Teachers:
Bill Counter 
Bill has been teaching yoga to all levels of students for 20 years. He tries to keep classes playful to encourage students to have a good time with the practice and gradually improve their skills in a non-competitive atmosphere.
He’s studied with leading teachers in a variety of traditions including Iyengar, Ashtanga and various lineages of more traditional Hatha yoga practice. As a result, his classes offer a synthesis of the best of ancient and modern yoga teachings, with an emphasis on a meditative focus, attention to the breath and awareness of good body mechanics.
You can expect gentle hands-on adjustments in Bill’s classes to help students find the ”perfect” pose, which can be different for of us on any given day. Bill feels that the practice gets much more fun when we drop the focus on performance, judging the success a practice by how it affects life while not on the mat.
Paige Labrie 
Paige’s interest in yoga started at age 11, beginning with library books on meditation. On her own, she developed a practice of meditation and conscious breath which sustained her through her early years . Her formal training began in the early 1990s at the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco.
Study at the Institute was followed by numerous classes & workshops with an array of teachers and styles, all of which have contributed to her thoughtful and diverse style, both in her personal practice and as a yoga teacher.
Paige has taught yoga in the Sacramento area for the last eleven years. While Ashtanga Yoga greatly influences the content of her practice, much of her teaching background has centered on Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga. Paige has pursued a devotion to Shadow Yoga which adds even more diversity to our programs. The teaching of the Shadow School is based upon the ancient Hatha Yogic texts, which state that all fixed forms should be designed to develop the practice of freestyle. Ask her about it.
Kathy Dominic 
Kathy Dominic is serious about teaching a fun yoga class! She has been practicing traditional forms of yoga since she was a teenager, and appreciates the physical and mental benefits that one cultivates over a lifetime of practice.
Kathy was a popular yoga teacher in both Tulsa, OK and in Portland, OR, but since coming to Sacramento has preferred to concentrate on the polished refinement that is her personal practice. With much pleading and cajoling, she has been persuaded to join our teacher team and be a shining example of just how Classical Hatha is practiced.
Kathy brings to her teaching a respect for the discipline of yoga, and an understanding that every body is different, with different abilities and different needs. Harmony happens when your body’s abilities blend smoothly with your body’s needs. Her class will make you work, laugh, and play, and have your body singing a happy melody!
Donna Dowson 
Growing up as a dancer Donna fell in love with the flow and grace of Vinyasa and Ashtanga when she first discovered yoga. The constant challenge of physical, mental and spiritual balance has kept her coming back ever since. She loves that there is a yoga practice out there for anyone who is willing to try. She started teaching yoga so she could help students discover the beauty of the breath, the ease of movement and the acceptance of self and others that yoga offers. Always emphasizing the practice of honoring the body’s current state of being through ahimsa (non-violence), students are guided by Donna to explore all the possibilities yoga has to improve the health and well-being of mind, body and spirit. Donna’s classes are fun, energetic and aimed at helping you find balance in your practice on and off the mat.
When you come to a class with Donna, you will be met right where you are, and move through a mindfully-flowing yoga sequence that is creative, fun, and challenging without being overwhelming. You’ll learn anatomy and alignment cues to make all your yoga poses more effective and amazing, no matter what style you usually practice. Her classes often involve energetic sequences but also incorporate stillness in order to quiet the mind. Her welcoming teaching style, energy, love, & passion for yoga will keep you coming back for more! Get ready to feel empowered, fit, and energized to move your lessons off the mat and transform your body, mind and life from the inside out!
Michelle Greene
Michelle will tell you that she practices yoga “to be a nicer person”. Clearly, her practice has been very effective! Michelle’s warmth, sensitivity and enthusiasm permeate not only her classes, but her approach to life. “Life gets a little stressful and yoga really helps to ground me”, she says, and this grounding is apparent in the smooth, easy flow of her yoga classes.
