Teachers

The wonderful people who lead our classes

Stephanie Nystrom - Owner

Stephanie Nystrom began practicing yoga in 2000. After experimenting with several styles (mostly Sivananda and Iyengar), she took her first Bikram Yoga class on a sweltering July day in 2003 and fell instantly in love. She deepened her Bikram practice while attending graduate school for Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Then, one evening while studying, she came to the sudden realization that getting her Ph.D. was not really what she wanted to do with her life, and decided to become a yoga teacher. She attended the intensive Bikram Yoga teacher training in Los Angeles 2005 and taught extensively in the San Francisco Bay area before moving with her husband to the Hudson Valley in 2006. Since moving to the area, she has taught in local studios as well as the Bikram Yoga studio in Danbury, Connecticut. She is very passionate about Bikram Yoga (which she practiced through two pregnancies) and is so honored to be able to share this practice with the Hudson Valley.

SHULIN CHINILSON

Shulin has been practicing and teaching yoga for over 20 years, including a six year immersion living and serving in a yoga ashram. She attended Bikram’s teacher training in 2003 followed by others including Svaroopa (yin style), meditation, Reiki, Vinyasa, and YogaShapeshifting. It is her greatest passion and aim to support students’ journeys with inspiring yoga instruction and gentle yet profound energy healing. Originally from San Francisco, Shulin now lives in the Hudson Valley where she delights in the richness of nature and community.

Kimmer Gifford

Kimmer completed her first teacher training in 2007, the same year she completed her LCSW. She believes yoga is the greatest therapy of all.

JOAN BEACH

Joan began attending hot yoga and Pilates in 2019 in West Palm Beach, FL after she retired Dutchess County Probation, where I worked for 30 years as an Officer. She had lived and raised a family in the Hudson Valley but was ready for a change. She played racquetball avidly for many years, trained in gyms, and walked and jogged to maintain a degree of fitness. Her children were also very athletic and the family lived an active life. However, nothing ever impressed her more than staying still on her mat, in a 106 degree room, working harder than she had ever worked in her entire life. She learned to breathe!

Her fitness journey was never the same again. In 2020 she took a certification class to teach PyroPilates and slowly began teaching to neighbors by the pool in Florida, always growing in her yoga practice at the same time. She began teaching again in 2024, and recently completed a 26&2 yoga teacher training. Her journey through yoga has brought her here. As an avid Bikram and Vinyasa practitioner, she feels that the Pilates conditioning is beneficial to maintaining improved asana control.

JOCELYN SONGCO

Jocelyn certified as a Bikram instructor in Fall 2007 in Hawaii and then taught for many years at studios in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She also studied with Dharma Mittra in NYC in 2011 and 2012 (500 hour TT, Level II certification) and with AcroYoga Montreal in July 2012 (Level I certification). Jocelyn is thrilled to be teaching and practicing in the Hudson Valley with this community.

ELIZABETH MARSHALL

Elizabeth took her first Bikram yoga class in 1992. With a background in professional dance, she had tried every style of yoga and aerobics that she could find. She knew after her first Bikram class that she had experienced the most complete and thorough practice of her life, physically, as well as mentally and emotionally. She wanted to know more, to understand what was going on.

She graduated from Bikram’s teacher training in the fall of 2000, and opened a Bikram studio in Kansas City in 2001. She has assisted as a guest teacher at 25 of Bikram’s teacher trainings, as well as serving as a judge with the USA Yoga Federation. From 2019 until 2025, she taught in NYC at Bikram Yoga Harlem and Bode.

She is profoundly grateful to her primary teachers, Bikram Choudhury and Emmy Cleaves, and for the time that she was able to spend with them over the years.

The students continue to inspire and teach her more than she can express......