Our Teachers
Every one of our teachers embodies a passion for the practice of yoga and wants to share it with you in a comfortable and welcoming environment. Whatever you desire from your yoga practice, we want to help you center, connect, and cultivate.
Stephanie Meyer Chapman
Owner and Teacher
Stephanie was drawn to the practice of yoga in 2012. Experiencing the advantages of mindfulness, breath, and flexibility on the mat, encouraged her to focus on incorporating all aspects of yoga into her daily life and career as a high school teacher. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits motivated Stephanie to share her passion for yoga with others. She became a Yoga Alliance, RYT-200 in March of 2015 through Ally Ford. She is drawn to teaching beginners and enjoys focusing on strength and balance in her daily practice. Stephanie acknowledges that a yoga practice is something that changes and shifts over time to accommodate one’s body and mind. She fosters this awareness in her own practice and nurtures it in the practice of her students. Stephanie is dedicated and always seeking new ways to become a better yoga student and teacher. She is E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP, and has completed her 95-hr RCYT certification through Yogees Yoga4Kids. She has attended workshops with Melanie Fawer, Kino MacGregor, and Doug Swenson.
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Dina Atkinson
Owner and Teacher
Dina first came to yoga for the health benefits and her desire to learn and grow. She is drawn to a spiritual way of living and mind body connection. The fluidity, beauty and meditative qualities of the practice speak to her heart. While immersing herself into yoga teacher training to deepen her own practice, she found a desire to teach and received her Yoga Alliance RYT-200 in 2022 through Balanced Living. She is certified in Mindfulness and is currently working toward her Yin and 95-hr RCYT certification through Yogees Yoga4Kids. She has studied under Jen Rault and Jessica Sledge. Dina strives to bring yoga into everyday life by doing, evolving, and truly living it; allowing peace and joy to flourish within and spread to others. Her goal is to foster awareness, healing and balance in the body and mind. With an understanding that yoga is not a “one size fits all” practice, she offers her students the opportunity to practice at their own pace, modify when needed and honor how they feel at all times. When Dina is not on her mat, you can find her traveling, fishing, gardening, or on her farm enjoying the natural beauties life has to offer.
James Osborne
James Osborne is trying to find some answers to the complexities of our world and yoga has become a comrade on this quest. He finally has learned how to breathe, move so he won't hurt himself, and discovered a community of friends who want to celebrate this connection. Every day that he practices yoga he learns something. It's humbling, exciting, motivating, and he can't wait to share this experience with you. He is approaching his fourth year of teaching and wants to infuse the energy, creativity, and patience that his teachers have shared with him. Yoga, the Arts, and his loved ones are the transformative powers that guide him.
Angelica Sarullo
Angelica hold’s a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from ULM and has had a passion for dance since childhood. She first discovered yoga in 2011 while living in Los Angeles. She fell in love with yoga, because it reminded her of lyrical dance and it corrected everything that dance physically damaged. Angelica received her RTY 200 hours from Yoga Works in Santa Monica in 2015. Angelica loves the healing power of yoga and hopes to play a role in revealing that power to her students.
Harriet Stone Evans
Harriet was introduced to yoga by her ballet teacher, Paul Coates, in 1979. She has studied many disciplines of hatha yoga - among them Ashtanga, Anusara and Kundalini. Her perception of yoga was completely changed when she began the practice of Iyengar Yoga with the late Karin O’Bannon. Karin was her teacher and mentor for six years. Harriet completed two years of Iyengar teacher training and an apprenticeship with Karin. She is committed to continuing the Iyengar tradition in Shreveport. She believes that Iyengar is to yoga as ballet is to dance - it's firm and has a sound foundation.
Elizabeth Winkler
Elizabeth discovered her love for group fitness and yoga in 2002. She loves the camaraderie and encouragement that group fitness provides and wants to share that with others. In 2012, she finally pursued her desire to teach fitness, beginning with her YogaFit Level 1 Teacher Training and has been teaching yoga ever since then. She loves the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that yoga provides and wants everyone to experience them. She teaches a straightforward, active, vinyasa yoga with a focus on linking movement with breath. Since 2012, Elizabeth has completed her 200 Hour YTT through YogaRenew, as well as additional 120 hours of training through YogaFit, including Prenatal and Seniors. She has also received her Schwinn Indoor Cycling and SCW Group Fitness and Barre certifications. She teaches a variety of classes, but yoga is her favorite!
