supported her body, but it also changed her perspective of the world and her connection to it. For her, yoga engenders peace and clarity, both on and off the mat, and gives her a way to balance her energetic anatomy. Inspired to share her perspectives with others, she completed her 200-hour training with Devanadi Yoga, 500-hour training with Green Lotus, and teaches workshops, classes, and trainings for Green Lotus.

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Elizabeth Heffernan, E-RYT 500, YACEP

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Elizabeth Heffernan, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Elizabeth discovered the gentleness, grace, and ease of yoga after retiring from the dance world due to an injury. Yoga provided the ideal transition from rigorous training to a gentle and desirable style of physical movement within a discipline that brought sustenance not only to her body, but also to her heart and soul. Liz teaches all styles of yoga at Green Lotus and is also available for private instruction.

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Jen Phillips, E-RYT 500, RCYT, RPYT, YACEP

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Jen Phillips, E-RYT 500, RCYT, RPYT, YACEP

On her mat, Jen began a journey that was transformative and character-building. She found strength in the body through physical practice, strength in her breath through pranayama, and strength in her mind through meditation and yoga's teachings. She teaches a comprehensive list of yoga formats and meditation. Jen has been lecturing and leading 200- and 300-hour teacher trainings and continuing education in Chicago, Minneapolis, Orange County, and globally via Zoom since 2010.

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Tess Mikre, Reiki Master

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Tess Mikre, Reiki Master

Starting at a young age, Tess was able to easily and deeply pick up on people's energies and emotions. Her passion in life always has been to help and heal others; following that passion started her on a spiritual journey that eventually brought her to reiki. Through Green Lotus's Reiki Training School, she became certified by David Kaley as a Reiki Master in 2020. Tess's bright energy and warm smile welcome her students in our safe space as she ushers them into the reiki lineage. After training with Tess, you will be able to use the healing power of reiki right away. Tess leads Reiki Training at all Green Lotus locations and is excited to share this healing and balancing modality with new practitioners.

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Dawn Schaefer Stumpf, BS, MS, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP, IAYT

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Dawn Schaefer Stumpf, BS, MS, E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP, IAYT

Dawn (she/her) began practicing yoga more than 30 years ago at Saint Olaf College where it couldn’t be called yoga. How times have changed! She earned her 200- and first 500-hour certifications at Green Lotus. She believes in the power of cultivating joy and lives by the mantra, lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu, which translates as, “May all beings be happy and free and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way.” Her advanced training includes Yoga Therapy (under mentorship), and she is a certified LifeForce Yoga for Anxiety and Depression instructor and Yoga Calm for Children instructor. Dawn teaches yoga history, philosophy, and pranayama in Green Lotus’s 240-hour teacher-training program.

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Sarah Zuber, E-RYT 500, YACEP

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Sarah Zuber, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Sarah Zuber has been practicing yoga for more than 10 years and has been teaching since 2013. She completed her 200-hour and 300-hour yoga teacher trainings through Green Lotus’s program. She is passionate about the healing potential of yoga and believes that all beings can find freedom from suffering in body and mind. At Green Lotus she teaches Hatha, Gentle, Restorative, and Mindfulness classes, trauma-informed courses and workshops in addition to teaching private yoga lessons.

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Randi Henning, RYT 500

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Randi Henning, RYT 500

Randi has been studying and practicing yoga for more than 20 years. As a fifth-grade teacher, she first began teaching yoga to our most precious resource, children.  Then Randi completed her teacher training in Green Lotus' 200-hour program.  She studied with Judith Lasater, completing her certification in Relax and Renew® Restorative Yoga. She also earned yin yoga teaching credentials from Green Lotus.

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Asavari Manvikar

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Asavari Manvikar

Asavari is a passionate educator of the science of yoga, Ayurveda, and Sanskrit. She is a classically trained doctor of Ayurveda, teaches graduate-level courses at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality and Healing, and leads Green Lotus’s Sanskrit teacher training course. Her family of origin has practiced yoga for generations, providing a deep foundation and lived experience that translates theory, philosophy, and history into practice.

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Christine Quam, E-RYT 200, RYT 500

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Christine Quam, E-RYT 200, RYT 500

Christine Quam has been practicing yoga for more than 20 years. She received a Master’s of Art in Psychology from Duquesne University. The philosophical studies she encountered there eventually led her to complete the teacher training program at Green Lotus Yoga and Healing Center in 2016. Christine’s passion for physical movement combined with meditation have led her to complete additional yoga training in Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga, Kids Yoga, East Meets West Anatomy, Mindfulness Meditation, and Ayurveda. Possessing this broad yoga foundation allows Christine to offer vibrant, focused, safe, fun, and creative yoga classes within varying environments and to a variety of demographics.

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Maureen Farley, E-RYT 200, YACEP

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Maureen Farley, E-RYT 200, YACEP

Maureen began her yoga practice in 1992, studying one-on-one with a tantric yogi, and experienced dramatic healing on all levels of her being. She attended graduate school for Chinese medicine. In addition to her E-RYT 200, RYT 500, and YACEP certifications with Yoga Alliance, Maureen is certified to teach Yoga for CancerCare, Yin Yoga, Trauma-Informed Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and Restorative Yoga. She completed advanced training in the Yoga for Cancer Patients program at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center of New York. She developed and teaches Green Lotus' Yin Yoga Teacher Training programs and Yoga for CancerCare Training programs. She teaches workshops and offers private yoga instruction, specializing in working with those who have structural issues, back or neck pain, osteoporosis, and those whose life journey includes cancer. Maureen is also a Reiki Master, ordained minister, public speaker, bhakta, and she offers mantra meditation instruction. 

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