Kelly Cox, Co-Director, RYT, LCSW

Kelly has been practicing yoga since graduate school, where it became a great outlet for her in dealing with a demanding schedule. Through regular practice, she has learned the power of the mind/body connection and has found in yoga the ability to live a more balanced life.

Kelly has been working with kids for the past six years as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In her work with at-risk youth in the Charlottesville area, she found yoga helped her clients by allowing them to learn how to breathe, focus on issues in their bodies, and develop a greater sense of self awareness and control. She quickly realized there was a great opportunity to teach more local kids about the benefits and fun of having a regular yoga practice.

If you are interested in private therapeutic yoga for your child, please contact Kelly.

Merrill Woodriff, Co-Director

Merrill has always loved working with children. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998 with a master’s degree in elementary education and moved to Europe to teach students from diverse backgrounds at the Munich International School. After two years abroad, Merrill returned to the States and continued to teach at independent schools in DC, San Francisco, and most recently Charlottesville. As a teacher, Merrill always worked hard to connect with her students both in and out of the classroom. She made a point to support their extra-curricular activities to gain a deeper appreciation for the "whole" child. Merrill was deeply involved in curriculum development throughout her ten years of teaching, focusing mainly on mathematics and language arts. She also spent time honing her classroom management skills and participated in two trainings in Responsive Classroom, an instructional method that encourages both academic and social development.

Merrill started practicing yoga while living in San Francisco in 2002. Immediately she was struck with both the physical and emotional benefits of the practice. For the first time in her life, she found a way to relax completely while feeling strong and focused. Then, when vacationing at the beach three years ago, Merrill was practicing yoga in the sand when her cousin’s child, who was age 6 at the time, asked her what she was doing. Merrill told the child she was doing eagle pose and asked her to join in. The child loved the challenge and the novelty of eagle pose and was quickly hungry for more asanas (poses). That day on the beach, Merrill realized that she could integrate the two things she was most passionate about in life: children and yoga.

Merrill’s proudest achievement to date has been giving birth to her baby boy, Piers, in June of 2009. She has already shared her love of yoga with her son and hopes that he will find a meaningful place for it in his life.

Merrill and Kelly have received training at Karma Kids Yoga in New York City, The Radiant Child Yoga Immersion program with Shakta Kaur Khalsa, In Balance Yoga Prenatal Yoga, Yoga Mom, Buddha Baby Post-Natal Yoga with Jyothi Larson, and OmMama Prenatal. They have taught yoga in afterschool programs across Charlottesville and have observed how yoga can positively affect a child's self esteem, overall fitness, and sense of well being.

Jen Fleisher, RYT

Jen completed her Prenatal Yoga teacher training with Leslie Lytle of OmMama in 2005. She completed a 12-hour doula training with Gail Tully this spring, and will complete her Doula certification this summer.

Jen assists many of her students in labor as a doula, and through her Prenatal Partner classes. She is Co-Director of Charlottesville Yoga School, her primary yoga practice is Ashtanga Yoga, and she teaches community yoga through Guerilla Yoga Project.

Mary Rekosh

Mary has been practicing and learning about many different types of yoga for over 10 years, and began teaching at Bend after spending countless hours there enjoying classes with her three young children. She will be obtaining her teaching certification through Child Light Yoga in January 2012. She has a Master’s Degree in Teaching from The Curry School of Education at UVA, as well as a Montessori certification, which she obtained while living and teaching on Maui, Hawaii. Mary is committed to helping instill a lifelong dedication to physical, intellectual and spiritual growth in her own children, and in the students that she is lucky enough to spend time with at Bend.

Laurie Kelly, RYT

Laurie has been practicing yoga since high school when she first started taking classes with her mother and sister (who is also a yoga teacher). She graduated from Charlottesville Yoga School's 200-hour teacher training program and completed Jyothi Larson's Yoga Mom, Buddha Baby Post-Natal training. When not teaching new moms and children, she practices Vinyasa flow yoga. She has two sons, Carter and Jack, born in 2007 and 2008, who are her greatest teachers.

Sara Zia

I am a certified and current teacher of Bikram yoga. I have over a decade of experience playing with and caring for children as a form of work to supplement my time as a student. My academic background is in philosophy and my academic future is in psychology. There is an extensive network of families in the Charlottesville area for whom I have worked such that if I have not yet connected with your munchkins, I have most likely cared for one of their friends. Such are the degrees of separation in our charming little town!