Kelly | Helen | Justine | Sarah | Annie
 Kelly Schrader
Kelly Schrader found her way to the yoga mat in 2002 while working through family illnesses and caretaking for her mother. It took no longer than a week and she had found her sanctuary. For Kelly, the yoga room is the place where you can go, all your other worries fade for 90 minutes, and you can focus on your inner strength, both mental and physical. She attended and completed the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training Certification program in Los Angeles, California, in Spring 2003. Since then she has been teaching and sharing this life-changing yoga series with as many students as possible.
Prior to attending the Bikram Yoga training, Kelly attended The University of Oregon and graduated with degrees in Advertising and Organizational Development. She later attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and received an accreditation as a Holistic Health Counselor through Columbia University. Most recently she received an additional certification from The Institute for the Psychology of Eating in Boulder, Colorado, and added Certified Eating Psychology Counselor to her professional credentials.
As Kelly worked her way through the corporate world she maintained her yoga practice and has taught from Sacramento to New York to Boston. In 2007 Kelly moved back to Northern California to pursue her dream of one day owning her own Bikram studio. She settled in Truckee where she managed the Bikram Yoga studio there from 2007 to 2009, and founded her Integrative Nutritional Counseling Practice--EVOLVE. Subsequently, Kelly went on to also manage the Bikram Yoga studio in Elk Grove.
While in Truckee, Kelly continued other non-yoga passions and explored new ones. When not on the yoga mat you can find her on the ski slopes or hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail. In 2008 Kelly was running her third marathon in Sacramento and walked off the course on mile 18. It was determined that she had broken through the cartilage in her right hip while also receiving a hairline fracture to her femur. She headed straight to the yoga room, her sanctuary, and fell in love with the yoga in a whole new way. She would spend time in the yoga room each day, taking care of herself, often times practicing in a chair or propped up against the back wall. It took time and patience. Kelly believes the yoga is a major reason her hip injury continues to heal and why she has avoided surgery.
In the Spring of 2010 Kelly was attracted to Bikram Yoga Grass Valley/Nevada City because of the wonderful and dedicated clientele, the positive community feeling, the studio ambiance and the beautiful area that surrounds it. As a practitioner, teacher and studio owner/director, her goal is to provide an atmosphere where you are challenged and given the confidence and motivation to achieve the results you desire. She truly believes that everyone and anyone can benefit from this practice and is here to support you every step of the way. She is looking forward to watching the studio grow and continuing to build on its foundation, where others can find their sanctuary too.
 HELEN D. NEFF
Helen Neff started practicing Bikram Yoga in 1997 in San Francisco during the week while spending weekends in Nevada City. She left her stress-filled corporate retail job in April 2002 to pursue her dream of moving to Nevada City on a full time basis and opening a Bikram Yoga Studio in the area.
Helen attended the Bikram Yoga teacher training in Fall 2002, successfully completing over 500 hours of training at the Headquarters in Los Angeles. She completed her internship at the Bikram Yoga studios in Reno, Tahoe City, and Truckee.
During her twenty-five years in the fast paced world of luxury retail, Helen turned to exercise as a stress reliever. However, she was hindered by frequent injuries, particularly stress fractures. A bad fall in August 1996 resulted in a fractured hip and three months in bed. Her doctor ordered a bone density test that showed a serious loss of bone for her age despite a proper diet with sufficient non-fat dairy products and calcium supplements for the prior 20 years. Another doctor recommended yoga as a way to strengthen the spine and the rest of the skeletal system and hopefully, avoid further complications later in life.
Helen started practicing yoga as soon as her hip was sufficiently healed, in January 1997. She chose Bikram Yoga for its balancing (weight bearing) and spine strengthening series.
Initial improvement was seen in a bone density test taken in 2000 and, after accelerating her practice of Bikram Yoga between 2000 and 2003, testing showed Helen’s bone density at above normal levels for her age. This level has been maintained, without the need for stronger supplements or other medications.
