**Dr. Raelynn Deaton Haynes**

**Owner and Manager, Yoga (Ashtanga, Hot Yoga, Vinyasa, Rocket, Yin) & Pilates Teacher (Mat levels I, II, III)**
Raelynn is a certified Yoga and Pilates instructor. In addition, she has training in Yoga Assisting and Adjusting, and Yoga Massage. She holds both a masters and PhD (Biology and Zoology) and has taught in academia for over 12 years. Before purchasing Willow Gardens Yoga Studio, she left her full time academic position to pursue her yoga and nutrition career, to explore her entrepreneurial spirit and start a juice company (Willow Gardens Juicery). She is a lecturer at Texas State University in San Marcos, does yoga therapy with memory care patients and teens, and is a holistic health consultant.

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Kerrie Kelsey

**Director of Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Teacher (Hatha, Rocket, Power, Yin, Vinyasa), Pilates Teacher, and Barre Teacher**
Kerrie has always enjoyed an active lifestyle; running, soccer, boxing, and hiking. She found Hot Yoga in 2013 and loved the benefits it provided, both physically and mentally. Finding Pilates however, has been the biggest game changer to her life. For several years she had been dealing with constant back pain. As an active person this was frustrating and discouraging. Pilates helped her find not only the relief she needed, but taught her how to really take care of her spine health, balance her body to prevent further injury, and build the strength she need so she can continue doing the things she loves.

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Wendy Wray

**Studio Manager, Yoga Instructor (Yin and Restorative), Functional Fitness and Movement Instructor, ACE Certified Health Coach**
Wendy began her fitness journey in her 30s after deciding to sign up for a triathlon. Always looking for a new challenge, she tried CrossFit in her 40s. Recognizing that there was a need for a safe and judgment-free place for women to work out, she opened and operated a successful women-only CrossFit affiliate for ten years after receiving her Level 2 CrossFit Coach certification. In 2022, she received her 50-hour Yin teaching certification. Wendy’s goal is to provide safe and effective training to help people live strong and full lives.

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Stacy Clayton

**Yoga (Hot-26) & Pilates Teacher (Mat Level I, II, III)**
Yoga changed Stacy’s life and she believes it can change yours too! In 2016, after several knee surgeries rendered her stiff, inflexible and in chronic pain, she began searching for a new way to challenge her mind and body. At the age of 52, she took her first hot yoga class and she hasn’t looked back. In 2018, she took another leap of faith and traveled to Boulder to earn a Bikram styled hot yoga certificate with Esak Garcia. She enjoyed teaching and sharing her passion for yoga so much, she embarked on another journey under Jeanette Lewis. She completed an additional 200-hour hot yoga certification in December 2019 with Jeanette. To round out her repertoire, she is also now a certified Pilates instructor.

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Karlee Kaltz

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Yin, Aerial), NASM Certified Personal Trainer**
Karlee began practicing yoga in 2016 as a way to connect with her body after she stopped dancing. She quickly realized that it was not only a physical practice, but a spiritual, mental, and emotional practice as well. In the summer of 2018, she completed her RYT200. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect deeper with her own yoga practice. In 2022 she wanted to redo her training and focus more on helping others connect deeper with their yoga practices so she participated in the RYT200 at Willow Gardens Yoga.

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Laura Gale

**Yoga Teacher (Yin, Hatha, Vinyasa), Pilates Instructor (Mat Certified), Sound Healing, and Meditation**
Laura has found yoga multiple times throughout her adult life but became serious about it in 2014. Practicing yoga has helped her work through past trauma and with personal health challenges. Laura is a mom of two amazing girls and a zany husband. She has fallen in love with Yin and has devoted much of her continuing education toward Yin and Meditation. Yin Yoga has truly taught her to slow down, be present in the moment, and stay calm during times of stress. She infuses humor into her classes, as she believes laughter is the best medicine. Laura loves sharing what she has learned to help others surrender and find peace within themselves.

