Teachers
Gianna Purccell (She/her/theirs)
Gianna is an international yoga teacher who has spent the last 15 years studying and teaching a variety of healing techniques. In her own life, she has used practice to get off antidepressants and sleeping pills, heal major joint pain, recover from surgery, detox from Adderall, heal from loss, open her mind, and connect with her compassionate heart. Yoga is not the cure-all, but the willingness to get deep and dirty is. Yoga is not meant to be an exclusive club for able-bodied and privileged humans. Yoga is meant to be the great equalizer and help all humans be better versions of themselves.
Gianna is a USA National Yoga Asana Champion, is Thai massage trained, a Bikram Yoga Certified teacher, and an Ashtanga/ Vinyasa, and Hatha yoga teacher. She is an E-RYT 500-hour certified and continuing education provider with yoga alliance and an OHYA teacher trainer. With 15 years of athletic coaching and teaching experience, she teaches asana, pranayama, and meditation practices rooted in holistic movement, Hatha, and ashtanga yoga principles. She has been traveling to India to study and share the roots of this practice with her students since 2009 and continues in the light of her teachers David Swenson, Emmy Cleaves, Mary Jarvis, Swami Satchidananda, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In addition to being a yoga educator, Gianna is a Death Doula and mortality educator. Studying and certified through the Conscious Dying Institute, Gianna helps people confront their own fears of death while providing the practical steps necessary to create, share, and heal the mind, body, and spirit. While her specialty is working with the physically ‘healthy,’ living population, she also offers assistance to the terminally ill and dying.
Currently studying Veda Science at the Maharishi International University, Gianna offers ayurvedic counseling and is working towards becoming an Ayurvedic Practitioner.
Gianna is the founder of Queerretreats.com
You can find her travel schedule at Giannayoga.com
Charles Staples
(he/him/his)
What was at first just a way to relax quickly became a regular part of his life. After being inspired by the amazing teachers at the yoga school he first practiced with, as well as the changes he noticed within himself, he packed up for 9 weeks of teaching training in L.A in 2012. His mission and matra is love love love. Charles is a certified Amrit Yoga teacher, massage therapist, facilitates yin, yoga nidra meditation, and leads weekend retreats and public classes.
Erin Frank
she/her/hers
In search of a new sustainable form of exercise, Erin (she/her) began practicing yoga in December of 2005. She had broken her pelvis, leg, and neck in an accident two years earlier. Noticing immediate physical and mental therapeutic benefits after her first class propelled her into a regular practice which has lasted fourteen years to date. She attained her teaching certification in the Spring of 2011. Teaching turned out to be just as fulfilling as practicing and, being a lover of knowledge, she began her anatomy studies in 2013. This in turn has led to her current pursuit of a doctor of physical therapy degree. The pillars of Erin's teaching passion are service and observation; helping people feel better and the discovery of places where different cultures agree upon the ways of the body and mind are two of her greatest joys. Erin encourages raising the bar of yoga asana to a more universally accepted method of physical therapy and injury prevention and sees this endeavor beginning with the yoga teacher.
“My yoga practice gives me calm energy and has relieved a myriad of ailments but first and foremost brings me awareness and gratitude.”
Relevant degree(s), certification, or substantial education:
Bikram Yoga Certified Teacher (2011)
University of Texas, Austin, BA in philosophy (2005)
University of Manchester Sotheby’s Institute, MA in Contemporary Art (2008)
University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, Austin, TX (2022)
Dustin Valenta
he/him/his)
”Yoga saved my life.”
In February of 2013, I was riding my bike in Chicago when a woman opened her car door into the bike lane. I was thrown from my bike into traffic and run over by a truck. I broke 23 (of 24) ribs, both sides of my pelvis, both collarbones, my left hip, left shoulder, fractured a vertebra, punctured a lung, and cracked my skull.
Doctors didn't think I would survive, let alone walk again. I know for a fact that if I had not been practicing asana regularly before the accident (I was, in fact, on my way home from class when it happened), I would not be alive today. Doctors have credited my survival, in large part, to the flexibility and resilience in my spine. And I know also, that had I not returned to regular practice as soon as possible afterwards, I would not have recovered anywhere close to the place I am.
In the years since the accident, my yoga practice has transformed from purely physical pursuit to a lifestyle of constant self-improvement, inside and out. But I will always believe fully in the transformative power of movement. Building a connection to the physical body is an essential first step to creating change in the deeper, more subtle parts of the self.
As a teacher I hope to inspire students to get and stay curious about themselves--physically, emotionally, spiritually--in the interest of creating deeper and more meaningful connections to the self, to one another, and to the world as a whole."
Charese she/her/ theirs
Charese began practicing yoga in 2011 with the hopes that she would find healing from her struggles with depression and addiction. Through the practice she was able to find healing and discover her life’s purpose, to help others do the same. Charese went Bikram Yoga teacher training in Fall of 2014 and has been teaching ever since. She teaches 26+2, the Ghosh 84 sequence, vinyasa, and Ashtanga yoga. She is a certified Bikram teacher and also has a 500 hour Hatha yoga certification, as well as 2 40hr Vimana/ vinyasa yoga certifications. Charese is a licensed Massage Therapist and has a love for anatomy and kinesiology, especially with how it pertains to asana. She is the 2018 and 2020 West Coast yoga asana champion, and has helped facilitate yoga trainings and retreats for The Ivy Standard Yoga Institute, Luminal Bloom, and The Raja yoga Academy. Her teachers include Brandy Lyn, Kellee Morris, Jay Jones, Sarah Jane Burkholz, and Sammy Brown. She currently teaches in Salt Lake City and online.
Allen she/her/hers
Allen holds a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy and has worked with people with physical and emotional challenges for over 15 years. Allen is a former competitive high-level gymnast, gymnastics coach and professional ballet dancer. She’s inspiredto help others push themselves beyond current physical and spiritual boundaries. During her two pregnancies and as she became a mother, she gained a new understanding of the deep healing and spiritual practices of yoga. She received her 200-hour teacher training in Hatha Yoga under Gianna Purcel and50-hour training through Erin Rose Vaughn. She’s deeply connected to Miami and believes as a community we can uncover our truest selves and together promote better conditions for all.