Trainers, Supervisors, and Mentors

Welcome to the Trainers, Supervisors, and Mentors Page.

Here you will find profiles for our iRest Trainers, Certification Supervisors, and IRI Mentors. If you wish to contact anyone, please click on the link in their profile which gives you a way to leave a message.

Gemma Adams
Gemma Adams is a Certified iRest® Teacher and Supervisor. Gemma came to iRest in 2008 when she experienced firsthand a life-time worth of anxiety alleviate from the act of Welcoming. It has been her mission since to share “healing from wholeness” with her community in Chicago. For over a decade the veteran population was her focus and she has worked at vet centers and VA hospitals within the Chicagoland area. Along with a fellow certified teachers she created the Veterans Restorative Project 501c3. She enjoys teaching and assisting at iRest trainings around the country.

Gemma is originally from Dublin, Ireland where she visits regularly. In 2018 she managed the first Level I Training to be offered in Ireland in 2018 and hopes to continue expanding iRest offerings in her homeland.

Molly Birkholm
Molly is a speaker, consultant, iRest Yoga Nidra teacher trainer, trauma educator, author, and international show host. Molly’s stress management programs, resilience training, and trauma treatment programs are used by leaders and top organizations around the world, including the US Department of Defense, JPChase, McKinsey & Company, and the Young Presidents' Organization. She is the co-founder of Warriors at Ease, which has trained over 2000 teachers and brought yoga and meditation to 65 military bases and VA Centers. She helped pioneer evidence-based trauma-sensitive yoga and meditation programs for PTSD in the military and other communities affected by trauma, including human trafficking survivors and homeless communities. She is also an iRest Yoga Nidra teacher trainer. Molly teaches trainings and retreats around the world and also online.  She hs an ‘iRest Yoga Nidra’ and a ‘Building Resilience’ course on The Great Courses, which are both 24-class series lectures and practices. She is also a Featured Teacher & the host of the 54-episode Women’s Empowerment Initiative on Yoga International.

Paul Collins
Paul is an IYN Registered Yoga Elder, certified iRest meditation teacher and Supervisor. He first came to iRest in 2010 and specialises in delivering the practice to people in recovery from addiction and within prisons. He also integrates the iRest body sensing protocol into his practice, classes & workshops. He runs regular iRest and trauma sensitive Yoga workshops in Bucks, Henley-on-Thames and the Brighton area, where he weaves in the practice of family constellation work. He offers 1-1 private sessions and teaches the practice in prison and with military veterans suffering from PTSD.

Paul founded Thrive Inside to deliver iRest courses in prisons.

Jennifer Cabanero
Jennifer is ​Supervisor of Trainers​ at IRI​ and ​w​as introduced to the teachings of Richard Miller​ in 2003. Jennifer has been assisting in iRest trainings since 2012 and has also stepped into the role of Senior iRest Trainer. ​She also has the pleasure and the honor of teaching iRest classes, trainings and immersions at The Yoga Tree ​in​ Seattle. ​ 

In her spare time she runs wild with her two nieces, enjoys cooking (she used to be a pastry chef!)​ and spending as much time out of doors as possible. 

Through iRest, Jennifer has become aware of a deep sense of wholeness that has always been present and with this wholeness, an ability to fully welcome life with all of its ups and downs. ​What a gift it is to be working for the Institute!

Robin Carnes
Robin is an iRest® Certified Senior Teacher, Trainer, and Supervisor. She is also a leading pioneer in the efforts to bring evidence-based yoga and meditation practices into mainstream healthcare.

From 2006-2012 Robin was a yoga and iRest® meditation instructor for a Defense Department acute PTSD treatment program at Walter Reed Medical Center. Out of this work, she co-founded Warriors at Ease (WAE), which has trained over 700 yoga teachers to teach safely and effectively in military communities. Robin has a private practice focused on trauma, anxiety and other mental health concerns.

She has many best-selling recorded practices which are widely available. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, Woman’s Day Magazine, Huffington Post, and Army Magazine, as well as the award-winning documentary, Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue America’s Healthcare.

