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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Morgan was introduced to Iyengar and Vinyasa yoga at the age of 14 and has studied and practiced yogic traditions for nearly 25 years. Her intention is to share the profound energetic rewards that come from a consistent yoga practice.
Through her guidance, Morgan encourages students to journey inward, nourishing their truest self through breathwork, energetic release, physical strengthening, and guided restorative meditation. Her classes both support and challenge students, helping them cultivate strength, flexibility, and a deeper connection to body, mind, and spirit. Morgan values and emphasizes the “why” behind each movement, offering students a deeper understanding of how yoga creates space in the body and supports a more easeful way of moving through life.
Drawing from her own holistic healing journey, Morgan incorporates gentle, playful, and energizing myofascial release techniques designed to help students reconnect with their natural alignment and the remarkable intelligence and resilience of the human body. These practices often leave students with a renewed sense of relaxation, and even bliss.

