Our Team

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Alison Bailey

Yoga Instructor

Alison (she/they) was 18 when they took their first Hot Hatha yoga class in 2004. A regular practitioner at Hot Yoga Olympia since 2013, they completed their first teacher training there in 2019. In 2026, Alison completed a 200-hour teacher training with Ghosh Yoga. Alison now leads Hot Hatha (26 & 2) and Hatha Foundations, an unheated, Ghosh-informed class. She is also a freelance writer, editor, and communications consultant with an MFA from Goddard College.

Our teachers bring their own experience, training, and perspective to the mat. Drawing from a variety of traditions, they offer guidance that meets students where they are and encourages them to explore their practice. Each teacher brings something different to True Self Yoga, and we’re grateful for the people who make our community what it is.

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Alyssa Hilton Meyer

Yoga Instructor

Alyssa completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at True Self Yoga in 2022. Having been drawn to the physical aspects of asana practice intermittently throughout her life, she discovered a deep sense of comfort and healing through a gentle, introspective yoga practice following significant health challenges in 2016.
Yoga has served as the cornerstone for her recovery, helping her rebuild physical strength, enhance mental well-being, and manage chronic health issues. Alyssa is passionate about sharing the therapeutic benefits of yoga and is committed to leading classes that are both accessible and inclusive.

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Aly Long

Yoga Instructor

Aly Long loves yoga! She discovered yoga in college and her practice grew over the years studying both Hatha and Anusara yoga. Aly was called to teach after spending several months in India and Southeast Asia. This clarity came after meeting her Guru Amma(Amritanadamayi). Amma continues to be a strong presence in her life, practice and her teaching!
Upon returning to the states, Aly completed a 250 hour yoga teacher training in 2008 and since has had the opportunity to teach in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona as well as St Thomas, USVI. After moving to Olympia, Aly completed a 100 hour yoga teacher training. In Olympia, she discovered her passion for working with children and families! Aly loves to introduce yoga to people of all ages! Aly’s classes encourage you to stay with the breath, listen to the body and to love yourself! Her classes are influenced by her extensive travel, nature and the seasons and embracing the present moment. Beyond yoga, meditation and chanting, Aly loves to be in nature moving her body or playing with her children! She loves to travel, speaks 4 languages and enjoys music from all over the world. Her 2 children bring an abundance of joy to her life and they are her greatest teachers! Aly loves to learn! She has a BA from the University of Arizona. After graduating from Oregon School of Massage, she practiced many forms of bodywork. Her background in massage therapy gives her a deeper understanding of the body and how it is all connected. Aly teaches Storytime Yoga for kids ages 2-6 on Wednesdays at 11am.

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Yoga Instructor

Daniel Buscher

Daniel began his Hot Yoga practice in 2014 at Hot Yoga Olympia and knew almost immediately he wanted to guide others in this life-changing practice.
He completed his training at Sealevel Hot Yoga (formerly Bikram’s Yoga College of India) in Seattle in 2016 and took the reins for Hot Yoga Olympia in 2019 from his teachers Anatole and Margot Losa. He is thrilled to join the True Self team of teachers and practitioners. Daniel lives in Olympia with his amazing partner and cat.

Anatole Losa

Yoga Instructor

Anatole has always been passionate about movement and the art of being present. In his early years, he delved into this passion through rock climbing. Later, in his twenties, he discovered Hot Yoga and was captivated by it.
He quickly grew to appreciate the versatility of Bikram Yoga. In 2002, Anatole trained directly with Bikram and went on to open Hot Yoga Olympia in 2004. Since then, he has been dedicated to sharing his love for yoga with the community.

