meet Laughing elephants' yoga/ movement instructors

Bitsy Merriman - Trainer & Studio Co-Owner.

Bitsy Merriman, B.F.A., RSA, E-RYT 200. Bitsy has been studying and teaching yoga for over a decade and is the co-owner of Laughing Elephant Yoga. Bitsy holds over 1000 RYT training hours in Hatha, Seniors, Chair, Health Conditions, Aerial, Yin, Restorative, Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra. She recently completed her 300-hours in Yin. Bitsy took her 200HR as part of her personal yoga journey but found her passion in teaching and helping others. She is known for providing yoga that supports an individual’s physical, mental, and spiritual needs while supporting the movement with options to suit them. Her quiet calm and gentle humor provide a safe and supportive space to those who practice with her. Bitsy hopes to offer yoga for all, nurturing each person’s passion and joy as they discover and explore mindful movement and meditation.

Erin Kennedy, RYT-200, Reiki Master, DoTerra AromaTouch Technique Certified

Erin is a multi-talented instructor with a passion for bringing mindful movement to kids and families.

Erin found her way to the mat over 20 years ago, and through her practice found strength, confidence, and a new connection to self and soul. The healing she experienced in her practice led her to complete her teacher training and begin to share yoga in 2019.

Erin quickly learned that her deepest joy was bringing awareness to kids and families through yoga, essential oil education, and the divine connection of Reiki. She loves empowering families to be their own healers through mindful movement and plant medicine. A rareity, Erin’s creative and encouraging approach to yoga allows for the entire family to participate together in a safe, and fun environment. To learn more about this class description, check out our class descriptions page!

To learn more about essential oils and Erin, check out her blog posts!

Lindsay Fox, RYT-200

Lindsay discovered yoga while at university in England. She quickly realized that she was a nicer, more joyous and energetic bartender if she’d attended a yoga class between lectures and work! Yoga has helped her body through two pregnancies, births and recoveries, and it has helped her nervous system through parenting two very different boys!

After teaching early childhood music in NJ and TX preschools, followed by Kindergarten in NC public schools for many years, Lindsay decided to follow her dream of becoming a yoga teacher. She received her RYT-200 Yoga Alliance certification after undergoing teacher training at Asheville Yoga Center. Lindsay is excited to continue her studies as she works towards further certifications this year. In addition to virtual classes, she currently teaches at local area studios.

Lindsay teaches what she practices: Vinyasa flows of all intensity levels: from gentle through Power sequences. She enjoys all forms of yoga, so each class is different, and incorporates ideas from different traditions and lineages that may be helpful to the flow of life.

Tucker (Thr33) Shelton

Tucker Shelton, M.A., E-RYT 500, YACEP, KYM 475

Tucker Shelton has studied and taught yoga for over a decade. Tucker holds 780 RYT training hours in Hatha, Ashtanga, Yin, Restorative, Bhakti Vinyasa, Vini, Senior, Therapeutic, Children's, Pre/Postnatal, Vinyasa Krama, Anusara, and Kaula Tantra Yoga forms and 475 training hours in the Kaiut Yoga Method.

Tucker has also studied 200 hours of Thai Yoga Massage in Chiang Mai, Thailand and has a Masters with Honors in Contemplative Religious Studies and Sanskrit Language from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. Tucker has taught and studied throughout the United States and around the world, from New Zealand to India to Mexico.

Tucker’s teaching style is lighthearted but deeply transformative. Tucker guides students carefully and gracefully into their bodies, offering many levels of mental, physical, and spiritual practices according to the needs and openness of the individual. Tucker’s specialization is in "Longevity Yoga," or teaching sequences that are safe and powerful for all bodies to practice sustainably for the rest of their lives. Tucker is a sensitive, kind, and playful guide for those on the yoga path. A class with Tucker is imbued with love and insight and leaves practitioners feeling more and thinking less.

Tucker identifies as gender non-binary and gladly uses he, she, and they pronouns interchangeably.

