Angie Edmunds
Angie began regularly practicing yoga at Om Shala in 2013. During this time she discovered how the practice mirrored and complimented the meditative state she had grown to love as a swimmer: a prolonged interaction with challenge and solitude, cultivated by the rhythmic pairing of movement and breath.
The dance of intentional effort and surrendered ease continues to weave its way into Angie’s diverse work as a scuba instructor, environmental educator, and artist. She believes that on the mat, we study ourselves in challenge to train resilience, discernment, and grace. Off the mat, our training follows.
As a teacher, Angie is motivated by the magic that happens when the breath and body are given the opportunity to occupy the driver’s seat of felt experience, free from the incessant narration and judgment of the mind. In her personal journey with yoga she has found the tools to serve her greatly in excavating space for the heart to become a revealer of truth and guidance- illuminating what is authentic, over what is expected.
She believes that through consistent practice, we can fortify the heart’s voice, foster a greater sense of universal curiosity, and get closer to re-membering the self.
Angie has been a student of Suzanne’s since 2017 and completed the Tosha Yoga Teacher Training Program in 2023.
B Sweeney
As a lifelong athlete and someone who loves to go big, B found yoga as a teenager after shredding her knee skiing. She remembers being so captivated by the refined strength and power of the breath in her first yoga classes. Yoga taught her how to slow down, cultivate balance, and fully believe in the body’s ability to heal.
Her experience comes from tucking herself under the wings of legends in the field. She has a background in D1 NCAA Athletics, at the University of Washington, where she gained a deep understanding of strength and conditioning tactics. From there she began teaching specific Yoga for Athletes classes with Jasyoga, the first Yoga for Athletes company on the West coast. Hungry for more yoga specific training, she completed her 200 hour YTT at the Yoga Tree in San Francisco, influenced greatly by the lineages of Pattabhi Jois and BKS Iyengar.
In addition to teaching yoga, she completed a 3-year internship training with Physical Therapists from Experience Momentum on advanced biomechanics, injury prevention principles, and performance outcomes. She gained in depth knowledge of anatomy, common injuries, and how to empower clients to take their health into their own hands. She started a Doctorate of Physical Therapy but did not complete it. Instead, she’s continued her own exploration of anatomy, breath, and the human spirit with legendary teachers such as (our own amazing!) Suzanne Dunning, Bree Dillon, Tiffany Cruikshank, Annie Carpenter, Jason Bowman, Karen Gurtner, Michelle Drielsma, Tom Meyers, and Wim Hof.
As a teacher, her goal is to help students develop a moving, breathing, spiritual practice that creates a sense of freedom with strength, mobility, purpose, and a sense of humor.
Additionally, B has just returned to teaching after taking a break to have her first child- Uma.
She now can’t help but infuse her teaching with all she is learning through being a mother.
Caitlin Dunning
“When we show up to the mat and choose to find peace within we are adding a little more peace to the world. Our internal reality and external word are two mirrors constantly reflecting one another. As we deliberately tend to our energy we go from being conditioned by our environment to entering into a sophisticated conversation between internal and external, we find our center amongst chaos. When we bring the systems of the body into harmony we create harmony in our lives.”
Caitlin has found this to be the true essence of yoga. Having had a dedicated practice for the last 8 years and devoted kundalini sadhana for the last five, she is excited to share this magic with our evolving community.
Jacqueline Johnson
Jacqueline found Yoga in an unlikely place- a military base in Tacoma Washington; she remembers the joy she felt from the movement that seemed to nourish her body instantly.
Born and raised in Bavaria, Germany she always felt the happiest while playing sports and moving her body. She has been a dancer since age 6 and climbed mountains in Austria every spring. Needing a career that is physical active, she finished physical therapy school in 2003, and worked in outpatient physical therapy clinics with people of all ages.
In 2008 Jacqueline moved to the United States and went to school for massage therapy. In 2013 she travelled to Bali and trained to teach Yoga with Frog Lotus Yoga and Vidya Heisel her teacher.
Her classes focus on alignment and strength, as well as using the breath to let go of any restrictions that are holding you back from the potential of being fully in your body. She believes that the body is holding on to emotions, that are connected to memories. Some of which we would rather hide deep inside us and forget about. But only by feeling them and paying attention to them, do we have the power to release them and make space for joy and play to come in.
“There is actually no work more important on this earth than play. When we become truly playful, we reshape the nature of our collective reality.” -Richard Rudd
Jen Shields
"Jen’s lighthearted joy and intuitive creativity balances the playful with the profound.” - Meg McCracken
Jen's 20+ year journey with yoga started in 2002 when she discovered Kundalini Yoga. This surfaced at a potent moment in her 20s as she struggled with depression and anxiety, in desperate search of herself.