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Anela Perez

Yoga Instructor

Ānela’s yoga journey began in 2009, when she was introduced to her first Bikram Hot Yoga class. Out of desperation and on the verge of considering a major spinal fusion surgery, her partner suggested she try yoga instead.
The physical, mental, and emotional benefits of yoga were felt immediately and she returned to yoga everyday that week – and continues to return to her practice time and again. Her love of the Hot Hatha practice led her to her first teacher training in 2012 with a studio in Seattle, where she found immense joy in sharing yoga with others for 5 years before moving to Olympia. She took a break from teaching to focus her energies on building the family business she shares with her partner, and to dedicate herself to being a stay at home mom. During this time, she was fortunate to find the True Self Yoga studio and community and was inspired to deepen her own practice and understanding of yoga. She participated in and completed teacher training in 2023, followed by an apprenticeship with Christina Lagdameo and is now currently working through a Trauma-Informed Teacher training.
Her passion is to provide classes that are a welcoming and inclusive space for exploration and growth. She strives to guide classes with a focus on mindful breathing and intentional movement to connect to the present moment. ‘Ānela has a deep appreciation for the transformative power of yoga beyond the mat, encouraging others to carry the sense of peace and awareness they discover and cultivate in class, into their everyday experiences and lives.

Anne Laderman

Yoga Instructor

Anne is a teacher committed to yoga as a way of life. She is a certified yoga instructor (E-RYT 500HR) and Thai Yoga Therapist. Anne has taught in California, Arizona, New Zealand and her current home of Olympia, WA. She deeply enjoys living in her beautiful co-housing community and spending time with her children and loved ones.

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Annette McQueen

Yoga Instructor

Annette’s formal yoga training began at the White Lotus Foundation, in Santa Barbara, California, with Ganga White. Inspiration and passion fuel this instructor as she authentically shares her 25+ years of knowledge with yoga students as she guides them through pranayama, meditation, movement and sound.
Annette regularly teaches Yoga Flow and Gentle Yoga. During meditations or savasana, she may share sound through her beloved Venus Gong or Carnelian Crystal Quartz singing bowl. Sharing yoga and the healing arts is her Dharma in this life.

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Aaron Hill

Yoga Instructor

Aaron first came to the studio in 2021 as a student, where yoga became an important part of his personal growth and recovery.
In 2022, he began supporting the studio through construction, performing remodels and ongoing improvements to the studio’s buildings and property. Aaron graduated from TSY 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in 2024 and helps facilitate the studio’s Yoga Tools for Recovery class, offering practices rooted in yogic philosophy, mindfulness, and lived experience.

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Carissa Dragonheart

Yoga Instructor

Carissa discovered yoga in 2013 while in the midst of a deep struggle with disordered eating. The mat became a life raft for her as she embarked on the tumultuous journey of recovery.
She became a 250 hr RYT with Corepower Yoga in Seattle in 2014 where she studied Vinyasa and Yoga Sculpt – both of which helped her to rediscover her true power. Carissa became a Certified Life Coach with The Life Coach School in 2015 with an emphasis on helping others to heal their relationship with food and body image. Carissa weaves her passion for coaching and thought work into her yoga classes. She works to bring her soul into teaching and cares deeply about the collective awakening of our planet. She is a trauma-informed, body positive, yogini who enjoys making you sweat on your way to enlightenment.

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Chelsea Le Brun

Yoga Instructor

Chelsea is a registered yoga teacher (RYT), a biochemist and enthusiastic student of life. She believes that yoga can be used as an integrative practice to explore one’s own body, mind and their responses to life experiences.
Her classes are grounding and opening, based on alignment principles with a focus on moving with intention and cultivating balance. By cultivating a sense of light-hearted play and deep inquiry in her classes, she hopes to create a space where students can develop a deeper relationship with themselves and their world. Chelsea studied with Mark Stephens and Erika Abrahamian in Santa Cruz, CA and is constantly learning from her fellow yoga teachers and students.

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Christina Lagdameo

Yoga Instructor & Owner

Various losses in Christina’s life brought her back over and over again to the practices and teachings in meditation and yoga. The words of the young Buddha in Hermann Hesses’s Siddharta resonated deeply with her, “[God] has robbed me, yet he has given me something of greater value . . . he has given to me myself.”
Her spiritual quest catapulted Christina into rigorous spiritual training at the Chozen-ji Zen Dojo in Honolulu and in Ashtanga yoga in South India. It was when she lived in Mysore, India for 3 years that Christina witnessed the transformative powers of yoga and meditation. Working with the nonprofit organization Odanadi, Christina shared the practices of yoga and meditation with survivors of human trafficking and was humbled by the experience. With this life-changing awakening, she made the vow to do her best to pass on the teachings to aid in others’ journeys in self-realization. Before focusing on yoga full-time, Christina served the White House for 9 years in the White House Office of Management and Budget; and then served as President Obama’s Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She helped establish the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland and received her Masters in Public Policy from the New School for Social Research in New York City.

