Amy Friedman

Amy is a registered Yoga Therapist with the Yoga Alliance and received her formal training at Integrative Yoga Therapy. She practices Gentle Yoga, Thai Yoga healing, Reflexology, and Reiki healing. Amy is also a loving mother, and her son Q—short for Quinton—is her favorite student. Her classes are tailored to address the individual needs of her students. One student said that taking a class with Amy "feels like a dried plant being watered." Amy looks forward to sharing her practice with the members of Yoga Madre, and welcomes all types of yoga practitioners to participate with and enhance her spiritual community. Amy teaches Beginning and Restorative Classes.

Cybelle Greenman

Cybelle is passionate about sharing the transformative power of Yoga. She aspires to create a warm, supportive environment where students can safely explore the edges of their perceived boundaries. Years of study in a wide variety of yoga schools have brought her to Anusara, a uniquely integrated style of hatha yoga rich in empowering philosophy and grounded in biomechanical principles of alignment. It is her sincerest hope that, through Yoga, her students will learn to free themselves from breathlessness, struggle, and panic and find the courage to live with greater awareness and compassion. Her most meaningful teachers include Jenny Brill, Darren Rhodes, Douglas Brooks, Sally Kempton, Martin and Jordan Kirk and her students. Cybelle teaches All Level classes.

David Herzog

“Yoga found me several years ago and has become an integral part of my life practice.  It continues to offer me the gift of coming home to myself and helps me stay sane amongst the madness that life can create. It is this gift that I am inspired to help others discover for themselves.  My philosophy to teaching is to help people find a practice that fits them, their unique bodies and their unique expressions of self. We get enough messages from our environment and at times, our own minds that we allow to negatively inform the shape we take and how we express ourselves.  Yoga gives each of us the invitation to let go of these limitations and open up to and embrace all of who we are and where we are on our life path.   I believe humor and compassion are essential in this process.”  David studied with Ganga White and Tracey Rich at the White Lotus Foundation where he got his teaching certification.  He is also a psychologist, and lives with his loving husband and two crazy dogs in Monrovia.   David teaches Beginning Level classes.

Jen Hong

Jennifer inadvertently began practicing yoga informally in the late nineties while taking modern dance classes where warm-ups often included sun salutations and downward dogs.  In 2001 she took her first Bikram yoga class and became a sporadic practitioner while focusing on her movement life as a contemporary dancer performing regionally and nationally with various companies based in Portland, OR.  She has since expanded her study of yoga and became a Yoga Alliance Registered instructor in 2007 and continues to study with flow teachers Joan Hymen, Jackie Roberts and Steve Walther, Iyengar with Paul Cabanis and Nancy Sandercock, and is currently delving into Ashtanga.  She is a hands-on teacher and loves to take care of her students.  She encourages her students to find their edge each in their own way, listening to their smartest teacher—their own breath and bodies.  She believes that as we cultivate our practice, we can grow physically, mentally, and spiritually and that, as Iyengar’s says, “our talents, however much they may vary from individual to individual, when realized to the full, provide the link that will take us back to a reunion with the divine.”  Jen teaches All Levels classes.

Mallory Leitner

Mallory Leitner has been studying and practicing yoga for 16 years, here in the US and in India. She holds many teaching certificates in Kundalini and Hatha Yoga (including yoga for pregnant women and children’s yoga). Her style of Hatha is Vinyasa with an Iyengar approach to alignment. A consistant practice of Yoga is responsible for changing Mallory’s life in a very positive way and she wishes to share this ancient tradition of self-realization with others. She is firm yet fun in her teaching style. Her greatest influences are B.K.S. Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar, Erich Schiffmann, Sunil Kumar, and Yogi Bhajan. Mallory is a nationally registered Yoga Alliance instructor. Mallory teaches Beginning Level Classes.

