Bikram Yoga

Our Teachers

All of our teachers are certified in the Bikram Method of Yoga and are trained personally by Bikram. These teachers must complete an intensive nine-week training requiring over 500 hours of study. Click here to learn why this is important.

Meet our staff:

	Christy Whitney is the Director and Owner of Bikram Yoga-John's Landing www.bikrampdx.com. She is dedicated to helping people explore and expand their personal limits through practicing yoga and eating healthy. She discovered Bikram Yoga while she was caring for her terminally ill mother and searching for a physical outlet. What she found was a yoga practice that fundamentally transformed her life. Convinced of the power of Bikram Yoga to heal people physically, emotionally and spiritually, Christy attended the Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in fall 2002. For 16 years Christy ate a mostly vegetarian diet that also included plenty of junk food. In 2006, she consciously shifted to eating live, whole, nutrient-rich foods. This led to a personal transformation that has left her feeling healthier, younger and more vibrant, and which has developed into a way of life. She is currently earning a master’s in Vegan-Live Food Nutrition from the Tree of Life Foundation. Both from personal experience and working with students at her studio, Christy has seen the impact a healthy diet and a regular yoga practice can have on us physically, mentally, and spiritually. Christy has merged her two passions to create an environment at her studio that allows individuals to achieve optimal health. By demonstrating the importance of focusing on what we put into our bodies as well as how often we practice yoga, Christy’s studio is empowering people to take back control of their own health and happiness. She believes that when people practice yoga and eat whole, organic, live food, they can experience powerful personal transformations.
	Martha Ragsdale grew up in New York City, spent the late 80’s exploring the world with a backpack, and spent the 90’s working as an actress in San Francisco. In 1999 she moved to Portland. Martha attended Bikram’s Teacher Training program in spring 2000 and has been teaching ever since. She feels very fortunate to work in an environment promoting healing and growth. The dedication and hard work of the students are a constant inspiration to her.
	Hi, my name is Dan Larson. I've been practicing Bikram yoga since the year 2000. I’ve been practicing yoga since 1990. I love yoga. When I got married in 2000 my priorities changed. I had less overall time. I started to do Bikram yoga exclusively because I thought it was more comprehensive. I received more benefit from the available time that I had to do yoga. Four years rolled by and I became and avid yogi. I loved it so much that I became a teacher in the spring of 2005 along with my buddy Louis. My long term goal is to run my own studio when I officially retire. I work full time as a critical nurse going on 20 years now and I am a step dad to my wife’s three teenage girls. Working, teaching, and practicing makes for a busy life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
	Ron Blaj started practicing Bikram Yoga in late 2002. He immediately saw tangible evidence that the benefits of this Yoga extend far beyond the stretches, the physical exertion, & the sweat. He often tells people that Bikram Yoga is a comprehensive Health Maintenance Program, positively affecting every part of the body, while providing a vehicle for meditation & inner peace. Ron graduated from the Spring 2007 Teacher Training in Honolulu. He is proud to have accomplished this Training at age 49 & is living proof that even Engineers can become Yoga Teachers! He is grateful to all of his Teachers & Students who provide such inspiration, guidance, & encouragement, and looks forward to helping as many people as possible on their own journey.
	Louis Stanley initially gravitated towards yoga as an alternative to higher impact exercise, and encountering calmness a cut above the coveted runner’s high, he fell fast in love with the more natural physicality of the Bikram Method. In good time, dedication to this equally exigent and elevating of experiences healed him from the inside out. Old injuries reappeared then stabilized, and he transformed into living proof of the system’s efficacy as a healing modality. After working in educational institutions for most of his professional career, the aspiration to share his new found wealth blossomed with potentiality. He committed himself to Teacher Training, with genuine curiosity and scientific inquiry, and earnestly began the 185 degree angle turn of his life. Since graduating with the Spring Class of 2005, Louis has endeavored to fully integrate with an amazing community of students and instructors at the BYCI in John’s Landing (Portland, OR). Their collective practice continuously informs his instruction and justifies a firm faith in the simultaneous operation of formal, voluntary, and experiential education. He believes this synergy accelerates learning dynamically and reinforces imagination as the only limit to personal development. During the Fall 2006 Teacher Training, Louis sustained his schooling as a member of Bikram’s support staff. The happenings at International Headquarters while leading regular classes and trainee posture clinics persist to guide his karma yoga. He returns to Los Angeles annually for further study of both the beginning and advanced series with Bikram’s senior faculty.
	Dan Larson. I've been practicing Bikram yoga since the year 2000 and been practicing yoga since 1990. I love yoga. When I got married in 2000 my priorities changed. I had less overall time. I started to do Bikram yoga exclusively because I thought it was more comprehensive. I received more benefit from the available time that I had to do yoga. Four years rolled by and I became an avid yogi. I loved it so much that I became a teacher in the spring of 2005 along with my buddy Louis. My long term goal is to run my own studio when I officially retire. I work full time as a critical nurse going on 20 years now and I am a step dad to my wife’s three teenage girls. Working, teaching, and practicing makes for a busy life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
	Shawna Cunningham, teacher.
	Tara Walters, teacher.