Morning Star
Yoga Instructor

Morning Star has a variegated background that includes a BA in music,over 30 years of teaching piano, dance, swim coaching, athletic team training, music/exercise therapy, stress reduction, therapeutic stretch, cooking, and yoga.

Travel, living in various countries, wiggling in Brazil, trekking in Australia, learning to teach yoga in Spanish in Mexico, and writing music-- all have been key ingredients to her approach, with humor, of teaching people to be comfortably and transformatively in their bodies.

Writing bios makes her nervous and dancing to good music makes her sane. She gives retreats in connecting with nature, yoga, dance, and exploration of the outer/inner universe. Try her class and you will feel the magic!

Sara Valentine
Yoga Instructor

Sara Valentine grew up in Walnut Creek, CA as a competitive swimmer, competing at both a national and international level. She discovered yoga about 10 years ago due a low back injury while playing tennis and living in Utah.

She went through her teacher training and became certified with YogaMotion, completed the 200 hour certification for Yoga Alliance and also completed extensive training with Integrative Yoga Therapy.

Over the last several years her teaching has developed into a gentle vinyasa flow style with emphasis on proper alignment, mindful breath work and inner body awareness. She presents a gentle and compassionate style of teaching, helping her students awaken to the healing potentials of a yoga practice both on and off the mat, quiet the mind and balance the body.

After living in the mountains and snow for the last 18 years she is very happy to be back in the California sunshine and looks forward to sharing her experience.

Orlena Lackenbauer
Yoga / Pilates Instructor

Orlena has been in the healing arts and fitness industry for 19 years. Her practice as a massage therapist and conditioning fitness instructor began to take a toll on her body. When she began taking Yoga and eventually became an instructor (certified at two different schools), her strength, flexibility and self esteem improved dramatically.

The restriction and discomfort in her neck and wrists subsided. She felt more alive, and at ease in her body. When Pilates hit the scene, Orlena finished her teacher's training at the 'Turning Point' Studio in Walnut Creek. She teaches several innovative Pilates mat classes using roller, ring, balls, plates and bands and has found her own core strength and balance better than ever. She has seen and heard wonderful testimonies from students who take both Yoga and Pilates two or more times a week, that their balance, posture and spine flexibility has improved.

Orlena believes that fitness classes can be fun and educational. She takes care to explain and demonstrate how proper alignment and modifications can prevent injuries and create longer, stronger muscles, deeper concentration skills, fuller breath and overall sense of well-being. Join Orlena and enjoy the mature years in grace and laughter.

Rod Ciocho
Yoga Instructor

Rod received his formal instructor training with Mark Horner at the Moksha Yoga Shala in Walnut Creek. He continues his studies with Mark, and also studies with Shandor Remete (Shadow Yoga) and André Lappa (Universal Yoga).

Rod blends various styles of Yoga with a basic foundation in the Iyengar and Ashtanga Vinyasa styles, and some basic Pilates exercises ... working both statically and dynamically with emphasis placed on integration of proper posture, moving from the core, breath, and attention.

Rod began his practice of Yoga to help with the pain associated with scoliosis and muscular imbalance. He soon discovered the vast richness of yoga and how it affects all aspects of one's life, both physically and spiritually. Rod sees yoga as a vital discipline for taking full responsibility of one's life and one's health.

Jillian Standish
Yoga Instructor

Practicing massage therapy for 23 years has given Jillian an excellent understanding of functional anatomy and the causes of many injuries, as well as how to help clients and students work their way back to moving in a balanced way. Jillian enjoys taking time to help beginning yoga students explore the basic foundations of yoga postures so they may safely participate, regardless of their age, physical shape, or challenges.

Jillian came to yoga as a way to help stretch out the kinks and stiffness caused by years of doing massage. She admits that the first year practicing yoga was difficult, as she learned just how tight many of her muscles had become, despite receiving weekly massages. In time, she realized that practicing yoga was like receiving a "massage from within," with lasting impact on opening up restricted joints and imparting a deep sense of well-being.

Jillian began her yoga practice at the Moksha Yoga Shala in Walnut Creek with Mark Horner in the mid 1990s. Two of her fellow yogis starting about the same time, Jeanie Lerner and Rod Ciocho, also teach yoga here at LHC. Jillian continues to study yoga in workshops with Tias Little and Judith Lasater.