Ellen Mathews

Ellen teaches a strong beginning class that emphasizes her love of alignment and precision and is a blend of Iyengar, Ashtanga and Anusara influences. She believes that through intention, focus, hard work and patience we can achieve anything we desire both on and off the mat. Her classes provide a non-competitive and nurturing atmosphere. She discovered yoga in 1996.  Since taking that first class, she knew yoga was for her.  She received her formal training at Yoga Works in Santa Monica under the direction of Maty Ezraty and Lisa Walford. She has also had the privilege to study with John Friend, Erich Schiffmann and David Swenson. Ellen continues to be a student of various styles of hatha yoga and study with other yoga luminaries in an effort to broaden her own classes and personal practice.  When not teaching yoga, Ellen is probably learning something new and profound from her greatest teacher of all, her daughter Sofia. She lives in Sierra Madre with her daughter, her loving husband Martin and their black cat . Ellen teaches Beginning Level classes.

Tana  Marlow

My yoga journey began in 2002 when I met René Quenell. I had a few surgeries that left me very weak so I couldn't do most exercises. I decided to give Yoga a try When I walked into the asana room there was René... I told her about my surgery and with a smile on her face she told me "I can help you". Those words changed my life. She brought into my life a balance of mind, body and spirit through the practice of Meditation, Pranayama and Asana. MY love for Yoga grew deeper with every class. I decided I wanted to share my love for yoga with everyone and was encouraged to become a Yoga teacher. I went to the White Lotus Foundation where I studied with Ganga White and Tracy Rich and received my Teachers Certification. I love being able to share the neverending peace and hapiness Yoga brings into my life. Tana teaches Beginning Level classes

Steve Mather

Steve found yoga as a means to physically supplement his life-long passion for surfing.  It did not take long until he discovered the non-physical benefits of yoga.  Having a traveling job and supporting the Western U.S. afforded him the opportunity to study many different yoga disciplines with such masters as Tim Miller, Rodney Yee, Scott Blossom, Peter Sterios, Roger Cole, Richard Rosen, and Julian Walker.  Steve completed his 200 hour training in 2003 with Tina Parga of United Hearts Yoga and 500 hour in 2009 with Erika Faith of Cloud Nine Yoga.  Classes typically are of a heat-building flow style with a combination of disciplines that are original, challenging and rarely the same.  While you can be assured of a good physical workout, the emphasis is to connect with and honor the teacher within us all.  Steve teaches classes for All Levels.

Rene Quenell
Owner and Founder of Yoga Madre

Rene Quenell is a certified Structural Yoga Therapist who began her yogic journey through an exploration of eastern philosophy, ayurveda, and the healing arts. Rene's classes are an inspired blend of vinyasa flow combined with the healing power of Structural Yoga Therapy.The result is a vibrant, fluid class infused with humor and everyday wisdom with special emphasis on the needs of the student as an individual, guiding them to develop a practice that they can tap into beyond the mat and into their everyday lives.

In addition to holding a Structural Yoga Therapy and Reiki Master certifications, Rene is certified through the White Lotus Foundation and continues to explore advanced trainings in yoga and ayurveda with her teachers Rod Stryker, Shiva Rea and Mukunda Stiles. René teaches All Level classes, Power Yoga, private instruction and Structural Yoga Therapy. She leads retreats and seminars and gives private Reiki/Energy treatments.

Suzanna Storm

Since being certified, Suzanna Storm has been actively pursuing training in classical Yoga. She received her certification in 2005. Her first exposure to Yoga was with Elizabeth McMillan at Golden Bridge in Hollywood in 2001 and she continued informal explorations on her own and with various instructors, she has taught both nationally and internationally. She has been influenced by her study of various techniques from Hatha traditions to Core Sequencing. She works extensively in the community, with organizations such as Peace Over Violence and East Side Café. She is incredibly passionate about making Yoga accessible to youth and children, and has been working to bring Yoga to the schools. Suzanna's goal is to make Yoga accessible to all.