Class Descriptions

Classes are grouped into 3 categories to simplify. See the detailed class descriptions below.

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Suitable for those who are brand new to the  practice, for when you want a more relaxing  approach, or if you are recovering from injury.

  • Morning Mindfulness Meditation Circles

  • Basic Yoga Flow

  • Morning Yoga with Lindel Hart

  • Co-op Yoga

  • Continuum Whole Body Breathing

  • Mid-Week Yoga Break

  • Yoga for Lower Back & Hips

  • Trauma Sensitive Yoga

  • Yoga for EveryBody

  • All Level Hatha Yoga with Myk

  • Pilates Mat

  • Alexander Technique

  • Restorative Yoga

  • Resonance Series: Music and Yoga

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Great for those with a bit of experience who aren't  dealing with any major injuries. These classes will  help you build a solid yoga foundation.

  • Basic Yoga Flow

  • Co-op Yoga

  • Mid-Week Yoga Break

  • All Level Hatha Yoga with Myk

  • Resonance Series: Music and Yoga

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Great for those looking to take their practice and  study of yoga to the next level. Expect some more  challenging postures as well as exploration of more advanced philosophy and concepts.

  • All Level Hatha Yoga with Myk

If you're not sure about which class to choose, we're happy to advise you.

Please contact us with any questions.

 

Register for a class or pay for your class card online.

 

Detailed Class Descriptions

Best for Beginners Classes:

  • Morning Mindfulness Meditation Circles (Lance): ON ZOOM ONLY. Support for Your Life & Practice. Monday through Friday, 9:00 - 10:00 am. Free and open to all! Many of us yearn to engage our lives wholeheartedly, to move through our days with a deeper sense of purpose, greater clarity, and more ease. Yet, it's not easy to begin or sustain the personal meditation practice that can help bring that about -- especially alone. The Morning Mindfulness Meditation Circles offers a structure and the support of other meditators each weekday on Zoom. It is free and open to all. (Feel free to join and leave as you wish.) Facilitated by longtime meditator Lance Smith, each MMM Circle provides timed periods of silent meditation and a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding of yourself, others, and the spiritual dimension of life through the deep listening and open sharing experienced in Heart Council Practice. Advance registration required prior to your first session. Register via our website www.community-yoga.com or with the MindBody app.

    For more information, contact Lance Smith: call/text 847-502-6204 or email mondaymorningmindfulness@gmail.com

  • Basic Yoga Flow (Emily): IN STUDIO. This feel good yoga flow starts with breathwork and easy movements, progresses to a flow that will get your body warm, and ends with long slow stretches. We'll explore connecting breath with movement and practice creative sequencing to invite challenges. Options for a range of levels will be offered throughout the class.

  • Morning Yoga with Lindel Hart (Lindel):  IN STUDIO. Come together for a weekly class with Lindel Hart! This gentle-to-moderate class incorporates breath awareness exercises and a few moments of quiet reflection to help you set the tone of your practice. Initial gentle stretching opens the way to a practice of yoga poses to build strength, flexibility and awareness. Lindel has studied mostly with Iyengar teachers, so his teaching focuses on anatomical alignment and postural integrity while honoring an individual’s needs in each pose. Modifications and/or alternate poses will be offered as required. Individuals who desire a more demanding practice are encouraged to increase the intensity of their experience as appropriate. Email Lindel for more information: lindel@hartyoga.com

  • Co-op Yoga (Barbara and Louise):  IN STUDIO. This class meets you where you are and varies from week to week depending on who is present and what their needs and intentions are. That said, every class includes some flowing movement, breath and body awareness, guidance for musculoskeletal alignment, and asanas that soften, strengthen, and balance the body and spirit. Underwritten by Franklin Community Co-op, these classes offer participants a chance to experience a variety of yoga styles and instructors at an affordable price.

    For more information, email info@community-yoga.com or call 413-774-4700, or contact Green Fields Market, 413-773-9567; email@greenfieldsmarket.coop Cost: $5 for FCC members, $10 for the general public. Community Yoga class cards accepted!

  • Continuum Whole Body Breathing (Megan): IN STUDIO. Weekly classes • March 19 - April 16 • 6:00-8:00 pm • $25/class 

     Whole Body Breathing is designed to be an 8-week journey that, when committed to, will help you liberate your breathing from the habits and patterns that frequently capture it. Every class will begin with a playful and warming winter workout that will lead into that weeks' exploration of how the breath inhabits the body. Learn to listen and respond to your body’s signals with simple sounded breaths, gentle movements, and pleasure - the natural healing superpowers of the body! 

