Meet Our Teachers
Our instructors come from a diverse background of teaching styles and share a universal passion for wellness, breath, and the power of yoga to transform minds, bodies, and spirits.
We are currently accepting resumes for yoga teachers for 2020. If you’d be interested in joining our team, please email your yoga resume and availability to carolina@curativeyogabigfork.com
Holly W.
Yoga Teacher
Holly came to yoga initially in 2008, when she discovered hot vinyasa flow and was instantly hooked. As a long-distance runner, backpacker, skier, and general outdoor enthusiast, she finds that yoga helps her with recovery, strength, and injury prevention, while also balancing out the stress and demands of everyday life. As a teacher, she loves to work with students to deepen their practice, helping them to find strength and flexibility that will enhance all aspects of their lives. Holly completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training, focused on Hatha and Vinyasa styles of practice, with Yogacara Global in the beautiful mountains of Whistler, British Columbia.
Holly spent her childhood in the Flathead Valley and the Front Range of Colorado before school, career, and marriage took her to the east coast. She loves to travel, having visited 43 states and 40 countries so far. In addition to practicing and teaching yoga, she works as a freelance writer, web designer, and small business manager for GlacialEscape LLC.
Carolina C.
Owner & Yoga Teacher
Inspired to practice yoga to set an example of living a balanced life for her children, Carolina’s journey has taken her on a deeper path towards spirituality and guiding others seeking peace and harmony. While Carolina has received her 200 Hour Certification from Yoga of Mystics®, she believes that a commitment to teaching yoga is a lifetime journey in which she sees the teacher in all, in particular her well-intended mother, mystical father, supportive and loving husband, strong willed daughter, affectionate son and her trustworthy teacher.
Sara D.
Yoga Teacher
Sara was born in England and grew up balancing time between Europe and the United States. Once settled in the Midwest, her desire to help others led her to a career working with juvenile delinquents and family therapy, followed by many years of teaching early education as her immediate family grew. Life was busy and time was precious! So in order to combine her passion for the outdoors and exercise her Labrador retrievers, running became the exercise of convenience. Hundreds of hours later, running had cultivated a love of moving meditation and thus the progression to a practice of yoga.
Upon moving to Montana, Sara finally had the opportunity to pursue an Iyengar 200 hour yoga certification from Anahata Power Yoga. Again, her desire to give back to a community is now manifested through her practice. She hopes to create a time and space for each practitioner to connect to their breath, journey inwards, and build strength and flexibility while cultivating the intelligence of their minds and bodies. Come and enjoy Sara’s playful and energetic flow while learning how to transfer the calmness and stability created on the mat into meeting life with grace outside of the studio.
Sara’s favorite activities include: hiking, paddle boarding, cross-country skiing, Spinning, kayaking and swimming
Sara’s favorite quote:
“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Samantha A.
Yoga Teacher
Hello! My name is Samantha Aklestad, and I am so excited to share my passion of yoga with everyone. I grew up in Montana, and love to explore her natural beauty in my free time. I completed my 200 hour training at Santosha Yoga Academy in Bali this past November and it was truly magical! I look forward to getting to know all of you and seeing you in the studio!
Naader Raphael S.
Yoga of Mystics Teacher
Trained in Raja Yoga at the Self Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, and Hatha Yoga at The Yoga College of India, Beverly Hills, Naader Raphael has been studying and practicing Yoga & Meditation since 1983. A former Ph.D. Candidate in Engineering, Raphael also studied Philosophy and Religion before coming to Los Angeles as a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda in 1985.
A student of the great Yoga Master, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Sufi Mystic, Pir Inayat Khan, Raphael brings a culmination of intensive study and personal experience presented to you through his Yoga of Mystics® philosophy.
Yoga of Mystics® offers the Curative Yoga™ series; an invigorating and challenging system of Hatha Yoga choreographed and practiced by Raphael himself that incorporates a specific series of asanas (poses) in order to cure physical, mental and emotional bodies.
Raphael’s Yoga of Mystics® blends Hatha Yoga, Raja (Ashtanga) Yoga and ancient mysticism (Esoteric School of Sufi Mystics) focusing on the psychology of the breath, relaxation, gentle stretching, muscle toning and weight loss.
Raphael frequently quotes from the writings of Yoga Masters and Sufi Mystics in his classes reminding his students that “Health is not everything, but everything is nothing without health.”
Raphael has taught yoga and meditation to over 20,000 people and has trained over 1,000 teachers through his Yoga of Mystics® teacher-training program.
He also offers retreats, spiritual counseling, and holistic therapies and supplements, which culminate in health, vitality, healing and realization of oneself.