Meet our team

Stephanie Bolson E-RYT 500 , Private in-home yoga teacher

After attending my first class, I immediately knew that yoga was different from every other type of movement I had experienced. Over the next 15 years I practiced yoga on and off, experimenting with Bikram, Kundalini, and Vinyasa. I also became an ultra-distance runner.

In 2017, I started practicing Restorative Yoga as a way to help manage both the physical pain and mental health challenges from overtraining and under-nourishing my body. Simply allowing myself time to slow down and sit with discomfort gave me great insights into a path towards self-compassion and healing.

In 2020, I took the leap and enrolled in a 200 hour teacher training with the hope of simply deepening my understanding of this profound practice. Needless to say, the training could not have been more appropriately timed, given all of the challenges of the pandemic. I now feel honored to continue my study of yoga through the gift of teaching. I hope to provide students with a variety of practices including meditation, slow vinyasa, restorative and Yoga Nidra to help relax the body and nourish the soul.

Galen Torrey Fairbanks, corporate and event instructor

Galen believes that yoga should be accessible to all. Since 2014, she has taught yoga in studios, gyms, and outpatient facilities, to students with disabilities, trauma survivors, and more; managed successful yoga studios; and graduated from a handful of yoga teacher trainings.

She is a lifelong student with years of yoga, music, dance, strength, and endurance training. She shares shapes, breathing techniques, meditations, and philosophy with the intention that students walk away with tools to feel good in their bodies and calm in their minds.

When not teaching yoga, training personal clients with Specialty Athletic Training, or managing NOW Yoga, Galen can be found hanging out with her amazing husband and two kitties, eating her way through Portland's awesome food scene, and dreaming up her next travel adventure.

Learn more about Galen at www.galentorreyoga.com.

Hi, my name is Valerie Starr. I am obsessed with learning, growing, expanding, rituals, healing, dancing with light/shadows and yoga. I love these because they are all a part of my healing process, a big piece of my creativity, my passion, my flame, my spirit.

I love experiencing the capacity in which we can move our bodies and connect with breath as a spirit ritual and move it outward into the world.

To me, yoga is about creating space and unraveling the tangles in our body and mind, bringing clarity to the things that get out of focus, and deepening the relationship with Self. Yoga is being with the crazy, complicated, playful, and joyful aspects of ourselves and loving them all the same.

I am inspired in my teaching by growth, challenge, and curiosity. Life is continually calling on us to listen and learn the way our bodies and practices change throughout our lifetime. I use my personal practice to navigate my teaching.I hold over 1,000 hours of yoga training and 600 hours of Ayurveda + Tantra training. I certainly wouldn't be here without the love and support of my amazing teachers: Keith Borden, Jasmine Tarkeshi, Katie Silcox, Joy Ravelli, Jane Austin, Annie Carpenter, and my son, Everett!

Lauren Bielenberg, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and ERYT-200hr Yoga Teacher

Lauren Bielenberg is a movement practitioner with her range of expertise of personal training, private yoga, people in larger bodies, spinal movement, assisted stretching, and developing movement programs for individuals wanting ongoing support. Lauren believes movement is a way of building attunement to your bodies (mind, body, and spirit).

Using a HAES (Health At Every Size) approach and trauma-informed language, Lauren empowers individuals to reconnect with their bodies by combining strength and stretching, as well as play.

Lauren has been continuing her education with founder, Lauren Fields, learning Yoga Synergy, body readings, and spacial mobility.

Kristen mccormick, Program manager

Kristen has been living in Portland since 2011 and in Oregon since 2005. She has practiced yoga for 15 years and loves taking her practice to the water as well.

Kristen is a mental health therapist in private practice and works for Kaiser Permanente in research as well. She adores hiking in the Pacific Northwest, CrossFit, traveling the world, and snuggling her dog and human child. Along with planning and coordinating events, Kristen provides website development, social media management, and photography for Yoga to You PDX. She also assists in instruction of SUP yoga classes and previous SUP yoga teacher trainings.

Contact her at @elephantmediapdx if you are interested in media services.

Email Kristen about workplace yoga