The Whole Mama Yoga Collective

Our Whole Mama Yoga Collective of teachers and perinatal professionals offer a wide variety of services that support mothers, parents and families. Together we hope to meet you where you are with services and support that will follow you from preconception through parenthood.

Many of our Whole Mama Yoga Collective teachers are graduates of our 85-hour prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher training. We are proud to be in community with a such an inspiring, passionate, thoughtful group of teachers and care providers.

About Lauren, Erin and Alexandra

Lauren Sacks (she/her/hers)

Co-Founder & Lead Teacher

Prenatal Yoga, Yoga for Motherhood, PYTT Co-Facilitator, Retreat leader

Yoga has served as my means of reflection and stability since I began practicing upon my graduation from college in 2000.   It is my constant, and has served as such during my transition to adulthood, various jobs, numerous moves, relationships, and life changes.  Although I had always assumed that I would become a mom, until my son Simon arrived in 2011, I didn’t fully understand the impact that motherhood would have on my life, both on and off the mat.  Now, as a parent of two, thank goodness for yoga – for the strength it provides, the community it creates, the inner awareness it cultivates, and the sanity it offers.

Though, intellectually, I’ve always known that change is the only constant, pregnancy and the transition to motherhood were both very strong reminders.  Yoga helped me surrender to the joyous (and, often, highly uncomfortable) ride of pregnancy, and provides me with (some) presence of mind in the midst of the maelstrom of raising two young children.

As parents and mothers, the pressures, contradictions and challenges can be overwhelming. Yoga, a strong community, and a good sense of humor are paramount to self-compassion and sanity.  And self-compassion and sanity are key (!) to maintaining some semblance of wholeness in the constant quest for balance that is life (parenthood) as we now know it.  That’s the thing, for me, behind Whole Mama Yoga.  “Having it all” may or may not be possible, but the practice of yoga and the emphasis on occasional adult time-outs has been key in my brain having it all together (or, more together than it would be otherwise).  I believe that yoga can help in providing that sense of wholeness, regardless of whether you are just starting to contemplate pregnancy, are awaiting the birth of your first child, or are actively parenting toddlers or teenagers.

I love my work as a yoga teacher.  In addition, reading, sewing, thinking about DIY projects, cooking, and spending time with friends (often while eating food I haven’t cooked) are big interests of mine. I live in Carrboro, NC with my partner, Roy, and our two children, Simon and Laine.

For more about me, please visit my website laurensacksyoga.com.

Erin Hanehan (she/her/hers)

Lead Teacher & Media Manager

Baby & Me Yoga, Toddler Yoga, embodied Mothering Yoga, PYTT Co-Facilitator, Retreat leader

I began practicing yoga in 2006. It wasn’t momentous or particularly interesting. I started by taking a weekly class in a giant multipurpose room through my college’s student recreation center. I found the class relaxing, but also empowering. I’ve never been particularly connected to physical activity, and until I really began to understand the vocabulary of a regular yoga practice I did not realize that our bodies themselves are full of a unique and very special wisdom. 

Yoga has helped me to find a strength and a connection to my body (inside and out) that I did not know was possible. A strength and a connection that I was particularly grateful to have already cultivated when I was approaching the birth of my son. The physical transformation of the entire perinatal period is immense. The introspection, the reverence, the respect, the power, the community of yoga was so important to me while pregnant, in labor, during those early postpartum days and as a new mom. 

After the birth of my son, I found myself shifting and changing in many ways (this is the understatement of motherhood; words don’t do this transformation justice). While adjusting to the many ways life changes after becoming a mother, I received my certification to teach children’s yoga and mindfulness as well as pre and postnatal yoga. I also made lasting and important relationships with organizations supporting parents including Little Dipper Wellness, Tiny Earth Toys and, of course, Whole Mama Yoga. 

I am passionate about enabling children to stand tall, feel confident in their body and find their own unique voice. I care deeply about creating spaces where caregivers can bond with the children in their lives, and I am eager to share how mindfulness can impact parenting. I want all parents, but especially birthing people, to feel at home in their bodies - strong, aligned, joyful and calm.

