Your Experience

Kate Counts
200hr RYT

With a college degree in education, Kate spent half a decade of her early adult life teaching Fourth Grade. During this time, Kate’s journey with yoga began as her time on the mat became a go-to for stress release – a way to regroup and truly focus on herself. After 5 years of teaching, she moved on to become a mom to three wonderful children, using yoga during each pregnancy as a way to witness the miracle of life growing within.

Years later, Kate started teaching fitness classes and training at a local gym. Yoga continued to be a major part of her life – now as a way not only to relieve stress, but as a way to sooth sore and tired muscles.

This is when Kate decided to pursue her 200hr RYT through Gaea Yoga Center in Mt. Pleasant in 2013. Through the last couple of years Kate has gained an appreciation for anatomy and the function of yoga, mainly focusing on skeletal variation, which makes us all so unique in our own bodies!

Julie Luisi
200hr RYT

Julie was dragged to her first yoga class on the beach with her well-intended mother at the tender age of 13 and let’s just say that she wasn’t sold. Flash forward 10 years or so and Julie found a way back to her mat through hot power yoga. Despite her initial resistance, thinking yoga was just a bunch of stretching, she soon learned that it was so much more. Julie quickly fell in love with the physicality that this practice offers and, through getting on her mat more and more, experienced the transformational power that comes with moving intentionally in your own body. Yoga became the saving grace in Julie’s life. The breath, the movement, the community, it has healed her in so many ways, both physically and mentally. In 2018, she decided the greatest gift would be to share this practice with those around her and Julie became a 200 hour RYT through Charleston Power Yoga.

ASHLEYANNE Lassiter
500HR RYT

AshleyAnne is a 500hr RYT, she received her 200 hr YTT from the Kripalu Yoga Center in 2012, and continued her studies finishing her 300 hr YTT from the Passion Yoga School in 2017. Her classes follow the Akhanda Yoga lineage, a traditional Indian style asana practice focusing on the energetic body. She holds space for her students to explore their primal human nature. Her classes advocate yogis to dive beyond the physical experience and connect internally with pranayama and meditation. She creates a sacred space for the community of students too feel silly, vulnerable, playful and whole. AshleyAnne specializes in stand up paddle board yoga, and prenatal yoga (85 hr YTT) Both classes offer the opportunity for her to fulfill her dharma (purpose) to empower and connect women to the nature and beauty surrounding them and within them.

Hillary Sabbato
200hr RYT

Hillary attended her first yoga class in her living room, wearing a dance costume, following a VHS with her mother.She has come back to the practice several times throughout her life, and has always found the mat to be a refuge as well as a place of challenge and joy.Dancing since age 4, movement has always been a large part of Hillary’s life.After becoming a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, she felt there was additional work to be done and has since earned her RYT 200 hr, trained in Thai Yoga Technique, Yin Yoga, and become Reiki Level I certified.Sharing and practicing yoga has become an outlet for her creativity and a channel for providing healing to her community.She learns something from every class she teaches and truly loves being a witness to the power of the practice in all its forms. When not teaching or practicing yoga, you can find her working with clients, spending time with her love & two precious pups, or floating in the ocean.

Katie Beaver
200hr RYT

Katie first practiced yoga in high school when it was recommended by her tennis coach as a way to stretch and prevent injury. At the College of Charleston, while studying for her degree in Sociology, yoga remained present in her life mostly on a physical basis. But after graduating, as she started exploring life as an “adult”, she felt her yoga practice transform into something more than just a movement routine. Yoga became a way for her to find deep connection and a sense of calm within. While practicing around town at many studios she soon realized she wanted to dive deeper into her yogi path. She trusted her gut and enrolled in the 200-hour certification through the Gaea Yoga School that she completed in 2017.

Everyone has different reasons for coming to the mat and Katie enjoys guiding students of all ages and levels into their own unique experience. Katie hopes her students leave her class feeling accomplished and enlivened, both in the mind and body.

Katherine Johnson
200hr ryt

Kat began practicing yoga when she was 13 as a way to spend more time with her mother. But she fell in love with power yoga during her college years as a way to deal with stress and challenge herself physically. She completed her yoga teacher training at Charleston Power Yoga in 2015 after spending a few years there as an assistant. She is a firm believer in the personal power of this practice and that each yogi can create an experience that fits their unique body and self. Kat tailors her classes to offer variations and modifications so that her students can confidently choose their own journey on their mats.

Nicole Lennox
200hr RYT

With a 200 hour certification in Vinyasa Yoga and a background studying Eastern Philosophy and Transpersonal Psychology, I aim for my teachings to create a sense of inner connection and mindfulness that can be taken off of the mat into our everyday lives. Influenced by my travels, teachers and experiences, I create powerful flows that incorporate creative sequencing, designed to bring us out of our heads and back into our bodies.

Christine Lentz
200hr RYT

Yoga is my anchor.

When the world is spinning around me or the waves are rough, I can come back to my mat and reconnect to the moment, to my body, to my breath and eventually find a sense of gratitude and connection. Everything else seems to fade into the background. Yoga, and all it’s wisdom allows me to remember who I am at my core, to come back to the present moment and to let go of all the “shoulds”.