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Jamie Day
Born in Japan, Jamie, along with her family, relocated to Illinois early in her life. As her family continued to move for her father’s work in the Air Force, it sparked her innate curiosity about people and life. She was first introduced to yoga and meditation at age 22, when she had an undeniable urge to attend yoga classes while at LSUS. After finishing her degree and starting a family, she continued to make yoga more and more a larger part of her life. Practicing Ashtanga and meditation daily, she began teaching yoga to students of all ages in 2016. Jamie has made yoga and meditation her life and continues to expand upon that: teaching mindfulness and meditation to teens studying for their SAT, as well as teaching mindfulness and breathwork to children during learning. She believes sensitivity, intuition, and insight can be found through connection with the world around us and that no teacher is greater than the one within. Jamie has been teaching yoga for the past 6 years. She is excited, humbled, and honored by the opportunity to spread her love of yoga and is grateful for all her teachers and students.
Monica Fayad
Monica learned how influential movement is on wellness at a young age. Encouraged by her parents’ dedication to health and influenced by their interest in spiritual development, she was taken to the gym to work out her depression beginning in middle school. From that point she found a love for dance and in college her quest for wellbeing was quenched with the combination of modern dance, yoga and meditation. She has completed over 1000 hours of training in vinyasa yoga, Ashtanga yoga, mindfulness, yin yoga, perinatal yoga and Ayurveda for bodywork and yoga. Most recently she completed co-heart level chakra training with Sacred Centers and became Reiki Level II practitioner.
Deeply rooted in her practice and dedicated to continual self-discovery, she has brought her passion for the power of movement to the community since 2003. Monica leads a yoga teacher training, Balanced Yoga School, continuing education for current yoga teachers and workshops for all. Monica strives to approach each client and student with compassion, a keen eye and an understanding of universal patterns as well as inherent individualism. Monica teaches Ashtanga with the blessing of her teacher, Melanie Fawer, trained in the lineage of and certified by Sri. K Patabhi Jois, and loves teaching all styles of yoga as they each create a path toward mindful awareness, personal growth and self-compassion.
Abigail Pomeroy
The first time Abigail practiced yoga, she knew she had stumbled onto something magnificent. After having more experiences with yoga, she knew she wanted to continue growing as a student and also as a teacher. In 2016, she completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training and has been deepening her knowledge ever since.
Kristy Hathorn
After attending a few yoga classes with a local teacher, Kristy jumped heart first into teacher training with Monica Fayad at Balance + Wellness in 2022. During her RYT 200 hr training, she had the opportunity to learn from professionals in the areas of yoga sutras, chakra energetics, and meditation. While new to yoga, Kristy is not new to teaching. She has taught middle school math to more than 1000 students over 17 years. While no longer in the school setting, she now enjoys teaching students with special needs in their home environment. Kristy loves the peace and stillness yoga brings to her life. She believes the benefits of yoga are accessible to all bodies at every age. She encourages students to become self-aware and to cultivate their own stillness through mindful practice. Furthering her yoga journey, Kristy will begin her 300 hour YTT in 2023.
Erin Hogg
Erin is an RN and loves caring for people. When she discovered Yoga , she was working nights in the ICU. Her first class showed her the mental and physical strength that comes from Yoga and it quickly became like physical therapy for her. Her yoga practice grew and became a healing experience more and more each time she stepped onto her mat. This beautiful healing is what led her to become passionate about yoga. She wanted to dive deep into the roots of all things yoga, which led her to attending her first 200 hour yoga teacher training through Balanced Living with Monica. She quickly learned that her background as a nurse and deep love for caring and healing people was easily transferred to being on her mat, teaching yoga. She believes we are Wholebody people and taking care of ourselves, physically mentally and spiritually leads us to our best health. You can’t have one without the other, nurturing our hearts and souls through yoga practice each time we step on our mat has become a passion of Erin's. She is thankful to be in the beautiful space that made her a yoga teacher, and she hopes to extend the same peace, healing and empowerment with each of her students.
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Tina Seaton
Tina Seaton is a dedicated yogini who began her practice in her mid 20’s. She is busy mom of 5 (including triplets) and an Ironman endurance triathlete that has competed in multiple races all over the U.S. While rehabilitating several common triathlete injuries, Tina discovered the benefits of integrating yoga and Pilates into an overall strength and endurance program. She loves that yoga utilizes her body
and mind to promote healing and functional strength in her daily life. In 2022 she completed her 200 hour teacher training and quickly began teaching. It is her goal to share her energy and passion for fitness through yoga! Tina teaches a dynamic practice that blends movement with breath to build strength and flexibility. In her classes, you will find
a supportive space to explore your mind and body, deepen your practice, and have fun!
