A Living Laboratory of Discovery
For almost thirty years, the teaching team at YogaLife Institute has been engaged in a living, intradisciplinary exploration of consciousness and embodiment. What began as yoga education gradually evolved into a rich field of inquiry where yoga therapy, meditation, somatics, mythology, movement studies, expressive arts, ecology, breathwork, therapeutic relationship, nature based spirituality and contemplative practice continually informed one another through lived experience.
Over decades of teaching, studying, mentoring, and practicing alongside thousands of students and practitioners, we have had the rare privilege of watching these disciplines cross-pollinate in real time. The result is an educational environment shaped as much by direct experience and relational depth as by curriculum itself. Our work continues to evolve through ongoing study, collaboration, practice, and the understanding that embodiment is never a finished achievement, but an ongoing conversation between body, mind, community, and the living world.
Looking back, we feel immense gratitude for the conditions that allowed this kind of inquiry to mature over time. Few educational spaces are given the continuity necessary for ideas to be tested in lived practice across decades, relationships, seasons of life, and evolving cultural landscapes. That continuity has shaped both the depth of our teaching and the way we continue to approach learning itself.
Bob Butera, PhD, C-IAYT
Bob is the Founder of the YogaLife Institute. For many of those years, he also served as the publisher of Yoga Living Magazine, helping shape conversations around Yoga, meditation, therapeutic practice, and conscious living during a formative period in the modern yoga movement.
His undergraduate work through Friends World College focused on intentional community building, and he earned his MA in Divinity from Earlham School of Religion. His PhD in Yoga Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies concentrated on lifestyle based Yoga Therapy. Formally trained by pioneer Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra in Mumbai, India, Dr. Butera is the co-author of six books on Yoga, Meditation, and Yoga Therapy. His latest work, The Yoga Life: Applying Comprehensive Yoga Therapy to All Areas of Your Life, reflects decades of inquiry into how contemplative practice can meaningfully support the complexity of modern life.
With more than 30 years of full time teaching experience, Bob’s work bridges classical Yoga Philosophy, meditation, psychology, and applied therapeutic practice. His teaching invites people into a lived relationship with Yoga as a way of organizing attention, cultivating resilience, and deepening participation in life itself. Over the years, he has guided thousands of students, teachers, and therapists through long term processes of study, reflection, and embodied practice.
As YogaLife evolves into a more interconnected ecosystem of practice, Bob’s work continues to emphasize the importance of relational learning, contemplative depth, ecological awareness, and practices that can be integrated into family life, work, community, and service. His approach is grounded, experiential, and deeply human, shaped as much by decades of teaching and mentorship as by a lifelong devotion to meditation, surfing, ecology, and permaculture.
Kristen Butera, ERYT500, C-IAYT
Kristen has been studying and teaching yoga full time for nearly two decades, accumulating more than 5000 hours of professional and academic training across a wide range of yoga traditions, somatic disciplines, and expressive arts practices. Her work weaves together Yin and Restorative Yoga, Yoga Therapy, Ecosomatics, Somatic Learning, Expressive Arts, Contact Dance, contemplative practice, and Aquahara, a warm water movement therapy rooted in relational listening, fluidity, and nervous system restoration.
She is the co-author of Yoga Therapy: A Personalized Approach for Your Active Lifestyle and the former Editor of Yoga Living Magazine. An artist and lifelong student of movement, language, cosmology, ecology, and consciousness, Kristen holds postgraduate degrees in Mythopoetics from Dartington Arts School and Ecosomatics from Schumacher College. Her academic and experiential work explores the relationship between body, imagination, ritual, ecology, and the more than human world, with particular interest in how environments shape perception, healing, and human development.
Over the years, Kristen has become known for creating deeply immersive learning environments that blend embodied practice, relational inquiry, creativity, and ecological awareness. Her teaching invites people into direct experience through movement, breath, dialogue, nature based practice, aquatic exploration, expressive process, and sustained communal learning. Whether teaching Yoga Therapy, facilitating retreats, guiding aquatic movement sessions, or developing new ecosomatic programs, her work consistently returns to the cultivation of presence, sensitivity, imagination, and meaningful sustainable connection with self, others and the living world.
Erin Byron, MA, ERYT500, C-IAYT, LPC
Erin Byron is the co-creator of the Comprehensive Yoga Therapy Training and one of the early pioneers in the integration of Yoga Therapy, expressive arts, and trauma recovery. She holds an MA in Psychology with a specialization in Yoga for Trauma and brings more than two decades of experience as both a Registered Psychotherapist and Certified Yoga Therapist to her teaching and clinical work.
Erin is the author and co-author of multiple books including Yoga Therapy for Stress & Anxiety, Yoga for the Creative Soul, Safety in the Body, and Yoga Therapy for Arthritis. Her work bridges contemporary neurophysiology, mental health care, yoga philosophy, creativity, and embodied therapeutic practice in ways that are both clinically grounded and deeply accessible.
Known for her warmth, humor, and ability to navigate complex emotional terrain with clarity and compassion, Erin has trained more than a thousand professionals in the fields of Yoga Therapy, mental health, trauma recovery, and expressive arts. Her teaching emphasizes experiential learning, nervous system regulation, relational safety, and the cultivation of meaningful tools that support resilience, creativity, and long term healing.
As part of the evolving YogaLife ecosystem, Erin’s work helps bridge contemplative practice with modern therapeutic understanding. Her approach reflects a deep commitment to embodied education, community care, and the belief that healing happens through sustained relationship with the body, imagination, creativity, and the living process of practice itself.
Our Friends and Collaborators
Erika Tenenbaum, ERYT500, CIAYT
Erika has been teaching with YogaLife since 2004. She holds advanced certifications in Yoga and Yoga Therapy. As a licensed skin care specialist and manual lymphatic drainage massage practitioner, Erika helps people experience beauty from within.
A gifted teacher, Erika is a firm believer in the tenets of yogic tradition, she relishes the opportunity to share her yoga vision and years of experience with students in the Yoga Teacher and Yoga Therapy trainings.
Jennifer Hilbert, MS, ERYT500, CIAYT
Jen has been dedicated yoga practitioner of over 20 years. She discovered YogaLife in 2004 and has since completed specialized training in Yoga and Yoga Therapy.
She has a Masters Degree in Neuroscience, and as a mother and athlete her passions include educating families about the benefits of healthy eating and breath awareness, along with playing tennis, biking, traveling and spending quality time with family and friends.
Staffan Elgelid, PhD, RYT500, C-IAYT
Dr. Elgelid is Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at Nazareth College. He is also a Feldenkrais Practitioner and is active the international Somatic Education community.
Staffan sat on advisory boards for the IAYT and Yoga Alliance. He is the co-author of several books including Yoga Therapy in Practice, Yoga Therapy for Stress and Anxiety, Yoga Therapy: A Personalized Approach and The Feldenkrais Method: Learning Through Movement.
Rebecca Cate LPC, ERYT200, CIAYT
Rebecca is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a certified yoga therapist, and an experienced yoga teacher. She has dual masters degrees in Counseling Psychology and Public Health.
Rebecca is also a Provisional Master in Traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu. Practicing yoga, living by its tenets, guides her in all her endeavors and day to day life. Rebecca enjoys sharing yoga philosophy with others and facilitating the process of learning, healing, and feeling more at ease in life.