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Connie Patnode

Yoga Instructor

Connie has been a Massage Therapist since 1993 and found Yoga around the same time, like many massage therapists-who-turn-yogi in Olympia. Connie has a holistic approach to health and well being. “What I have found from my own experience is that by connecting with one’s body and breath you can heal the mind and rehabilitate the body. The body is our journal of experiences.”
Connie started with Iyengar yoga and found Bikram in 2000 and fell in love. She took the teacher training in 2011. What she loves about yoga is the connection and presence to oneself that it brings. It grounds you to your own power and authenticity. Connie strives to bring that connection to oneself to each class. Self love. Self awareness. The journey inward ripples outward. Welcome to the Journey.

Dave Hutton

Yoga Instructor

Dave has been involved with martial arts, sports and athletics his whole life. Throughout High School and College he was a competitive Fencer and after college he was a serious runner. Due to a severe back injury incurred playing sports back in 2000, Dave needed to find a physical, yet therapeutic and healing workout without incurring more stress to his body.
He attended a Kripalu Yoga Seminar with Bikram Choudhury in 2001 and was immediately attracted to its philosophy and practice. He was inspired to attend Bikram’s Teacher Training program later that year, with his wife, Jean, and then later together in 2002 they opened up their own Bikram Yoga studio called Bikram Yoga Larchmont. After 12 fantastic years of owning a yoga studio, Dave and Jean sold their studio and realized it was time to move to the Pacific Northwest, the land of Valinor! Dave has been a practitioner of meditation and the esoteric for over 25 years and strives to incorporate both Eastern and Western beliefs, ideas, and humor into his yoga practice and teaching. Dave and Jean continue their Jnana Yoga training with their spiritual teacher, Ramtha, at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Dave has been a certified Bikram Yoga instructor since December 2001.

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Elizabeth Drake

Yoga Instructor

Elizabeth began practicing yoga when she moved to Olympia in 2001. She became a dedicated practitioner in 2009 when her (now) husband introduced her to Hot Yoga.
The discipline and focus of the traditional 26/2 practice gave Beth a tool for finding calm and balance through breath and movement. Elizabeth completed her instructor training in 2019 at Hot Yoga Olympia under her teacher Daniel Buscher. Beth is a certified mediator, and she teaches communication and conflict resolution skills. She enjoys exploring Washington’s natural wonders and playing the ukulele.

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Yoga Instructor

Fred Wright

Fred has been practicing yoga for over 6 years and discovered True Self shortly after it opened – it was immediately clear that True Self was a very special studio. After a busy career as an entrepreneur and business leader, yoga was the perfect transition to a more relaxed lifestyle and he took the opportunity to learn many forms and styles of yoga.
He chose to take his practice deeper and completed a 200hr RYT through True Self Yoga where a focused interest in Yoga Nidra developed. An apprenticeship followed where his gentle nature and soothing voice lead him to specialize in teaching Yoga Nidra mediation. Fred committed further by attending an iRest yoga Nidra Teacher Training earning a Level 1 Certificate.
His passion is to help people feel better and learn to connect to their inner place of well-being, peace and ease. He is honored to share the practice and feels a wonderful sense of gratitude for having the opportunity help people relax and deal with the challenges of everyday life.

A great yoga teacher does more than guide you through poses. At True Self Yoga, our teachers encourage you to listen, ask questions, and find what works for you. Whether you’re stepping onto the mat for the first time or have practiced for years, you’ll find clear instruction and the freedom to make the practice your own.

