About Us

Bernal Yoga is centrally located in the heart of Bernal Heights on Cortland Ave. Students will find the studio to be a warm and nurturing environment that not only welcomes the first time student but offers a variety of classes and instructors for the more experienced practitioner. Bernal Yoga is a neighborhood and city studio for all ages and levels. Bernal Yoga's In structors offer not only their teaching and practice experience but also their passion for Yoga.

Bill Wyland: Bill is the co-owner and co-director of Bernal Yoga. He graduated from the Sacred Movement Center for Yoga and Health in Venice, California where he studied under Max Strom, Shiva Rea, Saul David Raye and Sherry Brourman PT. He also completed the Thai Yoga Therapy Massage program at the White Lotus Foundation with Saul David Raye.

Bill's philosophy is rooted in the Vinyasa tradition where the practice of yoga is applied to the overall approach to living. One should use the skill and awareness yoga creates to all the foundations and rhythms of life, including health, relationships, work, and personal evolution.

He teaches Vinyasa and Thai Yoga classes at the studio in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, CA and at select retreats worldwide. He can be reached directly at bill@bernalyoga.com

Savonn Wyland: Savonn is the founder and co-director of Bernal Yoga. Together with Bill, her brother, she oversees the growth, development and vision of the studio.
Savonn's approach to teaching yoga is to provide grounded inspiration, skillful instruction and mindful intention.

Her classes, workshops and retreats offer an opportunity to tap into the transformational energy present when a group comes together to practice without losing the power of personal inquiry and expression. Her one-on-one sessions help to better tailor a personal practice, to address individual concerns, modifications and questions, and to make sure the practice stays safe, nurturing and fun. Savonn recognizes the importance of an integrated approach to health and wellbeing. She believes that yoga and other meditative and expressive arts are a great complement to athletic, professional and creative pursuits.

Savonn holds Yoga Teaching Certificates in "Flow/Vinyasa" from the White Lotus Foundation, "Pre and Post Natal Yoga" from the Seattle Holistic Center and "Yin/Yang" yoga from Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley.

Savonn recently moved to Portland, OR with her husband and their son. She returns to San Francisco, frequently, to teach and reconnect with the amazing community of people that practice at Bernal Yoga. If you would like to contact her directly, please email:savonn@bernalyoga.com

Rosey Wyland (formerly Kobliska-Becker): Rosey Wyland is a compassionate teacher who believes deeply in the healing aspects of yoga. She holds Yoga Teaching Certifications in Hatha yoga from Darren Main and Vinyasa yoga from Seane Corn. She has a Masters Degree in Social Work and offers counseling to children and families throughout the Bay Area. She blends aspects of social work into her yoga teaching creating a nurturing, supportive style of yoga. Her family yoga classes create a safe space for children and adults to connect and have fun. Rosey currently leads Teacher Trainings for Caregivers, Therapist, Educators and Health Care Providers. For more information about Rosey please see www.yogawithkateandrosey.com

Kate Truka: Kate experienced the healing power of coordinated breath and movement as a dancer for many years before discovering yoga in the Japanese countryside in 2001, rendering a lifelong asthmatic condition inert. She is grateful for many luminous teachers and received her certification from the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco. With reverence for breath awareness as connection to the universal energy that sustains us, Kate is keen to cultivate the kindness that flowers from the alignment, the union, that is yoga.

Elizabeth Herrick: Elizabeth heartily believes yoga can help everyone be healthy, happy and healed. Her teaching builds physical stamina and mental awareness- incorporating breath, meditation and structural alignment to take the body and practice to the next level. Elizabeth received her initial 200hr certification from the Nosara Yoga Institute in "Flow/Vinyasa". She has since expanded her studies to include teachings from the Anusara, Iyengar and Viniyoga traditions. In 2006, she began her 500hr advanced certification in Integrative Yoga Therapy. She enjoys teaching both groups and individuals of all ages and levels and is passionate about watching her students grow. When she is not teaching yoga, she works on her community wellness website, www.WikiHealth.com , and does 'Happy Baby' pose with her little girl.

Thomas Murphy:

As the fourth child in a brood of six, Thomas' parents lived by the mantra that a happy household consists of tired children. As a result, Thomas participated in many organized sports including soccer, track, swimming, tennis and football, the latter for which he earned a college scholarship. When he started to roll towards his late-twenties, Thomas' overworked body was starting to shows signs of wear. He initially turned to yoga for a safer form of exercise, but instead found a complete system that he has studied and practiced consistently for the past ten years.

Thomas is a student of Dharmanidhi Sarasvati Acharya, who gave him the spiritual practice name Skanda. He has also studied yogic philosophy and the art of Puja with Sri Rama Ramanuja Acharya. Thomas has completed two teacher trainings: one led by David Morenoat Yoga Mandala and the other led by Katchie Ananda at Yoga Tree, and continues to study both independently and under the guidance of his teachers. In addition to his regularly scheduled classes, Thomas leads international yoga retreats and is a practicing intellectual property attorney.

