Owner of Alluem Yoga, Gina is an energetic, certified yoga instructor. Her practice embodies a combination of power, ashtanga, bikram and vinyasa flow-yoga. She has tapped into her 15 years of dance training, aerobic instruction and physically active lifestyle to create her own unique yoga style. This wife and mother of three children has incorporated yoga into her daily living and gets pleasure in educating others about the mental, physical and spiritual benefits of yoga. You will love the energy and spirit that Gina brings to her class. Not just because of who she is but because of who she wants the rest of us to be. She believes that only by giving we gain what truly matters. Gina is grateful for stepping into her first meaningful yoga class taught by Mary Roth. She then went on to get her training in Soul Sweat Asana Practice from Wendy Gross-Pinto at The Yoga and Healing Center in Scotch Plains and is certified through the National Yoga Alliance. Gina is forever grateful to her teachers for sharing their voice and knowledge of yoga and for being part of creating a life she loves.
Gina has participated in workshops with renowned yoga instructors such as Baron Baptiste and Seane Corn. In 2010 Gina participated in a week long intensive with Off the Mat Into the World. OTM uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious, sustainable activism and to ignite grass roots social change. She is inspired and continues to learn from Seane Corn, an internationally celebrated yoga teacher and creator of OTM.
Gina is the founder and owner of Alluem Yoga, where she teaches and oversees the operations of the school. She is a Cranford resident. Gina’s intention is to create a fun, supportive and nurturing environment for all yoga students.
Leigh Rousseau
Leigh found yoga in 2006 and since walking through the doors of her first yoga studio, has embraced the yogic way of life. She is a certified professional educator with 9 years experience in the New Jersey public school system. After leaving the classroom, Leigh embraced her yoga mat and completed her first yoga teacher training with Wendy Gross-Pinto. She became a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance (RYT) in 2008.
She then continued her study of yoga by training with Judith Haanson Lasater in 2009 and is a certified Relax and Renew Instructor. Her practice and teaching style is strongly rooted in classical yoga and spirituality and she enjoys teaching a vinyasa flow- style class. Leigh loves being a yoga instructor and encourages her students to use their breath to unite their body, mind and souls one breath at a time! Her passion for learning and incorporating yoga into all aspects of her life, including being a wife and mother of three, creates an inexhaustible enthusiasm to teach from the heart. Leigh would like to thank all of her teachers past, present and future!
Eileen Michie
Eileen's yoga practice which began five years ago transformed her life both emotionally & spiritually. Inspired by the teachings of Mary Roth, Eileen decided to continue her journey and become a yoga teacher. Subsequently, she became certified in Soul Sweat Asana Yoga under the direction of Wendy Gross-Pinto. Upon receiving her certification in 2008, Eileen had an opportunity to teach Chair Yoga to Senior Citizens at the Westfield Senior Housing Center. She discovered the rewards and benefits of teaching yoga to older people. Eileen has made a commitment to continue to teach older people in a nurturing and healing environment. Eileen’s yoga practice has provided her with mental and spiritual clarity and provided her with a balanced lifestyle as a teacher, wife, and mother of two beautiful girls.
Karen Gilmour - Children's Yoga Teacher
Upon discovering yoga in 2004, Karen watched her true self shine through every time she practiced. After experiencing the many benefits of yoga first hand, she knew bringing these benefits to children could help shape their awareness, self-esteem, and confidence now and in their future. The most beautiful thing is watching a child come into a better understanding of self - mind, body, and soul.
Karen completed her teacher training with Little Flower Yoga in NYC. She is certified in Children's Yoga and trained to teach grades K-12. She did her student teaching through the Harlem Children's Zone bringing yoga to children who may have never gotten the chance to experience the beauty of the practice. She has continued to further her knowledge of the practice through attending many developmental workshops with Little Flower Yoga and YogaKids, as well as workshops for development of the self, including the week long intensive with Off the Mat Into the World.
When Karen is not practicing yoga, she is most likely working on illustrating her next children's book. She has currently illustrated 4 children self help books focusing on health, emotions, imagination, and self-esteem.
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Tricia Iannuzzi
Tricia began her practice of yoga in 2002. As a multi-sport athlete, yoga originally began for her as a great way to create a stronger and more flexible body, but has since developed into a lifestyle. She has received her certification from Yoga Works NYC in a style that combines aspects of Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Vinyasa flow in 2009 and recently completed her Prenatal Yoga certification also at Yoga Works NYC. During the day you will find Tricia teaching the various aspects of US History, society and law as a tenured faculty member of Westfield High School. She looks forward to bringing the same passion and energy she exhibits in the classroom into the yoga studio.