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Ellie Boswick

Yoga Teacher and Musician

Ellie started practicing yoga at the age of 15 in South Carolina and after moving to NYC for art school in 2010 she discovered Bikram yoga and became certified in the fall of 2014. Along with teaching yoga, Ellie is a musician and began sound healing in 2019. By 2021 she started her own sound healing project (Crystal Voyager Vibes Sound Healing) and regularly facilitates sound baths and yin sound baths. She has trained with Candee Edwards, Danielle Golfarb , and Margie Sanders for sound healing and vibrational sound therapy. She also received her Reiki Master certificate from Izzy Swanson and the course was focused on the Jikiden Reiki lineage along with deep trauma healing and energetic protection. Ellie does private sessions with both techniques of Reiki and vibrational sound therapy.

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Belle Stewart

**Yoga Teacher**
Belle is a wife to the most amazing man and a mother to 2 beautiful little yogis in training. Her yoga journey began at Willow Gardens after a back injury incurred while weight lifting. She has experience with Vinyasa, Hatha, Hot, Yin, Power, Restorative, Ashtanga, and Iyengar Yoga. Belle enjoys incorporating her Christian faith in her classes and pushing her students to be their best on and off the mat.

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Erica Llewellyn

**Pilates Teacher (Comprehensive), Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Gentle, Yin, Restorative) and NASM Certified Personal Trainer**
Erica started in the fitness and wellness industry as a Certified Personal Trainer in 2008. She made personal training her full time career in 2010. In this role, she took a Pilates class, and couldn’t believe how challenging it felt. She kept taking classes and began to understand muscle activation and compensation in a way she hadn’t before. She learned this within herself, but it allowed her to access a new way of teaching as well. She obtained a Comprehensive Certification through Peak Pilates in 2012, and has loved sharing Pilates with many people over the years.

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Katie Gates

**Barre Instructor, Pilates Instructor, ACE Certified Health Coach**
Katie has loved moving for as long as she can remember. Starting dance classes at age 3, she began teaching fitness as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor while pursuing her BFA in Dance in St. Louis. As a dancer, Katie's first Pilates classes showed her how much the use of the breath can aid deep muscle work, as well as the importance of muscle specificity, as opposed to just throwing yourself around to get an exercise done. Katie was introduced to the Hot 26 postures in 2002 and has been stretching in hot studios ever since!

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Karrie Sheehan

**Musician & Stretch with Sound Instructor**
Born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Karrie had an interest in music from a young age. One holiday she got a keyboard and started out playing around with different sounds and rhythms. She never had formal training, so would attempt to figure songs out “by ear.” Her biggest breakthrough came after college when she started playing drums so she could jam with her brother. She was hooked and wanted to learn all she could! She began taking lessons and continued doing that for several years. During this time she was asked to join several bands and she even taught drums one summer at the Salvation Army’s Music Conservatory. She also completed her 200HR Yoga Training and Yin Training.

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Gage Howell

Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa) and Licensed Massage Therapist

Hello! I’m Gage. I’ve spent the last 8 years learning through formal study and deep personal exploration what it means to exist in and out of the form of this particular human. Over the course of those years I have accumulated a degree in Comparative Religious Studies, a 200hr Yoga Teacher Training, a Massage Therapist License, and countless hours of formal continuing education and personal practice in a wide range of disciplines both ancient and modern.

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Greg King

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Yin)**
Greg has 300 hours of yoga teacher training and he especially enjoys teaching gentle flows. Greg started his yoga journey around 2011 after a major car accident that cause damage to his lower back and shoulders. Not a native Texan, but he has fully converted and married a true Texan. Along with his partner and kids, they are a family of yogis that have seen the personal benefits both physically and mentally this practice and bring. As a former musician he enjoys incorporating music and creating playlist that set the mood for the yoga class. After years of progressing his personal practice he loves to share this energy, knowledge and sense of community with others.