In his classes, Thomas combines his athletic background with traditional yoga principles to offer a well-rounded experience. Each class includes asana as well as basic chanting and meditation practices. While challenging, Thomas approaches his classes with creativity, technique and humor, and welcomes students from all experience levels to give his class a try.

Kristie Dahlia Home: Kristie is devoted to the practice of yoga as a healing art; a collaborative creation on the canvas of being. Her spontaneous Hatha classes have a focus on joy, energetic flow, and functional precision of alignment. Kristie finds the clean ground of the beginner and the carefully tended garden of the experienced practitioner equally fertile for practice and study. Her curiosity and desire to serve each student uniquely have led her to extensive studies in various yoga lineages, therapeutic uses of practice, and healing modalties. Kristie has been teaching since 1995. She shares yoga for people with cancer at California Pacific Medical Center and at UCSF's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, is a longstanding member of the Integral Yoga Institute's Teacher Training faculty, and her book Yoga: Natural Fitness for Body and Spirit has been translated and published worldwide. She is currently inspired by her studies with Saul David Raye and Angela Farmer, practice of thai yoga massage and reiki, and the fiddleheads of the ferns unfurling in the yard. For more information about Kristie please visit www.athayoga.com

Katie Lewis: "What is the body? That shadow of a shadow of your love that somehow contains the entire universe." Rumi
The pace of breath and movement are mindfully slowed in Katie's classes in order to listen to the inner body as creator and teacher. Students are invited to explore the interior landscape of their bodies through visualizations, breath and meditation. While working to strengthen the core, students will also focus on releasing their bellies & deeply stretching their spine, shoulders and hips. The combination of both restorative and physically assertive asana will enable students to experience yoga as a practice of surrender and empowerment

Katie has been practicing yoga asana for ten years and teaching to adults and children for the past five years. She has completed asana teacher trainings with Angela Farmer, "The Undoing of Yoga," Lesvos, Greece 2004, Shiva Rea, "Vinyasa Yoga," Kripalu, MA 2002 and Larry Schultz,"Ashtanga Yoga," SF, CA 2001. Other teachers whose understanding has inspired her are Pattabi Jois, Manju Jois, Dena Kingsberg, Richard Freeman, Victor Van Kooten and Devorah Sacks. She studies the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with Kate Holcombe, a senior student of Desikachar and has recently begun to study nondual tantra with Dharmanidhi Sarasvati.

The practice of yoga awakened Katie's fascination with the body and what it means to be embodied and she began to study bodywork in 2002, receiving a certificate in Asian Body Systems from the Mckinnon Institute. Presently, she is completing an apprenticeship with Hugh Milne in Visionary Craniosacral Work and has embarked upon a long journey with Isa Gucciardi for certification in Depth-Hypnosis and with Gilles Marin for certification in Chi Nei Tsang. Katie is inspired by the inherent and unerring intelligence of the body to heal from within and she loves to share what she learns with others. If interested in scheduling bodywork or yoga, please call her at 510.388.1737.

Elizabeth Walker: Elizabeth's inspirational instruction has been at the heart of the Bernal Yoga Pilates program from the studio's beginnings. She believes movement is life and that every body has a healer within. In her mat classes, Elizabeth guides her students through the map of their bodies - uncovering hidden strengths, taking control of weaknesses and improving overall mobility. Like many Pilates instructors, Elizabeth was first exposed to Pilates while rehabilitating from a dance-related injury. Through this healing experience she was inspiried to spread the word and went on to receive her formal Pilates training and certification from the Ellie Herman Studios/SF in 2001. Her teaching is influenced by her passion for all things movement as a dancer, athlete, and dedicated yoga student. Elizabeth is the owner of Pilates Heights, a Pilates studio on Cortland Ave in Bernal Heights (San Francisco, CA).

Stephanie Bernstein: Stephanie's teaching draws from over 10 years of yoga and life study. Now a certified Anusara-inspired teacher, her teaching has a lot of guidance from John Friend and the Universal Principles of Alignment and the extraordinary therapeutic value of that tradition. She is also strongly connected to her foundation training at OM Yoga Center in New York, which incorporates Shambala Buddhism with asana, emphasizing breath and mindfulness. Stephanie's classes are challenging, yet playful and focus strongly on the uniqueness in each of her students. She has taught in NYC, Maui, Boulder and throughout the Bay Area.

Hannah O'Reilly:

Hannah simply loves yoga and wants to share it with as many people as she can. She is known for her joyful spirit, flowing movement, focus on the breath, and occasionally, some kick-your-butt ab work. Hannah pulls yogic inspiration from far and wide including yoga teachers Stephanie Snyder and Jason Crandell, San Francisco city life and (more often than you might care to know) reality tv.