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Brittany Irwin
Brittany found her inner voice
during her first Ashtanga class in 2009, and has since been deeply immersed
in the practice and philosophy. It's healing qualities and meditative
approach have had a tremendous affect on her mind and body, and Brittany is
simply elated to have the opportunity to guide others through this beautifully
therapeutic practice. Currently enrolled in a 200 hr YA teacher certification
at The Yoga & Healing Center in Scotch Plains, Brittany plans to soon further
her journey and travel to India where she'll study and practice at the one and only Ashtanga Yoga Institute. Brittany has studied under well known
instructors such as Amy Santos and Greg Tebb, as well as the one living
Ashtanga guru, Sharath Jois, all of whom she owes endless gratitude for
deepening her practice and inspiring her own journey in becoming a teacher.
In addition, Brittany thanks her husband for introducing her to yoga, and to
the amazing women of Alluem for being an inspiration from the very beginning.
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Mindy Cullen
Mindy Cullen first discovered yoga in 2004.After years of dancing, sports, running, and a multitude of gym classes, she stepped
into an Ashtanga-based yoga class and discovered her true passion.She has practiced and studied in many styles
of yoga:
Bikram, Ashtanga, Anusara, Vinyasa, and Soul Sweat.She acquired her 200-hour yoga certification
through Wendy Gross-Pinto’s Soul Sweat Asana training.Her training gave her more than just a knowledge
of postures and breathing techniques.It
gave her a better understanding of the mind, body, and spirit connection that
is formed on the mat and brought into her daily life.She compliments her physically meditative and
spiritual flow with her previous experience as a dancer and choreographer on
Virginia Tech’s nationally ranked dance team. She is grateful to all of her
teachers for their inspirational and powerful instruction, Wendy Gross Pinto,
Kim Kiamie, Ellen Kaplow, and Gina
Pachkowski. As a certified yoga
instructor and a member of Yoga Alliance, Mindy looks to motivate and lead
others to discover their true potential on the yoga mat as well as in their
lives.Her husband, and two amazing
children, motivate and teach her every day to be present and more connected to
life’s true purpose.
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Clarissa Alliano For Clarissa, yoga is life. She has been a devoted yogi for many years and since her training in 1998 at the Integral Yoga Institute in Yogaville, VA, she has been able to share her love of this ancient practice with students of all ages in New Jersey, New York and California. Clarissa integrates pranayama, meditation, yoga nidra, chanting and yogic philosophy into her teachings so that her students can benefit fully - body, mind and spirit. She gives love and thanks to the studios and ashrams in which she has been able to hold space, as well as to the many students who have touched her life as she continues to move along this ever transforming path.
Cindy Fechter
Cindy's passion for yoga began nine years ago when she took her first yoga class. Since that time Cindy has developed a strong connection to Anusara yoga, founded by John Friend. Cindy resonates deeply with Anusara's Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness and believes that Anusara's Universal Principles of Alignment are powerful guidelines for the healing and progression of mind, body and spirit. In 2004, Cindy completed a 200-hour teacher training in Anusara yoga and has since spent hundreds of hours studying with John Friend and various certified Anusara Yoga Teachers. Cindy incorporates yoga into all aspects of life, including a full-time schedule as a pediatric physical therapist and as a mom to three beautiful sons. Cindy enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and love for yoga with others.
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Kim Ellner Kim's love of yoga began in 2001 and is based on its physicality, breath work, concepts and community of followers. Kim was born with a displaced hip and underwent numerous months of body casting as an infant. Following that she wore leg braces and a full body brace for many years after she was diagnosed with scoliosis. Kim's method is to personalize the yoga experience to make the most of each student's strengths, flexibility and capabilities.
Kim is grateful and honored to pass along what she has learned from so many teachers, including Wendy Gross-Pinto, Ellen Kaplow and Theresa Rowland. She has also studied with Kofi Busia, Elise Browning Miller, Lois Steinberg, Patricia Walden, Mary Dunn, Bobbie Fultz, Baron Baptiste, Arun, Rodney Yee, Sharon Gannon, David Life and Kevin Maile O'Keefe
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Nicole Coons
After 15 years of her youth as a ballet and modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, Nicole discovered yoga in 1998. Instantly drawn to the physical challenge and concentration this yoga class required, Nicole shifted her focus to yoga and began to realize the many benefits beyond the physical aspects. Several years later, Nicole became a Certified Yoga Teacher in the YogaWorks style, which draws from 3 traditional lineages of yoga: Ashtanga, Iyengar and Viniyoga. She has also practiced with and has been inspired by a number of teachers including Elena Brower (Anusara), Alan Finger, Sara Platt and Ann Mosca (ISHTA Yoga), and a multitude of master teachers, with whom she has had the privilege to study over the years.
Nicole offers a student-focused group class and private instruction that are appropriate for each student's age, level and wellness goals. She guides her students to greater self-awareness, focus and health through precise instruction and alignment with breath, movement and flow in a class carefully themed to deepen the students' experience of yoga. Each Flow class is paced moderately to vigorously depending upon the level and needs of the students. Prenatal classes draw on both her formal training and recent personal experience with a yoga-filled pregnancy and, now, motherhood!
