Kate Pousont Scarborough, Director

Kate Pousont Scarborough, RYT 500 and Director of Shelburne Falls Yoga, offers a unique blend of classic Kripalu Yoga and range of somatic techniques designed to bring students to their fullest potential in mind and body and create an environment for growth and rejuvenation. Kate's classes are well-loved by experienced and new yoga students of all ages and include gentle movements to encourage a depth of embodiment, detailed alignment objectives to heighten and attune to sensation, and ample time for relaxation and integration. 

Kate has been teaching groups and individuals in movement and somatic practices for over fifteen years.  Her studies inevitably lead her to yoga and Kate received her training as a certified Kripalu yoga instructor in 2009.  She has since completed her Professional Level 500 hour Certification at Kripalu Center and has returned to assist and facilitate the 200 and 500 hour teacher training programs at Kripalu.  An avid practitioner in body, breath, and mind, Kate is dedicated to helping students of all ages and levels of ability reach their full potential through an exploration of the many facets of the yoga tradition.

Kate is a certified Yoga Ed. instructor for pre-school through grade 8 and received a grant from the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association to bring yoga to public school students in Massachusetts. She is currently working with both students and teachers in local school districts.  Kate also received a B.A. in dance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and spent several years performing with small dance companies throughout New York and New England. She taught ballet at Valley Dance Project and at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High School in South Hadley, MA. Kate continues to perform and teach as a guest artist and has created a curriculum combining elements of ballet, yoga, and modern dance emphasizing anatomically sound technique and the joy of movement, which is offered to children here at Shelburne Falls Yoga.

Teachers

Molly Kitchen

Molly Kitchen (RYT) has been practicing yoga with curiosity and joy since 2001. While living in Hawaii she discovered yoga where she attended classes whenever she wasn’t in the lettuce fields learning about organic farming. She is a Registered yoga teacher in Purna Yoga which teaches alignment-based asana (yoga-pose), meditation, pranayama (breath awareness and control), along with nutrition and yogic living. Purna Yoga is the art of loving yourself by living from the heart. Molly now feels grateful to be able to share what she loves of yoga practice with others as a teacher. She infuses her classes with heart-centered awareness and strives to help her students remember their own internal perfection.

George Nager

George Nager has studied and practiced yoga healing arts for 20 years. He is the builder and co-founder of Prakasa Yoga Studio in Goshen,Ma. George is a Reiki Master, and also has received numerous attunements from the Temple Academies system of healing energies. Additionally, George studies and teaches the Miracle of the Breath breathwork technique. George lives in Goshen, with his wife, Lynne.

Molly Stamell

Molly grew up in Western Massachusetts, and discovered her love of movement at an early age. She trained extensively in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and West African dance and attended the Bates College Dance Festival for three summers as a student in the Young Dancer’s Workshop Intensive. At 18, Molly moved to Montreal, where she majored in Contemporary Dance with a Specialization in Choreography at Concordia University. She also completed one year in the Child Studies program, with a concentration in bilingualism in children ages 2-5. Molly completed her BFA thesis project on healing and preventing dance injuries and graduated from Concordia in December 2011.  After completing her BFA, Molly spent three months walking the Camino Pilgrimage Trail in France and Spain. Upon her return to Western Mass, she enrolled in a yoga teacher-training program in Embodyoga, earning her certification in November 2012. She currently lives in Amherst, and teaches many styles of dance, yoga, fitness, conditioning, and injury prevention classes in the area. 

Katie Cutler

Katie is a Thai massage practitioner and yoga instructor in Hatha and Vinyasa yoga. She began practicing yoga while attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. She attended a free class at the local rock gym and was hooked. She received her 200-hour teaching certification in May 2009 from Frog Lotus Yoga in North Adams, Massachusetts. Katie traveled to India in November 2009 to earn her 150-hour certification with Jennifer Yarro and Jacqueline Hessiel of Frog Lotus Yoga. On a round-the-world plane ticket, she also traveled to Thailand to continue her Thai Yoga Massage studies. She spent three weeks studying at the Sunshine School in Chiang-Mai, Thailand, where she feel more deeply in love with the practice of Thai Yoga Massage, the culture and the food of Thailand. She credits her 10 years studying martial arts to her yoga teaching style and her own spiritual practice. Katie also works at Rebecca Brooks Jewelry in Northampton as a jewelry designer. She might also be your waitress some busy morning at Elmer’s Store in Ashfield.

Pam Roberts

Pam Roberts, a longtime student of Shelburne Falls Yoga, headed to Kripalu a number of years ago to become a Kripalu Yoga teacher and a certified Yoga of the Heart for Cardiac and Cancer Patients instructor. Pam appreciates how yoga helps her to stay centered and healthy and welcomes any opportunity to share the healing benefits of yoga with others. A breast cancer survivor, she also leads yoga classes and programs for people affected by cancer throughout New England. An ordained energy healer, she is currently continuing her yoga studies in Kripalu’s 500 hour teacher training program.

Diane Hicks

Diane completed her training as a Kundalini yoga instructor in the spring of 2009. She had practiced Hatha yoga on and off over the years, but fell in love with Kundalini from her very first class. Something about it felt so familiar, almost like coming home. Diane’s teachers, Mehtab Benton, Guru Karam, and Siri Bahadur Khalsa all studied with Yogi Bhajan, himself. Diane was also able to study with Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, the director of the Kundalini Reasearch Institute and leader of Kundalini yoga in the west. Along with her teacher training, Diane received training in Breathwalking, which combines aspects of Kundalini with walking meditation. Two years ago, she took on advanced Kundalini study in the area of lifestyles and lifecycles, after which she began working with individuals looking to shift stuck patterns and reshape their lives. Outside of Kundalini, Diane enjoys Yin yoga, which focuses on lengthening the connective tissues and quieting the mind. Diane loves the outdoors, skiing, kayaking, swimming, hiking, and practicing asana under the sun. She recently returned to the area from Austin, TX, and now lives in Conway with her husband and two children.

Collin Ricketts

Collin Ricketts, a student of Yoga, Zen and Qigong for 40 years, has taught Qigong in the Pioneer Valley, California and throughout New England. He has studied with numerous Chinese Qigong Masters and was a close student of Dr. Bingkun Hu and Zen Master Cobun Chino. His teaching style is relaxed and warm, creating a supportive community in each class. He lives in Heath where he gardens, raises chickens, and build rustic furniture.