Instructors

At Yoga of the Valley we offer a wide range of classes for every person, every body, every level. Our teachers collectively have several decades of experience to offer. While each instructor expresses a unique style, there is a common thread with the quality of instruction as all have trained in our very own Yoga San Kalpa Teaching School. We share a united desire to make you feel safe, supported, and always welcome.

Lora Ksieniewicz

Owner, Director of Yoga San Kalpa Teaching School, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Lora Ksieniewicz has been teaching yoga since 2006, and has studied meditation and asana practice for more than two decades. Her classes focus on functional movement to keep our bodies safe, strong and healthy, using the poses as a way to access our minds and emotions for release, healing and greater ease in the present moment.

Lora holds a degree in Holistic Health at The University of Massachusetts Amherst, with a focus on the Kinesiology of Yoga. She has studied the history and philosophy of Buddhism and Hinduism at Boston University, through Antioch University, and at Mount Holyoke College. She spent several months at the Burmese Monastery in Bodh Gaya India, studying the history of Buddhism and it's various traditions from both an academic standpoint and as a practitioner. She is honored to have studied vipassana meditation with the venerable Munindra-ji, and was able to test his patience with her many, many silly questions. Some of Lora's yoga teachers include Claire Este Mcdonald and Gregor Singleton, Sarah Powers, Shiva Rea and Baron Baptiste. She has trained within the Sivananda Yoga tradition in the U.S, the Bahamas, and in Kerala India.

Lora was the Director of Flexibility and Recovery for National Championship Amherst College Men's Soccer and Puma Peak Performance Camps, having worked with the team since 2010. She has developed a specific sequence of therapeutic yoga postures for athletes that helps maintain pliability, reducing non-contact injuries, and improving both performance and recovery time. In addition to men and women's soccer at the college, high school, and youth level, Lora trains college athletes in football, lacrosse, field hockey, baseball, and hockey at Amherst College and UMass Amherst.

Lora opened Yoga on the Vine and the Yoga San Kalpa Teaching School in January 2017, and Yoga of the Valley in October 2018

Lisa Godin

Yoga Instructor - CYT 200 - Graduate of YOTV’s 200hr and Yin & Yoga Nidra Teacher Trainings

Lisa has been practicing yoga for over 20 years. She found creativity and flow of energy with body movement at an early age. Studying various styles of dance and gymnastics throughout her childhood and then teaching aerobics. 

In 1996 shortly after the birth of her son, Lisa took her first yoga class.  A new door had been opened. A physical practice with meditation created balance. Yoga  became a grounding element in her life. 

Lisa completed our Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra Teacher Training, and is a graduate of our 200hr Yoga Teacher Training. She is a much-loved teacher of the community, with a strong but compassionate approach to both Yin Yoga and Vinyasa.