Owner, Mudita - Be Joy Yoga

Carrie Coppola (she/her)

Carrie Coppola (She/Her) is the owner of Mudita – Be Joy Yoga. Carrie has a M.Ed. from the University of Utah and is a 500 E-RYT and Certified Yoga Therapist. Carrie believes yoga found her. She immediately felt the profound healing benefits of the practice. This ignited passion led her to create Yoga for Recovery, a program integrating yoga in treatment centers.Carrie has facilitated yoga for countless people in recovery through group and individual sessions, monthly workshops, weekly classes, within each sharing the hope and possibility of utilizing yoga to rediscover the connection to self, lost through trauma and addiction. Carrie is the director of Be Joy Yoga School, holding yearly yoga teacher and Trauma-informed training to support teachers to step into their intuitive self and facilitate healing through yoga. Carrie holds a deep reverence for the practice of yoga. Whether teaching classes, leading retreats, or offering trainings, her intention is to create a safe, compassionate space to come home to yourself and be joyful.

Founder & Executive Director, Blossom House

Jody Hassel (she/her)

Jody Hassel (She/Her), M.F.A., E-RYT, TCTSY-F is the Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Trainer for Alaska and Hawaii. She is the founder and Executive Director of Blossom House, a nonprofit service organization providing accessible, trauma-informed interventions to incarcerated and in-custody communities. Blossom House’s Yoga Service Project Alaska currently offers weekly yoga as well as a Yoga Teacher Training program for men and women at the Fairbanks Correctional Center and yoga classes for youth at the Fairbanks Youth Facility. Jody is also a Supervisor for the 300-Hour TCTSY Certification Program at the Center for Trauma and Embodiment in Boston. Creating access to an embodied practice of being present and feeling empowered are Jody’s highest priorities in facilitating yoga.

Owner of InspireMovement; Trauma-Informed Yoga facilitator at Empowered Spaces

Colleen Caul (she/her)

Colleen Caul (She/Her) is a 200 HR RYT, NASM, Certified Personal Trainer, Facilitator of a Trauma-Informed Yoga Series at Empowered Spaces, Owner of InspireMovement, LLC.

Yoga has held a very special place in Colleen’s heart ever since she experienced her first sun salutation sophomore year in college. After graduating from Northwestern University, Colleen studied yoga sporadically while diving into the world of endurance running. Colleen’s love for yoga blossomed in 2013 when she started taking classes more regularly. Suddenly, she was able to use yoga, pranayama and meditation to lower her stress, maintain perspective and instill a true sense of peace and balance in her life. This transformation was so powerful that it eventually inspired Colleen to shift her career from nonprofit management to health and wellness.

Through her business, InspireMovement, LLC, Colleen hopes to inspire people on a daily basis to tune inward and explore the way to best nourish their body on any given day, whether it’s through rest, running, yoga, dance, or something entirely different. She strives to create a nurturing environment where individuals stretch themselves beyond the seemingly impossible, utilize creative energies to explore moving their bodies in space, and ultimately become inspired to passionately follow their dreams while building a balanced, healthy and fulfilled self.

Colleen facilitates the Trauma-Informed Yoga Program for undergraduate and graduate students at Saint Louis University in partnership with SLU Campus Recreation and Wellness, offers TIY series for at-risk young people through the Family Court of St. Louis County, and consults with Pedal the Cause. Since the summer of 2018, Colleen has hosted private Trauma-Informed Yoga workshops, series, and Self-Care workshops to various groups, including Washington University, S.A.F.E. Alternatives, Kids In The Middle, Pedal the Cause, and Got Your Six Support Dogs.

Empowered Spaces is where Colleen calls home. Founded by Kelly Caul MSW, LCSW in April 2018, Empowered Spaces is a collective of integrative psychotherapists, wellness professionals, yoga teachers, meditation teachers, activists and other helping professionals within a collaborative wellness center. As a collective, they are committed to shared visions of trauma-informed care, embodied healing, community empowerment, anti-racist solidarities, and social justice.

