Who We Are, Our Teachers.
Meet Your Teachers.
Your teachers were drawn to yoga for different reasons and have different passions and approaches to teaching.
What we all have in common is that yoga truly changed our lives. We needed yoga, and it worked for us.
The other commonality among our teaching community is heart.
You won’t see your teachers doing acrobatic poses on Instagram. Classes won’t be standing room only and you won’t be wondering where we got our fabulous outfits.
You will feel our deep care and desire to support you in every way we can.
P.S. Click on the + by our picture to learn all about us.
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Sara opened Shine in 2015, a year after she finished her treatment for Stage 2B Breast Cancer.
She opened Shine’s doors as a means of helping other people who had gone through a life changing experience physically, mentally or emotionally to find joy and steadiness again. This has always been her mission and still is, eight years later.
Sara is known for her deeply focused alignment and anatomy-based classes (The Details), her restorative classes (Rest), and her flow classes (Flow to Rest, Steady Vinyasa, Shiny Happy People).
She is a Certified Yoga Medicine Therapeutic Specialist and has eight years experience helping individuals better understand their bodies and heal through private sessions.
Sara also taps into her experience as a professional writer, researcher, and federal behavioral health program developer to design trainings, workshops, and programs. Her work as a teacher at the University-level has helped to make her Yoga Teacher Training program exceptional.
Work with Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Yoga 4 Cancer Survivors Class for Roswell
Yoga 4 Cancer Survivors Class for Roswell Variations
Bed Yoga for Cancer Patients ( Roswell)
Chair Yoga for Cancer Patients (Roswell)
Sara is certified through Kripalu, Dr. Ray Long, Jason Crandell, Yoga Medicine, and Katherine Templeton.
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Barb began her healing journey 31 years ago as an RN.
As she continued along the medical path, she was drawn more and more to the mind’s ability to heal, leading her to become certified as a psychiatric nurse.
Fifteen years ago, she found her way to Reiki, becoming a certified Reiki Master.
It was only natural that she was guided to yoga, where she found a new way to integrate mind, body and spirit.
Barb is certified through Shine Yoga and Grief Yoga.
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Nicole is a full-time Early Childhood Teacher of the Deaf in her 15th year of teaching at St. Mary's School for the Deaf. With an undergraduate degree in Psychology (and a math minor), Nicole found her way to a Deaf Education Masters program and never looked back!
Nicole has always been interested in wellness. She played tennis in high school and college and dabbled in yoga and pilates, among other things, over the years. The Shine Yoga Teacher Training found her just when she needed it!
Nicole's thoughts on yoga: "I understand that even when you’re doing something you love, work days (and life!) can be hectic, stressful, and lead to burnout. Yoga grounds me, calms my anxious mind, and provides a sense of peace and community not found elsewhere. I love that it’s consistently there on the good days and the could-be-better days…it neither celebrates perfection (something I’m constantly learning to let go of) nor offers judgement on any missteps."
Originally from Pennsylvania, Nicole has lived in Buffalo for almost 17 years, though she still makes frequent trips back to visit family. Outside of teaching, she loves traveling, the beach, good food, live music, and spending time outdoors.
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Connie has been interested in yoga for many years. She began practicing in her 40s, but it wasn’t until Shine opened that she found her home.
During the pandemic, she became a certified yoga instructor through Sara’s YTT program.
She has been teaching one day a week to teenagers after school ever since.
Connie fell in love with Kundalini yoga, a type of yoga that focuses on energy through repetitive movements, breathwork, chanting, and meditation.
She has continued her training with a Kundalini focus. Training with Kia Miller, one of the foremost international Kundalini teachers, towards her 500 hour Advanced Certification. She was also certified in the Kundalini 21 Day Meditation Technique this past November.
Connie brings her passion and own style into her teaching. As an art teacher at Fredonia High School for more than 25 years, Connie has perfected the rare gift of gentle encouragement and is exceptional at breaking down the practice to make it interesting and accessible to everyone.
Connie is someone who gives her all to everything she does. Every morning she wakes up early ( she has to be in Fredonia for school at 7, so it’s very early) to practice her morning sadhana—a specific morning kundalini practice.
She says that it prepares her for what life has to offer, setting her up for new possibilities. In Conie’s classes you can expect this kind of dedication and outlook. The goal for Kundalini practices is joy and that’s what she hopes comes to you in her class each week.
Connie received her 200 hour certification through Shine Yoga and has completed an additional 35 hours of training in Rest and Retreat through Shine Yoga.
In the art world, Connie is a member of NAEA, NYSATA, NCECA, and World Organization of China Painters. She regularly presents and provides workshops for these organizations, and has over 50 sculptures in private collections that have been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally.
She spends her summers getting ready for Lewiston Art Festival and other gallery shows.
Connie has been married for 35 years, has raised three boys, and has 6 grandchilren.
Teaching is her inspiration, creating is her passion. and family is her life.
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Before beginning to teach yoga exclusively, Courtney was a Certified Oncology Nurse for 28 years. She specialized in infusional chemotherapy, hospice, and palliative care.