In March 2007, Jillian became a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader so she could share the benefits of Laughter via Laughter Yoga. The "Laughy-ette Laughter Club" began meeting a month later in April.

Jeanie Lerner
Yoga Instructor

Jeanie first started exploring mind/body harmony in 1972, with Aikido, a Japanese martial art, in which she earned Shodan (black belt). But as she got older, she found Aikido too hard on her joints. Four years of Polynesian dancing confirmed that she really needed to address the stiffness in her hips as well.

In 1995, Jeanie took her first yoga class, with Ofer Erez at a health club near work. She studied with Ofer for one year before finding Mark Horner's studio, Moksha Yoga Shala, in Walnut Creek. A graduate of Mark's first Advanced Studies/Teacher Training course, she continues to study with him. Jeanie is committed to teaching yoga, to share what she has learned and explore yoga's possibilities with others. Her teaching is informed by her own experience. Unlike many yoga teachers, Jeanie has always had a stiff body, so she understands how challenging yoga can be. Her classes are enlivened by her enthusiasm, sense of humor, compassion, and "glass half full" attitude. Jeanie believes yoga offers something for everyone. She has developed a unique program called DeskYoga™ to bring the benefits of yoga to the workplace by taking the physical strain out of working.

Jeanie's teaching is enhanced by the fact that she holds two California State Teaching credentials. She also has an MA in linguistics from UC Berkeley. When she's not on her mat, she works as a copy editor. She also enjoys hiking, playing with her dog and her husband (not necessarily in that order), and reading.

Joyce Bueker
Yoga Instructor

Joyce Bueker has managed athletic clubs for over 20 years, including Telegraph Hill Club in San Francisco (sister club to The Bay Club), RiverPlace Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon, Oakwood Athletic Club in Lafayette and ClubSport City Center in Oakland (now Club One).

She has taught and studied yoga and ayurveda for the past 15 years, co-directing the Yoga College of India in Portland where she received teacher training and taught both "warm room" and gentle styles.

As a nationally competitive bodybuilder she was featured on ESPN and uses her 20+ years of personal training and weight room experience in her strength and stretching classes.

Joyce has a Master's degree in Modern Social History and is a certified Communications and Life Coach. She is author of Ayurvedic Balancing: An Integration of Western Fitness with Eastern Wellness and several workshops including Seven Points of Light Life Coaching Series, Restoration Meditation and Feng Shui in a Day!

Joyce teaches Yoga 4 Balance and Core Stretch/Strength at LHC where she is part of the new Wellness Partners practitioner's service.

Amy Erez
Yoga & Chi Gong Instructor

Amy Erez holds a B.A. in Psychology/Oriental Studies, is a Reiki Master, a certified Acupressurist, a SugiTouch™ (neuro-muscular reeducation) practitioner and a certified Flower Essence Therapist.

Amy began her professional career in 1986. She has been strongly influenced by the concepts of A Course in Miracles and teaches her clients how to bring these ideas into the practical world.

Her 30 years of experience in the movement arts of Tai Chi/Chi Gong and yoga, as well as her commitment to supporting sustainable agriculture and organic, local foods have given her an inside view of the benefits of a lifestyle devoted to wellness. Her first book, More Than Just Veggies: Healthful, Conscious Eating in the 21st Century, was published in 1999.

She is currently seeing clients privately and teaching personal growth classes through Sugi Health and Fitness, the business she has with her husband of 21 years, Ofer Erez.

Amy and Ofer also founded Diablo Valley School, a Sudbury-model school for ages 5-19 in Concord, CA in 1997.

Diana De Gracia, M.A.
AFAA, RYT, Zumba

Diana's love for music and dance started with her first dance class at the age of three and a half. She tapped her way through childhood and developed an affinity for movement.

Diana's fitness career began at Lafayette Health Club in the early 1980's as one of the first instructors teaching aerobic dance and a variety of fitness classes. Her love of dance, music and wellness kept her in the fitness arena for over twenty years while she pursued her career in the public school system as teacher and administrator.

Transitioning from her career in education, Diana is committed to sharing with others the joy and benefits of staying active and healthy and, most importantly, having fun while doing so. Diana has added Yoga and Zumba to her fitness repertoire and certifications and while she teaches at a variety of health facilities, Lafayette Health Club is her home.

She has a master degree in Clinical Psychology, and has worked in the public school system as a teacher and administrator for over thirty years.