Yoga Teacher Training Co-Leads
Christina Spencer
Christina has been a devoted Yoga practitioner since 2006, when she took a class in college that used different mindfulness and movement techniques to explore the layers of the self. Over her 20 years of Yoga education, Christina's practice has woven together threads from different Yoga traditions: she has explored a daily Vinyasa-style movement practice, chanted Japa (repetitive mantra) as part of the Bhakti tradition, practiced Buddhist & Daoist meditation techniques and more. Each thread offers insight into the self and when woven together create a tapestry exploring a question central to Christina's practice: How can we anchor attention inward to get to know ourselves better?
Since her initial 200-hr training, Christina has continued her studies in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Ayurveda for Women’s Health, Pranayama and Daoism. Her classes layer elements of Yogic and Daoist theory and are infused with her love of music and rhythm. Each of Christina's classes offer a little journey inward on the path of self-excavation and encourage students to cultivate curiosity about the experience of themselves they are having.
As part of PYC’s YST/YTT, Christina leads modules centering the Energetic body as well as teaching Exploratory Anatomy & Alignment through an Active Inquiry lens. Both Christina and Tizzy enjoy a good "why?", and infuse each learning experience with the geo- and socio-political context with which the many many ancient Yogic traditions, texts and practices arose, acknowledging the "muddy" (as teacher Mona Kaur describes it) history of this practice.
Christina grew up in a tiny town in central Maine and lived in Vermont, Paris and New York City before returning to Maine. She now lives in South Portland with her partner and 3 year old, where she finds great pleasure in being outside in the garden, cooking feasts and hanging out at the beach and in the neighborhood.
Tizzy Ernstoff
Tizzy first encountered yoga during a semester abroad in Mysore, India, in 2008. What began as a physical practice quickly became an inquiry into relationship; How do we engage with sensation, thought, breath, and ultimately ourselves? In 2012, she returned to India to complete her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, drawn to explore yoga not merely as movement but as an active inquiry practice into the nature of self-relationship.
After completing her Master’s in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Cape Town in 2014, Tizzy began teaching in a studio at the heart of the city. Her scientific background and love of embodied practice began to intertwine, shaping a teaching approach grounded in curiosity, relational awareness and reverence for the complexity of being human.
With over 500 hours of training, Tizzy centers her work on mindfulness-based movement as a practice of self-encounter and somatic inquiry. She approaches asana, pranayama and meditation as invitations to notice patterns of sensation, effort and thought; to witness the different parts of ourselves; and to cultivate the capacity to hold experience with openness rather than judgment. Her classes blend anatomically-informed alignment with relational and nervous-system awareness, creating space for students to observe how they organize around sensory input, gather information from their internal experience, and engage with themselves with curiosity and attuned presence.
Within the PYC YST/YTT, she teaches anatomy alongside yoga philosophy and history, approaching the material through an anti-colonial lens that acknowledges the complexity and murkiness of yoga’s past. She seeks to offer a historically grounded and truthful understanding of yoga’s diverse practices and lineages, exploring how Brahminical patriarchy, caste oppression, and other social hierarchies have shaped, and continue to influence, contemporary practice. All of this is taught in a way that keeps the learning process embodied, rooted in relational awareness, and open to somatic exploration. She and Christina are honored to guide students on a journey of self-inquiry, supporting them in noticing, experimenting with, & gathering insight from their own lived experience.
Tizzy lives in Portland with her partner and their 4.5-year-old. Outside the studio, she spends her time immersed in family life, exploring the Maine coastline, and savoring the simple, grounding rituals of home, food, and community.