Susan
Fryman
Susan is an RYT 500 RYT. She has 200hrs training in meditation and 200 in Kundalini yoga. Additionally, she is trained in Restorative, Yin, Yoga Nidra, Pranayama, Prenatal. She is also a Reiki Master with additional emphasis on Reiki with animals. As an essential oil specialist and energy healer, dont be surprised if you also experience this in her classes. Currently she is working on a Sound Healing and Crystal Healing certifications.
Mary Kemper
Mary Kemper is a certified TriYoga teacher/trainer, a 500-hour Vishwa Ayurveda graduate, and previous vice-president of the Cincinnati Yoga Teachers Association. For 30+ years, Mary has continued her studies with Yogini Kaliji, the founder of TriYoga, and has trained others for certification. She began her practice as a teenager with her mother and yogini, Mary Louise Kemper, and continued with others including Sianna Sherman, Paul Grilley, Rodney Yee, Leslie Kaminov, and more.
Ellen
Zipperstein
Ellen´s first experience with yoga in the late 1990s inspired her to become an instructor through the renowned Kripalu Yoga Institute in Stockbridge, MA. Prior to this she acquired a BFU in dance from NYU´s Tisch School of the Arts, and later became certified in the Franklin Method, which combines imagery and embodied anatomy into her teaching skills. She has also studied Yin Yoga with anatomy guru, Paul Grilley.
Ellen incorporates all these somatic techniques in her yoga practices, enabling students to deeply connect with their bodies and experience them in new and enriching ways. She truly loves to share with all her students. Whether she is working with 1 student or a big group, Ellen always gives 100%!
Lynn
Larmann
Lynn was an avid tennis player for several years before she found yoga. Immediately, she loved the balance yoga brought to the active, high impact hobby of tennis. It allowed her to cultivate awareness of the subtle side of physical movement that enhanced not only time on the court, but her mind, body and spirit. From there, she decided to give this gift to others. She took trainings and workshops and taught at several places, including Elemental Om, before joining the CYS crew, and also taking the CYS Vishwa Yoga teacher training. Lynn came to us highly recommend by her students, who are often singing her praises. Yoga gives Lynn the tools that have enriched so many aspects of her life and she is moved to share this gift with others.
Kristin Bjerke
Kristin completed trainings in both Vishwa Yoga and Thai Yoga Massage at CYS. Though specializing in Yin, she loves Acro Yoga, as well. She is also a very skilled therapist and social worker; but currently taking a break from social work to focus on other holistic forms of therapy, such as Yoga and TYM.
Thai Massage and Private Instruction available.
Contact: bjerkekm@mail.uc.edu
Ann
Dollins
Annie is a retired professor from NKU where she specialized in nursing. She took the Vishwa Yoga teacher training at CYS and went on to take a variety of other trainings to earn her RYT 500 (advanced yoga teacher) certificate. She has a ton of knowledge and shares it with us mainly via her Yin Yoga classes. Many of our most devoted students will be found in her classes. Annie is truly our Yin guru!
Jeff
Walkup
We currently do not have a bio for Jeff. He is often away at some exotic location going deeper with his passion for acro yoga. Honestly, I dont know anyone more dedicated to acro yoga than Jeff. He literally travels the world looking for the next great training and then brings the skills he learns back to his students here at CYS.
Mafe
Although I was casually exposed to yoga at a young age, I didn’t begin to practice it regularly until 2004, when I was introduced to Kriya yoga at the Center for Spiritual Awareness (CSA) in Georgia. My teacher at the CSA was Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. Davis formally initiated me to Kriya yoga in 2010, and he continues to be an important influence on my yoga practice. He encouraged me to understand my true nature as a spiritual being and to practice constructive living and super- conscious meditation. I have also been influenced by other wonderful teachers,including Woods Falls and Norma Chirolla, in Georgia, and Allison Dennis and Ti Harmony, in North Carolina. I completed my 230-hour Yoga Alliance-Registered Veda Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training with Allison Dennis at Open Heart in 2011. I taught weekly Spanish language yoga basics classes at Heart of Yoga in North Carolina. I also built partnership between the yoga studio, the public school system, and the Carrboro Human Rights Center to offer donation-based community outreach classes. One of my main goals as a yoga teacher is to help people cultivate love and inner peace in their lives through yoga. I’m also particularly passionate about sharing yoga with people who are new to it, especially within the local Latino community.
