Our Instructors

Yoshiko Gray, RYT-200

Yoshiko Gray graduated with a degree in Physical Education in Japan where she taught aerobics, swimming and fitness at Central Fitness Club, a Japanese chain of fitness and health clubs. She has worked extensively as a personal trainer. Her continued studies include alternative medicine techniques such as Thai Yoga Body Work, Reflexology and Ayurvedic medicine.

Yoshiko began studying Yoga in the United States in 2002 and became a Registered Yoga Teacher in the Spring of 2009. She was trained in Hatha Yoga and studies the Iyengar Yoga system under Patricia Walden and Liz Owen.

Fran Healey, RYT-500

Throughout her 20+ year career in corporate America, Fran was an unlikely yogi.  She was far too busy cultivating unhealthy habits.  As is often the case, serious health issues and challenging life situations led her to yoga, and it has changed the course of her life.  The practice of yoga has been a practice of connecting to herself, of becoming aware and of being present. That rectangle on the floor is really a portal into ourselves.

In 2011, Fran completed her 200-hour teacher training with Natasha Rizopoulos, and learned just how much she still had to learn.  In 2016, she was thrilled to have the opportunity to train with Kristin Olson at Home Yoga, where she completed her 300-hour training.  The learning and training is a lifelong part of the practice of yoga, and such fun.    Fran was honored to begin teaching at Home Yoga in October, 2017.  She believes that yoga can be practiced by everyone, and creates her classes with proper alignment and safety as the highest priority.

In 2017, she became certified to teach Yoga 4 Cancer, and will begin offering those classes in early 2018.

Louisa Proctor, RYT - 500

Louisa has practiced yoga on and off for 15 years. After a pause in her practice to have her kids, she found HOME Yoga in 2019 and has been practicing and learning under Kristin ever since. As a working mom, yoga gives her the strength, energy, humility and compassion she needs to navigate life both on and off the mat.

Louisa completed both her 200 and 300 hour training with Kristin Olson at HOME Yoga. She is passionate about creating classes that are inclusive, emphasize proper and safe alignment and are equally as beneficial for our physical and mental health.

Louisa lives in Andover with her husband, two young kids and golden retriever. Outside of the studio, you can find Louisa chasing around her kids, reading a good book and practicing as much yoga as possible.

Karen Kushner, RYT-500

Karen’s yoga journey started in 2000 with weekly classes at a gym.  She completed 200-Hour Teacher Training in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2011 when she took a week-long yoga intensive with Natasha Rizopoulos that she was inspired to deepen her commitment.  Not long after, Karen found her teacher in Kristin Olson at HOME Yoga and earned 300-Hour credentials with Kristin in 20I6.

Karen’s teaching is further influenced by master teacher Barbara Benagh, with whom she completed 500-Hour Certification at Down Under Yoga in 2014.   Additional teacher training includes Yin Yoga with Josh Summers, Restorative Yoga with Judith Hanson Lasater, and trauma informed yoga training through YogaHOPE.

Classes with Karen are alignment based with props to make challenging poses more accessible and to help open stiff bodies.  Attention is paid to breath and sensation in the body to help focus and quiet the mind.  Karen believes the gifts of yoga lead to a more harmonious, peaceful, and mindful way of living.

Karen continues to practice with Kristin and Natasha, and keeps up her own personal challenge of doing a handstand a day.

Laurie Labrie, RYT-500

Yoga came into Laurie’s life a little over 20 years ago when she started taking Integral Yoga classes in Watertown, MA under Laura Douglass. She was immediately hooked. Integral Yoga’s specific class structure of including Pranyama, Hatha and Chanting laid the groundwork for an openness and curiosity for “all things” yoga. In 2000 she moved to Andover and soon after found Roberta Dell’Anno and Iyengar yoga. Practicing under Roberta for these many years instilled a strong foundation in precise alignment and body awareness. Laurie continually enjoyed expanding her knowledge by trying different styles of yoga and attending various workshops.

It was in 2009 that Laurie started attending Kristin’s alignment-based vinyasa classes. Immediately she felt her many years of practice had found a “home” in which to come together, deepen and grow. She is so grateful for Kristin’s support and guidance as she deepens her understanding of Yoga through teaching. Laurie completed her 200-hour RYT training with Kristin in 2017 and completed her 300-hour teacher training with Kristin in 2019. She has also completed a Restorative Yoga Teaching Training.

Laurie seeks to share the unique aspects of all of her yoga experience by blending them together to create a class that comes from her own inner voice.