Learn more about my journey in motherhood and my current class offerings by following me on Instagram at @ehanehan. Read my writing, which focuses on motherhood, mindfulness & play at https://linktr.ee/ehanehan

Alexandra DeSiato (she/her/hers)

Co-Founder

Postpartum Yoga, PYTT Guest Teacher

I became a mama at age 35, after years of having a dedicated yoga practice. Approaching pregnancy, being pregnant, and arriving on the shores of postnatal island all seriously changed that yoga practice—both on the mat and off.

The gifts of yoga and motherhood are similar. Both make us more present. Both make us more patient. Both ask us to dig into the deepest parts of ourselves. (Yet only one requires the changing of so. many. diapers.) Because of these similarities, we can use yoga as preparation for and support for all that parenthood and motherhood require. It’s a tool for the challenges of getting pregnant, being pregnant, and being a mom or parent to little beings who require us to show up as our authentic selves (for better or worse!)

Yoga gives us the breathing space, the thinking space, the moving space, and the being space to be a Whole Mama. Yoga has been a source of renewal and strength for me, and it’s been my rock during the often-unpredictable experience of mothering.

Yoga offers mental and spiritual dimensions, and it also connects us to a community of like-minded mamas. The poses and sequences support our physical, birthing bodies. Prenatal women will find yoga a helpful preparation for labor and postnatal women can use yoga to reset their bodies for long-term health. (My real passion is offering information on how yoga can be a tool for postpartum healing and strength-and-stamina building for parenting and motherhood!)

In addition to being a yoga instructor, I’m a runner, avid hiker and backpacker, college English professor, Pilates teacher, and writer. With Sage Rountree, I’ve co-authored two books on yoga, Lifelong Yoga, about yoga and healthy aging and Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses, a practical handbook for crafting themes for a yoga class or practice. I live in Carrboro, NC with my partner Alex, our cat Cleo, and our daughter Seraphina Rose.

Contact me or read more at alexandradesiato.com.

The Whole Mama Yoga Collective

Stephanie Amekuedi

Lactation Specialist, Prenatal / Postpartum Yoga Instructor

lactation expert, lactation support, breastfeeding equity advocate

Ellese Nickles, DPT (she/her/hers)

E-RYT, YAECP

Pelvic Health expert, Postpartum physcial therapist, Postpartum yoga

Ellese is passionate about health and wellness and founded Bloom Physical Therapy as a way to support people in meeting their individual goals through a variety of paths. She earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy from UNC in 2016 and has practiced in outpatient orthopedics, pelvic health physical therapy and early intervention with children 0-3 years old. She enjoys working with a variety of patient populations across the lifespan and specializes in treating perinatal populations. In addition to her career in physical therapy Ellese has experience in personal training, group fitness instruction and yoga teaching and combines these skills to offer various paths to optimal health and wellbeing. She also lead yoga teacher training modules for anatomy and physiology, postpartum yoga, birth education and yoga for seniors.

Since the birth of her first child, Ellese has become even more aware of the gaps in our healthcare system in caring for pregnant people and new mothers. She is committed to offering birthing people the support they need to reach optimal health and wellbeing as they navigate each transformational stage of pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience. Ellese works with women one on one through her Pelvic Floor and Core Foundations to help them resolve pelvic floor issues including urinary incontinence, urgency, pain, and prolapse. She also offers Strong Mom programming for general prenatal fitness guidance, postpartum recovery and beyond to help mothers return to feeling strong and confident in their bodies.

By working in a virtual coaching and hybrid in person model, Ellese is able to meet mothers where they are, reducing common barriers to seeking care including time restraints, childcare needs, and scheduling difficulties. Within this model mothers find more consistency, support, accountability and success!

When not working in clinic or with Bloom Physical Therapy she enjoys gardening, traveling, and spending time with her partner, Blake, two boys Elliott and Arlo, and sweet pup Violet.