Originally from Ohio, I moved to Charleston 5 years ago and absolutely love it! I have been a yoga student since 2005, and am still learning! Traveling the world with my love, cherishing a good glass of red wine, and taking a walk on the beach, are some of my favorite things.

I received my 200 hr from Gaea Yoga Center & am currently pursuing my 300 hr training from Asheville Yoga Center. My favorite styles to teach and practice include a slow power vinyasa (Hot Yoloha Burn here at the studio!) and Yin Yoga.

Katie Edwards
200hr RYT

Katie moved to Charleston right after graduation from the University of South Carolina and considers Charleston home. Her early career was in Resort Management; however, it didn’t take much time for her to realize that a desk job was not right for her. To combat the stress and sedentary lifestyle of said desk job she started practicing yoga and went on to  complete her Yoga Teacher Training at Gaea Yoga Center in 2014. A nagging wanderlust and her new found skill set took her on travels around the world throughout her twenties – travel will always be her first love. 

Katie found massage therapy and bodywork when she suffered a knee injury that kept her from her yoga practice and doing other activities she loved. Bodywork, massage therapy and yoga helped her through the recovery process and she went on to go to the Pacific Center of Awareness and Bodywork on the island of Kauai in 2019. She enjoys her work as a massage therapist and yoga teacher and is passionate about the body mind connection. She believes that through movement and touch therapy we can all better understand the body – mind relationship and learn how to interpret the signals our body is giving us.

Katie Fey
200hr RYT

After graduating from NC State in 2011, Katie landed her first job after college in Charlotte, NC. There she stumbled upon Yoga One and her love for yoga and movement began. Eventually making her way to Charleston in 2015, Katie jumped right into practicing at Charleston Power Yoga and completed her first 200 hr RYT training. Moving to Colorado for 2 years to get the west out of her system, she frequently practiced at BIG Power Yoga in Denver and traveled to Thailand to complete Baptiste Level 1. Knowing she wanted to live in Charleston for the long haul, Katie has been back since 2018 and she completed her second 200 hr RYT at The Works in 2020. In her classes you can expect to move your body to an intentional, challenging flow to a killer playlist…you probably won’t leave without a laugh. To her, moving your body is supposed to feel good and most importantly, be fun.

Casey Higgins
200 hr RYT

Casey is a 200+ hr certified yoga instructor in Charleston, SC. She is also certified in Thai yoga techniques by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. After years of living a fast-paced life in New Jersey, Casey fell in love with the introspection, compassion, clarity, and calm that a yogic lifestyle provides. In her classes, you can expect mindful instruction that includes alignment cues, meditation, breathwork, intelligent sequencing, and a curated experience. When she’s not teaching, Casey enjoys spending time with her kitties and laughing with friends and family.

Emery Floyd
200 hr RYT

For Emery, yoga has been one of those things that always stuck with her, something she craved during the tough seasons of her life.  She started going to yoga when she was 16 years old in Charlotte, NC where she would end her day with the 8:30pm class after soccer practice. She’d go to be reminded that you can only control you and not others. Emery continued her yoga journey through the years and have truly expanded it in the last 3 years here in Charleston, SC where she received her RYT-200. Her style of yoga varies – on the outside she craves the hard, upbeat, powerful practice but deep down she craves that slow, sticky, connected practice.  Emery has learned so much about herself from being on the mat: how to forgive, how to love, and most importantly how to breathe through anything.

KATIE ASHLEY
200 HR RYT

Katie Ashley teaches integrative functional movement, mindfulness, and meditation techniques in her yoga classes. Weaving together her training in yoga therapy, Jivamukti yoga, Katonah Yoga, Pilates, and her twenty years of professional and personal experience in the wellness world her classes are well informed and accessible. Students can expect to move in new and familiar ways – both purposeful and playful – while gathering tools that will serve them well in whatever other yoga classes they enjoy as well as in daily life. Katie meets her students where they are and helps them to navigate to and from the center of themselves and forward in life. She works with students one-on-one at her private space on James Island and she is the Wellness Coach at Hammocks on the Edisto, an inpatient treatment center for women in recovery.She also volunteers with Warrior Surf Foundation and Recovery Meditation which evolved from the Refuge Recovery group that she co-founded in 2014.

SARAH JONES
200 HR RYT

What started as a heavy, anything-but-flexible method for dealing with stress and anxiety during college, soon became a graceful, go-with-the-flow way of life. With a strong focus on the fundamentals, Baptiste Power Vinyasa at her foundation, and additional training in trauma sensitive yoga, yoga therapy, yin, reiki, and Primal Flow, Sarah enjoys instilling the many healing benefits of yoga and mindfulness to students of all levels. You can find Sarah at Yoloha Yoga Factory and Ethos Athletic Club in the Charleston Area, online, and on the beach, as she is also the Director of Yoga for Warrior Surf Foundation.Keep up with Sarah on IG: @yogawithsarahj and her website: https://www.yogawithsarahj.com/