Anne Douglas
Anne had the privilege to be the first person to attain iRest® Certification and to facilitate the iRest Trainer Certification Program with Richard Miller in 2015, bringing 13 new iRest Level 1 trainers into the field.

It is Anne’s joy to supervise students through iRest Certification and she has developed an area of expertise in therapeutic settings which includes dyads, customizing a practice, and working with difficult emotions or beliefs. Anne is a certified, professional level Kripalu Yoga Teacher, a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, and Holistic Lifestyle Coach. She draws upon these skills to facilitate: classes, private coaching, personal growth workshops, retreats and teacher trainings. Anne is also an IRI Senior Retreat Leader.

Anne’s work is continually inspired by the natural and wild beauty that surrounds her in the Canadian Rockies. Her own experience of the inner peace and deep joy that has arisen from the practices has inspired her to share them with the world.

Barbara Eastham
Barbara has been part of the collaborative development of the iRest training and certification and is a supervisor in the certification process. She has for many years been a teacher of teachers.

She is currently offering iRest to groups and individuals and working within a cancer wellness facility. She loves to offer the nondual practices of bodysensing, pranayama, meditation and personal inquiry in small group gatherings where participants share and learn from one another.

Barbara lives in Calgary, Canada with her husband and has two, brightly shining, grown children.

Clearlight Gerald, MA, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, RPYT
Clearlight Gerald is a Senior iRest Trainer and certified Yoga Therapist who has taught, mentored and guided thousands of students from all walks of life for over 20 years. She is the founder of the MamaBe® Program, an innovative, holistic approach that integrates the wisdom teachings of iRest to support women's wellbeing during fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

Since Clearlight first met her teachers and mentors Joan Ruvinsky and Richard Miller in 2004, she has been immersed in the study of nondual teachings and practices that inform iRest Meditation. She passionately shares these teachings and associated practices in classes, workshops and trainings, and supports students to reconnect to their deepest authenticity and wellbeing. For more information visit www.clearlight.ca

Clearlight is also an iRest Certification Supervisor and Mentor, a role in which she has engaged with joy since the inception of the iRest teacher training program. She brings warmth, insight and skillfulness to support new teachers in deepening wisdom and fully developing their potential.

Clearlight lives with her husband and children in the Montreal area in Canada. And, in case you are wondering... she was indeed named Clearlight at birth!

Nöle Giulini
Nöle is an iRest® Certified Senior Teacher, Trainer, and Supervisor. She teaches iRest® Yoga Nidra workshops and retreats in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark, as well as the first Level 1 training in Germany. She is an artist with a degree in Art, Psychology, and Art Therapy. She has also been certified to teach yoga by both Erich Schiffmann and Kripalu, and has been teaching yoga for 27 years.

Inspired by her lifelong work as an artist, as well as her own practice, Nöle developed a unique style that animates complex ancient teachings in a playful, practical, and deeply life changing way. It is this gift -- to live the coming together of the creative and the spiritual -- that is the essence of her teaching.

Together with her life partner Gary Lemons she owns and runs Tender Paws Yoga Studio in Port Townsend, Washington State.

Kirsten Guest
Kirsten has been the Director of the iRest Teacher Certification for IRI since the inception of the Teacher Training program. She is a Supervisor and Mentor of iRest yoga nidra and delights in supporting teachers in building confidence in their teaching, while exploring their personal meditation practice.

Kirsten teaches yoga and meditation classes and works with her local physiotherapy clinic supporting individuals in their healing in her home town of Kimberley, B.C., and travels to lead iRest retreats and workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Kirsten loves to stay active in the outdoors in the Canadian mountain town where she lives, and can often be found on the bike and ski trails, or floating on local lakes and rivers.

Ross Guest
Ross Guest is a Supervisor, Certified iRest Teacher, and former Executive Director of the iRest Institute. He has been a student and teacher of iRest for 20 years. He lives in Kimberley BC where he teaches yoga for men. He also teaches meditation to groups and individuals. A passionate cyclist, Ross rides a few thousand kilometers each summer and competes in Grand Fondo events. Ross is devoted to taking the practice of mediation off the cushion and into real life situations to meet and be with whatever is arising in the present moment. Ross is thankful that his first and only yoga and meditation teacher is Richard Miller who is an employer, a teacher and a good friend. Previously, Ross was a Corporate Counsel for a number of Textron companies in Canada and was a director and business consultant to numerous large Canadian companies. Ross and his wife Kirsten enjoy an active lifestyle of weight training and outdoor activities in the Mountains of the Rocky Mountain trench.

