About Us
Yoga & Healthy Living as a Way of Life
Suzanne Pinto, Founder
What brought Suzanne to yoga?
After obtaining her Masters in Counseling and Human Development from Montclair State University, she began providing individual, group, grief and family therapy through Home-Based Counseling Programs, Outpatient therapy, Group Homes for Adolescents and Case Management services. To this day, Suzanne wholeheartedly believes in connecting with her clients in a place and space that works best for them to provide the best support in building them up and helping them with mental, physical and/or spiritual challenges.
As part of her professional development, Suzanne was required to enroll in self-care programming and chose yoga and meditation. Having been a student of yoga, meditation, pranic healing and primordial sound meditation for over 20 years, she has found lasting peace and joy throughout her life. Traveling this path
inspired her to live more mindfully in the present moment.
Suzanne's work in the social services arena for years, along with various other life events, were the driving force behind her desire to start Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow.
How was Suzanne inspired to call the studio Root~To~Rise Yoga Flow?
Coupled with her life-long love of all things nature, she wanted to create a nurturing, tranquil, nature inspired space where fellow yogis can awaken their bodies, quiet their minds and enliven their spirits. To represent this philosophy, Suzanne chose the “Celtic Tree of Life” as an all-encompassing expression of her vision for Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow. The branches and the roots spread out into the earth below symbolizing our unity with the earth and the universe. In addition to that, she wanted to honor her parents, her Irish heritage, and her “love of all things nature.
What changes can we expect at Root To Rise Yoga Flow?
The goal of Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow is to provide a nurturing, active community focused on a holistic approach to wellness using a consistent yoga practice, meditation and other wellness programs for clients of all levels, ages and interests. The studio and its team are dedicated to helping students develop healthy living as a "Way of Life" by joining them wherever they are in their life journey. For the future, we will be offering new classes, numerous workshops, series and retreats based on our clients needs and requests, so all suggestions are welcome!
Suzanne worked in the social services arena for many years, that along with various other events and life factors, were the driving force behind her desire to start Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow.
You can read more about our classes here or book a class. Feel free to reach out to Suzanne anytime, she would love to speak with you!
Suzanne Pinto
Owner, RYT-200
Lisa Bruno
RYT-200
Lisa completed her 200 hour training in 2013 and 100 hour prenatal yoga training in January of 2015. She loves teaching vinyasa flow, prenatal and postnatal yoga. Her classes offer a continuous meditative flow encouraging an unraveling of the busy mind. Amidst fluid sequences, there will be some pause for both strengthening and stretching. She finds the linking of movement and breath can create a path inward to a place of listening and observation void of judgment or reaction.While this inward focus can benefit anyone, she recognizes and shares the profound support this offers during pregnancy, labor and delivery. The waves of labor can be unpredictable, intense, and challenging, but to find the calm on the inside, to connect with one’s own breath, self and source, is a laboring mom's greatest tool.
Mary Connolly
RYT-200
What began as a new workout quickly turned into a soul inspired passion for Mary. She began her yoga practice in 2005. Being devoted to group fitness and spin classes, Mary was looking for a new form of exercise to cross train. Excited and inspired to learn more, she completed her 200-hour vinyasa flow teacher training from Hot Yoga Revolution under the instruction of Danielle Mojo and Toni Reino.
Her years in the advertising industry were about channeling energy to flow outward…filling our screens with messages. Now she seeks to share an internal energy to help you find your joyful potential through your own breath and body movement. Mary’s goal is to help her students find a life of balance and happiness through their yoga practice.
Meet the Teachers
Lisa Ferraro
ERYT200-RYT 500
Lisa is an ecstatic devotional singer, harmonium playing musician and a mantra-chanting yogini who loves to awaken others to their inner radiance. She completed a 200-hour certification at Laughing Lotus NY and her 300-hour certification with The Kaivalya Yoga Method. She has been studying Sanskrit, mantra and nada yoga with her mentor, Russill Paul privately and in his Yogic Mystery School for 13 years. Lisa, who also performs as an actress and singer, holds a BA in Music from Westminster Choir College and chants with her band, Sonic Bliss Kirtan. She recently started Sonic Bliss Yoga School™ online, teaching the power of mantra and movement. She is the co-creator of Sutra Seeds 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training. Learn more about Lisa at www.sonicblissyoga.com as well as at www.sutraseeds.com for teacher training info!
I empower yoga teachers and practitioners to embrace the roots of yoga through Sanskrit, mantra & movement!
