YOGA TEACHER

Amoena’s first exposure to yoga occurred as a child, watching her mother moving in and out of poses.  As an adult, Amoena began a regular yoga practice in 2018 and through her yoga practice, Amoena was able to reduce stress and decrease the effects of emotional trauma.  In 2022, Amoena discovered a yoga teacher training opportunity at Anderson Yoga Center and earned her RYT200 Yoga Teacher certification in 2023.

Amoena enjoys teaching mindful and gentle vinyasa-based classes and incorporates yin yoga, restorative yoga, meditation, and pranayama into her own practice.  Additionally, Amoena enjoys beachcombing, hiking, camping, and foraging for mushrooms.  Prior to being a yoga instructor, Amoena spent 30+ years in higher education, both as a teacher and an administrator. 

Amoena teaches VinYin at PYC.

YOGA TEACHER

Beth teaches in order to share the transformative power of yoga as she has experienced it in her own life.

About 25 years ago,  Beth suffered from a herniated disc in her lumbar spine. After technically recovering from the injury,  she was still experiencing pain and weakness every time she attempted to get back to a regular exercise routine. She was considering surgery. Luckily, a wonderful physical therapist and an amazing yoga teacher saved her.

Yoga gave her the tools that she needed to listen to her body and safely stabilize her core. It wasn't fast and it wasn't easy, but it also wasn't invasive surgery.  She’s been hooked ever since. 

In her classes,  Beth focuses on helping students gain and maintain strength, stability and mobility to avoid and recover from injury so they can keep moving. Students should expect to move deliberately through the poses.

Beth teaches Yoga for Any Body and occasional specialty and pop up classes.

YOGA TEACHER

Casey is trained in hypnotherapy, meditation, breathwork, yoga, aromatherapy, auriculotherapy, among other modalities.

Since 2016, Casey has led various yoga and meditation classes for youth and adults as a path for pursuing mental, physical, and emotional health and wellness. Her calm energy and ability to create safe space make meditation, pranayama and restorative yoga her specialties. It is her greatest desire that those who join her for any session walk away having fully dropped into the body while building awareness of their breath so that they feel empowered and at peace.

Casey offers private sessions and retreats as an Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner at her homestead in Walhalla, South Carolina with her husband David. You can learn more about her homestead and healing arts practice at https://www.reidhomesteadwalhalla.com/

​Casey teaches Gentle Flow Yoga at Pendleton Yoga Center.

SOUND HEALER & YOGA TEACHER

Christy is a life-long musician who seeks to create an environment that offers participants a space to unplug and restore a sense of harmony and balance to mind and body. She has played guitar for more than 30 years, been a songwriter for 25 years, and she has taught people of all ages to play over the last 15 years.

Christy teaches Simply Sound and other Sound classes at PYC, and she also offers private Sound Healing and Mindful-Life Coaching. Additionally, she teaches Chair Yoga classes.

Visit her web site at https://www.intunerhythm.com/

TAI CHI & QIGONG TEACHER

Gary Michaelangelo Carbone has been training in Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chinese Martial Arts since 1983 and has been teaching professionally since 1995. He is grateful and honored to share this beautiful system with others.

Gary teaches Tai Chi & Qigong at Pendleton Yoga Center.

GROOVE DANCE FACILITATOR

Heather is a singer, vocal coach, performer, and licensed GROOVE facilitator who loves helping people feel more free, expressive, and at home in their bodies.

As a lifelong performer and movement lover, Heather brings warmth, humor, music, and encouragement into every class. Her approach is rooted in the belief that movement doesn’t have to be complicated to be powerful — and that every person deserves a space where they can move without judgment, comparison, or pressure to “get it right.”

Through GROOVE, Heather invites students to reconnect with joy, rhythm, self-expression, and the simple magic of moving in a way that feels good.

YOGA TEACHER

Jason has been practicing and teaching yoga for nearly a decade and a half. He has completed 200 and 300 hour yoga training programs and continues to deepen his knowledge. Currently he is learning Advanced Viniyoga Applications in the lineage of T.K.V. Desikachar, and his father T. Krishnamacharya.

Jason has earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from SUNY New Paltz which helps to ground his practice and apply to daily life. He specializes in meditative practices and individual yoga instruction for healing, maintenance, and transformation. He has a passion for working with people who want to reorient their lives and develop new healthy habits that help to support discovering and meeting long-term goals.

Outside of yoga, Jason likes to write, hike and go on long walks in nature, spend time on the beach, play golf, peruse used bookstores, and watch indie movies with his wife.

