Teachers

Michele Loew is an international yoga teacher and the founder and director of The Yoga Space in Portland, Oregon.  She is known as a teacher’s teacher and is respected for her 200 Hr & 500 Hr. Yoga Schools and her ability to combine Western knowledge of the body (Anatomy & physiology and modern kinesiology techniques) with the Eastern tradition of yoga.  

She has studied and taught avidly since 1998, having studied extensively in the Iyengar and Ashtanga traditions as well as the Sri Vidya lineage.   She is known for her keen observation skills and her ability to guide a student towards aligning the physical and energetic body through the use of expert hands on assists and intelligent verbal cues. She brings to her teaching a warm and engaging style that reflects her own internal understanding of the practice.  

Michele is an avid student of Eastern & Western Philosophy and continues to study with her principal yoga teacher Richard Freeman with whom she has practiced with since 2000.   She has been Richard’s assistant in his teacher trainings and workshops, and has a close understanding of his brilliant middle path teaching.  She practices Tibetan Buddhism, and received several Kalachakra initiations with HH The Dalai Lama and practices Vajrayana as guided by her beloved teacher in Buddhism, Dr. Robert Thurman.

Michele teaches regular classes and trainings in Portland, as well as retreats and workshops internationally.  For more information on Michele please visit her website & please follow on Instagram and Facebook.

INSTAGRAM:  @micheleloew

Lockett began practicing yoga in 1998. Walking out of her first class ever, she thought to herself, "Well I guess I'll do that for the rest of my life...." She went on to study Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga extensively with Timo Jimenez here in Portland, and completed teacher training and advanced teacher training with Tias Little in Santa Fe. Her practice and teaching reflect her experience with those traditions, as well as the broader creativity of Vinyasa yoga. In Lockett's classes you will be guided to work at your own pace towards balancing strength and flexibility while cultivating breath and mindfulness through a continuous flow. She believes yoga is a practice of patience and determination, an increasingly subtle balancing between effort and ease. Lockett also teaches Restorative yoga in which quiet supported poses work to restore energy, provide healing, reduce stress and soothe the mind.

Allie is an abstract artist originally from New York, and has been heavily influenced by the practice of yoga.

After noticing the self healing aspects yoga has to offer, she decided to deepen her practice in 2016, diving into Michele Loew’s 200 hour training (and currently, the 500 hour program.) Her classes focus on an integrated blend of Vinyasa flow, breath centered moving meditation, and restorative practices.

Her passion is to create a space for people to reconnect with themselves, deepen their awareness, and navigate the practice physically and mentally: on and off the mat.

Yoga has shined a light on the power of the present moment: whatever you are seeking, already lies within. 

Lauren discovered the practice of Yoga while living in NYC in 2005. Seeking a space to calm her mind in a city that never sleeps, her practice quickly manifested into a deep passion that provided balance, inspiration, and ease in her day-to-day life. Upon moving to Portland in 2015, Lauren immediately became embedded member of the Yoga Space community, where she decided to take her practice to the next level with teacher training. Having completed both her 200 and 300 hour training with the renowned Michele Lowe, Lauren became a regular teacher as the Yoga Space upon her graduation in 2018. Blending dynamic movement with the importance of breathwork and alignment queues, Lauren's creative and playful flows are designed for all levels of practice. And, as an avid lover of music, she pairs her in-person classes with expertly curated rhythmic experiences that will help you stay present and stay moving. 

As a teacher, T’s goal is to hold compassionate space for people to be fully present with their bodies and breath, to reduce stress, and to find movement and loving acceptance when movement is limited. She believes the practice of yoga, unifying our physical bodies with our light bodies, offers profound healing and empowerment. Her classes include gentle asana, pranayama, sound and vibration, light meditation and optional aromatherapy.

T began her practice in 2016, 2 years before her diagnosis with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Deepening her relationship to her body and breath while losing mobility resulted in her finding solace and refuge on her mat. 

As her physical health improved, her asana practice grew, as well as her gratitude for the gift of movement.  In 2023 she completed the 200hr teacher training under the loving guidance of Michele Loew, Ian LeMasters and Allie Lyon. Committing to her practice within community was transformative. She’s passionate about teaching classes that are accessible to all, including those living with injuries or chronic conditions.  She believes that we can increase our quality of life by maintaining a deep awareness of the ever shifting state of our bodies, that there is wisdom in honoring their limits and there is strength in being present with ourselves wherever we are.