Mary Reddinger (she/her/hers)

Yoga Teacher, ERYT, PRYT

private yoga expert, prenatal yoga, postpartum yoga, certified pre/postnatal corrective exercise specialist

Mary is a full-time private yoga teacher (in addition to teaching group classes online & in-person). She has been teaching private yoga for five years, since her initial 200-hour training in 2018. She loves working with students 1:1 because her students achieve their goals faster. 

Interested in working with Mary one on one?  Learn more about her work & schedule a free 15-minute introduction call by emailing her mary@maryreddingeryoga.com.  Hurry, Mary’s private sessions book up fast!

From Mary:

I found yoga at the age of twelve, when I was struggling with flexibility as a young dancer.  My ballet teacher taught me a few poses that I liked, but I thought “real” yoga classes were weird.  I drifted in and out of yoga for many years from then on.

After my eldest was born in 2014, I struggled with crippling postpartum anxiety.  I remembered how good yoga made me feel, so I started doing classes on YouTube.   My yoga practice didn’t cure my anxiety, but it was the one time each day my mind wasn’t swirling with worries and fears that I wasn’t enough.  

I didn’t stop.  I practiced every day.  The more I practiced, the more I found I wanted to share the practice with others.  I completed my initial 200 hour training while pregnant (and postpartum) with my second son in 2018.

I didn’t envision myself as a perinatal yoga teacher, but my teacher wanted to bring Baby + Me Yoga classes to her studio, and my prenatal teacher needed a sub.  Yoga has a way of doing that… it can reveal strengths you never knew you had.  The more I taught, the more I loved supporting the perinatal population.  I completed my Pre and Postnatal Yoga Training with Whole Mama in 2020.  

My time as a mother has faced me with many challenges: anxiety, depression, chronic pelvic pain, chronic nausea, and pelvic floor dysfunction.  My yoga practice has been a support through it all.  Yoga teaches me gratitude for what my body CAN do.  Yoga meets me where I am, and offers many tools to meet me where I am in my healing.  Yoga reminds me that I am not my thoughts, and that each breath is a new breath.  A fresh start.

It is my hope to bring this to other moms who are struggling with the same things I have.

I live in Chapel Hill, NC with my husband, Sam, and two boys, Sawyer and Fitzgerald.  I teach yoga full time, and I am a total yoga nerd.  When I am not teaching, you can usually find me scrambling after my two boys, tripping over Legos, curled up with a book, or pretending I’m the star of a Broadway musical in my car.  

You can follow me on Instagram at @maryreddingeryoga for tips, fun stories, and upcoming events.

Laura Lundegard (she/her/hers)

Prenatal / Postnatal Yoga Teacher, Birth Doula, Placenta Encapsulator

experienced doula, placenta encapsulation, prenatal yoga

Laura is a certified birth and loss doula, and serves as a placenta encapsulator. Laura has been supporting families for the last year after training with Homegrown Families in Asheville, NC. She is passionate about supporting new mamas and their families in their transition into parenthood. Interested in working with Laura? Learn more about her work & and schedule a free 30-minute consultation by visiting her website here.

From Laura:

I first discovered yoga in 2005 and began my practice with my mother and sister. I practiced on and off until I dove deep into my practice in 2015 following the sudden passing of my sister. My practice was the time I was able to connect with her spirit and was what allowed me to heal from my grief. Over the last 8 years my yoga practice has been my constant safe space; it is the anchor that allows me to move through the waves of life.

When the pandemic hit, I decided that I needed to share my practice with friends, family, and beloveds and began teaching as a way to connect with my loved ones through movement. While growing my teaching practice, I was working at the UNC center for women’s mood disorders as a project manager studying postpartum depression. For 4 years during my time there, I heard countless stories of birth trauma with the anxiety and depression that followed, from women in desperate need of support and connection. I decided to pursue a career as a birth doula and gain additional education in prenatal yoga, abortion doula support, placenta encapsulation, and lactation support. 

As a yoga teacher, birth doula, and placenta encapsulator, connection is what drives my work. I aim to aid my students, new and expecting parents and families in connection. To connect within themselves and their new family. 