Larissa Haramis
Larissa is a Certified iRest Teacher and Certification Supervisor. She is also a Senior Yoga Teacher, and Pastoral Care Practitioner.

After living in a Zen Buddhist Monastery 25 years ago, Larissa began her search for a meditation practice that specifically helped people integrate their messy emotions, beliefs, and everyday stresses with peace and oneness; allowing them to flourish in their relationships and work. iRest is that practice.

Larissa uses iRest in her Therapeutic Yoga practice, as well as in hospitals with terminally ill people, those suffering from challenging mental health, drug and alcohol addictions, and Chronic Pain.

It is her mission to support Clinical Caregivers to nurture themselves, so they can continue to be a sustainable wellspring for those they care for.

Larissa lives in the bushy outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and two beautifully boisterous tween and teenage boys. She can often be found slipping into the forest with her dog for some peace and quiet.

Kathleen Knipp
Kathleen is an iRest® Certified Senior Teacher, Supervisor, and Mentor.

Profoundly influenced by the non-dual teachings of Jean Klein as offered through Joan Ruvinsky, Éric Baret and Richard Miller, Kathleen Knipp shares her love of Pathless Yoga body and breath sensing, the texts of Kashmir Shaivism and iRest® Yoga Nidra in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada and in the US. Having assisted in the development of the iRest® Yoga Nidra teacher training curriculum, she acts as a supervisor for its certification candidates and maintains a private practice blending her background in developmental psychology with iRest to offer dyadic yoga nidra.

Co-translator of the Pratyabhijñahrdayam, a primary text of Kashmir Shaivism, Kathleen is responsible for the publication of the book, “The Recognition of Our Own Heart,” after the death of its commentator, Joan Ruvinsky.

A former resident of Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, an E-RYT500 yoga teacher and co-founder and former director of Global Yoga Journeys, Kathleen has been fully absorbed in the study and practice of yoga for most of her adult life. She pursues her bliss by chanting, hiking and back-packing, preferring wandering in the woods and exploring the meditations from the Vijñâna Bhairava over most sorts of formal practice.

She is rumoured to have good organization skills as evidenced by her alphabetized spice cabinet.

Sam Loe
Sam was introduced to the healing and integrative power of iRest® Yoga Nidra many years ago through her teacher, Donna Farhi. In 2013 she attended both the first Australian levels 1 & 2 iRest trainings with Richard Miller inspiring her to complete her Certification under the guidance of Kirsten Guest in 2018.

Combining the welcoming aspect of iRest along with functional, therapeutic, and restorative yoga, Sam has found an incredible framework and ground of Wholeness upon which to meet both personal challenges as well as orient students and clients to their own resources. The non-secular approach of iRest has filtered into all of her yoga teaching as she has become more and more passionate about empowering people to find a sense of agency through providing safe learning environments, invitational, and choice based practices and ultimately supporting people to develop their own self-practice. Sam’s practice and teaching come from a somatic place of listening deeply within and she shares this understanding through classes, events, and retreats both in New Zealand and abroad.

For nearly 20 years, Sam has been orienting people to Wellbeing through yoga within many different environments and situations -- including schools and colleges, hospitals, mental health communities, those living with health challenges (including cancer, anxiety and depression), as well as specialising in working with prenatal women. She now brings all of this experience as a faculty member on the New Zealand Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training as well as offering mentoring as an iRest Certification Supervisor.

Sam resides in Nelson, NZ where she shares an adventurous life with her lively 2 boys and supportive husband.