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Yoga Instructor

Ivy McDonald

Ivy completed her teacher training at True Self in 2024 but her journey started long before that. Ivy has been part of the True Self community for several years and practicing yoga for a bit longer.
As a military spouse originally from West Virginia, finding a sense of home hasn’t always been easy, but True Self quickly became just that for her. It holds a special place in her heart, and she is deeply grateful for the community it’s given her and the opportunity to give back through teaching. We hope you enjoy sharing space with Ivy and hopefully even get a giggle from many of her random jokes!

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Holly Anderson

Yoga Instructor

Holly Anderson is a graduate of the first True Self Yoga Teacher Training and is now a RYT-200. She first came to the practice at a young age, but it was not until pain and illness struck her body and began to affect her daily life, that she really pursued yoga more seriously.
She found that yoga began to provide balance and healing of the body and mind that she was struggling to find in other arenas and slowly began to commit to a more regular practice of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. It was not until her first visit to magical India, however, that she truly saw and felt the ways in which the practice would forever shift her life towards true health and happiness. This new path soon lead her to Olympia and to the wonderful community here at True Self, where she began to bring a more daily practice into her life and felt the draw to share that practice with others.
Her main passions for teaching yoga are to help others to find a place of calm and balance that they can come to within their daily lives and to bring the practice to those who might otherwise feel that yoga is inaccessible to them for any reason.

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Jade Land

Yoga Instructor

Jade was born and raised in Olympia, WA and enjoys all things PNW. She found yoga when she joined the Quest for Truth scholarship program at True Self Yoga as they opened doors in 2016. She hasn’t left the studio since.
DescriptAfter committing to her practice three days a week she quickly saw the benefits of a regular practice. She believes yoga is for anyone and not just a physical practice but mental and spiritual. In addition to community, confidence and health, yoga has brought a great sense of self awareness and love to her life that she only hopes to share and pass on to others.
After a year of practice she enrolled in the first yoga teacher training at True Self excited to understand yoga on a deeper level. When jade started to study and learn more about the 8 limbs of yoga. Yoga became a way of life.
She enjoys teaching various styles of yoga and strives to offer fun and safe classes that are Inclusive and accessible to all skill levels. She hopes to motivate others to improve their wellbeing by committing to a regular practice themselves. She stays educated on new techniques and brings variety to each of her classes. Her classes have a little bit of everything and can be enjoyed by anyone. Her teaching style encourages letting the breath guide your practice, staying present and exploring your body as well as your mind, cultivating a deeper sense of the self.
Outside of yoga and her office job she likes to spend her time with her husband and two daughters exploring new places and spending time outside.ion text goes here

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Yoga Instructor

Jean Cho

Jean has been teaching Bikram and Hot Yoga for over 15 years. Before that, for many years she taught aerobic classes at various YMCAs throughout New York. As a lifelong athlete, Jean started to experience the effects of years of high impact stress on her body.
After developing chronic knee and ankle injuries, she could no longer perform her normal workout routine and sought a different way to exercise and relax. This is when she turned to yoga. When she took her first Bikram class in 2000, the results were astonishing – no more pain and yet the class was physically and mentally challenging. In 2001, Jean attended Bikram’s 2-month Teacher Training program in California, with her husband, Dave, and became a certified Bikram Yoga instructor. Soon thereafter, in 2002, Jean and Dave opened a Bikram Yoga studio in Larchmont, NY. While attending several events at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, Jean and Dave became very enthused with the Pacific Northwest lifestyle. And, after 12 wonderful years as studio owners, it was time to move on and focus on other business and personal endeavors. In 2014, Jean and Dave sold their studio and moved to the great state of Washington to realize new experiences and to deepen their spiritual practice.

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Jess Becker

Yoga Instructor

Jessica was introduced to yoga and meditation by her mother in 2008 at Baltimore Yoga Village, and she has been practicing ever since. True Self’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, and thereafter completed a Hot Hatha Apprenticeship with Vajra Romano. Jessica is inspired by meeting people on their journey to the Self, and enjoys instructing with specificity and precision.
When Jessica entered law school in Seattle in 2012, what had become a daily practice gave her coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety, as well as added flexibility and conditioning for the outdoor activities she enjoys, such as rock climbing and running with her dog. Jessica is a 2019 graduate of True Self’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training, and thereafter completed a Hot Hatha Apprenticeship with Vajra Romano. Jessica is inspired by meeting people on their journey to the Self, and enjoys instructing with specificity and precision.