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Mayan Watson

**Yoga Teacher**
Growing up a competitive gymnast, pole vaulter, and runner, Mayan has always been very active and found her love for Yoga her sophomore year of high school. Since then yoga has been a regular part of Mayans lifestyle and she received her 200 HR Yoga Alliance Certification from the Willow Gardens Yoga School in 2022.
Outside of yoga, Mayan is a full time student at the University of Texas studying Exercise Science and Kinesiology. In her free time, she enjoys trying new coffee shops, hanging out at Barton Springs, going on trail walks, and exploring Austin with family and friends. To stay regularly updated with Mayan, check out her lifestyle and wellness instagram @mindfulmayan.

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Claudia Sand

**Yoga (Hot-26, Vinyasa, Yin)**
I started my yoga journey in November 2015 when Willows Gardens in Buda opened the doors. After suffering from chronic back pain, I started with the HOT-26 practice 4 times a week. This practice helped me to overcome my back pain and I fell in love the way it had changed my body and mind. After several Yoga challenges and workshops, I decided to take a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training plus a 50HR HOT26 immersion training. In 2022, I added a 50HR Yin training and in February 2023, I finished my 200HR HOT Teacher Training with Jeanette.

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Jessica Allen

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Viniyoga, Anatomy of Breath, Advanced Asana, Children’s Yoga)**
Jessica has been teaching yoga in San Marcos since 2010. All of her classes are breath centered and adapted to the students in the class, allowing the students to build strength and flexibility in a nurturing environment.
Jessica is also a mother, a professional actor, and a social media content creator. Her personal yoga practice, as well as teaching, has deepened and enhanced her life as an artist and a human.

Chris Parker

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Yin)**

Peggy Krug

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Yin)**
Hi, I’m Peggy. I love animals + nature. I love helping people. Helping people is a loving reminder of how I treat myself. I started moving my body through dance from the time I was out of diapers. In 2008 I graduated from The Boston Conservatory with a BFA in dance performance. I lost movement in my life around 2011 + found it again through Yoga in 2022. I completed my YTT right here at Willow Gardens and have fallen in love with our beautiful growing community.

Michelle Key

**Yoga Teacher (Hot-26)**
Michelle has been practicing yoga since March 2016. She has practiced various types of yoga, including Iyengar, Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Yin, and Core Power Yoga, however her first class at Willow Gardens was a Hot 26 clsss and it has become a passion of hers ever since. In the fall of 2022 she completed a 200 hour Hot 26 teacher training with Jeanette Lewis and began teaching classes for Willow Gardens in spring of 2023. In her “free time” she enjoys road-tripping with her husband and lighting up the lives of her 3 children and 4 grandchildren (who are beyond blessed to call her “Mimi”).

Tania Dymkowski

**Yoga Teacher**
Tania is a 200 RYT, certified in kidding around yoga and is a kids yoga teacher. She is an educator & administrator. She loves to creative vinyasa flows and hybrid poses are her favorites, just blending poses with dance and creativity. She believes yoga is where you take your breath and body to your own unique space and interpretation. She started practicing yoga over 15 years ago in Hatha and Bikram yoga. Being an avid trail runner, yoga helps balance out and contribute to the long distance running that she does. It has proven to help with recovery time, and the joints and muscles involved in running.

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Rebecca Knowles

**Yoga Teacher (Hatha, Vinyasa, Gentle, Restorative) and Occupational Therapist**
Rebecca is a registered yoga teacher and occupational therapist with more than a decade of teaching experience. Her classes offer a balance of alignment and flow that is accessible and heart-centered, while helping to build and refine skills. She hopes every student leaves class feeling more connected to themselves, others, and the world around them. Her teaching is most influenced by Anusara, Vinyasa, and Iyengar. Rebecca is a new mom, and enjoys running, cycling, and spending time in nature.

Nicole Marie

**Yoga Teacher (Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Chair Yoga, Pre/ Post Natal, Yoga Nidra, Kundalini), Tai Chi, and Pilates Instructor**
My name is Nicole Marie. After I had an extremely personal and devastating loss in my life, my friend and initial yoga mentor suggested I try yoga to find terra firma again. I have not looked back since. I am trained in the Hatha and Kundilini Yoga traditions, each at the 500 hour level. Now that I have been teaching yoga for 12 years the practice I share embodies hours of training and personal experience with many yoga masters. As a result I approach the mat from the perspective of the individual body's unique needs; this means we begin our practice right where we are.