Aimee Ballard
Aimee was born and raised in Shreveport. She began yoga after the birth of her third child and has been dedicated to practicing since. In 2013 she began sharing this practice with students and friends after completing her 200 HR Yoga Teacher Training with Ally Ford. She completed 500 Hours of training at Asheville Yoga Center in 2016. There she learned from Doug Keller, Leslie Kaminoff, Shala Worsley, James Bailey and other amazing instructors that teach a variety of disciplines of yoga. She has also completed two trainings in Children’s Yoga. She likes to weave a little of each of the styles she has experienced and learned into her classes. My YA certifications are E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP®
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Heather Ryan
Heather stepped into her first yoga class back in 2014 as part of a fitness program for work. From that point on, the Yoga “seed” was firmly planted, and inspired her to further her yoga experience. She wanted to learn all that she could about this amazing practice, and immersed herself in as many classes as possible. She began to see a major change in her overall physical, spiritual and mental well-being through years of dedicated practice. Heather soon realized the impact that yoga was having on her life and wanted to share this with others. She completed her 200hr yoga teacher training in 2021 and is also certified to teach pre and postnatal yoga. She hopes to always be a student and plans to continue to learn and grow through her yoga practice and additional training. Heather’s goal is to facilitate a yoga class that makes people feel empowered. She believes by sharing breath, movement, motivating music and energy people can empower one another to be strong and positively focused on and off the mat. She is most passionate about facilitating a warm and welcoming space for everyone of all fitness levels to feel safe and supported. Her most important rule is to have fun and never take yourself too seriously!
Heather Hudson
Heather is fun, passionate and wildly imaginative. A native of Shreveport, her path to teaching involves yoga, dance, somatics, nutrition, meditation and sound healing. After many years in competitive sports, Heather knew she needed to heal her body. Studying under Dorthy Kristin, she began modern interpretive dance at the Visual Sound and Movement Dance Company. Here she learned somatics and traveled to San Diego to study at the Reese Movement Institute. She became an Arodasi®Healing Practitioner, learning modalities that calm the nervous system and unwind pain. This was really a springboard into the movement arts. In 2003 she received her Yogafit certification and since then has taught prenatal, kundalini, child, restorative, yin, and senior yoga classes. Simultaneously, she studied Nutrition earning her CDM from BPCC. She added sound healing to her practice in 2019 where she uses the sound frequencies from singing bowls and gongs to help align and relax the cells of the body. She is currently studying with Ashley Turner in her Yoga Psyche Soul® 300 hour training that uses yoga, meditation and journaling practices to help regulate trauma. Heather’s goal is to help others find the joy of movement and the peace of stillness. “Yoga has given me much more than movement flexibility. It taught me how to be mindful, peaceful, and joyful - especially during those anxious moments. It has also given me a community that I treasure.”
Jill French
In 2000, after graduating from Collins College in Tempe, Arizona, Jill began her career as a graphic designer and moved to Austin, Texas. In Austin, a friend introduced Jill to Hatha Yoga. Since she had studied Tibetan Buddhism since 1999, she was eager to see how she could incorporate her meditation practice with yoga. Once she discovered she could easily make her yoga practice into a moving meditation, she was hooked. Since 2001, Jill has studied many different styles of yoga through the years. Currently her favorite, and love, is for her traditional Ashtanga practice. In 2011, Jill obtained her Registered Yoga Teacher Certification by completing 200 hours of yoga training taught by Ally Ford of Beyond The Pose Yoga. Jill’s goal is to inspire others through yoga, to help them attain happiness and a peace of mind. In April 2021, Jill completed training with Lindsey Nova in a 50-Hour Oracle Yin Yoga Online Teacher Training program. In 2012, on Earth Day Jill and her best friend James Osborne and started Yoga Jai in Shreveport which brought yoga in the park to the community and taught every Sunday till 2016. In the Fall 2022, Jill starts her journey back to school to become a Occupational Therapy Assistant in hopes to help children who may need extra love and attention with everyday lifestyle challenges and she hopes to bring her yoga knowledge to her future clients.
Emma Payne
Emma began her yoga journey in the Summer of 2017 with her mom after her first year of college. It began as a fun way to spend time and workout with her mother, but eventually, she discovered that there was so much more to yoga than just the physical postures.
Yoga has helped Emma get through difficult times like the pandemic, relationships ending and an eating disorder. She realized that yoga has shown her hope, self-love and inner peace, and she cannot live without it. Through this realization in August of 2020, she knew that she had to show others the beauty that yoga continues to bring to her life. She made the decision to sign up for her 200-hr Yoga Teacher Training with Heather Delia in the Summer of 2021.
She became a certified 200-hr yoga teacher in December of 2021 and immediately began teaching (the day of her graduation to be exact!). She has also completed 30 hours of Continuing Education for Arm Balances and Inversions in February 2024. Yoga continually shows Emma that she is never alone and has all the answers she needs within herself...she just has to turn in. It is now her mission to help guide others to knowing, loving and accepting themselves for who they are through the practice of yoga and to continue to find inner peace and acceptance.