Robin Greene, RYT-200

Robin Greene has been teaching Hatha Yoga since 2018, practicing yoga since 2008, and providing meditation instruction since 1999. Robin finds inspiration in aligning mindfulness with body-awareness and incorporates these into her classes. Beginner friendly and always body-positive, Robin’s classes welcome students to show up as they are, and she invites them for quick, free, individual consultations before and after her classes, or for private instruction by appointment. An English professor, writer, and cofounder of Longleaf Press, Robin is also the author of five books and numerous essays, poems, and stories. Additionally, Robin is cofounder of Sandhills Dharma Group and conducts meditation, yoga, writing workshops and retreats. She holds an MA in Literature from Binghamton University, an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Art, a 200-RYT certificate from Asheville Yoga Center, and additional certifications in Meditation, Yin Yoga, and Prenatal Yoga.

Morgan Woelflein, RYT-200

Morgan is a Registered Yoga Teacher and a voice for the wisdom of nature that exists within us. She teaches different styles of Flow Yoga that guide her students back to the innate wisdom of their bodies. She focuses on clear cueing and moments of guided introspection to allow her students to move through their practice seamlessly and really tune in to what their bodies need.

She completed her 200hr Teacher Training at Mind the Mat Yoga and Pilates in Alexandria, Virginia. Her training focused on Hatha Yoga, the merging of science and spirit, yoga philosophy, anatomy, and the importance of cueing through a trauma informed lens to always give students the choice to move in a certain way. Her training allows her to teach in a way that empowers her students to move in the best way for their bodies.

Morgan knows that one of the greatest tools we have for re-connecting to our bodies is yoga. When you can tune into what your body is telling you, it paves the way for amazing healing, deep inner knowing, and connection. Her classes allow you to become more aware of your body on a physical and energetic level. She encourages all her students to listen to their bodies and honor whatever they are feeling through out the yoga practice.

Morgan is especially passionate about teaching yoga through a feminine lens to empower women and girls. She teaches Feminine Flow Yoga that leads to women and girls feeling confident and safe in their bodies. With her one-on-one clients, she specializes in leading yoga practices that honor whichever phase of the menstrual cycle her client is in. She believes that when we connect with this beautiful cyclical nature within, it opens up our bodies and minds to great depths of healing, expansion, strength, and happiness.

She guides her students through yoga sequences designed to connect them with their wombs, inner knowing, and wildness. She has completed continuing education in these topics with Womban Wellness.

Dianne Hunter

Dianne is dedicated to providing safe and effective mind-body practices that make Pilates and yoga more available to class participants. Her level of deep-seated commitment comes from having opposite experiences herself. She vividly recalls the years of trying to do yoga and Pilates and it just hurt. This was during a period when she commuted to an inner-city Chicago hospital system for work, was gone from home 12 hours a day and on call nights and weekends---with two growing sons, two dogs, a wonderful husband, and a house in the suburbs.

By the time she could resume her passion for exercise instruction (Dianne now holds a 500-hour certification in Pilates, 200 in yoga plus yoga for both osteoporosis and arthritis certifications), she was clearly in the category of osteoporosis and on the way to fracture. Recovery is an ongoing journey for her, but she has experienced the difference quality communication in mind body instruction has made. Therefore, she focuses on making a difference in her own class participants’ experiences of the joy and empowerment of deep muscular engagement, quality posture and easy breath.

Kelsey Stahl

Kelsey began practicing yoga 15 years ago, when her friend dragged her from all the cardio she had been doing at the time, to the mat at their local YMCA. Ignited with the inspiration of a new challenge, Kelsey continued to hone her skills at home and local studios, but only became more devoted in recent years, as she found her way down a spiritual path.

Once she realized yoga was more than just a physical practice and could be therapeutic in so many ways, Kelsey decided to get her 200 Hour certification in Peru with School Yoga Institute, with the hopes of studying trauma-informed and therapeutic yoga in the future. She is passionate about somatic therapy and healing, and believes each person can find their way to their healing journey, benefiting both themselves and the people around them, as well as generations before and after them. She hopes to utilize her skills as a yoga teacher and Reiki practitioner not only to bring people joy, but to introduce them to a world and parts of themselves they may not have known existed.

