Annette Murphy
Annette Murphy has been practicing Iyengar Yoga for the past twenty years. Her pursuit of freedom through the path of Yoga brought her from her native Ireland to San Francisco in 1984. She is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute, an intermediate level certified teacher and has been teaching full time in the Bay Area for the past fourteen years. In 2002 Annette opened Santosha Yoga Center. She teaches weekly classes as well as workshops and intensives at Santosha Yoga Center as well as at The Iyengar Yoga Institute Of San Francisco. Annette also serves on the board of trustees that governs IYISF.

Annette's teaching style is precise and progressive. She encourages her students to work deeply while honoring and working with their limitations. Annette regularly sees people privately to work with issues such as back care, neck and shoulder problems, hip problems, migraine sufferers, arthritis as well as pre and post natal yoga.

Adrienne Klein
In 1982, Adrienne discovered and instantly fell in love with Iyengar Yoga. In 1994, she intensified her studies while recovering from a back injury. Adrienne has taken teacher training classes at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco, studies weekly with her teacher Manouso Manos, and has twice studied at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in India. She began teaching in 1998 and is now an intermediate level certified teacher. Adrienne simply loves the study of yoga and hopes to have an opportunity to infect you with her passion for the subject.

Cator Shachoy
Cator Shachoy began the practices of yoga, Buddhist meditation, and energy healing in 1991, as the result of chronic illness. Through the regular practice of these disciplines, she began to recover her strength and vitality. In 1995, after 3 years residence in spiritual communities, Cator moved to the San Francisco bay area. Cator's deep desire to play more and think less has drawn her to work with both children and the dying. A hospice volunteer for 5 years, Cator offered sacred touch to the dying. She has also worked with youth in a variety of environments-including as a camp counselor, art teacher, and child care provider—since 1995.

Cator is the founder of Youth Yoga Dharma, a non-profit organization dedicated to offering the skills of meditation and yoga to youth, emphasizing disadvantaged situations. Cator teaches yoga and meditation classes to adults and youth, and has a private practice of Craniosacral bodywork in SF. Cator is an Iyengar yoga instructor, a practitioner of Visionary Craniosacral Bodywork, and is a part of the Teen Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Anne Barbaret
Originally from France, Anne is a veteran marathon runner and avid bay swimmer. She has been practicing Iyengar Yoga for 9 years and is a graduate of the Advances Studies Teacher Training program at The Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco She teaches regularly at The Olympic Club as well as at Santosha Yoga Center

Anne’s teaching style is methodical and precise. She builds confidence in her students as they work towards developing flexibility, strength, balance and poise  through their practice. Anne has studied with the Iyengars in India and is currently preparing for her certification exam.

Sabine Kuehner
Sabine Kuehner came to San Francisco from Germany in the early 1980s to study with Ana Halprin, and at the San Francisco Dancer's workshop. A friend introduced her to Iyengar Yoga shortly after her arrival. Having been plagued for much of her life with tremendous stiffness in her spine and structural imbalances due to a shorter leg, she recognized at once, that Iyengar Yoga would give her the means to improve her condition. After graduating from the Advanced Study Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in SF, she became certified by the National Iyengar Yoga Association in 1995. Since 1991 she has made yearly pilgrimages to Pune, India to study with BKS Iyengar and his daughter Geetaji Iyengar, whom she considers her primary teacher. For the last few years during her stays in Pune, she has furthered her studies in Ayurveda and has assisted in the medical classes offered at the Iyengar Yoga Institute for people suffering from a wide range of complaints and diseases; she graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2003.

Sabine is co-founder of the Namaste Yoga Studio, which flourished here in San Francisco from 1993-2002. Sabine is deeply committed to both teaching and practicing yoga, because she has observed the profound transformation that yoga has brought to her own life and body, as well as her students. Sabine is known for her highly personalized style of yoga instruction, assisting each and every one of her students on their individual yoga journey. Her highly developed ability to see and adjust students in their asanas is also derived from her 20 year practice as a therapeutic bodyworker. In addition, her strong sense of humor and her light heartedness mixed with her sometimes very funny use of the English language make her classes a lot of fun as well as therapeutic.

After years as a student of yoga and with significant early teaching experience, candidates for assessment apply to take the exam. Given over the course of a weekend, prospective teachers must show proficiency in performance of the asanas or postures at their level and take a written exam on philosophy, anatomy and practical knowledge of teaching. In the third and most important part of the test, the candidate is observed and assessed while teaching a sample class.

This process is repeated in a year or two with a different set of poses and only then is the full certification granted at the introductory level. There are six levels currently available for assessment from introductory to intermediate senior.

After successful completion of this exam the teacher is considered certified and may denote that with the official Iyengar Certification Mark.