Stephanie Lopez, LISW-S 
Stephanie Lopez, L.I.S.W.-S., C-IAYT, is the Senior Director of Teachings & Programs, and Senior iRest Trainer for iRest Institute. With a deeply embodied understanding of meditation informed by over 25 years of immersion in the nondual teachings of yoga, she leads retreats and trainings internationally with a focus on living an authentic and awakened life. As a Gestalt psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and certified yoga therapist she bridges eastern wisdom with western psychology and neuroscience to support healing and transformation. Stephanie also serves as the Vice-Chair on the Certification Committee for IAYT helping to promote standards and credentialing for the yoga therapy field.

Beate Maaß
Beate is an iRest certified teacher and supervisor. She was introduced to the teachings of Richard Miller in Germany in 2013 by iRest trainer and supervisor Nöle Giulini, and has since then regularly assisted in Nöle's workshops.

Beate is offering iRest to groups and individuals alike. As a supervisor, she supports both German-speaking and English-speaking students through their certification process.

Beate's first groundbreaking contact with non-dual wisdom teachings was in 1997. Following that, she studied and practiced meditation in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Later, she completed her training as a yoga teacher BDY/EYU and GGF under Leopoldo Chariarse in the non-dual tradition of Kashmir Shaivism after Jean Klein.

With iRest Yoga Nidra, Beate has found the thread that unites all the essential ideas that she appreciates and loves from non-dualism, yoga, and Buddhism.

Beate lives with her husband in a small town in the Teutoburg Forest in North Rhine-Westphalia / Germany and has three wonderful grown up sons.

Ford Peck 
Ford is a Certified Senior iRest Trainer, Mentor, and Supervisor. He began to study and practice meditation while in high school. From 1988 to 1992 he lived and worked at a yoga and meditation center. He has been teaching yoga, pranayama, and meditation for 27 years.

Ford has practiced as a somatic healer for over 20 years. He is considered a master bodyworker and has been certified since 1999 in SHEN Therapy -- a modality of energy work that helps release and heal emotions directly in the body. Ford also completed graduate studies in Counseling and Depth Psychology and has a Masters Degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is currently a Marriage and Family Therapist Intern, providing both individual and couples counseling, and is supervised by Dr. Richard Miller.

Ford fell in love with non-dual teachings in the late 90's and subsequently spent a year and a half in India, studying and practicing intensively in the tradition of Advaita (per Ramana Maharshi) as well as the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Ford has managed, assisted, and taught at numerous iRest Teacher Trainings, as well as retreats with Richard Miller.

He currently resides with his partner and their beloved cat in beautiful Marin County, where he teaches regular iRest classes and workshops. He loves to drink in the natural beauty of the land through hiking and mountain biking.

Dr. Jill C. Peterson, Psy.D., RYT
Jill is an iRest® Senior Trainer who lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. She specializes in teaching people how to develop a relationship with their Self—their physical body, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and, most importantly, their own inner guidance, so as to access a unique life of alignment, joy, ease, and flow.

As a clinical psychologist, she utilizes the teachings of iRest in her therapeutic work with individual adults, and has also had the pleasure of teaching iRest classes and workshops to active duty military and veterans, yoga students and teachers, and other mental health practitioners.

Personally, as a recovering perfectionist, over-achiever, and people-pleasing-over-functioner, (yes, it was exhausting as it reads now!), iRest has allowed her to experience more self-compassion and has opened the doorway to the abundance of joy that has always existed within her. That same joy exists in ALL of us. In her teaching, Jill focuses on bringing forth that which often prevents access to this inner state of being, in order to allow for a more expansive and full experience of Being Human. For Jill, Joy shows up in abundance while snowboarding, being in the ocean, seeing a French Bulldog walk down the street, eating REALLY good cupcakes, and making fun of the absurdity of being human—we take it so seriously! It’s serious enough as it is, isn’t it?

Please contact her if you have an interest in private sessions or workshops.

James Reeves
James is an iRest® Certified Senior Trainer, founder of Restful Being, and is one of the UK’s leading Yoga Nidra experts. He has studied extensively with the iRest protocol’s founder, Richard C. Miller, PhD.

James has been a practicing yoga teacher since 2005 and was qualified as a Structural Yoga Therapist after completing his training with Mukunda Stiles in 2006. From his clinic in Oxford James works with clients who are recovering from birth trauma, PTSD, sexual abuse and depression, as well as injury and other physical ailments.