In addition, Helen has enjoyed the other benefits of Bikram Yoga, specifically a healthy and balanced functioning of the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, nervous, digestive, elimination, respiratory, endocrine, and mental systems of the body. She used to have to swim, bike, run, or walk briskly for a cardiovascular workout, lift weights for strength, and stretch for flexibility. Now she just takes a 90-minute Bikram Yoga class and accomplishes all of this, plus the added benefits of more energy and mental calmness.
After owning Bikram Yoga Grass Valley/Nevada City from 2003 Helen “passed the torch” to Kelly Schrader in 2010 and is thrilled to remain as a teacher at the studio, helping others raise their level of overall health.
 Justine Guiney
Justine Guiney has been teaching Bikram Yoga since the Fall of 2002. She grew up in San Diego CA., where dance, equestrian sports, and surfing were her main passions and sources of exercise. She attended the University of California at Santa Cruz for college and attained a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Environmental Studies. Through her college years Justine grew more interested in yoga as a way to relieve stress and increase strength and balance. Once she found Bikram yoga she knew she was hooked, and decided to pursue this new passion further.
In 2002, Justine graduated college and went right on to achieve her certification in Bikram Yoga. She started teaching in San Diego, and in 2004 she was approached to teach in Bali, Indonesia on a yoga retreat. This was the beginning of an eight month travel course around the world, teaching Bikram yoga in five different countries including Australia, Ireland, Spain, Bali, and Thailand.
After traveling and experiencing many different cultures as well as Bikram Yoga studios around the world, Justine came back to the United States to settle down. She found through her travels that she immensely enjoys working with people, primarily in a yoga setting, and decided to return to school for an advanced degree in psychology.
Justine found a good program in Sacramento for a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, as well as the very welcoming Bikram studio in Grass Valley. She is now happily teaching lots of yoga, as well as attending classes in Sacramento. Justine brings her passion for yoga and the healing and helping of others to her teaching.
 Sarah Johnson
Sarah took her first Bikram Yoga class the summer before she started law school at UCLA in 1999. Little did she know that less than a year later she would be taking a break from law school to attend and complete the Bikram Yoga teacher training at Bikram Headquarters.
While completing law school, Sarah taught Bikram Yoga at several LA area schools, including Bikram's own studio. She then moved to Grass Valley just in time to be Helen’s first instructor at Bikram Yoga Grass Valley/Nevada City. After teaching with Helen for three years, Sarah and her family relocated to Portland, OR in the fall of 2006. Almost three years later, Sarah is thrilled to be back in the Sierra foothills.
In the last ten years, while working as an attorney, getting married, and becoming a mom, Bikram Yoga and Sarah's students have provided strength, a sense of community, and always something new to learn. She deeply appreciates both the opportunity to teach and the support of her family: her husband Renny, Reilly, born in April, 2005 and twins Blake and Mitchell, born in December, 2007.
 Annie Grady
Annie first heard of Bikram yoga while working at a bakery in San Luis Obispo during her college days. The owner of the local Bikram Yoga studio walked into the warm shop and said "If you can handle the heat working here, you'll do great in one of my hot yoga classes!"
Annie decided to check out Bikram Yoga and after one class, she was hooked. Annie practiced regularly for the next two years - the yoga helped her maintain her sanity between going to school full time and working full time to pay for it all.
In the fall of 2005, Annie took a break from school to attend the Bikram Yoga teacher training in Los Angles. She returned to San Luis Obispo to finish her degree and begin teaching yoga at the studio there.
Shortly after receiving her degree in Nutritional Science, Annie decided to take some time to see the world so she spent a good portion of the next year traveling and studying yoga with different teachers in S.E. Asia and then spent a summer working at Mt. Rainier National Park.
In the fall of 2008, Annie moved to Grass Valley to study at the California College of Ayurveda and teach yoga with us here at Bikram Yoga Grass Valley/Nevada City.
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