Who is Expansions Yoga?

Cynthia Land, LMP, RYT - Studio Founder and Co-director

Cynthia is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, an international-organization cultivating teaching integrity.  Teachers must pass rigorous screening before being granted the RYT designation.

Cynthia holds a teaching certificate from Prana Yoga and Zen Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia.  She has also completed advanced teacher trainings with Rodney Yee and Rod Stryker.  Cynthia is also a Licensed Massage Practitioner with a focus on Thai Yoga Massage.

Cynthia encourages students to use breath to gracefully stretch and tune in to their bodies.  She emphasizes use of core strength and alignment, helping students get an amazing workout without realizing it.  Along with mindful pose-work, she uses a light-hearted sense of humor for overall stress relieving classes.

Lisa J. Ballou - Co-director

Lisa has been practicing yoga since 1997 and completed her teacher training at the Pacific Yoga Institute.  Lisa began teaching in 2002 by instructing pre-schoolers.  From this experience, she has come to appreciate that the act of participating in yoga, at whatever level each individual is capable of, is much more important than a person's ability to do the poses "perfectly."  She is committed to using yoga to help people improve their relationship with their own bodies. Lisa is drawn to yoga's integration of body, mind, and spirit. She strives to use the physical lessons about balance and adjustment that she learns through yoga to expand her emotional health and well-being.

When not doing or teaching yoga, Lisa is an Adjunct English Professor at Olympic College, a mother of two boys, and a completer of triathlons.  In July of 2008 Lisa completed her fourth Ironman in Zurich, Switzerland!

Anna Berntson

Anna first discovered her love for yoga and meditation when she was 14, attending a SYDA Yoga retreat with her family in the Catskill Mountains of New York. At age 16, she made her first visit to India. There she followed a daily schedule of scriptural study, chanting, meditation, communal service and hatha yoga. She continued to make regular visits to India and other SYDA Yoga retreat areas until 1997 when she became pregnant with her 1st child, she then settled down to raise a family.

Wanting a connection with a yoga community and a practice she searched for something easy to apply to her daily life. She found John Friend's Anusara Yoga while she was pregnant with her 2nd child. She has been practicing this style ever since. She has studied with some of the top Anusara teachers: John Friend, Denise Benitez, Elizabeth Rainey, Sienna Sherman, Christy Burnette and SarahJoy Marsh. She is a 200 hour licensed Anusara-inspired yoga teacher and continues her studies, working towards her 500 hour Anusara teacher’s certification. Anna also holds a 100 hour prenatal yoga certification with Collette Crawford at Seattle Holistic Center.

Anna earned her bachelor’s degree in Film and Television at New York University.

Heather Morton

Heather was introduced to Yoga in 2000 at Jivamukti Yoga School in New York City where she practiced with many world renowned teachers such as David Life, Sharon Gannon, Ruth Lauer Manenti and Kelly Morris. She also practiced with Ashtanga Yoga founder Sri K. Pattabhi Jois during his New York workshop in 2003. After moving to Seattle in 2006, earned her teacher certification from Samadhi Yoga director Kathleen Hunt.

Traveling across India in 2009 to study yoga made Heather realize her true path is to spread the teachings of Yoga to aid others physically and mentally. In India, Heather spent time in Mysore practicing Ashtanga Yoga and all over the south and north practicing Hatha, Universal, Ashtanga and Sivananda styles. A blend of these styles embody her classes, using flowing sequences to warm the body, held exercises for strengthening and long, deep stretches to lengthen the muscles. She sends pranams to all her teachers; especially her teacher training mentor, Jenny Ingwersen, of Samadhi, and Master Sajee of Fort Cochin, India, a true "remover of darkness".

Marylynn Kintner - Senior Yoga / Over 50

Send mail to cynthia@expansionsyoga.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2008 E x p a n s i o n s Yoga
Last modified: 03/02/08