Michelle loves having a spiritual practice that she long ago committed to as an important part of her life. She feels that yoga both empowers and humbles us, each at the same time. When Michelle moved to Sacramento from Reno, she struggled to find a studio that fit her needs. After her first class with Bill Counter at Practice Yoga, she knew she had found a home. Michelle finds the yoga community at Practice Yoga is far more encouraging and supportive than any other studio, and she conducts her classes in a way that encourages all students to feel safe, welcome, and supported as they practice.
Michelle celebrates the way Ashtanga yoga allows you to get to know your own body. When practicing the Ashtanga Primary Series, the consistency of the practice, following the traditional sequence of poses, allows us to clearly see the way that sleep, food, stress, and other factors affect the body and spirit. She loves the meditative quality of a consistent Ashtanga practice, finding much more stillness in a practice that is known and can be relied upon, than when forced to look around the room to figure out what everyone is doing.
Michelle hopes to share with others the way that yoga has really changed her life. She wants to watch students find that connection to the earth and to all beings that comes through the practice and to be able to watch them drop into the stillness of the practice before or after a busy day. Michelle hopes to be able to share her real self, devoid of ego. Teaching is an opportunity to connect and share what she loves with others. Practice Yoga welcomes the opportunity to share Michelle with Sacramento!
Anna Belesiotis 
It will be no surprise to anyone who has seen Anna practice to learn that she has a background and training as a classical ballerina. Her elegant pursuit of intricate backbends or tortuous twists will display such grace that it can’t help but inspire you to dance through your own practice.
Anna began practicing yoga at 18, while looking for an exercise routine that would maintain the strength and conditioning developed from her ballet training. She next added training as a Pilates instructor to her expertise, so don’t be surprised by the cat-like athleticism you’ll develop in her classes. Prior to joining the Practice Yoga team, Anna was a sought-after instructor at East Sac Yoga.
Anna’s yoga classes focus on core strengthening and emphasize a constant awareness of maintaining the breath throughout the entire practice. In May 2010, Anna graduated from University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. She then went on to pass the California Bar exam in November 2010.
Anna successfully integrates her yoga technique and meditation practice with the rigors of a fast-paced legal career. Currently, she is an “instructor emeritus”, focusing primarily on her legal career. We look forward to bringing her back into our regular class schedule!
John-Paul Abbott
John-Paul has practiced yoga for 10 years, studying classical Hatha, 1st series Ashtanga, and hot yoga, among other forms. His daily practice ensures a sharp body-mind connection and a greater sense of self-
awareness. It also facilitates healing and positive changes that translate throughout his entire day.
John-Paul’s classes combine wall and floor poses, focusing on the stretching and releasing of muscles and joints. As an athlete, (John-Paul is a professional mixed martial artist training with Team Alpha Male) he is skilled in helping heal injuries and strains. His teaching style is personalized to each student’s current abilities, beginning by asking about pre-existing physical conditions and encouraging students to explore how their bodies have changed during the class.
Among his many talents, John-Paul is adept at Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, and kickboxing. Strong, gentle and centered, “JP” incorporates a daily yoga practice into his training, as he believes the combination of asanas and pranayama heals the body and the spirit.
JP continues to further his abilities in Ashtanga. Don’t be surprised to find him in class practicing with you!
Jim Cahill 
Jim Cahill started learning yoga in his teens, using a book with “lots of pretty pictures of girls in leotards”. In college there was more dabbling in yoga and an off-and-on practice began, sustained by the inspiration and influence of friends.
Serious yoga dedication began for Jim when he met Bill Counter, who was teaching Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga at Shanti Yoga in Sacramento. As Jim is fond of saying, had he walked into any other studio in Sacramento, he would not be practicing yoga, but would instead be proficient at dance, karate, or some other discipline. Fortunately, Jim found in Bill Counter the perfect example of a yoga teacher, someone serious but fun, knowledgeable but humble and able to demonstrate and communicate the benefits of yoga in an unparalleled manner.
For Jim, the joy of teaching yoga is found in students’ discovery of their own latent talents. Whenever a new yogi executes a pose they previously thought impossible, it makes Jim’s day. Everyone has something special that they bring to a yoga class and Jim’s passion is to help bring that out and celebrate it.
