Providence Info
Valerie Sonnenthal
Studio Founder/Teacher
Valerie grew up in Manhattan engaging from a young age in many sports, and enduring subsequent injuries from those and life. Approaching 50 with chronic foot pain Valerie began studying Foot Work practices and healing modalities, leading her to biomechanically based yoga where all of these modalities happened in one practice, as well as to Rev6 where the support for the elasticity of her fascial system has happily become more resilient with age.
Rev6 creator Dr. Edythe Heus (right) and I play catch on rotating discs.
Teaching is a way for Valerie to share tools that allow us to have a different relationship with our bodies so we can promote healing, stay out of pain, balance our nervous system and enjoy our body.
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She is or has been certified/authorized as a Sound Practitioner through the NYC's Open Center Sound Music Institute; a Gong Master; an 1000+hour KYT Kaiut Yoga® instructor; a Rev6 Level 1, Pelvic Floor Fitness and Vitality instructor, a Nutritious Movement Restorative Exercise Specialist and Foot Specialist; a level 2 MELT Method instructor, Gyrotonic/Gyrokinesis® instructor, a Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra® teacher, Reiki Level 2 and a Yamuna Foot Practitioner.
Other great teachers Valerie has studied with include Eric Franklin creator of The Franklin Method; Liz Koch, author of The Psoas Book; Katy Bowman, creator of Nutritious Movement; Tami Lynn Kent in Holistic Pelvic Care; monochord with Martina Glaser-Boehme of Feeltone, tuning forks with Dr. John Beaulieu; Gong with Don Conreaux; singing bowls and more including Pat Moffit Cook, Joule L'Adara, Ysaye Barnwell, Silvia Nakaach, and others. She enjoys sharing her learning with her students to improve their daily well-being and welcomes the opportunity to help people find a better balance in their own bodies so they can live without pain, through modalities/practices anyone can do for themselves. Learn more about Valerie's yoga journey.
Billie Burke
Studio Teacher
Billie moved full-time to Martha's Vineyard in 2009, where she has deep family roots in Harthaven. While running a real estate company with her husband for the past 20 years, she saw her four children through high school, now all back on the Island pursuing careers in hospitality and entertainment endeavors.
With a brief introduction to yoga in Cambridge in the '80s, Billie was introduced to Kaiut Yoga by Valerie at Peaked Hill Studio in 2018 and instantly fell in love. Where a void was starting to be filled with the concept of aging, Kaiut Yoga was an awakening to a new beginning, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Valerie quickly became her mentor, leading her to Kaiut Teacher Training experiences with Francisco Kauit in Telluride and Boulder, CO, and Folsom, CA, earning nearly 700 hours of training in the Kaiut Method. Billie completed the first 300-hour online Kaiut Teacher Training program, earning her International Kaiut Yoga Teaching Certification.Billie also attended her third live and final in-person Teacher Training with Francisco Kaiut in 2022.
Rachel Elion Baird
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Studio Teacher
Rachel Elion has been a part-time Islander since 2000, mostly up in Aquinnah. When not teaching classes you might find her practicing the Kaiut method on a local beach, year round.
Rachel Elion Baird, RYI, LMT, CH was first introduced to original forms of yoga in San Francisco, California as a child. She has been on the path of Yogini for most of her life. Studying various forms of spiritual knowledge, energy healing and bodywork as well as yogic practices including Hatha, Anna Forest Method, Anusara, Bhakti, Restorative, Yoga Nidra, somatic and the therapeutic Kaiut Yoga Method, she brings a deep history, rich experience and understanding of the path of yoga to her classes. A grounded and kind guide, her approach is truly transformative.
Rachel Elion Baird has immersed herself in the healing arts for the past forty years. A Certified Hypnotherapist and yogini, she also studied and taught at the Berkeley Psychic Institute and has tended a full-time healing/holistic health practice for thirty-three years. Rachel Elion’s meditation and yoga her-story includes a 300-hour teacher training with the founder of Kaiut Yoga, who she continues to study with. After completing a year-long study with the Buddhist Retreat center Tara Mandala on the 21 Aspects of Tara for spiritual embodiment, Rachel Elion maintains a daily Tara yogic meditation practice. She is the Walla for the band Bhakti, holding the energetic and musical space for Kirtan call and response chanting on Island every Sunday. Rachel Elion’s somatic lens to asana practice helps the brain and nervous system retrain to let go of limiting patterns that cause pain and restriction. Her classes are centering and awakening to the body/mind/spirit connection, with deep and focused awareness, balancing the nervous system to access change. Rachel Elion teaches sequences in a safe and powerful way for every – body to enliven according to the needs of the individual.