Michaela Pope, Yoga Instructor
Michaela first discovered yoga in 2000, while she was a graduate student in psychology at Loyola College in Maryland. She practiced intermittently in gyms and studios over the years, always loving how yoga made her feel both strong and at peace. In 2008, Michaela’s appreciation for yoga deepened after she underwent several stressful life events in quick succession, including the death of her father. During this time Michaela was able to find solace through yoga, and wanted to be able to pass that feeling on to others who may be struggling or simply looking for respite from life's daily stressors. With that in mind, she enrolled in the 200-Hour Teacher Training Program at the Shambhava School of Yoga at Chi-Town Shakti in Chicago, a Yoga Alliance accredited program with a heavy emphasis on meditation and yogic philosophy. Michaela continued her yoga teacher training at Chi-Town Shakti by completing a 30-Hour Prenatal Yoga Teacher Certificaton Program in 2011.

As a yoga instructor, Michaela strives to create a setting where students feel comfortable yet challenged, and that they leave her classes feeling better than when they arrived. Michaela truly believes in the philosophy behind Pulling Down the Moon's Yoga for Fertility Classes, and is thrilled to be a part of the Pulling down the Moon team.

Ann-Marie Vigano, Yoga Instructor
Ann-Marie Vigano first became curious about yoga as a young girl when she found a book about yoga at the library. She took the book home and started practicing yoga postures on her own. Although yoga was in her consciousness from an early age, it was not until she was seeking stress relief from her work as an attorney that she first approached yoga as an adult. What started out as a weekly lunchtime yoga class soon transformed into a daily personal practice. When she realized that yoga had shifted from a passion to a calling, she enrolled in a teacher training course at Spirit Rising Yoga and earned a certification to teach Kundalini Yoga in 2007. She began teaching and offering yoga and meditation workshops in various settings. Teaching yoga changed her life and brought a new sense of love and commitment to her work and personal practice. Most importantly, it brought a sense of deep peace in her personal life.

Eventually, she left her job as an attorney and traveled to India to experience yoga at its source. When she returned to the United States, she expanded her training to include prenatal yoga, earning a certificate of specialty in Conscious Pregnancy, a comprehensive course that covers all aspects of pregnancy, birth, and post-natal care from the yogic perspective. To her great delight, the day before the Conscious Pregnancy course began, she and her husband learned that she was pregnant. As she immersed herself in two weeks of intensive prenatal yoga training, she absorbed the yogic teachings on a very deep level, applying and experiencing them for herself. Yoga carried her through a blissful pregnancy and the unmedicated birth of her son.

Ann-Marie Vigano credits yoga with transforming her life and outlook in a very positive way. She loves to share the gems of ancient yogic wisdom that can help us navigate our noisy, fast-paced lives and cultivate a space of deep inner peace and awareness. In her prenatal classes, she uses breathing, movement, postures, and meditation to help expectant mothers stretch, breath, relax, and connect to their own strength and who they are, as well as to the bliss and joy of nurturing themselves and their growing babies as they prepare to bring new life into the world.

Patricia Riojas, Yoga Instructor
Patricia has been a student of yoga since 2004. Upon taking her first class, she experienced the immediate healing benefits of the ancient practice. In an effort to deepen her practice and studies of yogic philosophy, she enrolled in Moksha Yoga Center’s 14-month teacher training program along with her husband. She is a certified yoga and prenatal yoga instructor.

She has studied with many national and global teachers of different yoga methodologies and is inspired by the safety and alignment of Iyengar Yoga. She has a personal practice of meditation, pranayama, Hatha yoga, and continues her studies of classical yoga and the Mahadevi (The Mother Goddess).

Patricia whole-heartedly believes in the transformative power of yoga, and the practice as a whole (incorporating the eight limbs of yoga in her daily life). “Yoga enables us to continuously connect with ourselves on a deep level, allowing us to uncover the truth within ourselves, this truth is complete liberation.”

Her own fertility journey allowed her to look to yoga as a form of healing, nourishment and self- acceptance, enabling her to incorporate holistic approaches in her journey to pregnancy. She hopes to share the many healing benefits of yoga with others and inspire them to become their own gurus (teachers) of self-knowledge, self-love and self-compassion in everyday life.

Kara Gillespie, Yoga Instructor
Kara Gillespie is a KRI certified yoga teacher, and began practicing yoga in 2005. In 2009, she came across Pulling Down the Moon through her own fertility journey, and found that yoga and meditation greatly reduced her stress and anxiety, gave her more energy, and made her feel calmer and more at peace.