When I’m not teaching, at a birth, or playing placenta fairy (as I like to call my encapsulation work!) I can often be found rock climbing at Triangle Rock Club, cooking new vegan/gluten-free meals, or flipping around with my beloveds in my acrobatic practice. I currently live in Carrboro, NC and am a cat mom to Maeve and Clementine.
If you’d like to get in touch for birthwork or related services you can find me @sacred.birthing.doula on Instagram, or visit my website www.sacredbirthingdoula.com

Courtney Joyce (she/her/hers)

Prenatal / Postnatal Yoga Teacher, Founder of Love Mom Yoga 

Real mom, keeping it real, postpartum yoga

I practiced yoga inconsistently throughout my twenties and early thirties, but I finally found a home in yoga after having baby number 2. I had been struggling with some pretty intense anxiety and rage, and decided to walk into a yoga class one night. 

I will not say that the very first night fixed anything, but it did make me want to keep going back. After several months of regular practice, I became pregnant with baby number 3, and continued regular yoga classes throughout that pregnancy. The relief I felt during and after my yoga classes made me want to share that relief with other parents.

I completed my yoga teacher training with Whole Mama Yoga in November of 2022, and I have been teaching a weekly class to fellow mothers ever since. I love the connection and community that weekly practice brings to me, and to the parents who join me on their mats. Motherhood is So. Dang. Hard. We need whatever tools we can find to make it a little easier - or at least a place to commiserate when there is just no fix.

Other than yoga, I enjoy spending time with my 3 daughters, and my wonderful partner at our home in Garner, NC. We love to be by the water, as much as we are able. When I have a few moments to myself, I love listening to a good podcast, and spending time with my friends who let me be who I am.

Learn more about Courtney by visiting www.lovemomyoga.com and following @CourtLeighMomof3 & @LoveMomYoga on Instagram & Facebook.

Joanna John (she/her/hers)

Mindfulness & Meditation Teacher

Mindfulness Expert, Committed to being trauma informed, anti-racist & an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community

I was born and raised in Durham, NC, which is the native and stolen land of the Lumbee, Skarukreh/Tuscarora, Cheraw, Occaneechi, and Shakori Nations. My first spiritual home was at Watts Street Baptist Church where years before, my grandfather was the minister and had a statue of the Buddha sitting on his desk. I grew up with a belief in life’s goodness and a knowing that I was held in grace. 

A transformative event at age nineteen left me wrestling with life’s big questions and feeling the sense of groundlessness that we all feel at one point or another. Most therapists did not know how to relate to my experience in a way that felt true or empowering to me. I did, however, find mindfulness during this time and it became a refuge. 

I later received degrees in Elementary Education and Special Education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and taught in the NC public school system before having my first child. 

When I became a mother, I experienced a resurgence of this familiar anxiety along with a strong pull to understand my inner world and connect with what I call “God” in a much deeper way. I was fortunate enough to find a therapist who related to my experience with trust, respect, and reverence and it was then that I began to find my way. I developed the skills to change my relationship to thoughts, to learn more about how nervous systems work, and to practice surrendering to a deeper knowing. 

Compelled to learn more and help others, I completed The Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program in 2023, a two year professional training program for teaching awareness and compassion based practices with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. This program was in partnership with Sounds True and The University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. In 2024, I will have completed an additional year of meditation teacher training for guiding individuals in embodied inquiry. I am also committed to being trauma informed, anti-racist, and an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. 

I currently live in Durham, NC with my husband, two young children, and a lab mix named Tallulah. My primary role is homeschool parent and I enjoy carving out space for mindfulness and contemplative practices as they are my life’s passion. You can find me in nature with my family, gardening, listening to music, enjoying vegan food, and devouring audiobooks and podcasts. 

Learn more about Joanna by visiting www.joannajohnmindfulness.com and following @joannajohnmindfulness on Instagram & Facebook.