In February 2023, she retired from nursing in order to pursue her passion for yoga. Her background guides her approach to teaching yoga. She teaches with caring and sensitivity and sees yoga as another path to help people heal, not dissimilar to nursing.
Courtney began practicing yoga 20 years ago. Being on the mat brings her peace and perspective in her everyday life.
Her practice has been instrumental in healing from complicated trauma related anxiety and PTSD. She is focusing her continuing study on trauma informed yoga and yoga for anxiety and grief so that she can share what has been transformational in her life.
Courtney is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but has been in Buffalo and with Shine for the last 7 years. She is married to a pilot and a mom of 5 kids-a big blended family of young adults and teenagers.
Courtney was certified through Shine Yoga and wants to share that “Shine has been such a bright light in my life. I’m so very honored to be part of the Shine family. “
Courtney completed her certification for Trauma Informed Yoga in November 2023 and also completed completed 35 hours of training in Rest and Retreat through Shine. She is continuing to pursue 500 hour certification and Certification Yoga Nidra in 2024.
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Amanda began her yoga practice because she had an endless feeling of burnout. She was doing too much of what she didn’t love and not enough of what brought her joy.
She practiced yoga on and off for over a decade. Even when the practice was irregular, there was one constant; whenever she practiced, everything else in her life became clearer and more balanced.
She took a leap of faith and joined the Yoga Teacher Training program through Shine, hoping to find a regular practice, learn more about yoga and herself. Not only did she find those things, she also found joy. Something that was really missing from her days on a burnout hamster wheel.
Yoga brings Amanda peace, it makes her feel balanced, centered, strong, courageous, it’s given her support through the good and not so good times.
She hopes her students will take the opportunity to go inward in her classes, to ask themselves what it is they need in the moment, to take good care of themselves, and to listen to their inner voice and trust it. She wants her students to have self-compassion, to find inner peace and courage for themselves.
You can expect to feel like you belong in Amanda’s classes, to feel safe, and to both receive and give kindness.
As a dancer for 15 years, Amanda loves that yoga includes the body as a means of emotional connection and growth.
Amanda received her 200 hour certification through Shine Yoga and has completed an additional 35 hours of training in Rest and Retreat through Shine Yoga. She is also continuing to pursue her 500 hour certification through Shine Yoga.
Amanda is also Shine’s administrative assistant, if you have any questions regarding your account or membership please feel free to contact her at amanda@shineyogawny.com
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Erin is a former dancer through the University at Buffalo dance department and a retired pediatric Speech Language Pathologist for the Lakeshore School District.
While working as a therapist at Lakeshore, she saw the need for mindfulness approaches for students and teachers alike. She spearheaded a program that became district wide and has served as a model for other school districts.
We were lucky enough to have Erin teach our School Teacher’s Yoga Camp participants’ strategies for implementing mindfulness in their classrooms and districts.
Erin’s understanding of movement is exceptional and her classes include unique and fluid transitions from posture to posture. Underlying all of Erin’s classes is a gentleness and care that leaves her students feeling supported.
Erin is training in somatic movement, which is especially helpful for seniors and people recovering from surgery as it helps student’s nervous systems to reconnect with natural muscle movements.
Erin is certified through Shine Yoga.
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Diane earned an undergraduate degree in nutritional science from Cornell University and then continued on to earn a Master’s degree and a doctorate in physical therapy at Drexel University and Utica University, respectively. More recently, she completed the 200-hour yoga teaching certification with Sara at Shine Yoga.
Initially, Diane pursued yoga teacher training to become a better clinician, not to become a yoga teacher. With a new perspective about the body, she would be better able to help and empower her patients. But first slowly, and then suddenly, it all came together – yoga was the perfect place for her to communicate her deep knowledge in a practical way to help others.
In Diane’s 30 years as a physical therapist, she’s never stopped learning. In 2023, specialized courses on the pelvic floor led her to a new passion – and a new direction for her career. As she dug deep into the curriculum, she quickly understood how impactful breathing is to proper functioning of the pelvic floor. She realized that many of her patients weren’t breathing optimally or even considering their breathing, “because it’s involuntary.”
So, her physical therapy and yoga worlds collided, brought together by the breath – something essential to both the pelvic floor and yoga. Diane loves how yoga considers the whole body functioning as a unit, while at the same recognizing the value of individual parts. She loves to teach those nitty gritty details! But she also strives to make things tangible and practical so that the knowledge is useful to others. The addition of yoga into Diane’s skillset has been invaluable. Yoga is the perfect place for Diane to share her unique perspective to help people in the community outside of physical therapy. She hopes that you’ll join her.
Diane has been married for almost 30 years, has four adult children, two dogs and a cat. When not working as a PT or doing yoga, she will be found swimming, listening to podcasts, or just enjoying time with her family.
Interested in becoming a yoga teacher or furthering your education post-certification?
Join Us.
Get started by getting a complimentary Yoga Prescription, a customized schedule and suggestions for lifestyle support.
Meet with Sara, Shine’s founder, for 15 minutes to get the most out of your experience. We can meet in person, zoom, or even text.