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Kelli Mae Willis

Yoga Instructor & Family Yoga Coordinator

Kelli Mae is a certified teacher of yoga, AcroYoga, CircusYoga, Children’s Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness, and Waldorf education. She coordinates our Kids and Family Yoga program and leads Children’s Yoga Teacher Training weekends at True Self. Kelli Mae brings her dynamic, playful teaching style to all of her classes, for children and adults alike!

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Yoga Instructor & Manager (email)

Kehle Kaivalya

Kehle brings a vibrant and uplifting energy to every class. Having embarked on her yoga journey with a passion for both physical wellness and mental clarity in 2009, she completed her 200-hour RYT certification at True Self Yoga in 2018, where she embraces the practice’s transformative power. Her teaching style is a harmonious blend of fun and challenge, designed to make every student feel supported and inspired.
Kehle is excited to share her love of yoga with you and help you discover the wonderful benefits of this practice in a warm and engaging environment.

Kevin Mattison

Yoga Instructor

I am a lifelong athlete. I engaged in many ‘gladiator’ type sports that typically have many injuries associated with them. Fortunately, as I approached the BIG-5-OH, I made it to my first Bikram Yoga class in relatively good condition; not perfect, but good!
Although I practiced other forms, or traditions, of Hatha (Ha-Sun, Tha-Moon) Yoga prior to my Bikram experience, I found that the Bikram method resonated with me and, ultimately, healed me in remarkable ways. I became a Yoga teacher to proliferate the benefits of this practice. I bring an open mind and heart to the art and science of these physical expressions of Yogi principles. I regard this gift that we share as a ‘health’ oriented Yoga journey. As our bodies process what we do in the hot room we incrementally fix what needs repair and enhance what’s already working. In short, I’m here to help you gain physical, energetic, and mental strength on all levels; increase not only your physical range of motion, but your mental and spiritual range as well; detox all systems; including your integumentary system; and, last, but not least, experience a dignified longevity. After all, if we don’t take exceptional care of our exceptional bodies, then what?

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Kristi Lyons

Yoga Instructor

Authentic and charismatic, she is known for her clear, concise instructions as well as her ability to challenge students both intellectually and physically.
At a young age, Kristi started stumbling upon those rare moments where the veil between humanness and spirit were mysteriously thin. Those moments sparked her curiosity to seek out a wide variety of spiritual teachers and mentors from all walks of life including; long time yoga teachers and desi yogis, fiery social justice advocates, trailblazing movers & shakers, insightful energy healers, unassuming clairvoyants, and an eclectic collection of “adopted moms” she’s gathered along her journey.
Kristi upholds the truth that yoga is a life practice that includes self-study, social justice, inclusivity, environmentalism, and uplifting the voices of lineage holders in the yoga tradition. She offers the gift of humanness as she walks alongside of her community as a loving witness with compassion, and a big open heart.
Kristi completed her last 300-hour teacher training in 2019 with yoga therapist and author, Sarahjoy Marsh, who has inspired Kristi to take on one-on-one clients for healing through mindfulness and restorative Ayurvedic practices.

Yoga Instructor & Manager (email)

Laura Deaton

Laura first came to the mat for a good workout, what happened was far more beautiful then she could ever have imagined. Linking breath with movement became a peaceful dance for her, a journey with herself, a wonderful way to discover to her truth. This has proven to be hugely healing, and a wonderful way to navigate through life’s ups and downs.
Laura has always felt drawn to be nurturing and show others she cares, whether this is with a smile, a hug, or a body positive message in class, she strives to touch many lives with smiles, love and laughter. Laura is a graduate of True Self’s RYT-200 followed with an apprenticeship under Vajra Romero.
Laura’s life has been in perpetual motion, from early childhood, she found joy in expressing herself with her physical body, she explored motion through dance, taking ballet, jazz, and tap, she also experimented in gymnastics. As an adult she continued a life of movement, exploring various activities, and techniques, taking pilates, barre, and piyo. It was not until she made her way into her first yoga class that she realized the true joy she felt on her mat, connecting her breath with movement tapped into her childhood joys of self-expression. Laura believes you are always learning, constantly growing and continuously healing both on and off the mat. As a wife, and mom of two wonderful children, yoga provides a beautiful blend of self-care, love and community for Laura.