     Continuum is a profoundly relevant awareness-awakening practice that reminds us how to slow down, quiet our minds, and open our hearts. As we slow down to the speed of water, our tissues hydrate themselves, becoming less dense - more spacious and fluid. This helps us relocate our bodies and differentiate ourselves from the sensory overload of modern life. Continuum retrieves a sense of wholeness and biological optimism from the cultural quicksand fear, sorrow, and pain.

     Open to anyone with any amount of body, breathing, or movement experience or challenges. True beginners welcome!

     To register, email: megan@somanautiko.com. Or call Megan directly at 413.772.0078
    Suggested tuition: $25/class

  • Mid-Week Yoga Break (Lindel): ON ZOOM ONLY. This gentle-to-moderate class is appropriate for beginners, as well as seasoned yogis. I'll guide you through a sequence of poses designed to build strength, flexibility and awareness; improve balance, posture and breathing. Roll out your mat and support your well-being in a virtual online yoga community from the comfort of your own home.

  • Yoga for Lower Back & Hips — including SCIATICA! (Libby): IN STUDIO & ON ZOOM. Wednesdays: 6 – 7:30 pm (April 10 - June 5).
    … Advance registration by Sunday April 7th is required.
    Soothe. Stabilize. Strengthen. Lengthen.  If you are ready to up-level your relationship to your spine, join us for this 9-class series based on the gentle Viniyoga™ approach and the pioneering work of “the back doctor’s back doctor” Dr. Stuart McGill.
    … Each week we will explore and adapt simple movements, breathing, and relaxation techniques to support your healing. Handouts provided to support your home practice.
    … Open to anyone with any amount of flexibility or yoga experience. Beginners welcome!
    … This series follows a progressive curriculum, and students are asked to make every effort to attend all 9 classes in order to nurture their own progress and support the energy of the group.
    … Suggested tuition of $180 for the 9-class series includes weekly handouts PLUS a free 1:1 session (either in person or via Zoom) with me.
    … Pay From The Heart.  Let your heart and your own personal circumstances guide you to pay more or less: whatever is right for you.   Your presence is enough.  Payment can be made via (1) Check, (2) Common Good (3) PayPal (@LibbyVolckening) or (4) Venmo (@Libby-Volckening).
    … Registration for the series closes Sunday April 7th.  Sorry, no new students after the 2nd class.  New students must complete a Waiver prior to attending first class.  Community Yoga & Wellness Center is a scent free space.
    … For more info/to pre-register, call or text 413-834-4524 or email libby@yogalibre.net.

  • Trauma Sensitive Yoga (Elena): IN STUDIO. 6 Thursdays: 10:30-11:30am, April 25 - May 30. Trauma sensitive yoga is a thoughtfully curated practice where you are invited to move, breathe, and connect to your body while moving through a gentle mat-based yoga practice.

    In this non-judgmental practice space, you are welcome to explore movements at the pace of your choice. There is never any pressure to achieve the “correct alignment” as we move through various asanas or yoga forms. Rather, you will always be offered choices for ways you might engage with each form, and you’ll be offered many gentle reminders that there is no way to do this practice wrong. Everything is always optional, and taking breaks, skipping things, and doing things your way is warmly welcome.

    As we practice tuning into our present-moment, body-based experience, the possibility emerges for making the movement choices that truly feel best or right to you. In this way, each of us becomes the ultimate authority and expert of our own personal practice.

    Although this practice is designed with trauma in mind, we don’t talk about trauma during these sessions. Rather, this space is all about exploring what it’s like to move, sense, and have agency over our bodies. You always get to be fully in control of your own practice (there are no hands on assists).

    You do not need any previous yoga experience to take part, nor do you need to consider yourself flexible.

    Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an evidence-based adjunctive treatment designed especially for complex trauma which you can read more about here.

    In order to make this space truly trauma sensitive, each participant is asked to setup a brief 10-15 minute phone call with Elena prior to joining the group. The call is an opportunity for Elena to answer your questions, share a little bit of information about the practice, and to confidentially hear anything about you that you want her to know about you. There is absolutely no pressure to share anything you don’t want to share. There is also no pressure to decide on the spot whether or not you’d like to join. Rather, the call is an opportunity for you get all the information you need to help you decide whether this practice feels like a good fit.

