About Our Instructors

Roy Holman
Namaste.  I began teaching yoga and meditation in 2000, and I basically teach what has been helping me to grow, and heal old wounds. I have found yoga, meditation, retreats, reflexology, and hiking in nature to be very helpful in my own personal healing. I am passionate about teaching, witnessing as we awaken to our true passion, purpose and power.  My goal, in short, is to help us remember who we are.

I have lived abroad for over five years, including travels around Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia in 1986, and all around the globe in 1988, biking around Western Europe, then by train across the former Soviet Union, and through China. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1991 with a BA in Sociology-Psychology. I then joined fact-finding delegations to Central America, and lived in Guatemala for almost three years doing human rights work, refugee work, teaching, and researching the effects of US policy.

I discovered yoga and meditation in 1995, at a very challenging time in my life, when my life was a mess and I was beginning the inner journey.  Yoga helped me ground, center, and find myself.  I’ll never forget the feeling after my first yoga class – it was a revelation.

I also completed a two year Hands-on, Heart-centered Energy Healing course in Seattle in 1998, then completed a Meditation and Healing teacher’s training course in 2000, and was also ordained as a Minister. I was then certified as a reflexologist in 2005. I am a 500 hour Certified Yoga teacher, in the Viniyoga tradition. The style of yoga I teach is a grounded, breath-connected, flowing traditional hatha yoga - a meditation in motion really. I call it “Feel Good” Yoga, because I simply teach what feels best to me, my body, and my students. I include breathwork (pranayama) and meditation, and also try to incorporate the many aspects of healing I have learned into my classes. 

My spiritual belief system is simple: I try to see Spirit - Divinity in everyone and everything, from looking into my cat’s eyes, to walking in an old growth forest. One of my favorite joys in teaching is seeing the look in the students’ eyes at the end of class. This is what yoga is all about – integration of body, mind, and spirit.  Ultimately, we are all connected, and made up of the same sacred energy, and the sooner we remember this, the sooner we will create a more kind and peaceful world.   I presently live in Everett , Washington , with my cool cat Mo (my guru!).

Chris Borys   (Chris often teaches with Roy, and will do so in Mexico in 2010)


Chris often teaches with Roy at their retreats in the Pacific Northwest as well as abroad.  She is delighted to share her love of yoga with you. Chris has studied and practiced Yoga since 1972 and earned her Hatha Yoga Teacher Certification in 1998. Her classes include techniques from a variety of Yoga disciplines and is suitable for all levels with an emphasis on working at your own capacity with compassion and loving kindness. Take this opportunity to deepen and expand your personal practice or explore Yoga for the first time in a supportive and inspiring environment.

Linda Lapping   (Linda taught with Roy in Yelapa in 2008)

Linda Lapping, owner and director of Heartbeat Yoga in Kent, practices and teaches in the Viniyoga tradition. Her main objective is to reach out and teach others about the amazing transformation yoga has on the mind, body and spirit. Being exposed to yoga at a very young age, Linda has witnessed first hand the positive effects a daily yoga practice can make. She is certified and registered with Yoga Alliance.

Deirdre Wilcox   (Deirdre taught with Roy in Yelapa, Mexico, 2009)

Deirdre is a Certified Yoga Teacher who brings to her teaching 18 years of experience in private practice as a body therapist and movement educator. Her focus is on bringing conscious awareness to habituated patterns in all their expressions: psycho-emotional, deeply held beliefs and expectations, neuromuscular movement.  Her classes focus on helping students make conscious choices in a supportive environment, with an emphasis on honoring your own current capacity with compassion and kindness. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience yoga for the first time or to deepen and expand your own practice in a warm and inspiring environment.

Rene De Los Santos  (Rene taught with Roy in Guatemala 2007)

Rene is the Health & Fitness Director for the Mukilteo Family Branch YMCA of Snohomish County. He is a Certified Yoga Instructor in the Viniyoga tradition with over 10 years experience leading movement and conditioning classes. He encourage students to work at their own pace and find joy in everything they do.

Shannon Middleton    (Shannon will be teaching with Roy at Skalitude in Octoberof 2010 )


Shannon fell in love with yoga in 1998. She discovered how its calming effects helped her stay balanced through the stresses of college life. Once out in the "real world" yoga continued to help her stay grounded, and ultimately led her away from journalism to teaching yoga. In 2002, she attended a teacher training at the Seattle Center for Yoga and began teaching at the Mukilteo YMCA. Since then, she has completed another teacher training at the Yoga Centers and started her own business called "Tranquil Turtle Yoga." Now, she teaches about 14 classes a week in a variety of different settings. Although she is trained in the Iyengar method, which focuses on correct alignment, Shannon believes in adapting yoga to the needs of the individual. Her classes incorporate relaxation and restorative poses, as well as poses that challenge her students. She likes to remind students that yoga is a journey not a destination.

Linda Wick   (Linda taught with Roy in Costa Rica in 2008)

Linda began her Yoga and meditation studies with intention in 1998 and became a certified Naga Yoga teacher in 2005 and is also a registered teacher with Yoga Alliance. She takes great joy in continued learning, study and teaching of all the limbs of yoga. Linda’s vinyasa flow classes, appropriate for all levels, blends breath, alignment, conscious movement and meditation to unite the whole being - as she believes there truly is no separateness. In 2004 she spent 4 weeks in India immersed in Indian culture, meditation and yoga. Linda enjoys assisting students in developing their own home yoga and meditation practice and is intrigued with the use of yoga as therapy and a healing modality.

Lindsey Swope (owner of Skalitude Retreat Center, teaches with Roy 2009)

Linda began her study of yoga in  1986 and has been teaching since 1997.  Along the way she has explored many pathways of mind-body-spirit connection, and she enjoys sharing  the richness of this journey with others.