Nate Gibbs

Yoga Instructor

In 2008, I discovered hot yoga while recovering from addiction and numerous physical injuries. The intensity and rigor of the practice provided a sanctuary for my return to health.
After completing the 200-hour training at True Self in 2024, I am dedicated to helping others discover their limitlessness through yoga and meditation. As a person of Native Hawaiian descent, I always seek to integrate the value of Aloha into my teaching. I currently reside among the trees in Olympia with our daughter, Naima, and my partner, Anela, who is also a teacher at True Self.

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Miranda Calmjoy

Yoga Instructor

Miranda Calmjoy (she/they) has been practicing yoga since childhood. She is drawn to spirituality that centers love, compassion, and connection.
Around 2013, Miranda began to deeply explore a yoga practice that helped her cope with complex challenges such as disordered eating, experiences of sexual violence, and religious abuse. Through all of life’s heaviness, the breath was there. In 2017, Miranda completed her first 10-day Vipassana meditation which further deepened her connection to breath and presence. In 2020, she completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training in New Orleans, with a focus on Bhakti yoga. Bhakti is the yoga of devotion and weaves art forms like music, poetry, storytelling, and dance into the practice. It encourages a broad expression of yoga and moves away from prescriptive practices. Miranda has additional training in the integration of social justice in yoga (over 100 training hours) as well as prenatal yoga teaching (certified RPYT). In addition to being a registered yoga teacher, Miranda is a parent, a health policy analyst, a medical clown, a friend, and an advocate for social change.

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Yoga Instructor

LeeAnn Fassbender

LeeAnn likes to say ‘Yoga is the door to so much more!’. Her practice began in 2016 in the Northeast where she is from. While living across the street from a studio in Jersey City, NJ, she began participating in their karma yogi program and quickly fell in love with getting on the mat regularly.
Yoga led LeeAnn to make many positive and healthy changes in her life including finding therapy, meditation and sobriety. Attending several silent meditation retreats along the way, LeeAnn spent the next couple years traveling on her own across the country working as a tattoo artist, finding her path, with a sense of knowing teaching would be in her future. She first attended a class at the studio while on a visit to Olympia in 2023, moved across the country and joined the karma yogi program in 2024 and completed her intensive 200 hr teacher training at True Self in the summer of 2025. LeeAnn began teaching just 3 months after graduation and joined the TS team in April of 2026. As yoga was the catalyst for so many extraordinary changes and opportunities in her life, she sees teaching as another door opened in the direction of her true self, helping others to connect with themselves and believe in their power and the possibility of their own growth and positive change!

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Nika Wolf

Yoga Instructor

Nika grew up alongside the gentle loving guidance of meditation as she navigated a learning disability. Meditation has revealed to her who she is beyond the busy, distracted mind.
The idea of yoga being a “moving meditation” took her practice to unimaginable heights. Through the completion of the TSY 200-hour teacher training, her dedication and love of yoga grew stronger. She is passionate about teaching kids yoga in a way that is fun and engaging. When she is not at the studio, she is in the public school classroom inspiring young minds.

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PJ Ramstack

Yoga Instructor

PJ began his yoga journey around the year 2000 while camping on an island in upstate New York. There’s even a photo capturing his first, and perhaps most uncomfortable, attempt at tree pose.
In the years that followed, PJ encountered Vedic philosophy, which deepened and broadened his understanding of the world. He completed his Yoga Teacher Training at True Self Yoga in 2018.
Above all, yoga has transformed PJ’s perspective on life and death. Now, as he focuses on raising his two young sons, he is eager to further explore and expand his experience in this profound area.