He teaches Yoga Nidra at TriYoga London and regularly guest-teaches elsewhere -- such as at the Khiron House trauma centre. He also runs his own regular yoga classes, workshops, and retreats. His work is focused on helping us to live the essence of our true nature: welcoming, open, spacious and free from judgment and conditioning.

Rachelle Rice
Rachelle is an iRest® Supervisor and C-IAYT yoga therapist with an M.A. in Somatic Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her path is that of a seeker and a guide. Rachelle holds space with curiosity and reverence for what it is to be human. Her work in private practice with clients is a blend of dyadic practices that mean the most to her from the traditions of somatics, iRest, depth psychology and hatha yoga.

Rachelle discovered Richard Miller and iRest in 2014 and immediately began the path to Certification. She has been teaching weekly group iRest classes for six years and assisted at multiple Level I and II teacher trainings. A teacher in one form or another for twenty years, there is nothing Rachelle would rather share now than the gift of welcoming ourselves in the nondual tradition.

Rachelle’s deepest desire is to live fully alive as Presence in the beautiful, hard, infinitely mysterious moments that make up Life. She currently resides in her native country of West Texas and gardening, Paleo baking and being outdoors are what she calls fun. However, her greatest delight presently is her journey as foster-to-adopt mama to precious 18 month old James, who has also become her number one teacher.

Julie Seibt
From her mountain home in Canmore, Alberta Canada, Julie serves as an iRest Supervisor and C-IAYT Yoga Therapist. She is a teaching faculty member of the Trauma Informed Yoga Psychology School.

iRest forms the loving foundation of her work with groups and private clients as well as her personal life. Julie offers retreats internationally and has enjoyed the privilege of co-facilitating iRest retreats with Anne Douglas, as well as staff managing and assisting at iRest teacher trainings.

Julie’s spiritual inquiry was heightened through practice at Vipassana retreats in Thailand, Burma and Hawaii. Since 2010, Julie has regularly contributed as a teaching assistant to Michele McDonald and Steven Smith of Vipassana Hawaii.

Julie offers a deep bow of gratitude to Anne Douglas, Richard Miller, Michele McDonald and Steven Smith for pointing her home to a sense of ease, well-being and joyful, loving presence.

Sheila Singh
Sheila Singh is a certified iRest® teacher and Supervisor, as well as a registered yoga instructor. In 2014, several years into her journey through yoga, Sheila discovered the practices and underlying philosophies of iRest® with Richard Miller. She has been inspired by and devoted to this path ever since. Sheila shares practice in Austin, TX, and is especially interested in how the teachings inform her participation in life both at home and in the community at large. In this regard, she has offered iRest® yoga Nidra at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and at SAFE, a domestic violence shelter in Austin, TX. She has had the privilege to assist several iRest® Level 1 and 2 trainings with Stephanie Lopez, and is equally dedicated to being a lifelong learner and teacher.

Sheila loves being outdoors in nature, hiking and traveling, and especially spending time with her two teenage girls who carry her heart and continue to be her greatest guides.

Karen Soltes, LCSW, RYT, C-IAYT 
Karen is an iRest® Certified Teacher and Senior Trainer. She holds Masters degrees in both Clinical Social Work and Counseling. And she has worked in a variety of therapeutic and educational settings over the past 35 years.

Karen taught iRest at the Washington DC VA Hospital as part of the Integrated Health and Wellness Program for 8 years. There, she observed iRest alleviating the symptoms of PTSD, Substance Abuse, Anxiety, Depression, and Chronic Pain. She is also a founding partner of Warriors at Ease, whose mission is to train yoga and meditation teachers to work in military communities.

She currently resides in Durango, Colorado where she hikes, bikes, and savors the outdoors. One of her passions is taking the practices of yoga and meditation to populations that typically do not have access, including: the military, the homeless, and kids/adults with developmental challenges. Her hero is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, who has the coolest pair of shoes around and discovers that what she was really seeking was there all along. 