Sarah Hannah
RYT-200
Yoga has been a part of Sarah's life for over 10 years, and her practice has helped her grow stronger, more flexible and fearless, both physically and mentally on and off the mat. In the summer of 2018, she completed her RYT-200 with The Yoga and Healing Center. Additionally, she completed workshops and seminars with Lucas Rockwood and Rocky Heron, took Deepak Chopra's Primordial Sound Meditation training and Master Choa Kuk Sui's Pranic Healing seminar with Donna Vasco. In 2020-21, she jumped into more education with an intensive prerequisite training (for the RYT-300 program) at Dig Yoga. In her classes, Sarah loves to combine creative sequencing, a spirit of playfulness and a dose of inspiration to help you deepen your practice, providing variations throughout to help students at every level.
Michele Gorka
RYT-200
Michele began her journey with the practice of Yoga in 2017. It became a healing practice for her which led to becoming a certified 200-hour RYT Yoga for Everyone teacher. She studied at the American Yoga Academy and is excited to share all that she has learned. Michele was in a Human Resources career for over 20 years, mainly working with employee wellness and benefits. She feels that the practice of yoga and meditation is invaluable to overall well-being. Her practice focuses on Restorative, gentle flow, beginner and Yin. She is so excited to begin this new chapter bringing balance, peace and grace to her students and her community.
Michele will be teaching adult classes in and representing Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow in collaboration with Scotch Plains Recreation.
Interested in teaching at the studio?
The goal of Root~to~Rise Yoga Flow is to provide a nurturing, active community focused on a holistic approach to wellness using a consistent yoga practice, meditation and other wellness programs for clients of all levels, ages and interests. The studio and its team are dedicated to helping students develop healthy living as a "Way of Life" by joining them wherever they are in their life journey.
If you would like to join our team, help others grow in their practice and be a part of our amazing community, please contact Suzanne by clicking here or call our number anytime.
Adrianne Rowe
ERYT-500
Adrianne has been teaching yoga since April 2000 individually and in groups in various locations and remotely. Her first yoga experience began when she was 14 years old and in the fall of 1999, Adrianne joined her first Yoga Teacher Training at Soma Yoga Center of Highland Park, NJ, directed by Bobbie Ellis and Stephanie Pappas. She studied with numerous other Master Level Yoga teachers such as Erich Schiffman, Donna Farhi, Rod Stryker, and more recently with Jillian Pransky.
Adrianne is certified in Soma Yoga 700-hour, Yoga Nidra, Radiant Child Yoga Level 2, Heart and Soul Work for Children, and Karma Kids Yoga, a Licensed Spiritual Healer (LSH), Certified Angel Energy Healer, and Reiki Master who blends her teaching with various themes to create a holistic mind-body connection through combining breath with movement and meditation.
Mary Roth
RYT-200, E-RYT 500
Mary has found that yoga and a healthy lifestyle have given her positive energy and balance, even in hectic times. Mary has been a Registered Yoga Teacher since 2006 and a Registered Dietitian
since 1993. There is a yoga path for every age and every fitness level and Mary enjoys encouraging others to tap into their own energy for optimal health. Mary trained in Soul Sweat Asana with Wendy Gross-Pinto and is a certified Relax
and Renew Trainer in Restorative Yoga through Judith Lasater. She is certified to teach kids yoga through Next Generation with Jodi Komitor. She currently teaches many styles of yoga including vinyasa flow, basic, gentle, chair, restorative and kids yoga.
Mary emphasizes the importance of taking time to unplug from our busy lives to slow down, breathe deeply, and move mindfully.
Michelle Weintraub
RYT-200
Michelle began teaching Yoga in 2012 after completing her certification in Anusara Inspired Hatha Yoga with Tarra Madore at the Inner Light Yoga Center in North Brunswick, NJ. Her classes span from Basic Alignment to Vinyasa and always include the roots, foundations and history of the practice as well as a good dose of Ayurveda - the healthcare arm of India.
Her personal practice began in 1996 when she first heard the voice of one of her gurus - Krishna Das. Regardless of the style or pace of the class she is teaching, the message is always the same, "work with the body you have today and as long as what you are doing is not hurting you, then you are doing it right".
Chris Zappola
RYT-200
Christopher Zappola started his yoga journey in 2018 by attending small group classes all around New Jersey. Ever since then he realized that yoga had helped him overcome many emotional, physical, and spiritual obstacles, especially during the pandemic in where his practice deepened even more. In May of 2021 he became 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Certified through the Sutra Seeds training program ran by Lisa Ferraro and Michelle Weintraub. After his yoga teacher training, he also became Reiki Master Certified and is trained in both Chakra healing techniques and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). He specializes in energy work through asana, chanting, EFT, and reiki healing. Chris is passionate about sharing his love of yoga and wants his students to walk out of his classes with tools or techniques that they can use in their own self-healing journey.