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Yoga Instructor

Rebecca Fuller

Rebecca began practicing yoga in 2005 and still remembers the wonder of her first practice. She has maintained a steady yoga practice since then and enjoyed the opportunity to participate in True Self’s 200 hr RYT certification in 2025.
After teacher training, Rebecca apprenticed with True Self teachers, embarking on her teaching journey. Rebecca loves alignment, the use of a prop, and brings a calming and vibrant presence to each class.After returning from a week alone in the wilderness, Vajra left Olympia on a pilgrimage to the far East. Arriving in Nepal, Vajra learned intensive meditation training from Tibetan Buddhist monks at Kopan Monastery www.kopanmonastery.com. Wishing to merge his spiritual training with a conventional education, Vajra enrolled at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. www.naropa.edu. and completed the only Bachelor Degree/ Yoga Teacher Training Program in the United States in 2006. For ten years, Vajra taught yoga classes throughout the Northwest, Washington DC and Hawaii. In 2016, now married, Vajra and his wife Christina teamed up to envision a yoga studio of their own. They took a leap, moved from their simple life on an organic farm on Kauai to Olympia, WA. where they would establish True Self Yoga. Life had brought Vajra back full circle to Olympia where he first began, to share what he had learned and fulfill his life’s Dharma.

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Rebecca Steiner

Yoga Instructor

Rebecca is originally from New Jersey and has been on the West Coast for over ten years. She has a background in Education, Science and Art. After many years of dental assisting, she found particular appeal in the rejuvenating and healing qualities of heated yoga, for both body and mind.
She began a regular practice at a Bikram studio in San Diego and was inspired to take classes of all styles. Rebecca (Becca) completed her 200-hour teacher training with Yoga Tropics in San Diego California, in 2012. In addition to leading weekly Hatha classes, she volunteered with the Sean O’Shea Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing free yoga classes and nutritional information to San Diego’s youth. She also donated classes every week to help children and families at the Rady Children’s Hospital Oncology unit. Her positive outlook and nurturing energy will leave you feeling rejuvenated and relaxed.

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Shanna Taylor

Yoga Instructor

Shanna started her long path to teaching yoga as a teen, propping up a hardcover copy of Iyengar’s book of postures as she stumbled through them in self study.
Years later, she found herself incorporating principles and anatomy that she had taken from yoga to her career as a personal trainer. After trying one Hot class on a whim, Shanna began a steady practice that she maintained for over a decade before deciding to take the True Self Teacher Training in 2018. Since then, she has incorporated her prior experience in the gym with her passion for yoga in the form of sculpt classes! She also very much enjoys teaching fusion and still loves taking hot classes. In her spare time, she enjoys time outdoors with her family and dog.

A man with dark, slicked-back hair and a beard, smiling, wearing a black tank top with a design and the words "true self yoga." He has tattoos on both arms. The background features an abstract artwork with swirling shapes and warm tones.

Yoga Instructor & Owner

Vajra Romano

After graduating in 1999 from Capital High School in Olympia, Vajra went to the wilderness to contemplate the meaning of life. After a bad judgement in direction, Vajra spent seven days lost in Olympic National Park. During this time of desperation, with no food or certainty of making it out alive, Vajra was forced to turn inward and discover the indestructibility of his True Self.
After returning from a week alone in the wilderness, Vajra left Olympia on a pilgrimage to the far East. Arriving in Nepal, Vajra learned intensive meditation training from Tibetan Buddhist monks at Kopan Monastery www.kopanmonastery.com. Wishing to merge his spiritual training with a conventional education, Vajra enrolled at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. www.naropa.edu. and completed the only Bachelor Degree/ Yoga Teacher Training Program in the United States in 2006. For ten years, Vajra taught yoga classes throughout the Northwest, Washington DC and Hawaii. In 2016, now married, Vajra and his wife Christina teamed up to envision a yoga studio of their own. They took a leap, moved from their simple life on an organic farm on Kauai to Olympia, WA. where they would establish True Self Yoga. Life had brought Vajra back full circle to Olympia where he first began, to share what he had learned and fulfill his life’s Dharma.