Mary Heather

**Yoga Teacher (Certified sound healer, vinyasa, yin, prenatal)**
Mary Heather began practicing yoga in her twenties and immediately fell in love with how the practice illuminated a new layer of presence within herself. After coming to love the yoga community and forever yearning to learn, she completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training with Giaconda Parker at Wanderlust (now YTX) yoga in Austin early in 2021. She is an experienced vinyasa and yin yoga teacher and as a certified sound healer, loves incorporating many healing vibrations of sound into her offerings as well. Having a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Mary Heather loves tying in relative themes of nature and the human experience into her sequencing and meditations. Holding space for others to connect deeper to their authentic selves thru the practice of yoga is one of her most genuine delights. As both a teacher and a student, she looks forward to seeing you on the mat <3

Carly Badke

Yoga Teacher (vinyasa, yin)

Carly enrolled in yoga teacher training in 2017 to further dedicate herself to the practice and to her personal self-care, with no intention of becoming a teacher herself. The universe had other plans, and she’s been teaching ever since! Her grounding and approachable style encourages new and seasoned students to consciously integrate breath, movement, rest, and mindfulness, with the goal of inspiring each of us to be more kindly connected to ourselves, our communities, and the earth. Carly also holds a Master of Science in Higher Education and spent a decade working with college students in academic and community engagement programs. Off the mat, she enjoys getting her hands dirty in her mini backyard garden, cuddling with her adopted dog Bodhi, and co-managing her partner’s monster art business.

Erica Nava

**Yoga Teacher (vinyasa, chair, restorative) and Pilates Instructor**
Erika Nava is a 200hr RY Teacher since 2019 and she completed her Pilates training at Willow Gardens Yoga studio in Texas. Erika is a bilingual teacher in English and Spanish.
Erika is a runner who discovered Yoga in 2009 after suffering multiple knee injuries. Since then, she kept her practice to release stress and to strengthen her body, mind and spirit. Yoga proved to be her best preventive and corrective therapy. Erika classes are a multilevel and combines core strengthening, injury prevention and restorative postures and exercises.
Erika’s mission is to share the transformational effects of Yoga and Pilates by making it accessible to everyone. She is also a wife, mother of 3 grown kids, a Latina leader and a passionate engineer specialized on continuous improvement and project management in the food industry.

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David Collins

**Yoga Teacher (RYT 200hr)**
When David is not doing HVAC work, hiking, camping, riding his motorcycle, or just hanging out with friends and family, you can find him at Willow Gardens practicing or guiding a class. David started his practice about 7 years ago, realizing that weight training did little for his balance and coordination. He found himself looking for a solution and dropped into a yoga class and has been practicing ever since.

Sarah Ragsdale

**Yoga Teacher (Vinyasa, Yin)**
Sarah received her 200 HR Yoga Alliance Certification + 50 Hour Yin Yoga Certification from Willow Gardens Teacher Training. She is currently taking a break from teaching but hopes to be back soon!

Gil Perez

**Yoga Teacher (Ashtanga, Rocket, Vinyasa)**
Gil started practicing Power Yoga in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico in 2009 at the age of 37. Even though he found it quite challenging, he continued to practice, which began an extensive journey of Yoga. In 2010, Gil took his first Hatha Yoga teacher training at the Rishikesh Yoga Peeth School in India the summer of 2010 for seven weeks. He was looking to more deeply understand the roots of Yoga. After returning to Puerto Rico he started teaching around the island, including various maximum security prisons where he lead the yoga program for about two years. Teaching yoga there helped inmates reduce anxieties, the use of medications, as well as enhanced other aspects of life. He is now certified to train yoga teachers in Rocket Yoga (progressive ashtanga) and teaches ashtanga primary and secondary series.

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