Our Instructors_ey – Embrace Yoga

Our Instructors

ENLIVEN & ENLIGHTEN

A place to nurture minds, bodies & spirits.

Embrace Yoga has moved. We are now located at 1122 4th Street in an urban setting in the heart of Central San Rafael in Marin. We are located in a historic building that was originally the first movie theater in Marin (called the Lyric) directly next door to Rafael Theater which then became the go to theater in the area. It is a beautiful space in an abundant area. We are excited to start with new beginnings in such an energetic, yet relaxing studio. A space for those who wish to reap the many benefits of yoga, without the cultural teachings commonly found in many yoga programs.

Our class capacity sizes increased so that you have more space to move around, spread out and feel safe. This gives us the chance to properly instruct students on an individual level. This personal service has become our hallmark and in-turn our classes are often booked well in advance. Our instructors come from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, making Embrace Yoga a diverse collective of expertise.

MURIEL MURPHY

Hatha Yoga Instructor – Muriel is passionate about teaching the how and why of functional movement and Hatha Yoga, Self Awakening Yoga, Therapeutics and Yoga Nidra. Her classes are taught in a lighthearted, soulful style with clarity, strength and spirit. These practices leave you feeling strengthened, relaxed and nurtured by the intelligence of our own body’s wisdom as it merges through the exploration of yoga. She holds an E-RYT 500 Yoga Educator with 17 years experience.

LINDA PROSCHE'

Viniyoga Flow Instructor –

Linda has been teaching yoga for over 30 years and as a Yoga Therapist, she designs “prescriptive” group classes and private lifestyle consultations to support deeper health and wellness. With additional certifications in T’ai Chi Chih, moving meditation and Seijaku, advanced energy practice, she provides detailed individual instruction, and ongoing personal support with clarity, humor, and generosity of heart.

erika belanger

Alignment Based Vinyasa Instructor and Yin/Restorative teacher- Erika’s classes uses breath and alignment to bring you somewhere new each time. Through mind-body connection, she encourages you to find a little extra self-love. Her Yin/Restorative classes lead you into the deep muscle tissue stretching and leave you feeling restored and rejuvenated. She frequently offers Therapy Ball workshops for deep self-massage therapy.

KAREN KUKULA

Iyengar Yoga Instructor – Explore the vast subject of Yoga, the practice of asana and pranayama as well as philosophy, Karen can get you started and keep you interested. Her classes are inspiring as well as challenging. She now also teaches Iyengar level 2 with key asana practices in preparation for inversions.

PAULA RABBITT

Hatha Yoga Level 1 – 2 Instructor – She is a fun-loving a passionate teacher. Very engaged with her students and their needs. She has a strong knowledge of human anatomy with her registered nursing background. She is committed to the continual study of yoga and sharing her knowledge with her students.

CLARA GRAY

Functional Strength Training and Hatha Yoga Instructor – Clara loves to embrace Yoga as therapy for the mind and body, integrating mindfulness into her practice and teachings, while offering Yoga as a tool to help balance life’s daily challenges. Her classes are strengthening and challenging yet fun and witty. You will leave with a new sense of awareness.

ADRIANA CERUNDOLO

Adriana teaches our Kundalini yoga classes and leads our Sound Baths every 3rd Friday of the month. She believes we are all aspects of the divine, and when we embody this truth we heal ourselves and the world. Sound, breath, movement, and ceremony are timeless technologies for cultivating relationship with the sacred, and tuning ourselves to our purest essence. strengthened and nurtured by the intelligence of our own body’s wisdom as it merges through the exploration of yoga.

SARA HESS

Vinyasa Flow Yoga Instructor – Sara has been a student of yoga since 2000 and has 500+ hours of training (ERYT-500). Sara is known for leading fun, strong, and intelligent Vinyasa flow classes (Forest and Iyengar influenced). She draws from her dance background, as a former ballet and modern dance to create intelligently sequenced classes that gracefully synchronize breath, posture, and alignment. Through these key elements, students are supported to explore each pose in depth in order to encounter their full, transformative potential.

beth toomey

Owner & Yoga Instructor teaching teen classes including Hatha, Vinyassa and yin/restorative yoga. She integrates music and harmony, and balance and flow. She feels that if you challenge yourself just beyond your limits, your dreams are within your reach, that much more attainable. She likes to share her learnings with teens and young adults as an alternative way to deal with the pressure of being a young person in this challenging society.

Maya Rose

Yin and Restorative Yoga Instructor

Maya’s classes are nurturing, creative safe spaces to explore the body and breath. She specializes in therapeutic, emotionally oriented and trauma informed Gentle and Yin practices. Maya uses guided imagery, poetry, music and breath to cultivate an inner climate of love and acceptance and honor the layers of tension held deep within the tissues of the body. Maya has been teaching since 2015, with over 400 hours of YTT certification and a background in art and music from which to draw inspiration. Her classes are welcoming, fun and deeply healing.

SURAYA KEATING

Gentle Yoga & Meditation Instructor

Suraya Susana Keating, RYT, has been teaching yoga since 2004, and practicing yoga for over 25 years. Suraya’s classes are heart-centered and eclectic, emphasize deep listening to the body and breath as key sources of healing and well-being, and draw from her studies in Anusura, Bhakti Nova Yoga School, and other yoga schools. As an ongoing student of the 8 branches of yoga, Buddhism, Shamanism and other mystical teachings, Suraya weaves into each class a core theme or inquiry that aims to gently open doors of exploration, self-love and wisdom for the practitioner. www.suraya.org

Susan Quigley

Mindful Flow Instructor

Susan has practiced yoga for over 25 years and taught for over 10. A 500 hour registered teacher, she has been mentored by traditional senior level Ashtanga and Iyengar as well as Yin teachers and she draws from the wisdom of all of these traditions, as well as that of mindfulness teachers. She leads playful classes that incorporate mindful movement, alignment principles, soulful music and poetry and moments for quiet reflection. Also trained as a psychotherapist, she incorporates the principles of mindfulness and self care that she has shared with clients over her 30 years of practice.

DANA HANCOCK

Dana teaches our Virtual Soulful Vinyasa Flow. She has creative sequences, challenging and fun. She incorporates breathing and music in all her classes.

DONNA SIMONSEN

Alignment Flow Instructor – Donna teaches from the heart. Her classes are nurturing and focus on using the breath to experience the connection with the body, mind and spirit. She incorporates alignment principles to create spaciousness and ease in the body.

RYON LANE

Ryon’s classes incorporate music, dharmic wisdom, sequencing balancing effort and ease, and an emphasis on building strength, improving alignment and developing focus between movement and breath. In Ryon’s classes expect to sweat, be energized, feel powerful, find some bliss and probably sleep better.