E x p a n s i o n s Yoga

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, Ph.C - 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 the mother of two boys and a completer of triathlons. Lisa has completed six Ironmans including Canada and Switzerland! She has also done post-graduate work on Cultural Theory at the University of Washington and has served as an adjunct professor at Olympic College.

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.

Marylynn Kintner - Senior Yoga / Over 50

I have been taking yoga classes for over 30 years from some wonderful instructors. I realize as we age the importance of flexibility, core strength, and balance. I have recently retired from teaching and saw a need for others to enjoy yoga as much as I have . I received my yoga teaching certificate from Yoga Fit and have taught Senior Yoga for the past couple of years. One of my new greatest pleasures is hearing from my students how the class is helping them in their daily lives.

Linda Rigell

In the early 70s, Linda Rigell walked into a yoga studio in Atlanta, Georgia and her life was changed forever. What she experienced that day was the beginning of a journey in which she would discover ways to relieve stress, tension and anxiety with yoga.
Her early training was in the BKS Iyengar style of yoga. Later she moved to the Pacific Northwest to study Purna Yoga with Aadil Palkhivala. While Purna Yoga incorporates a continued emphasis on alignment that strengthens and energizes, it also includes heart-focused meditations that balance and inspire.
Linda holds a Masters Degree in Education, is the founder of a charter school, has achieved her 500-hour yoga teacher certification and is currently working on a 2000-hour certification in Purna Yoga with an emphasis on yoga’s therapeutic application. She is available for private instruction and can be contacted at linda@rigell.org

Elizabeth McCormack

Elizabeth began studying yoga in 2002 at the Bikram studio in her home town of Eureka, CA. Since then she has studied in Denver,Philadelphia, Seattle and southern California in Power Yoga, Bikram,Hatha, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga styles. She has been teaching Power Yoga since April of 2008 and received her 200 hour RYT Certification in 2010 through 8 Limbs Yoga in Seattle, WA. She also enjoys running,dancing, climbing, kayaking, and other physical activities and has noticed how practicing yoga has improved her physical activities. She has found the exploration of yoga to be a source of great joy and inner peace in her life as well as a lifelong journey. She enjoys challenging practitioners and helping them access their inner yogi to improve their health and physicality as well as mental outlook.

Carla Charters, RYT

Carla Charters has been a yoga practitioner for ten years of Hatha and Vinyasa style yoga. She began her yoga practice from the advice of her doctor, as Carla was overweight and suffering from an anxiety disorder. After only a few months of a regular yoga practice, her doctor was able to take her off any medications regulating her high anxiety and felt herself getting stronger, physically and emotionally. Yoga became a way of life...on and off her mat.

She carries a 200 hour RYT (registered yoga teacher) credential obtained from Frog Lotus Yoga while studying in Costa Rica. Carla is registered with Yoga Alliance (international professional yoga organization) and the owner of Viva Flow Yoga.

Carla is also currently studying to obtain a degree in Women's Studies with an interest in obtaining a doctorate in Physical Therapy. Coupling techniques of yoga therapy and physical therapy to enhance one's practice and quality of life, is a task that Carla is actively pursuing. She is passionate about becoming the best version of oneself, as well as, serving others.

Roger Cloutier, LMP

I started in martial arts in 1976 with Taekwondo. My wife Robin and I started Yang Style Taiji in 1981 with David Larson (Marshal H'o's senior student & teacher in Kansas) and attended many workshops with Ken Cohen. We moved to Port Orchard, WA and started teaching and training with the fabulous teachers in the N.W. I have taught consistently in Port Orchard since 1986 and Tacoma Community College - Gig Harbor Campus since 1994.

I went to Brian Utting School of Massage in Seattle in 1991 to learn more of the body and went on to train in many bodywork techniques.

In my bodywork practice and Taiji classes, I get to work with all kinds of people from all walks of life, from the very old to very young. I have been able to see what kinds of postures, attitudes, and ways of moving produce pain. Teaching the principles of Taiji/Qigong helps people on the path towards balance. For more information on my work please visit: MassagePostureAndMovement.com.