Teachers — Amsa Yoga

Our Yoga Teachers

Our instructors teach with compassion, authenticity, and acceptance and are here to support you in your yoga practice.

Kate Denton is the owner and director of Amsa Yoga. She completed both her 230-hour Yoga Teacher Training and 300-hour Advanced Yoga Studies certification through Asheville Yoga Center. Her training includes a wide range of studies including Vinyasa, Yin, Restorative, Prenatal, Meditation, and Therapeutics. Kate believes the power of yoga extends to all aspects of life, far beyond just a physical practice. Yoga is a beautiful, well-rounded system that makes us healthier, happier beings. While Kate teaches yoga, she continues to be a curious student, and remains present through practice, exploring the connections between things that “come up on the mat,” and experiences in everyday life. The practices of yoga and mindfulness have led to positive and powerful changes in Kate’s own life, and her goal in teaching is to provide such opportunities to her students. Kate compassionately teaches yoga with an emphasis on the empowering and meditative aspects of mindfulness, movement, and breath. She brings a fun, positive, and warm energy to class that she would love to share with you! In addition to teaching yoga, Kate is a Speech-Language Pathologist who works with children with special needs. She has two small children who are her gurus and inspire her daily with insights and wonder.

Johnny Stowe got into yoga as a path toward inner peace. Under Bren Schell, his first yoga mentor, he began recognizing and embracing profound parallels between yoga and his life as an ecosopher, author, lecturer and lover of wildlands. He is a certified instructor through Asheville Yoga Center. Johnny is a Certified Wildlife Biologist, SC Registered Forester and Wildland Firelighter specializing in human ecology and restoration of endangered species in longleaf pine savannas and other imperiled ecosystems using human’s oldest tool: prescribed fire. Amsa has been his “home” studio for many years. Many of the pan-disciplinary ideas he shares in his yoga and meditation classes, here in the Southland, in the Canadian Rockies and on the West Coast, sprang into his mind while lying on his mat at Amsa, under the soothing influence of Kimberley Puryear. His Sahyinidra Yoga involves guided imagery centered on deep-time eco-cycling through sacred landscapes.

Jami Hawkins is a certified yoga instructor through the Asheville Yoga Center, and has a certification in Children's Yoga from Holy Cow Yoga and Holistic Center in Charleston. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, she is a piano teacher. She is a grandmother, master gardener, storyteller, and a master naturalist.

Jessica Barnes Smith is a RYT 500 has been teaching yoga since 2011. She earned her 230-hour yoga teacher training as well a 300-hour advanced yoga studies certification through the Asheville Yoga Center. Jessica is a mother of two girls and an artist with a BFA from Winthrop University. She began practicing yoga in 2000 while recovering from injuries from a car accident. She discovered that yoga provided a space to enjoy movement and find stillness that is necessary to explore the deeper subtle layers of self within the comfort of community. In that space and stillness she found joy. Jessica hopes to facilitate that space for others.

Sally Hughes is a consistent yogi who believes that it is all about the practice and the journey. She discovered yoga at a time when she really needed the steadiness and consistency of a mindful practice and believes that the presence and patience learned through the study of yoga and experienced on the mat give her freedom in her personal and professional life. As a Spanish teacher, a family member, and a friend, her yoga practice allows her to respond to the people in her life with love and compassion. As a yoga teacher, the practice allows for the presence needed to relate what she has learned to her students. Sally completed the Rolf Gates 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Program at Yoga Masala and has since been teaching yoga to teachers at her school, children, and at Amsa Yoga.

Missy started her certifications as a Children’s Yoga teacher in 2017 through ChildLight Yoga in Bethlehem, PA. She went on to complete her 200-hour Yoga certification from Sakhi Yoga school here in Columbia in 2018. She is also a Breath Coach/Trainer with certifications through YogaBody, Buteyko, and Oxygen Advantage. Missy began yoga to control the stress that was building up and wreaking havoc inside her own body. She quickly discovered that yoga became a way to move that didn’t add additional stress to her limbs and attitude. With encouragement from a friend, eventually she brought it into the classroom to help her students find their own equilibriums. Breathwork came after she discovered that not all children feel comfortable doing yoga but will breathe. Missy is a big believer that controlling one’s breath is the first step in controlling one’s self. Yoga allows the practitioner to intertwine movement and breath thus creating the optimal space to find exactly what each person needs. As a graduate from many places, Missy works as a Primary Montessori teacher at a local school where she gets to share her love of yoga and breathwork with students, faculty, and friends throughout the district.

Teresa Welsch completed her 200 hour teaching training at Yoga Loft in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and her 300 advanced yoga studies at Asheville Yoga Center. Her training is well rounded including Restorative, Yoga Nidra, and Vinyasa. She began yoga in 2009 to help with stress and injuries. It didn’t take long for her to realize the benefits of Yoga. Yoga has become a tool to help with movement, breathing and feeling grounded. The practice of yoga has kept Teresa curious about the body and she enjoys teaching to guide others to explore and be curious about their own bodies. In addition to yoga Teresa is married with two kitties, enjoys traveling, hiking, gardening, and time with family and friends.

Nicola completed her RYT230 and advanced RYT300 hour training at Asheville Yoga Center, where she was trained under her beloved mentor, Kimberley Puryear, and a host of other wonderful teachers. She has practiced at Amsa since moving to South Carolina in 2007, and credits this unique community with helping her find resilience, joy, and daily renewal through the combined power of breath and movement. She is fascinated by all styles of yoga, and loves especially yin and flow, and the delicious peace of restorative poses and meditation practices. A longtime practitioner and teacher of writing, you might also find subtle elements of dance and poetry in her classes. Nicola offers a gently creative, compassionate, and healing practice. She is thrilled to be ‘in creative service to humanity,’ and looks forward to connecting with you, both on and off the mat.
Nicola is currently across the sea for a year of adventure with there family, but we await her return with happiness next year!