She encourages lightheartedness on and off the mat and finds laughter every day playing with her pup Zeke. When Hannah is not teaching she is busy geeking out on all things yoga as a member of the web team for Yoga Journal magazine. For more information about Hannah please visit hannahpask.com

Talei Loloma:

The profound impact yoga has had on Talei's life is what led her to become a compassionately devoted teacher. When she was a child her mother introduced her to yoga on the sunny living room floor. While living on Oahu she dove into Yoga Teachers Training and began deeply exploring the rythyms of life through Buddhism, Yoga and nature, connecting to the currents within through the practice and the ocean.

She is eternally grateful to have studied with and been guided by many amazing teachers along the path. Including but not limited to: Paul Smith, Paula Stockman, Deborah Burkman, Rusty Wells, Sarah Powers, Pratichi Mathurs, and Shiva Rea.

She holds space for each student to connect to the guru within through the integration of fluid movement, breath, sound and meditative awareness. Each class is inspired by the collective energy in the room while incorporating aspects of Tantra, Bhakti, Ashtanga, Ayurveda and Yin.

Her intention is to support the balanced health of a conscious community.
For more information about Talei please visit www.TaleiLolomaYoga.com

Debbie Steingesser:

Debbie discovered her true sense of inner ritam (rhythm) and JOY in her yoga practice. She danced her way through the Holistic Yoga Teacher Training program with Saul David Raye, James Bailey, and Dr. Jeremy Brook at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement in Venice, CA. In her flow yoga classes, Debbie encourages students to connect with the "Rasa" or juice, flavor, essence of their lives. She loves weaving together postures, breathing techniques, music, yoga philosophy, poetry, and meditation to help her students feel more relaxed in their minds and bodies. Debbie's teaching draws on her passion for building community and bringing people together through movement and the arts. She assists her students in finding joy and freedom in themselves by exploring their own personal expression of yoga. Debbie firmly believes yoga should be accessible to everyone as a medium for growth. Her classes are open to all experience levels.

Katharine Otis:

Katharine Otis teaches her students to honor them selves in this moment. She has come to find that the Yoga practice is constantly changing, as we all are, and asks her students to experience where they are in this inevitable process of things. Katharine invites her students to use the tools of the Yoga practice: ones relationship to their breath, the ancient body shapes, liberating the voice through chanting, and sitting in stillness; as a means to awaken to their true nature. Katharine welcomes all levels to her class and looks forward to continuing to share the healing practice that she loves. Katharine was certified to teach at the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in New York City in 2005.

Melissa Capezzuto:

Melissa is known for her devotional teaching style, encouraging students to connect with their spiritual hearts finding their inner truth and self. Yoga has been a part of her life for over ten years and immediately become her life after meeting her teacher Sri Dharma Mittra. Melissa has been fortunate to fully immerse in yogic life through Dharma Mittra's advanced 500 hr. teacher training. She is extremely grateful to be a student and as assistant of a living yoga master.

Her classes are filled with advanced Asana, scripture, chanting, Pranayama, Dharana, and Dhyana. She reminds students that the true purpose of Yoga is Self-realization. "Everything is an offering to the Divine." D.M.

Nadine Johnson: Nadine began practicing yoga in 1994 at It's Yoga. She was finally drawn to teach 10 years later. Safety,patience and inward focus are key elements of her practice, which is grounded in Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in India. Taking yoga off the mat, into everyday life is a key inspiration of her teaching. Nadine has completed teacher trainings with Clayton Horton at Greenpath Yoga and David Swenson. She also continues her education through workshops and trainings with senior teachers such as David Williams, Richard Freeman, Jonny Kest, Ana Forrest and Sarah Powers.

Amanda Harper: Amanda's inspiration to deepen her yoga practice came from experiencing for her its effectiveness and true healing power after several sports injuries. She felt compelled to share her belief in yoga with others and completed a teacher-training program in New York, studying ISHTA yoga with Alan Finger. A valuable part of her routine, yoga helps her regain her center, ground herself emotionally and perform better in her regular physical activities, such as swimming, biking and her greatest passion, surfing. She enjoys the anatomical accuracy of Iyengar, the energizing qualities of Ashtanga, the opening nature of Yin Yoga and the beauty and grace of Vinyasa yoga practice. Amanda feels that the role of a yoga teacher is to provide expert guidance to a practitioner; helping them to fully utilize whatever unique tools and qualities they possess to develop their own individual practice to suit their needs. As a teacher she aims to cultivate a non-judgmental, safe environment, and to promote a student's mental and physical well being, reduce suffering and share the love and benefits of her yoga practice with her students. More information about Amanda and her approach can be found at www.tentoesyoga.com

Beth Zygielbaum:

Yoga found Beth in 2000 when a physical therapist recommended it as a way to further heal a severe knee injury. She quickly found that yoga had the capacity to address much more than her knee. She found that yoga helped her find space between thought and action, a moment of pause in which to listen to her truth and make mindful, compassionate choices. After 7 years of practice in Iyengar, Forrest, and Anusara yoga she completed Iyengar based yoga teacher training at The Yoga Loft in San Francisco. In addition, she has completed the Introductory Teacher Training for Children's Yoga with Kate and Rosey in 2008.