You can learn more about him on his website: listeningyoga.com, and read his articles on Substack: substack.com/@listeningyoga.

MEDITATION TEACHER & REIKI MASTER

Karen Sonnenwald is a woman on a mission. It is her firm belief that taking care of oneself is not a luxury but a necessity, especially for women! It is through her own personal journey that she discovered the power of meditation, yoga, and the chakra system early on in life. She has studied many spiritual traditions that allow her to form a daily practice that is unique and welcoming to individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. She holds a BA in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies from Montclair State University. She studied MBSR at Ramapo University and Yin yoga at Jaipure yoga. She taught meditation and held labyrinth walks at Cedar Crest Active Retirement Community in Pompton Plains, NJ.

Karen enjoys being outdoors, taking photos of nature, practicing qigong (a recent addition to her daily practices), listening to podcasts and audiobooks, and sitting in quiet contemplation with her cat, Shakti. 

Karen offers Reiki Trainings, is available for private Reiki and meditation sessions, and once a month teams up with Christy to offer a Sound with Reiki class at PYC. She offers occasional specialty classes focused on self-care.

YOGA TEACHER

Leslie Konhaeuser is a licensed therapist, hobby herbalist, and certified yoga teacher who brings a deeply holistic approach to wellness. She teaches vinyasa-style yoga with a focus on nervous system regulation and creating space for students to integrate mind, body, and soul.

She completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at the Asheville Yoga Center and discovered yoga during a pivotal time in her life—as a young mother facing overwhelming change and emotional struggle. Through yoga, she found more than just exercise; she uncovered spiritual insight, emotional release, and a powerful sense of grounding.

In her classes, students can expect to be physically challenged in a way that fosters reconnection with the body, supports emotional balance, and promotes nervous system healing. Her teaching is rooted in the belief that each practice is an opportunity for holistic wellness and inner transformation.

Leslie teaches occasional Pop Up Vinyasa and Slow Flow classes.

YOGA TEACHER

Lynne is a versatile teacher, leading classes ranging from Strength-Balance-Flexibility to Vinyasa Flow Yoga. She has been practicing and teaching yoga for over 20 years, and she is looking forward to sharing this practice with you!

YOGA TEACHER

Melissa is the owner of Pendleton Yoga Center. She has been practicing yoga since 1995 and teaching since 2016. She enjoys offering yoga classes that are accessible for all bodies, believing wholeheartedly in TKV Desikachar’s assertion: Anybody can breathe. Therefore anybody can practice yoga.

​Melissa has advanced training in Yin Yoga, Chair Yoga, and Restorative Yoga. She teaches Yoga for Any Body and occasional specialty classes. Her background in mental health (M.Ed. Community Counseling) helps her create trauma-informed yoga classes that activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the rest and digest part of the nervous system — and allow participants to feel less stressed and more at ease.

You can reach Melissa at 864-502-8678 (call/text) or welcome@pendletonyogacenter.com.

YOGA TEACHER

Sarah is a 200-hour Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT) with a Ph.D. in Sport Studies from the University of Tennessee. She completed her yoga teacher training in 2018 at the Yoga Deza Institute in Fayetteville, Arkansas and is trained in power yoga, yoga sculpt, and yin yoga. She teaches Vinyasa Yoga at PYC.

Sarah often shares inspiring quotes with her students, such as, "I am possible" and "You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself." As Glinda the Good Witch reminds Dorothy in *The Wizard of Oz*, the power lies within ourselves. For students who struggle to find answers externally or seek external validation, this message resonates deeply. Sarah reminds us that not only do we have the power within to find our Crow pose, but we also have the power within to find our own way in life.

When she’s not practicing yoga or binge-watching the latest series on Netflix, Sarah is an Associate Professor of Athletic Leadership at Clemson University, researching student-athlete development. A native of Aurora, Illinois, Sarah resides in Pendleton.

YOGA TEACHER

Tracy has been practicing yoga for over a decade. She did her yoga teacher training in Asheville, NC at Asheville Yoga Center and has been teaching since 2018. Both yoga and wellness are integral parts of her daily life. Tracy believes moving your body daily, feeding your body healthy, nutritious plant-based food, and being mindful and intentional in your life choices lead to a happier, healthier life.

When she’s not teaching or coaching, you may find her with her horse, Romeo, trying out new plant-based recipes, reading, art journaling, or in her garden.

It is her passion, challenge and goal, to help women get to a place where they are happy and healthy, bringing them back to a place of joy and love for themselves as the beautiful people that we are! Find out more about Tracy’s wellness coaching at https://simplitracy.com/