Meet the Samata team

Our team is made up of lifelong students. We’re curious, grounded, and always growing. Each teacher brings a unique perspective, shaped by years of personal practice and study. We’re here to walk beside you, offering guidance, encouragement, and space to grow.

  • I’m Danielle. Yoga taught me what I consider my greatest life lesson: purpose is not found in external success and pleasure, it is revealed through inner awakening.

    I spent the early part of my life shaped by expectations of who I “should” be, trying out various careers from serving tables to retail to sales, but I carried a deep inner knowing that I wanted to live a more meaningful, impactful life. However, it was not easy to turn inward and trust my own voice. I looked for success, security, and identity outside of myself until the disconnection from who I truly am became impossible to ignore.

    Breaking from conditioning required me to step outside of the structures I had inherited and into the intelligence of the natural world. Nature became my teacher. Throughout my early years of teaching yoga I spent a lot of time traveling. This allowed me to experience and observe the rhythms of nature and weave them into my offerings. 

    Nature showed me that darkness and light are not opposing forces, but necessary counterparts. Growth depends on both. Personal healing works the same way. I had to develop compassion for the parts of myself I once resisted or judged to access clarity and confidence. When we meet our own shadows with curiosity and care instead of shame, the patterns begin to shift. Now, I see yoga as a doorway we are invited through to help ourselves navigate and appreciate our own darkness and shadows.

    Through this work, I’ve learned that transformation is not about becoming someone new, but about remembering who we really are beneath societal conditioning, fear, survival patterns, and other emotional blockages. Healing requires the courage to witness oneself honestly, and through yoga, we can discover and accept our deep truths and live a balanced, intentional, and harmonious life.

    The body is telling a story only you can hear. With practice we learn deep inner listening. To practice with me is to be guided into self-discovery—to remember that healing is not about “fixing” ourselves but becoming balanced, lighter and recognizing we are whole.

    When attending my class you will receive insights from different lineages of thought and philosophy such as Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Vinyasa Methodology, Tantra, Yin Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Each class is infused with the creative energy of the elements, air, earth, fire, water and ether. I believe that yoga is not simply exercise. It is less about the shape of the pose and more about the shape of our awareness: what we notice from being in the pose. In my classes, we use the physical practice of yoga as a tool to self-reflect, with asana becoming the medicine we need to let ourselves be truly seen. It is within that “sight” that true growth and change can occur in our lives, leading us to discovering our purpose.

  • Laura Ekstrand has been practicing yoga for over 30 years, beginning with Iyengar and transitioning to Vinyasa in the past 20 years. With a background in both dance and fitness, she completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Ignite Yoga in 2014 with owner Daniele Jarman.  ​​

    A Livingston resident, Laura’s full-time job is as the Artistic Director of Vivid Stage in Summit, which she founded in 1994. As an actor, director, playwright and acting instructor, Laura’s work has taken her from stage to television to film. Laura is also a private monologue coach and holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. ​​

    Laura’s classes focus on bringing your awareness to the present moment, and on having fun as you explore the connection between your life on and off the mat. She also brings an attention to the specific mechanics of each pose while tuning into your breath. Laura especially enjoys making yoga accessible to yogis of all levels, from the beginner to the advanced practitioner.

  • Alexa’s path to yoga began long before she ever stepped onto a mat. Like many who carry the weight of childhood trauma, she spent years searching for a sense of steadiness — pendulating between feeling too much (anxiety and panic) and too little (numbness and dissociation).

    Yoga was the bridge that empowered Alexa to find balance. What began as a physical practice became a journey of transformation. Through the dance between effort and ease, she realized that we are not defined by what happens to us, but by how we meet it. This philosophy is at the heart of her teaching.

    As a teacher, Alexa creates a safe and supportive space for you to connect more deeply with yourself. She invites you to notice your internal reactions to external circumstances and, through that noticing, reconnect with your true nature.

    In private sessions, Alexa allows the body to lead the way, following sensations as they arise. She works gently and intentionally to release stored tension, build stability in the nervous system, and support lasting change. She especially enjoys working with students who feel caught in repeating thought spirals, experience physical pain without clear medical explanation, or simply feel stuck and unfulfilled.

    Alexa’s teachings are inspired by nature, Eastern philosophy, Western psychology, and her sādhanā (daily personal practice). She has completed over 300 hours of education in hatha yoga, meridian yoga therapy, pranayama, Reiki, and meditation, and continues her studies in somatic healing. She is honored to have learned from leading psychology experts, including Dr. Gabor Maté and Dr. Peter Levine.

    A lifelong student herself, Alexa approaches teaching with honesty, care, and connection, inviting you to leave not just stronger in body, but more deeply rooted in the fullness of being alive.

  • I’m a yoga and meditation teacher, Certified Health Coach, and Ayurvedic Nutritionist devoted to one simple truth: when life breaks us open, the path can also bring us home.

    I was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland with a tender, intuitive nature, and I learned early what it feels like to carry a deep inner knowing in a world that doesn’t always have language for it. In my twenties, my relationship with my body became one of my greatest teachers, initiating me into the yogic invitation of ahimsa—non-harm—and the slow, (often wobbly) work of coming back into right relationship with it.

    My life has been shaped by movement and reinvention—living and building homes across Edinburgh, Paris, Venice, Málaga, and New York City—each place offering its own lessons in belonging, resilience, and the meaning of true sanctuary. It was in New York that my outward exploration turned inward. Seeking a more authentic life, I moved through divorce and the intensity of raising my son as a single mother, learning the everyday yoga of steadiness, devotion and routine.

    In 2009, I took a leap into the ISHTA lineage and began formal training with Alan Finger—an initiation that became my spiritual home for over a decade. Rooted in Hatha Yoga, Tantra, and Ayurveda, those years of study deepened my understanding of the subtle body and the intelligence that lives beyond the mind. Having already completed a Masters in Psychology and spent time teaching English Language and Literature, I found myself dedicating the second part of my life to the study of energy healing and holistic balance, culminating in 5 years of study in esoteric anatomy and energy medicine to become a Polarity Therapist.

    Life continued to initiate me. I survived breast cancer, navigated chronic back pain, and learned how to work wisely with the medical system while staying anchored in inner authority. I also walked through a profound spiritual betrayal—an intimate relationship with a charismatic “healer” who misused esoteric teachings to manipulate and disempower. That passage became one of my deepest trainings in viveka—discernment—and in the sacred power of boundaries. It taught me, viscerally, the difference between spiritual performance and spiritual integrity, and it strengthened my vow to practice and teach in a way that empowers rather than entangles.

    Ultimately, it was Ayurveda—and steady, consistent daily practice—that helped restore my body and reclaim my life force. My work today is an offering born from lived experience: a blend of grounded care and subtle wisdom designed to support modern women through real-life initiations—illness and recovery, grief and change, divorce, identity shifts, exhaustion, and the longing to feel like yourself again.

    Through teaching, bodywork, mentorship, and online education, I guide students back to their own inner teacher. My spaces are both practical and tender, woven with yogic philosophy, nervous system support, and the remembrance that healing is not a destination—it is a return. A return to breath. To truth. To the quiet radiance of the Self.

    My work is rooted in sankalpa (soul-aligned intention), abhyasa (steady practice), and satya (truth). With clear guidance and compassionate presence, I invite you to move from struggle into steadiness, from fragmentation into wholeness—so you can meet your life not as a battle, but as a sacred unfolding.