Kelsey teaches a blend of Hatha and Vinyasa, focused on building strength and intuitive movement. She aims to ground, empower and build confidence in her students through playfulness, challenge and extending support. Kelsey holds personal boundaries sacred and knows that every body is different, and therefore offers options and modifications throughout the entirety of her classes.

Sandi Hartz

Sandi Hartz completed her 230-hr Yoga Teacher Training at Asheville Yoga Center and a 100-hr Iyengar Yoga training with Cindy Dollar in 2002. Sandi also holds certificates in Advanced Yoga, Nurturing The Teacher Within, Restorative Yoga and Yoga for MS.

Sandi combines a good sense of humor and encouragement, with her love of being active and the belief that, everyone can do yoga…all you need is to be able to breathe. She enjoys mountain bike rides, walks in the forest, and weekend travels to see what’s in our backyard.

Walker West

T’ai Chi Chih® is a new form of ‘Chi Kung’ discipline; that is, one that is concerned with the development, circulation and balance of the Vital Force that is the body’s intrinsic energy (Chi).

It is called “Joy Through Movement,” and this moving meditation is a means of spiritual cultivation, and an aid to greater health and longevity. T’ai Chi Chih® is literally ‘Knowledge of Reality’ or ‘Knowing the Supreme Ultimate.’ T’ai Chi is a synonym for ‘Tao,” which is usually translated as ‘Supreme Ultimate’ or ‘The Way’— and the Chinese word ‘Chih’ means ‘Knowledge’ or ‘Knowing.’

T’ai Chi Chih® is a spiritual discipline. It is not an exercise, although the internal organs are massaged. Of course, physical, mental and psychic benefits can be great, but essentially there is a spiritual power behind T’ai Chi Chih. Noticeable benefits were reported: reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, increasing energy, reducing weight, improving immune system etc. Those who do other forms of meditation, or even Hatha yoga, will find the practice may improve their performance in those other disciplines. There is a definite energy build-up that increases with regular practice.

Karen Chapman

I live, play, work and dance in Asheville, NC and I come from a family of teachers. My favorite hobbies are doing art, listening to music, making musical Waves, walking in the forest and enjoying small gatherings with friends. I have struggled with my career choices in finding my path. I am grateful to Gabriel Roth, founder of the 5Rhythms, for I have found my path in teaching movement.

Dancing, Sweating, crying, and breathing has been the most transformative experience for me. I have been a committed teacher for over 5 years and I am excited to be a part of a Global Community. I am excited about my growth and expansion of being a teacher of the 5Rhythms Movement Meditation Practice.

Heidi Rocke

I've always been fascinated with movement. As a child climbing trees, riding horses, in the dance studio...I’ve also been equally obsessed with how things work and what makes things tick. As I grew, my intuitive obsession became a formal pursuit of both biomechanics/dynamics and psychology.

A Master's degree in Oriental Medicine was, for me, just the beginning. Immersed in

both eastern and western science and philosophy, I continued postgraduate research into the interface and influence between mind and body; movement and wellness. I emerged with a deep understanding of the BodyMind not simply as two parts connected but as, literally, the same function. The BodyMind as a single experience.

I developed Functional Integration as a healing modality that respects this BodyMind experience. Working with the body’s natural capacity to adapt, we release years of tension and pain from the foundational structure and organizing web. Re-awakening BodyMind awareness imprints new movement patterns and experiences. Reaching the source of imbalance sets us up for natural and lasting change. Freedom and balance in the body becomes freedom and balance in the experience of that body: in the direct experience of life.

Today, I write, teach and work with private clients. I hike, climb, read, practice yoga ...and get distracted by cats.

I hold a Masters in Oriental Medicine/ Acupuncture, Bachelor’s in Health Sciences,

Bachelor’s in Communication/ Journalism. Senior level Yoga Instructor (17yrs) and

Continuing Education Provider; Certified Personal Trainer, with specializations in

Corrective Exercise.