Fuyuko Toyota
Fuyuko is an iRest® Certified Senior Trainer, Retreat Leader, and Supervisor / Mentor. She is also a senior registered teacher with Yoga Australia, and a member of the Association of Meditation Australia.

For the past 20 years she has been deeply committed to Awakening. She discovered iRest in 2006, and upon meeting Richard Miller in 2007, she recognised him as her true teacher. Her Dharma of living in Stillness has since become a reality. She currently serves as Director of IRI Australasia, with the aim of spreading iRest in the wider community of South East Asia, Japan, and New Zealand.

Fuyuko lives in the spirit of Pronoia: the contagious joy and delight from Loving all and serving all. She is Japanese, lives with her Canadian husband Brian, three French Bichon Frises, and a cat named Tim Tam on the sunny Gold Coast of Australia.

Astrid van Wesenbeeck
Astrid is an iRest Supervisor and became an iRest Certified Yoga Nidra Teacher in November 2019. She studied with Kirsten Guest, Stephanie Lopez, Richard Miller and James Reeves. Her deeper wish in life is to support people that have lost contact with their body and their true and unique self through trauma or other circumstances.

Besides the non-dual teachings of iRest, Astrid is inspired by the teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais and Thomas Hanna. In 2020 she will deepen her knowledge with a Somatic Exercise Coach training (with Lisa Petersen, IR).

Currently Astrid teaches 4 iRest Yoga Nidra group classes a week, all of them combined with body sensing and somatic yoga exercises. Astrid's classes are unique and personal, organized to enable safe self-inquiry.

Since the summer of 2019 Astrid left the city of Utrecht and moved with her partner to a tiny village in the middle of nature, just a couple of kilometers northern from the city of Utrecht. In her new home she has beautiful space to work one on one, including stunning surroundings for meditative walks through nature.

Astrid combines her heart work as yoga and meditation teacher with a dynamic job at the Dutch National Library in The Hague, where she is an advisor for Open Science. In the academic atmosphere at her work, Astrid organizes two iRest meditation sessions a week for her beloved colleagues.

Sam Voolstra
Sam is a certified iRest teacher and supervisor, and a yoga teacher, a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga facilitator and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

Sam's yoga and meditation journey started in Nepal. During the 12 years she lived in Nepal she was grateful to study with several yogic and Buddhist masters. She founded a yoga centre in Kathmandu and it grew into a beautiful community of Nepalese and international teachers and students with yoga classes and workshops in city studios and retreats in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.

After moving to Australia to be with her partner Michael, Sam was diagnosed with PTSD due to experiencing natural disaster in Nepal. To heal she extended her yoga practice with iRest meditation. Not only did her PTSD symptoms disappear over time, she also felt more whole and present than ever before. The desire to share what healed her with others fuels her iRest studies with Fuyuko Toyota, Richard Miller and Leigh Blashki.

Sam currently shares iRest Yoga Nidra and Trauma Sensitive Yoga at the Mental Health wards of Lismore Hospital, at a Drug and Alcohol Rehab Centre and at organisations that work with domestic violence, refugees and mental health. She also organises regular iRest courses, assists in iRest Teacher Trainings in Australia and works with trauma survivors in private practice.

Kathryn Willder
Kathryn is an iRest Certified Teacher and Supervisor and regularly assists at iRest teacher trainings and retreats. She trained with James Reeves, Richard Miller, Stephanie Lopez and Kirsten Guest. Kathryn is founder of Dynamic Rest Studio, offering iRest for individuals and groups from educational, clinical, corporate, and private settings in Bath, London and around the world on-line.

Kathryn has been a student and advocate of meditation for most of her life. She trained in zen meditation whilst attending university and after completing an MA in Psychology, she facilitated the initial provision of yoga and meditation classes in prisons throughout the UK with the Prison Phoenix Trust in Oxford, England.

Through many years as a Reception and Kindergarten Teacher, Kathryn has developed a playful approach to learning and aspires to infuse her teaching with aspects of stillness, imagination and a sense of adventure.

“I love practising and teaching iRest because it provides a systematic way of combining the cognitions of insight and awareness with feelings of joy and ease to achieve lasting wellbeing.”