A pesar de haber conocido la disciplina del yoga en la época de mi niñez, no comencé a practicarla continuamente hasta el 2004, año en el cual empecé con Kriya Yoga en el Center for Spiritual Awareness (Centro para la Conciencia Espiritual) en Georgia. Mi maestro del Centro fue y sigue siendo Roy Eugene Davis, un discípulo directo de Paramahansa Yogananda. Davis me inició formalmente en Kriya Yoga en 2010, y él continua siendo una influencia importante en mi práctica de yoga. Él me ha ayudado a entender mi verdadera naturaleza como un ser espiritual y a practicar una vida constructiva y una meditación superconsciente. También he sido inspirada por otros maestros maravillosos, incluyendo Woods Falls y Norma Chirolla, en Georgia, y Allison Dennis y Ti Harmony, en Carolina del Norte. Terminé mi Capacitación de Maestro de Yoga Veda Vinyasa registrada con la Alianza de Yoga por 230 horas con Allison Dennis en Open Heart en el 2011. Enseñe clases de yoga básica en español en Heart of Yoga en Carolina del Norte. También desarrollé asociaciones entre el estudio de yoga, el sistema escolar público, y el Centro de Derechos Humanos de Carrboro para ofrecer clases comunitarias basadas en donación. Uno de mis principales objetivos como maestra de yoga es ayudar a las personas a cultivar el amor y la paz interior en sus vidas a través del yoga. Así mismo, me apasiona entregar los conocimientos del yoga a las personas que son nuevas en este tema, especialmente las que hacen parte de la comunidad latina local.
Will
Will (Wm Brashear) is the direcotr of Cincinnati Yoga School and a certified yoga therapist. He has completed well over 3000 hours in various yogic trainings; with over 12,000 hours teaching experience. He has studied yoga since 1987 and traveled regularly throughout India since 2003 to deepen his knowledge, practice and skills as a teacher; training at the Advanced (500hr) level 3 times in India: Once through the Swara Yoga School in Elemental Yoga Therapy and on 2 different occasions in India with "Masterji" Mysore Vishwanath (nephew and former assistant to the legendary and world renowned “Astanga Guruji” Patabhi Jois) at the Foundation for Patanjali Yoga Kendra. He also took a 200hr yoga training with Martha Abbot in the Kripalu Yoga tradition as well as advanced training in Thai Yoga Massage thru the Lotus Palm school with Rishi Dion.
In 2004 Will assembled a crew of yoga teachers from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and other yogic lineages in India to design a masters program in Integral Yoga Psychology. Thereafter, Antioch University McGregor (AUM) used his program to create a whole new tract of studies for other students to follow in pursuit of the degree he pioneered.
Will was also the first student to train extensively with Joe Williams* in learning the Delsarte System of Expression; fascilitating Joe in bringing out the yogic concepts in the Delsarte system and turning Joeś training into a certificate program. (*Joe is the only known master of "Delsarte" in the world).
As a long time student of comparative world religion, Will is the author of The Yoga of Religion (Inland Press, 2004) and was the host of YOGA: The Other 98%, on 1530 WCKY –The Revolution of Talk Radio. Recently, his training manual was made into a book entitled Vishwa Ayurveda (available on this website here or thru Kindle).
Will has served on the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'i's of Cincinnati and other communities for many years and was asked by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'i's of India to create materials to help Baha'i communities connect and correlate with Hindu and Buddhist communities through the teachings of yoga.
Will has been the Director of Yoga Teacher Trainings for CYS, CYTA (Cincinnati Yoga Teachers Association), Frankfort Yoga Studio, and Vishwa Yoga Journeys; leading yoga teacher trainings in India and Bali, Indonesia; as well as yoga teacher trainings at Bethesda Hospital's TriHealth Pavillion for Integrative Medicine. Will was also asked to team up with Jai Salt, formerly with the Swara Yoga school of Portugal, to help in creating a 1000 hour Elemental Yoga Therapy training.
Will considers his greatest accomplishment as starting an elementary school that serves around 100 impoverished children in Chandigarh, India; and funded by the (501c3) non-profit organization known as Virtues First, which he co-founded and serves as president. In 2016 VF changed its focus to serve Roopantara; an innovative educational institute that strives to improve education on a broader scale in India and beyond. You can learn more about Virtues First and Roopantra at this link < Virtues First, Inc. > / There you will also find therapeutic tools, created by Will, that expound upon the knowledge and power of the Virtues and the Panch Maha Bhuta (Five Great Elements).
Teacher Bios
CYS is the first and eldest yoga shala (school/studio) in the region! Many other studio owners and hundreds of independent yoga teachers got their start at CYS ~ and still come back to further their education at CYS. The combined total of training hours for our teachers is well into the thousands!
Jade
Jade Del Rosario is from the Philippines, but she completed her 200hr Vishwa Yoga and 300hr Vishwa Ayurveda Yoga teacher / practitioner trainings in India as well as Levels 1, 2 & 3 trainings in Thai Yoga Massage; then going on to become an assistant trainer in Thai Yoga Massage. She is also a certified caregiver and a cook at a local vegan restaurant.