SVG Core Instructors
Susan Winkler
Susan believes strongly in the power of yoga to relieve mental and emotional stress, allowing students to find peace and comfort within themselves. Stress can manifest itself in the body as physical ailments like high blood pressure, heart disease, migraines, asthma, and digestive problems, or as mental/emotional challenges such as depression, anxiety and insomnia. Through meditation and relaxation techniques, the body can begin to heal itself. This is the primary focus of Susan’s classes, incorporating postures that improve the body’s flexibility and strength, as well as breathing exercises and meditations that calm the mind and allow students to begin their quest for self-knowledge and transformation to a happier and healthier being.
Susan has been studying yoga for over 20 years, gaining her teaching certification through the 700-hour teacher-training program at Soma Centre in 2000. The teacher training program included yoga asanas, pranayama, meditation, and bandhas, as well as yoga philosophy, Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, and Yoga Sutras.
Susan continued her studies under the tutelage of Amita Shankar, a renowned yoga teacher from The Yoga Institute in Mumbai. Amita is a student of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the revered traditional teacher of Vedanta. Amita coined the term “Off-The-Mat-Yoga: integrating Yoga with life itself”. offering students an opportunity to visit their inner sanctuary and bask in its light and wisdom. Susan has made several trips to study at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai with Doctor and Hansaji Yogendra.
Susan continues her philosophy studies with Guruji Divyang Vakil, diving into the understanding of the true soul, with a focus on death and dying.
Susan owned a yoga studio, Yoga Vayu, in downtown New Brunswick from 2002 – 2009 which was focused on her belief in the holistic approach to health and well-being through activities that lift the soul and allow individuals to tune into their bodies and their creative self, including yoga, dance, drumming, massage, Reiki, Ayurvedic consultations and more.
Bharati Carla
Bharati Carla is founder of Yoga Healing Consortium, which includes House of Well-Being hospitality services, Garden of Healing Yoga & Wellness, and its project Hub City Drum n Dance. She has built a life of service around health & wellness and the spaces in which we can bring about more of this.
Her background includes 30 years exploring bodywork, nursing & meditative practices to bring wellness instruction and experiences to people in all walks of life, in various settings and through the different stages of health & healing.
Bharati is a teacher-healer who serves passionately from an intuitive place; and the purity & strength of that guided intention creates great impact in the lives of many.
She describes herself as a soft-skills trainer- teaching concepts of yogic science and humanology to consciously engage one’s body/mind/emotions in sustainably constructive behaviors that lend to healthier individual, familial and organizational dynamics.
Her work is primarily through guided journeys with individuals, small & large groups, and customized and curated institutional & corporate programs.
Bharati summarizes her intentions here: “May my offerings encourage you to embrace life, to reclaim vitality. May the blessings of my attainments be used in the service of the divine, for all of Creation.”
Robin Dunham
Robin’s yoga journey started as a search for release from stress, and at the suggestion of a friend, she turned to yoga. She originally gravitated to strong practices,and found Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga, Baptiste Flow and hot yoga. She loved the experience of savasana at the end of each class. She began to yearn for that feeling of peace, and became more curious about yoga, and explored other styles, eventually finding meditation, restorative and Yin yoga. She was exposed to several Soma teachers, and especially liked the non-linear style of movement which they incorporated in their classes. Interested in learning more about Yoga, and at the suggestion of one of her Soma Yoga teachers, she took her first 200 hour training with Bobbie Ellis in 2009.
During her training, Robin was introduced to, and began to practice Continuum Movement, an extremely meditative, self-directed practice that incorporates sound and non-linear movement. Her teaching and own practice continue to be strongly influenced by Continuum, and Bobbie. After graduating, Robin continued to study with Bobbie, and assisted as a mentor and teacher in Soma teacher training programs. Robin has also taken workshops in Thomas Hanna’s Somatics, prenatal yoga, teaching yoga to children, older adults, and yoga therapeutics. She has continued her studies most recently in Yin Yoga with Sally Miller and Restorative Yoga programs with Jillian Pransky. Robin has taught at Princeton Center for Yoga and Health, Princeton Fitness & Wellness - Princeton, Douglas College and Soma Center.
Robin has come to the understanding that yoga is a healing modality, accessible to anyone. She has found through personal experience that yoga has helped her to handle the stresses and challenges that life has brought to her, and she believes that yoga has, and can continue to serve her students as well. She knows first hand how nourishing and necessary it is to take time to care for ourselves. She enjoys teaching Soma Yoga, Yin, Restorative and Slow Flow classes, and especially loves introducing people to yoga and finding ways to adapt the practice to individual needs. Robin’s wish for her students is that they learn to find and to follow their inner teachers. In her classes she offers tools and space to help them to listen.
Repeat Guest Teachers & Collaborators
Connie Miller
Connie Miller created YOGARhythmics ® in 1986 out of her love of yoga, passion for dance, and unrelenting desire for connection and Self-expression. Embodying a wealth of wisdom earned through more than 50 years of learning, living, and teaching yoga and movement, she loves making her teachings accessible for brand new beginners and an interesting challenge for the more adept.
Connie brings precise alignment and form to physical practices for optimal strength, stability and ease, while at the same time skillfully integrating the metaphysical realms to energize, reset, and weave together moving multi-dimensional experiences. She invites you to listen to your own body, explore your inner rhythms, honor the innate wisdom and full expression of your human spirit. and integrate that knowing into your every-day life
A Wisdom Woman with solid intellect, clear intuition & vibrant delight, Connie offers classes, workshops, teacher trainings. She is a Certified BodyIntuitive® practitioner with advanced training in chakras, meridians and the energy body, epigenetics, and healing from Covid. You’ll find her in deep conversation with a friend, chugging kombucha with Miles Davis, or laughing and playing with her 15 grandies.
Connect with Connie: yogarhythmsstudio@gmail.com or yogarhythm@aol.com
YOGARhythmics ® Basic Training: June 2023
Advanced Training for YR teachers: June 2023