Yoga on Beacon – Instructors
Sarah Anderson, co-owner and managing director
Sarah joined her wife Elizabeth in becoming one of the new owners of Yoga on Beacon in 2019. While Sarah practiced yoga in high school (in lieu of traditional gym class), her love of yoga was dormant until 2017 when Elizabeth encouraged her to take an Introduction to Yoga class at Yoga on Beacon. That class and her gifted teacher, Dee Hein, encouraged her to restart her regular yoga practice, and she jumped into her first 4-week, 6 a.m. immersion mere weeks later. When she’s not in the studio or running the behind-the-scenes operations, she works as a nonprofit fundraising consultant, tends her edible urban garden, and writes children’s books. She is honored to help steward the studio into its new chapter and looks forward to practicing with you.
Elizabeth Dale, co-owner and creative director
Elizabeth joined her wife Sarah in becoming one of the new owners of Yoga on Beacon in 2019. She began her yoga practice while in graduate school in 2004 and has practiced in the hatha, ashtanga, power, and anusara-inspired styles since then in studios across the country. While she was initially drawn to the physical asana practice, over the years, she has developed her deep appreciation and learning of the more subtle aspects of yoga, including pranayama and meditation. When she moved to Seattle in 2015 to begin a new job, she started attending YoBe and was instantly drawn to its nourishing community and gifted teachers.
This community became all the more important after a serious health diagnosis in 2015, and she credits yoga with a pivotal role in returning to well-being. In 2018, she completed her 200-hour registered yoga teacher certification from Seattle Yoga Arts and looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm for the healing and restorative power of yoga with others.
Julie started studying yoga in Nepal before completing her 200 hr teacher training at The Samarya Center for Integrated Movement Therapy in Seattle in 2013. Julie wishes to inspire students to connect with their own experiences in a simple and mindful way and to open the practice of yoga to everyone. She started working with specialized populations (MS, spinal cord injuries) in 2013 and trained at Mind Body Solutions in Minnesota on adapting yoga for disability. Julie is keen to explore how yoga can help empowering people living with disability, trauma, illness and aging. She currently offers all levels and gentle classes at various locations in the Seattle area as well as adaptive yoga and private tuition for people with reduced mobility. Her teaching is influenced by more than 10 years of experience living and working abroad, interacting with individuals from different cultural backgrounds and conditions and her interest in mindfulness practice.
Peter began practicing yoga after a New Year’s resolution in 2000. He initially practiced Bikram ‘hot yoga’ and found the intensity not only benefitted his health, but helped him focus his mind and better navigate his heart. After exploring a diversity of styles in Seattle, he eventually pursued teaching as a part of his practice, receiving RYT 200-hour certifications from both Samadhi Yoga (2010) and Seattle Yoga Arts (2013). Peter’s teaching style reflects his passion for yoga as a way to connect to the joy of corporeal expression. Yoga is a practice of awareness and offers the opportunity to expand consciousness to all corners of the lived experience. He enjoys blending hatha, vinyasa and a variety of other styles of yoga in his classes and also teaches specialized classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease (www.yogaforpd.com). He teaches regular classes in studios, workplaces, residences and hospitals in the Seattle area. Peter also holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Pomona College.
Terika Raak was first drawn to yoga in 2011 as a different way to exercise while increasing her flexibility, yet she soon found yoga to be much more than what she expected. In 2009 she completed her seminary education, receiving her Masters of Divinity. A year later she became the first woman to be an ordained minister in her denomination in this region of the country. Her connection to something holy/beyond herself has always been a deep part of who she is and how she interacts with the world around her, providing an undercurrent to her teaching. Her desire to deepen her understanding of all the aspects of yoga led her to immerse herself in to the 8 Limbs yoga teacher training program in 2016. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to offer to others what has become such an important aspect to the foundation of her life now. She brings her inquisitiveness, playfulness, and soulful connection to her teaching, offering challenges and contemplations for both on and off the mat. Terika has been the assistant manager at YoBe since 2015 and is excited to expand her role through teaching to the amazing YoBe community
Tessa Nesbit
Tessa began her yoga practice in 2010, and life has never been the same! From yoga, she has learned to embody ahimsa (non-harm), karuna (compassion), and samadhi (union). From starting at the YMCA, to practicing in India, Thailand, Bali, and Mexico, and regularly attending classes at Yoga on Beacon and Seattle Yoga Arts, she is excited to share this ancient practice as a teacher. She trained with The Online Yoga School to achieve her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification amidst the global pandemic. Through such sufferable times, she was able to more fully grasp the power and wisdom of yoga. In her classes, she honors the practice through teaching all 8 limbs, using Sanskrit, and acknowledging the roots of the teachings. An avid social justice enthusiast and practicing Buddhist, she intends for her practice to embody the Sanskrit mantra lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu: May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.
Kate Bradfield
Lauren Morgenthaler
Lauren was first drawn to yoga in 2013 as a way to help ease pain and help stabilize a college rowing injury. She initially started with hot yoga as a way to be warm in the cold Chicago winters but found she equally enjoyed other styles of yoga, such as ashtanga, power, and anusara-inspired classes. As a social worker, Lauren wanted to learn how to incorporate yoga asana and principles with her patients and completed her 200-hour teaching certification through Seattle Yoga Arts in 2018. She is inspired by the anusara method and hopes to weave a balance of ease and effort, awareness, and compassion to each yoga class she teaches.
Julia Briggs
Julia’s yoga practice began in 2006 and quickly became an integral, evolving part of her life. Initially drawn to the challenge of fierce, powerful flows, she felt the inherent meditative qualities of conscious breath and the moment to moment changes in sensation. Since, she has cultivated practices of yin, restorative, yoga nidra and mindfulness meditation while feeling more and more like she is just dipping her toes in. Aspiring to be a lifelong yoga student, she loves studying ancient philosophy and modern research and attempts to offer morsels of her exploration in every class.
Julia leads a breath centric, grounding practice, weaving in readings, music, and an occasional bad joke. Julia received her 200 hr RYT from the Grinning Yogi in 2016. She is currently studying under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification program, class of 2023, and has completed Hip, Spine & Mental Health intensives towards her Yoga Medicine 500 hr RYT. She’s also studied yin yoga with Bernie Clark and Diana Batts, restorative yoga with Jules Mitchell, and trauma informed yoga through Yoga Behind Bars, as well as weekend intensives and workshops with many more.
Allison Hardy
Steph Potratz
In 2007 Steph picked up a yoga DVD and a seed was planted, but it wasn’t until 2013 amid a big life transition and exploration of her own mental and physical health that Steph committed herself fully to the practice. She was delighted to find that yoga cultivated not only strength and suppleness in the body, but inner resilience, mental clarity, and connection to self, too. In 2018 while working full-time, Steph spent a year immersed in the alignment-focused, heart-centered program at Seattle Yoga Arts.
Steph offers a playful movement practice that invites sweet awareness and acceptance of breath, the body, and the inner experience. Steph eventually left corporate work in pursuit of inner fulfillment and along with teaching yoga, is now a passionate climber, route-setter, and nature lover all of which she draws from in her classes and workshops. She seeks to inspire students to meet their inner edge with courage and fierce compassion through challenging yet accessible classes. Wherever you are in your process – whether brand new to the practice, focused on enhancing your mental health, or balancing other fitness modalities – Steph can support your journey to more steadiness, interconnection, and authentic living.