Susan Morton began studying yoga in 1968, seeking relaxation in the midst of a hectic professional life. From her initial experience, the benefits of yoga enhanced her sense of well-being so profoundly that she began a life-long journey of yoga and meditation study and practice. She began teaching in 1974 and founded the Yoga and Meditation Center of Montclair in 1976. Susan brings the gift of many years of study and practice to her students and considers it a privilege and an honor to share the ancient, yet highly practical and relevant teachings of yoga and meditation.

Susan spent 10 years of intensive study with her primary teacher, Jain Master Sri Chitrabhanu. For seven years, she taught hatha yoga at the Jain Meditation International Center in New York City. She began her study of classical hatha yoga with Dr. Vijayendra Pratap of the Swami Kuvayalananda Foundation (SKY) in Philadelphia, who founded the Yoga Organization for Research and Education (YORE). Susan is past president of YORE and is a member of the Mind and Life Institute (www.mindandlife.org) where she has been a sponsor at conferences that create dialogues between research scientists, the Dalai Lama, and other contemplatives, on the relationship of meditation to the body-mind. She has also been an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Asian Studies at Seton Hall University.

A perpetual student, Susan feels that authentic teaching arises from her own experience of practice and ongoing study. Her love of meditation and its healing and liberating power has led her to study for six years with Swar Yogis, Sri Shyam Bhatnagar and Dahliana Hohe with whom she studied Inner Tuning, mantra yoga, chanting and the chakras. She has attended all of the Dalai Lama's trainings in New York and is a Sponsoring Member of Tibet House New York, where she does ongoing study with Robert Thurman, Ph.D. — co-founder of Tibet House with the Dalai Lama. Susan has done many retreats with Pema Chodren and is a recent graduate of Peter Fenner's nine-month Radiant Mind course in nondual wisdom of Dzogchen, Zen, Mahamudra, and Madhyamaka Buddhism. Radiant Mind has deeply transformed her personal practice and approach to the teaching of meditation.

She has studied hatha yoga with many senior Iyengar teachers including Ramanand Patel, Aadil Palkhivala, Patricia Walden, Elise Miller, Karen Stefan, Mary Dunn, and James Murphy and is certified through Yoga Alliance to train and certify teachers. She has studied anatomy and physiology with Paul Copeland, Ph.D, M.D. and Deane Juhan, Ph.D. of the Trager Institue and Esalen. Her hatha yoga teaching style has developed and evolved over the years as a result of training in Movement Re-Education with Milton Trager, M.D. and her work as a Yamuna Body Rolling Practitioner. She has integrated elements of body rolling into her yoga classes and also offers entire courses in Yamuna Body Rolling. In addition, her other special areas of expertise are yoga for back pain and chair yoga for students in wheelchairs and those who cannot stand unassisted.

Susan deeply appreciates the inspiration, generosity, and support of her teachers, students, family, and friends, all of whom contribute in a myriad of ways to our shared evolutionary journey.

Susan Wilson has been practicing yoga for 30+ years and teaching for over 20 years. Over the years she has passionately pursued an understanding of the true essence of yoga, a profound and deep interconnectedness of the body mind and spirit. Drawing upon this inspiration her teaching flows, creative, focused, yet sensitive to individual student needs while maintaining a firm foundation in the importance of alignment and correct technique.

Born and educated in London, England, Susan's fascination with yoga began there as a young teenager which has continued ever since. Early on she attended classes with B.K.S. Iyengar when he was at the Institute in London. After moving to the U.S.A. in 1979 she began studying with two local Montclair, NJ teachers, Susan Morton and Esther Lampert, who both encouraged her to teach. In 1983, after completing four years of intense study, practice and training she began teaching at the Yoga & Meditation Center of Montclair.

An Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher certified through Yoga Alliance to train teachers as well as to teach yoga, Susan's teaching approach is diverse and multi-dimensional. Influenced by her many years of study in the style of B.K.S. Iyengar, with teachers including Kofi Busia, Patricia Walden, Nancy Stechert, Gabriella Guiblaro, Mira Mehta, Ramanand Patel, Dona Holleman and Rodney Yee and then more recently by the more fluid and innovative style of Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten. Studying philosophy, meditation, Sanskrit mantra, chanting, and the chakra system for eight years with Shyam Bhatnagar and Dahliana Hohe at the Sri Centre in Princeton, NJ, enhanced her awareness and appreciation of the subtle energy system and the powerful effect of mantra and sound on the physical, mental and emotional bodies. She has trained with Yamuna Zake in NYC and is a certified Level 3 Yamuna Body Rolling Practitioner and Therapist. A truly unique approach to fitness YBR™ adds yet another facet to Susan's practice and teaching. During the past several years Susan began studying Tibetan Buddhism with Pema Chodron and Dr. Robert Thurman attending many lectures, workshops and retreats with these brilliant teachers and several teachings with H.H. Dalai Lama. She has recently completed Radiant Mind a 10 month training course, focusing on the non-dual wisdom of Advaita, Zen and Dzogchen Buddhism with Peter Fenner, PhD.

CAREN BROWN, an ongoing student of both Susan Morton and Susan Wilson, began teaching yoga in 1996, after a successful career as a public library director. She has been teaching at the Yoga and Meditation Center of Montclair since 1997 and, in addition, has taught at the Unitarian Church in Montclair, the First Congregational Church of Verona, the Adult School in Maplewood/South Orange, and Daughters of Israel Nursing Home in West Orange. Caren is a massage therapist, certified by the Essex Group Bodyworkers Institute in 1997.

In addition to studying with Susan Morton, Caren Brown has studied extensively with Mel Robin (author of A Physiological Handbook for Teachers of Yogasana) and Rodney Yee. She has also participated in several in-depth yoga programs at the Kripalu Institute.

Colleen Briscoe, formerly a software engineer and now a full-time yoga instructor, has been practicing yoga for over twenty years. Born in Africa, her fascination with yoga began when she was introduced to Iyengar Yoga in the early 1980's in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Her own experience of those early classes and the excellent physical condition and well being of her instructors — her seniors by several decades! — left a deep and lasting impression.

After living briefly in London, Colleen moved to the USA and in 1995 began studying at the Yoga and Meditation Center of Montclair. In 2004 she completed the teacher-training program, obtained RYT200 certification and began teaching at the Center as well as starting her own yoga studio near her home in North Bergen County. She continues to study at the Center and to broaden her understanding of how to tailor yoga to unique conditions. To this end she has attended focus workshops for scoliosis and multiple sclerosis and has completed training in the Barnes Method Prenatal & Postpartum Yoga™ including an internship with Mary Barnes.

Most recently, Colleen has added Yamuna Body Rolling to her practice, finding this unique system wonderfully compatible with yoga and extremely helpful in unlocking tight areas in the body. She studied with Yamuna Zake in NYC and is certified in YBR™ Level II. She looks forward to integrating body rolling into her existing schedule of classes.

For yoga or Yamuna Body Rolling classes in Northern Bergen County, contact Colleen at www.individualistyoga.com

Maureen Murray began studying yoga in 1982 with Esther Lampert and shortly thereafter with Susan Wilson at The Yoga and Meditation Center of Montclair. In the beginning of her journey as a young and curious yoga student, Maureen experimented in various traditions of hatha yoga. In addition to her original Iyengar training, she also explored classes in Yantra, Ashtanga, Anusara, Kripalu, and Vini Yoga.

Inspired by the many wonders and benefits of yoga and the skill and encouragement of her first two teachers, she began teaching yoga in 1989. She also became certified to teach hatha yoga by The Yoga Institute in Houston, Texas.

With respect and appreciation for all of the yoga traditions she explored, she has always been most inspired by the teaching of Sri. B.K.S. Iyengar for its precision, clarity and depth. She also finds it to be the most practical and effective means for helping a wide range of yoga students of all body types, capabilities and ages. Over the years she has provided Iyengar Yoga instruction for various yoga schools, health and fitness centers, and corporations in the North Jersey area.

Maureen feels profoundly blessed and impacted by steady guidance from the following gifted Iyengar teachers: Theresa Rowland, Lois Steinberg, Gabriella Giubilaro, Kophi Busia, and Geeta Iyengar. She also finds ongoing inspiration in her students and is grateful for the opportunity to share the yogic path with them.

Maureen is also a Licensed Massage Therapist (NY). She specializes in Craniosacral and Manual Therapies addressing acute and chronic pain, stress and imbalances. She has been in private practice in Montclair since 1991.