Kate Sumanoharan began her yoga journey in 2005 with an Ashtanga practice in Reno, NV. Over the years, she frequently returned to yoga during transformative stages in her life, ultimately finding solace and strength through the practice to support trauma healing.

Her path deepened with Michele Loew's 200-Hr Yoga Teacher Training, where Ian LeMasters and Michele’s teachings inspired her to further immerse herself in yoga. Kate is currently studying trauma-informed yoga therapy with Sarahjoy Marsh while continuing to learn and grow under Michele's guidance.

As a teacher, Kate focus is Vinyasa yoga and has found a meaningful home within the community at The Yoga Space. She finds great joy in deepening her own practice and helping students cultivate equanimity, joy, compassion, and loving-kindness, fostering a ripple effect toward the greater consciousness.

As a dancer at an early age, when Emily found Yoga in 1999 its physicality felt like a natural evolution in her relationship with movement. She began her yoga career teaching in the Chicago area in 2001 after her first teacher training with Ana Forrest. Over time she leaned more towards the flow and movement based practice of Vinyasa, which led her to her 2nd more intensive teacher training at Yogaview in 2007. 

Over the years she has participated in numerous yoga workshops and courses from the likes of Manju Jois (Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’s son / Ashtanga yoga), Tias Little, Paul Greeley, Shiva Rea, the list goes on. As well as starting her journey with psychic and energy healing practices in 2007. Soon after, she started to infuse her knowledge of the healing arts within her classes and created her own course Energy Healing Yoga.   

In 2018 she moved to Portland, OR to embrace yet another desire of hers, the more gentle and subtle aspects of movement and healing.  She began teaching Yin, Slow Flow and Hatha.  Once a month she led her very own Yin and Energy Yoga Event incorporating energy healing practices, Yin Yoga poses and ending the session with a group reading.  

She has enjoyed every aspect of yoga from the more advanced to the gentle calm and everything in between.  It has taught her more about herself and how she wants to treat her body on and off the mat.  

Her teachings are all about permission, self awareness and healing.  Her hope for you is that when you leave her classroom you learn a little more about yourself, your needs and how to better take care of you! 

Allison is passionate about breath centered movement. She utilizesasana class as a form of moving meditation. She creates a fun and compassionate space for students to explore and grow their yoga practice. Her intention is to empower students on the mat so they can share their gifts with the greater community.

She began practicing yoga while attending college in 2000. After graduating she lived aboard a sailboat with her now husband. This very simple and pure existence, deeply in tune with the surrounding elements allowed her to nurture her path of living yoga. In 2006 she completed a 200 hour Integral yoga teacher training. She found Prana Flow® yoga during this time and immediately felt deeply connected. In 2010 she completed her 500 hour teaching certificate in Prana Flow® with Shiva Rea. This transformational experience cultivated deep community and broadened her understanding of yoga to include the embodiment of yoga, energetic alignment, ayurveda, and tantra.  She has continued to deepen her life as a living sadhana. Allison iscurrently a mentor for the Samudra School of Living Yoga.

Since 1998, Heather Shaw has been a student of yoga and meditation, steeped in the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Western psychotherapy and neuroscience. Embodied practice is at the root of Heath's offerings, which are influence by her unique background in dance/choreography, combine with over two decades of yoga teaching experience, all underpinned by dedicated scholarships in both dharma philosophy and contemplative psychotherapy. 

Heather has taught yoga classes, teacher training and led meditation groups as a host of studios in New York City as well as Portland, OR. Her classes blend the precision of Iyengar yoga with the dynamic, breath-centered flow of Vinyasa, influenced by her studies with beloved teachers including Genny Kapuler, Cyndi Lee, Shiva Rea, and Michele Loew. Heather is a graduate of the Nalanda Institude for Contemplative Science's Psychotherapy Program and Currently serves as a meditation instructor as well as group facilitator for the institute. She continues to study meditation and dharma a philosophy with her longtime mentors, Ethan Nichtern and Dr. Miles Neale, and is grateful for the way (respectively) embody the yin and yang of her spiritual path.