Carole Legro

Carole Legro is a MindBody Educator and psychotherapist with over 30 years experience inviting individuals into the experience of the meditative arts. With a passion for understanding the “ways of healing”, she has studied and taught numerous approaches in a variety of traditions, including meditation, movement, psychology and the metaphysical arts since the 1960’s.

In her work, Carole is passionate about creating an environment for the cultivation of deep inner resources for integrating and healing mind, body, and spirit through awareness, insight and stress reduction.

Carole is a RN with a MA in Clinical Psychology/Organizational Development. Among her credentials are: Completion of basic and advanced internships in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness; Clinical Internship in Mind Body Medicine at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital; Kripalu certifications in Yoga of the Heart and Massage and Bodywork; 15 years of study in Psychosynthesis with Thomas Yeomans; Certification in Heart Rhythm Meditation from Institute of Applied Meditation; Clinician training in HeartMath Interventions from Institute of HeartMath; Three years of private study in Radical Healing with Rudolph Ballentine.

Carole has taught the benefits of stress reduction and mindfulness in research, and to leaders in business, healthcare, education, and to individuals with chronic pain, catastrophic illness, depression, and anxiety. As a long time meditator and yoga practitioner of various traditions, she continues to weave her own healing process over time, and to teach from a well of deep compassion and awareness of the healing ways along the path of the heart.

Deb Rockwell, RYT - 500

Deb began practicing yoga over 20 years ago. What started as a trial power yoga class at a new gym led to a quest to learn all that she could about this practice and experience the many benefits it held. In addition to her daily yoga and meditation practice, Deb finds joy spending time with her family, long walks in nature, reading, and laughing with friends.

Deb has many yoga certifications including:

200 hour teaching certificate from Jen Ryan at Yoga Loft

300 hour under Kristin Olson at Home yoga.

Restorative training with Amy Rolfe at Home Yoga

Yin Yoga training with Bernie Clark / Yoga International online

Yoga Nidra Certification/ Yoga Siksa /Yoga Alliance accredited course

Additionally Deb is trained in Reiki and has workshop experience in trauma informed yoga practices.

Tabitha Rodger, RYT -200

Tabitha Rodger, RYT, began practicing yoga in 2008 and fell in love. In yoga, she found a spiritual connection to complement the physical, anatomical and kinesthetic awareness she has developed as a professional dancer.With goals of deepening her spiritual practice as much as her physical practice, Tabitha completed the Yoga of Energy Flow(YEF) 200hr Teacher Training with Daniel Orlansky and Liz Owen in Arlington, MA in June 2012.

Tabitha’s class focuses on alignment, particularly the initiation of movements to maintain alignment while flowing between poses. The YEF system pulls from the fluidity of Kali Rey, the alignments of Iyengar, the Pranayama of Kundalini yoga, and also Meridian yoga. Tabitha uses these influences and her dance training to encourage students to increase their range of motion while finding strength and stability.

When not practicing and teaching yoga, Tabitha is a professional dancer and dance teacher from Andover MA. In 2009, she received her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Tabitha currently dances with Deadfall Dance, Ipswich Moving Company, and Sokolow Now!, and has been teaching ballet, modern and jazz to all ages on the north shore for several years.

Rosanne Tomasello eRYT 500

Rosanne has been enjoying yoga since 1974. That was when she obtained her first teaching certificate from the Integral Yoga School. She has continued to share and learn about yoga completing the YogaFit 200 hr. program in 2000 and Kristin Olson’s 300 hr. program in 2017. She had the opportunity to teach in several areas of the country and also many different forums including large community centers, ymca’s and health clubs, corporate environments small yoga studios and private classes. Rosanne’s greatest enjoyment is sharing the joy of yoga and is very grateful for her practice.

Andrea (Vallario) Blackington, RYT-500

Andrea was drawn to yoga through the interesting blend of spirituality through body sense, philosophy and poetry. She began practice by studying with a variety of styles and teachers and almost immediately began training with alignment and heart-centered focused styles while maintaining an open internal curiosity toward direction of further study. Having been profoundly impacted through philosophy and restorative practices with Connie Glore, she became deeply inspired by Cheri Clampett and Biff Mithoefer along with becoming certified in Therapeutic Yoga and trained in Yin Yoga. Although starting with assisting classes, this quickly turned into teaching Restoratives and then to become RYT certified at the 500hr level with Daniel Orlansky. She has since furthered her restorative studies with Jillian Pransky, Billy Jo Joy and has taken her passion for hands on assists into becoming a Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner through Jennifer Yarrow and certified in Meridian Yoga with Daniel Orlansky.