This dance of shadow and light propelled a decade-long career as a dancer, actress, & costume designer for both large-scale stage productions and intimate, interactive performances throughout the world. Since her transition out of the performance world, Jen has been immersed in the study of Hatha Tantrik Yoga with Meg McCracken.
Alongside her study of Tantra, Jen will receive her MA in clinical counseling with a focus in Dance/Movement Therapy from Lesley University in May of 2024.
She cultivates a relationship with the witness and its relationship to intimacy through a consistent peer-led practice of Authentic Movement.
Jen is a skilled teacher who weaves an invitation for you through years of yogic and somatic practices, psychological study, and the performance arts to honor the power within and celebrate your unique connection with life.
Jess Clower
Jess is a Humboldt County native who started practicing yoga at age 16. Her pull to practice yoga came after injury during a car accident and the desire to attend to her injuries through gentle rehabilitation. Jess continued practicing off and on but came back to a regular practice in 2020. She has an extensive background in healthcare, a deepening desire to learn and grow in mind and body which has led her to incorporating and sharing her love of yoga and she now holds a certificate for 200hr YTT.
Her yoga practice demonstrates her own unique self-growth and introspection, while cultivating and holding safe spaces for the journeys of others. Through her grounding and expansive teaching style, she aims to share her light with students as they embark to discover their own. Her strong desire to foster healing in community, Jess' teachings offer inclusive, judgement-free spaces for anyone with the desire to feel whole and connected through various modalities.
Kismet Wells
Raised in the high desert of the Eastern Sierras, Kismet Wells’ yoga journey began as a child, attending Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga classes taught by her mother. In her early adulthood Kismet’s expanding curiosity led her to dive into the magic of Kundalini, Yin, and Hatha yoga. Kismet moved to Humboldt county in 2015 and has been a student of Suzanne Dunning since the opening of Tosha.
In 2021 Kismet further immersed herself, studying at the California College of Ayurveda. The same year, she coupled her studies in Ayurveda’s sister science- yoga, and completed Suzanne Dunning’s Yoga Teacher Training program.
Most recently, Kismet spent the summer of 2023 on The Great Alaska Sound Bath Tour, where she collaborated in the creation of ancient soundscapes and spoken word guided meditations. Kismet is an ever-evolving student of all things “yoga” and her love of poetry and fantastical lore weaves its way into her offerings.
Serena Jowaisas
Serena’s yoga journey started in 1999 when she was introduced to a body scan meditation. The moment she was invited to bring her attention inside and rest she knew she found something profound that would be very influential in her life, but she didn’t quite understand why it felt so powerful.
In 2009 while living in the SF Bay Area, after practicing on her own for a decade, she found public classes. She attended a 200 hour teacher training. After exploring the diversity of yoga she settled in to take a deep dive with Annie Carpenter, with over 500 hours of training.
She has since come to understand that yoga is relationship. That moment that she closed her eyes and was asked to go inside was the beginning of a relationship with herself that was long overdue.
Yoga invites a slow and steady refinement of more skillful action towards oneself, and the world. Yoga is skill in action. When we develop a practice and we show up regularly profound shifts start to happen.
Serena brings her passion and curiosity, love of movement and anatomy, as well as meditation and classical philosophy into her teaching. She aims to meet students where they are and provide a safe space for exploration and transformation.
Suzanne Dunning
Suzanne was first introduced to the magic of yoga by her mother when she was a little girl. As a teenager she began attending Ashtanga classes and a sharing yoga with her fellow high school students.
Her first teachers included Shiva Rea, a Rodney Yee VHS tape, and Lori Snyder. She first officially trained in 2005 with Alice Joanou, a Vinyasa teacher in the TKV Desikachar lineage and a former renounced student of K. Pattabhi Jois. Suzanne first began a meditation practice under the guidance of fellow classmate Christopher (Hareesh) Wallis at UC Berkeley.
Later she deepened her knowledge of anatomy and yoga philosophy with Leslie Kaminoff of The Breathing Project in New York. Her current teachers also include Tom Meyers of Anatomy Trains, Tias Little, and most recently with Josh Schrei.
She has a degree in Integrative Medicine from UC Berkeley where she worked and studied with teachers such as Michael Pollan, Jack Kornfield, and Joanna Macy while researching and writing her thesis on ancestral recipes for healing.
Suzanne has steeped herself in the study of Ayurveda and aromatherapy and plant medicine for over 20 years. She started studying herbs and essential oils as a young girl - she became a clinically trained herbalist through the Northwest School for Botanical Studies in 2009.
Suzanne’s heart is devoted to the disarming power of beauty- to the world of culinary flavor, the spectrum of the emotional scent landscape, and the insistence of poetry to strip us of our defenses.
She moved home to Arcata in 2009 and begin creating Tosha in 2013 and opened the studio doors in 2015.