Chief Experience Curator, Bliss Experiences and Owner, Lake Tahoe Yoga and Realignment Coaching

Jenay Aiksnoras (she/her)

Jenay Aiksnoras, (She/Her) ERYT500, MS Counseling, BS Psychology, is the Chief Experience Curator at Bliss Experiences, owner of Lake Tahoe Yoga and Realignment Coaching. Her specialties include guiding private group practices, therapeutic sessions, outdoor experiences, and small group sessions. Every practice is uniquely suited to the specific requests and needs of the group. Jenay began practicing Yoga in 2000 and earned her 200 level training certificate in 2005. In 2011 she earned her 500 level training certificate. She guides classes in the RajaHatha Yoga lineage which include specific instruction in breath, movement, mindfulness, and philosophical focus. Jenay believes that svadhyaya is the key to accessing the deeper aspects of the practice of Yoga: You must know yourself in order to reveal your Self. “Yoga is the practice of disassembling the puzzle of you, removing the pieces that are unnecessary, and rebuilding with only that which you need.” Her empathic approach to guiding others is tempered by her understanding that she cannot do the work for you. Those that are drawn to practice with Jenay value her ability to encourage them to do their own work and recognize her as a guide upon the path.

Trauma Sensitive & Anti-Oppressive Movement Facilitator

Morgan Vanderpool (they/them)

Morgan Vanderpool (They/Them) LICSW is a white, non-binary, queer, polyamorous and billingual (Spanish/English) clinical social worker, trauma sensitive movement and breath facilitator and professional trainer, and activist. They are deeply committed to neuroscientifically-grounded and mycelially-guided embodiment practices that support our collective disengagement from white-body-supremacy, and foster opportunity for anti-oppressive and trauma sensitive connection with every breath, movement, choice, thought and word. Morgan is honored to accompany badass survivors of the complex trauma, caused by interlocking systems of oppression, in our individual and collective process of body-based restoration, resistance, resilience and r/evolution.

Morgan believes that as survivors, we all have an amazing opportunity to rewire our nervous systems for authentic, embodied connection, and sustainable activism, through practicing trauma sensitive breath & movement patterns. Those patterns are created via cultivating present moment felt sensation, choice making, fostering a felt sense of agency, and creating sustainable rhythms of anti-oppressive engagement with self, others and the world. Which can be accessible when we practice what can be called ‘yoga’, in a decolonialized, de-commodified, and anti-oppressive way. Which is tricky, but they trust that we can co-evolve that kind of practice.

Morgan is excited to honor the badassery of our survivorship, and to our commitment to creating trauma sensitive and anti-oppressive relationships with every breath and movement. If you’d like to stay connected, you can find them at www.morganvanderpool.com or @morganicmovement.

Yoga Instructor, Reiki Practitioner, and Health Coach

Tierra Barber (she/her)

Tierra (She/Her) and yoga found each other at the same time she sought a deeper commitment to her physical, mental and spiritual health. Being a health and fitness enthusiast, yoga opened her eyes to a new expression of everything she loved.

Originally from Midland, Texas, Tierra received both her BSEd and MSEd from Baylor University in Health Science Studies and Exercise Physiology, respectively. After receiving her RYT-200 hour in 2013, she immediately started teaching to various demographics in the local community and privately. Her teaching has evolved to delivering a well-balanced class feeding the mind, body, and spirit.

Since then, Tierra has gone on to receive training in Thai Yoga Massage and Meditation. She recently completed her 300-Hour Teacher Training program through Yoga on High, which included the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy program. It’s her ultimate desire to take yoga out of the studio and into the community to educate others on the benefits and holistic approach of yoga. Tierra is excited about her journey and is grateful for the opportunity to share her love of yoga with the world!

Executive Director

Katie Koestner (she/her)

Katie Koestner is the first woman in the United States to speak out nationally and publicly as the victim of campus “date” rape at age 18. Katie has been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC Talk Live, CNN, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Later Today, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight and other national television programs. Katie is the subject of an HBO movie and has lectured for over 5000 schools and organizations in North America and around the world.

Yoga Instructor

Ophelia Bernardino (she/her)

Ophelia discovered her passion for yoga when she took her first yoga class in Costa Rica at the age of thirteen. It wasn’t until after graduating from the University of Miami that she began to deepen her yoga practice and became fascinated with this beautiful, powerful tool that is yoga. One year out of college, a turn of events allowed Ophelia to reevaluate her career path. This is when she decided to pursue teaching yoga; so that she could share the magic of this ancient practice with others. She completed her 200-hour Hatha/Vinyasa training in 2016 in Miami, FL and is registered with Yoga Alliance. Ophelia hopes to spread the love and light which yoga has brought into her life with all of her students through engaging sequences that challenge the body and mind.