Yoga is for everyone. Certified Iyengar Yoga Teachers make the healing practice of yoga accessible to all through the use of skillful instruction, yoga props, modifications and hands-on adjustments. The philosophy of yoga and its positive effect on our daily lives is incorporated into each class.
The Iyengar Yoga Certification is the gold standard in the field of Yoga Teaching and is one of the few authentic, lineage-based systems of Yoga remaining today. Our teachers are classically educated and rigorously tested, offering their students a modern perspective on traditional teachings.
Holly Walck Kostura
has been a student of Yoga since 1997 and teaching in the Lehigh Valley since 2002. In 2004, she founded The Iyengar Center of the Lehigh Valley (formerly Jai Yoga!) with the intention of sharing the practice of Iyengar Yoga with her community. She currently holds the Intermediate Senior I teaching certificate.
Holly studies regularly with her mentor, Patricia Walden of Cambridge, MA. From 2005-2009, she apprenticed with and assisted Joan White at the BKS Iyengar Yoga School of Central Philadelphia. She now travels to Pune, India annually to practice and train with the Iyengar family at the renowned Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. Holly has studied directly with BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar in the USA, Canada and China.
Her deep dedication to her own practice inspires and informs her teaching, which is clear, compassionate and steeped in philosophy. Her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and special interest in anatomy and physiology give her the unique ability to see her students from a place of wholeness.
For Holly, Yoga is a path of transformation and absolute freedom that has far-reaching effects beyond the limits of the physical body. It is her intention to share with her students how Yoga reveals the infinite source of health and joy within.
Polina Mischenko
CIYT-Level 1, had her first conscious taste of Yoga in 2011. The balance, ease, and joy she felt from the practice led her to become a more dedicated practitioner and teacher. She has studied in India with Sharat Arora and with Shaaron Honeycutt, Megan Bowles, Siegfried Bleher in the United States. Polina is currently mentoring for Level 2 certification with Holly Kostura.
She has practiced Vipassana meditation and studied mindfulness and compassion through MBSR, CARE for Educators, and Circle of Trust.
Polina completed her Ph.D. in Education focusing on mindfulness and mindful movement in schools and adapted, implemented and directed the Compassionate Schools Project (Charlottesville, VA), a mindfulness-based curriculum that incorporates yoga-inspired postures and breathwork into social-emotional learning for elementary school students.
Her intention is to connect those who study with her to the ease, love and joy that permeates all.
Gabrielle Nembhard
has been practicing Yoga for fun since she was a child. In 2012 she began studying and practicing intensively with Richard Schachtel, a senior Iyengar Yoga teacher, eventually apprenticing and teaching under his guidance at the Center for Yoga in Seattle.
Gabrielle moved to the Lehigh Valley in 2017 and began studying at the Iyengar Yoga Center of the Lehigh Valley with her mentor, Holly Kostura. She is currently mentoring to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher in 2023.
As an artist, musician, and Waldorf grade school teacher, Gabrielle strives to bring calm, clarity, enthusiasm, an artistic eye, and a feeling for harmony to her own practice of Yoga and to her classes, which are educational, engaging and inspiring.