She has trained with Doug Keller and Todd Norian in Yoga Therapeutics, Carol Legro in Mindfullness Based Stress Reduction and meditation with John Chruchill and has sought further certification in Yin with Josh Summers. Her passion for Restoratives and Thai Yoga Bodywork continues with ongoing trainings her teachers. She has since assisted Daniel Orlansky at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck NY, and continues to assist in his workshops and classes.

Andrea continues her efforts in offering a safe space to explore the richness of ones inner and outer experience while supporting students to tap into their own natural healing.

Mel Champness, RYT-200

After years of doing cardio and weight lifting classes at gyms and gaining shoulder and hip injuries, Mel wanted to find a more sustainable way to exercise. She had tried different styles of yoga everywhere she lived but it had never felt like her “thing”. Mel took the two-week trial at Home and immediately fell in love with yoga and the studio. Mel started her 200-hour teacher training straight after finishing the trial.

Mel has an Early Years degree from England and years of experience in teaching young children. Teaching yoga combines her love of teaching and yoga perfectly. Mel likes to keep her classes fun and inclusive by using props and offering different variations and modifications.

Karen Wenc, Certified Iyengar Teacher

Karen Wenc has been a student of Iyengar yoga since 1981, and has been teaching for over 18 years and teaching in Andover for 14 years. A former competitive runner, swimmer and cross-country skier, Karen’s teaching style emphasizes developing strength and flexibility to prevent sports-related injuries. A Brookline resident, Karen teaches full-time throughout the greater Boston area, and has taught at the Yogashala in Santiago, Chile among other international venues. Karen is a longtime student of Patricia Walden, who Time Magazine called one of yoga’s “leading luminaries.”

Karen’s illuminating classes provide you in-depth, technical cues on how to fully experience the asanas, while keeping your mind present as she describes the eight limbs of yoga and decodes obscure Sanskrit terminology. Towards the end you will be busy floating off to some other time and space, at which point she brings you back with her tiny bells to close out the class. Invigorating, mindful and relaxing.

Sian Wayt Wingerup, RYT-500

Sian was introduced to yoga as a child by her father, where she ‘helped’ him practice by lying on the floor, asking those eternal questions, “why?” and “what are you doing now?” As an adult, her formal practice began when living in California, where those initial questions of ‘why?’ and ‘what are you doing now?’ took on a whole new meaning. She has been practicing for over 20 years, and finds that every yoga practice inspires that same sense of curiosity.

A Registered Yoga Instructor (RYT-500), Sian earned her 200-hour Yoga Alliance teaching credentials under master teacher Natasha Rizopoulos, and her 500-hour credentials under her mentor and master teacher, Kristin Olson. Her practice and teaching are influenced by Iyengar’s emphasis on proper alignment, and Ashtanga’s emphasis on connecting breath with movement. Sian teaches a slow-flow yoga class focusing on fundamental poses, alignment and breath. She also teaches Hatha yoga, liberally using props to get more immersed in each asana.

Sian continues her studies through classes, workshops, retreats, and lively discussions with her fellow yogis. Above all, she finds tremendous joy sharing her yoga practice, both as a student and a teacher.

Anne Lafortune, RYT-200

I have been practicing Yoga for over 15 years, although I admit there were a couple of times when life got crazy that I felt I was “too busy” to practice. Looking back at those times, they were filled with anxiety and worry. If only I had known what I know now. I started Yoga for the physical practice and it was a journey before I truly realized that it is so much more than that. Quieting my active mind through my Asana practice is the greatest benefit for me.

I spent a week at the well known, Kripalu Yoga Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts being trained by Lakshmi Voelker in Chair Yoga. I knew Chair Yoga could bring all the benefits of Yoga to my Residents in Assisted Living. I now teach Chair Yoga to Seniors full-time. I would bring my two passions together, older adults and Yoga! Craving more training, I went on to be trained by a leader in Chair Yoga, Sherry Zak Morris. I started bringing Chair Yoga to Assisted Livings, Memory Support and Skilled Nursing Facilities.

In May 2020, I completed Kristin Olson’s 200 hour Teacher Training at Home Yoga. I learned to plan and teach Yoga with safe and intelligent sequences, while being true to the origins and philosophy of Yoga. I will always consider myself a student, learning from other Yoga Teachers, continued trainings and most of all, learning from my students!