In teaching, Beth invites students of all ages to explore how breath can help us meet our challenges and enhance our joy; how the practice of yoga can encourage us to find more curiosity and less judgment, and how the practice of yoga can help us to find a sense of humor about ourselves and our world--all so that we can be of greater service to ourselves and others. Her style combines humor, encouragement, and food for thought.

KT Steadman:

KT took her first yoga class in 1996, and stared teaching five years later in 2001. After teaching and traveling extensively for four years, she landed in Hawaii. Where she connected with her teachers Nicki Doane and Eddie Modestini. Their teachings reflect the beauty of the Krishnamacharaya lineage. While living, working, and practicing with Nicki and Eddie for three years, she completed two teacher training's, and two three week asana intensives. In 2005 KT also travelled to India with the family to study with Sri K Pattabhi Jois. KT has been touched beyond words by her Sanskrit teacher Bhavani Maki. She views the knowledge within the Yoga Sutras as an important key for us all to truly live our practice. She enjoys weaving this information into her classes. Her teaching style is born from her studies with Nicki and Eddie, and from her own practice and experience. She gives information, and adjustments so that students form a foundation based in impeccability of alignment. This ensures that people learn to move their bodies in an integrated, and intelligent way. She has a warm, and compassionate style. It is her intention to continue to teach, study and practice in joy, and for life.

Megan Windeler: Megan's practice and teaching is rooted in the heartfelt belief that Yoga is simply a good thing. Her practice began by accident nearly twenty years ago during the deep dark freeze of a Chicago winter. After stumbling blindly into an Iyengar Yoga class in hopes of eluding the freeze, it was revealed to her that 'living is much easier if you breathe whilst doing it.' Over a decade and half on she is still trying to figure that one out, but, she practices it every day and has found life easier.

Megan completed the Teacher Training at The Yoga Tree in San Francisco in 2005. While she continues to study with Dharma Mitra, and find great inspiration from Stephanie Snyder, Jane Austin and her dear friend Les Leventhal, her main teacher these days is her 6 year old son. Megan's classes are filled with love and humor, sometimes silence and now and again a little Led Zeppelin. Come one, come all, do some yoga, find some ease. For more about Megan check out her website.

Jane Austin: Jane teaches prenatal yoga and has been involved with the birthing community for ten years. She has worked as a homebirth midwife,labor assistant and childbirth educator. A mother of two, Jane practiced yoga during both of her pregnancies. She continues to deepen her practice as both a teacher and student of yoga.

Britt Fohrman: Britt's greatest joy is found in sharing her love of yoga with a wide variety of people. She encourages her students to approach yoga as a way of life, to practice with lovingkindness and sincerity. Her unique style of teaching places a strong emphasis on alignment, sequencing, breath and inner awareness, while her approach is imbued with warmth, humor and honesty. Since 1993, Britt has studied primarily Iyengar Yoga, though she weaves influences of other traditions, especially Viniyoga and Vipassana (Buddhist Insight) Meditation, into her teaching. One of her specialties is working with pregnant women and new mothers, where she also employs her skills as a photographer, birth doula, and bodyworker. Along with being an avid surfer, Britt loves to do headstands on mountaintops and beaches all around the world. After witnessing tremendous healing within herself through Restorative Yoga, Britt was inspired to become certified to teach Restorative Yoga by Judith Lasater. Though she now enjoys an active practice as well, Restorative Yoga continues to be the foundation of her well being. Go to www.brittfohrman.com to find out more about Britt and her practice.

Emily Dillof: Emily has been a casual practitioner of yoga and meditation for over ten years. Her practice deepened in 2004 when she met her teacher Lisa Schrempp in Tucson, Arizona. At the time, Emily was a stressed out family lawyer dealing with several major personal losses. With the aid of Lisa's yogic wisdom and guidance, Emily learned how to transform her suffering into compassion for others, creating a new kind of steady happiness inside her own heart. While in India in 2006, Emily realized that she would rather teach yoga than practice law. Emily now holds certificates from both Jivamukti Yoga in New York, and Laughing Lotus in San Francisco. She teaches uplifting, balanced vinyasa flow classes that emphasize mindful cultivation of elevated intentions for the benefit of all beings.