Bri Johnson

Yoga Teacher, RYT, RPYT

trauma-infomred yoga teacher, Veteran, military Spouse

Bri Johnson (RYT, RPYT) is a military spouse, mommy to two little girls, veteran, and trauma-informed yoga teacher, who is truly passionate about providing an accessible, authentic, and uplifting yoga practice to others, whether experienced or new to yoga.

Bri has been teaching yoga since 2018 and became certified to teach prenatal and postnatal yoga through Whole Mama Yoga’s PYTT in 2020.

She feels incredibly fortunate to connect with people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life as she’s led classes in studios, gyms, on military installations, and online. It is her goal to educate and emphasize that through achieving mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, we are all able to better serve ourselves, our families, and our communities. 

Dr. Jenna Silver (she/her)

Prenatal & Postnatal Physical Therapist

Pelvic Health expert, Prenatal & PostNatal physical therapy, Dry needling, myofascial release

Dr. Jenna Silver, has a heart to reach a diverse society and make a difference in how our world views physical health. She always strives to put the patient’s health and goals at the top of the priority list by empowering them to heal through education, as well as well-rounded practices. Jenna believes in a holistic learning and health style, and thus is a major spokeswoman for not just strengthening ones physique, but our mental and emotional health in tandem.

Jenna grew up in Clayton, NC and received both her bachelor’s degree, as well as her doctorate, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was certified by the American Academy of Manipulative Therapy for dry needling. Jenna also received her Level I pelvic floor certification from Herman and Wallace. She also achieved her 200 hour yoga instructor certification from Midtown Yoga.

When she is not working in PT, Jenna enjoys baking, spending time outdoors with her husband and friends, and finding a good book that she can curl up with. She looks forward to growing more and finding exciting ways to unite her home and work life, so that as many people as possible understand the innumerable possibilities of a balanced mind, body, and soul life.

The Whole Mama Yoga Collective Alumni

Jenna Horgan, LCSW (she/her)

Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Teacher, Perinatal Mental Health & Trauma Therapist

Jenna is a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher as well as a perinatal mental health & trauma therapist with her own private practice. She teaches yoga at Anchor Perinatal, an intensive outpatient therapy program for pregnant & postpartum folks. Although she is not currently accepting new clients, you can get on her wait list for pregnant and postpartum support by emailing therapy@jennahorgan.com.

Neda Dowlatshahi (she/her)

RYT-200, PYT-85

Neda is an experienced yoga instructor with extensive training. She became a mama in late 2022, which amplified her passion for perinatal yoga. Neda is also experienced in Thai yoga massage & has Ayurveda and birth doula training, all of which she enjoys incorporating into her yoga practice.

Samantha Hellberg, MA (she/her)

RYT-200, PYT-85, TCTSY-20

Samantha is completing a doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at UNC-CH. Her research and clinical training centers on perinatal mental health, with an focus on understanding the causes and improving the treatment of emotional and trauma-related challenges during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Samantha is also a trauma informed yoga instructor with an interest in teaching prenatal folks.

Rebecca Sink Smith, MSW/MPH (she/her)

Prenatal/Postpartum Yoga Instructor

Rebecca is a Public Health Practitioner with a specialization in Maternal and Child Health. She has been in public health for 10 years+ since obtaining her Masters in Social Work and Public Health from UNC-CH. She is especially passionate about developing innovative programs to address quality and equity in perinatal healthcare. Rebecca is also a prenatal & postpartum yoga instructor.

Melissa Ming Foynes, Ph.D (she/her)

Licensed Psychologist, Holistic Wellness Coach, Trauma-informed Yoga Teacher, Ayurvedic Doula

Dr. Melissa Ming Foynes is a holistic psychologist and coach, trauma-informed mindfulness, meditation & yoga teacher, and perinatal Ayurvedic specialist. One of her core missions is to empower parents, especially those who identify as highly sensitive, to skillfully navigate life stressors, societal pressures, workplace demands, & experiences of trauma, grief, anxiety, and burnout with principles from evidence-based psychology and a variety of ancient wisdom traditions.