    Cost: $90-120 sliding scale. For more information & to register, click here

  • Yoga for EveryBody (Sarah): IN STUDIO. This class is designed to be a gentle and supportive gateway to the practice of yoga for people with challenging relationships to our bodies. If you've struggled to keep up in most yoga classes, and felt frustrated with poses that seem out of reach, or if you've been told yoga would be good for you but can't seem to motivate to practice on your own, this class is for you! We focus on slow, intuitive movement, letting the breath guide us. We rarely get up off the floor. We honor the yogic tradition of Ahimsa, non-harming, by practicing compassion for ourselves and others. Come join us!

  • Pilates Mat (Robin): IN STUDIO & ON ZOOM. 4 Fridays March 29 - April 19. Next series is 6 weeks 5/17- 6/21. Emphasizes core strength, posture, general flexibility and mind-body movement connection. Incorporates props such as theraband, small ball, foam roller and light hand weights in classes. Beginners welcome. Cost is $50 for the 4-class series; $75 for the 6-class series; $18 per single class. OR, use your Community Yoga class card! For more info/to pre-register for the series, call or text Robin McKeon, DPT: 857-334-4333 or robinmckeon2@gmail.com 

  • All Level Hatha Yoga (Myk): IN STUDIO. In this class, students at all levels deepen their yoga practice, learning safe and accessible methods for getting into challenging asanas (poses) with grace and alignment. As we hold and move through the asanas, we increase strength, flexibility, balance and the flow of energy. We embody the various yoga forms with equilibrium, we remove blockages of energy and feel our body's wisdom take hold. We pause as we settle and breath into the poses. We examine what arises when we seek silence and levity in challenging physical positions. This is a vigorous class differentiated for students of all levels, with individual guidance as needed. Clear verbal explanations are paired with individual adjustments for those interested.

  • Alexander Technique (Lisa):  ON ZOOM ONLY. This class provides an introduction to, and deeper practice in, Alexander Technique. This body/mind practice has profound healing benefits. Learn simple and practical ways to improve posture and movement in any activity. Practice ways to release built up stress and tension that cause pain and stiffness so you can live in a more easeful and comfortable way... the way nature intended.

  • Restorative Yoga (Barbara):  IN STUDIO. Come pamper yourself with Restorative Yoga. This is an “active relaxation” practice that uses simple props like yoga blocks, bolsters, and blankets to fully support your body in a series of gentle back bends, forward bends, twists, and inverted postures. Restorative yoga cultivates profound rest – physically, emotionally, and mentally. The class is accessible to yoga students of all levels and meets once per month on Friday evenings.

  • Resonance Series: Music and Yoga (Emily and Myk): IN STUDIO. Join Emily Redman and Myk Freedman for an evening of yoga and live music.  Emily leads this gently flowing yoga practice designed to help you find ease, movement, and connection, while Myk provides a resonant and meditative soundscape on lap steel and guitar. Cost: $20. Class size is limited; register early to reserve your spot!

 

Some Experience Recommended Classes: 

  • All Level Hatha Yoga (Myk):  IN STUDIO. In this class, students at all levels deepen their yoga practice, learning safe and accessible methods for getting into challenging asanas (poses) with grace and alignment. As we hold and move through the asanas, we increase strength, flexibility, balance and the flow of energy. We embody the various yoga forms with equilibrium, we remove blockages of energy and feel our body's wisdom take hold. We pause as we settle and breath into the poses. We examine what arises when we seek silence and levity in challenging physical positions. This is a vigorous class differentiated for students of all levels, with individual guidance as needed. Clear verbal explanations are paired with individual adjustments for those interested.

 

Solid Yoga Experience Recommended Classes:

  • All Level Hatha Yoga (Myk): IN STUDIO. In this class, students at all levels deepen their yoga practice, learning safe and accessible methods for getting into challenging asanas (poses) with grace and alignment. As we hold and move through the asanas, we increase strength, flexibility, balance and the flow of energy. We embody the various yoga forms with equilibrium, we remove blockages of energy and feel our body's wisdom take hold. We pause as we settle and breath into the poses. We examine what arises when we seek silence and levity in challenging physical positions. This is a vigorous class differentiated for students of all levels, with individual guidance as needed. Clear verbal explanations are paired with individual adjustments for those interested.