Yoga and meditation quickly became an essential part of Kara’s daily life, and in 2010, she left her job as a high school English teacher to follow her heart and teach yoga. Kara credits Pulling Down the Moon and her personal yoga practice for getting her through some very difficult times, including the loss of her first child.

In 2011, Kara gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and has been teaching prenatal yoga since his arrival. She strives to create a balance in her classes that both challenge and relax the mind, body, and spirit.

Caroline Joyce, Yoga Instructor
An athlete her whole life, Caroline began practicing yoga to enhance her love of sports; playing soccer, biking and running. In the beginning, it was a complementary and effective technique to build strength and prevent injuries and it felt wonderful!Through a regular practice combined with excursions to India the depth and dynamics of yoga became apparent and her spiritual journey began. Caroline completed a Kundalini Yoga 220 hour Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India in 2009. She enjoys both challenging and gentle classes that allows students to gain insights into themselves. Caroline is passionate about bringing yoga into everyday life on and off the mat.

Rebecca Bossen, Yoga Teacher
Rebecca Bossen is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. She received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her MA from Northwestern University, as well as an Advanced Certificate in Voice Studies from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Her theatre training taught her the importance of integrating breath, body, mind, and emotions. Regular yoga practice reinforced this sense of holistic integration, and yoga centered her as she pursued the wonderful but notoriously unstable career of a theatre professional. As an acting teacher, Rebecca noticed that she was spending more and more class time teaching yoga. Looking around at a roomful of actors reciting Shakespeare in downward dog pose, she realized that the time had come for her to get her official yoga teacher training. She received her 200-hour certification at the Nosara Yoga Institute, under the direction of Don and Amba Stapleton. That transformative experience deepened her practice and awakened her to the healing possibilities of this ancient art. Having worked in Pulling Down the Moon's Chicago location for three years as an office manager/receptionist, Rebecca gained an interest in women's health, fertility, and pregnancy. After becoming a certified teacher, she studied with world-renowned instructor Janice Clarfield and received further certification in prenatal yoga. In her classes, Rebecca strives to share her love of yoga and her deep respect for the human body and its wisdom.

Keri Hammel, Yoga Instructor
Keri is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. She received her undergraduate degree from Susquehanna University, her MS from American University and has worked in the biostatistics industry for the past 10 years. Prior to attending her first yoga class in 2005, Keri was working 60+ hours a week and not taking time for herself or her family. As yoga became part of her weekly routine, she realized how much better she felt mentally and physically and how work was becoming less stressful. As the interest turned to a passion, she realized she was molding her ever so important work/life balance to incorporate more yoga into her life.

Since 2007, Keri and her husband have been trying to start a family and have relied on yoga to help deal with the ups and downs of the infertility and IVF journeys. As a result, Keri wanted to immerse herself in all things yoga and she enrolled in a 200-hour yoga teacher training at Sol Yoga in Frederick, MD, under the direction of Dorcas Quynn McWilliams. During this time, she also studied with Jacci Reynolds and received her certification in prenatal yoga.

Keri’s intimate experience with infertility and IVF, coupled with her recent certifications, provide a solid foundation from which to share and provide guidance to other women and families as they go through their infertility journey and pregnancy. She has learned over the past few years that you have to be ready physically and mentally as you travel this road and Keri’s experiences have brought her full circle as she is thrilled to be a member of the Pulling Down the Moon family as a client and now yoga instructor.

Alicia Koundakjian, Yoga Instructor
Alicia accidentally began her yoga practice in 1998 when she agreed to accompany her friend to a class at a local community center in Austin, TX. She found it uncomfortable, frustrating and a little embarrassing but the next morning she could feel the stirrings of yoga's transformational power and knew she was hooked for life.

Ten years later, she received her 200-hour level certification through DC's Yoga District and is currently working toward her 500-hour-level through the Dharma Yoga Center's Life of a Yogi program in New York. Alicia teaches Prenatal and vinyasa classes at several DC yoga studios. She especially enjoys focusing on the healing powers of yoga and revealing how it can help students relieve stress and depression and find greater peace. She sums up her personal yoga practice in the simple words of Swami Sivananda: “Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize.”

Alicia is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a Board Certified Holistic Health Coach. Alicia is a native Washingtonian, a former librarian and the grateful mother of a toddler girl.