instructors
Founder and Teacher
p: 206-850-2407
e: colette@seattleholisticcenter.com
Colette Crawford, RN, BSN, IBCLC
I began yoga as a teenager in the late 1960’s with my mother and took my first classes with Maria Svoboda. I attended Richard Schactel’s first yoga teacher training and was certified in 1986, and then in 1992 through BKS Iyengar. My greatest teacher and the source of constant inspiration on this path is my Guru, Mata Amritandamayi, or Amma, as she is known. It is through Amma, I am learning the true essence of yoga and spiritual living.
I am an experienced registered nurse specializing in maternal/child health, labor and delivery, lactation and childbirth education. The inspiration for the prenatal yoga program came from my public health nursing days when I weaved in yoga poses with childbirth education for women who were hospitalized. During these years I worked with pregnant and parenting teens and was the president of the Snohomish County Teen Pregnancy Task Force.
I have assisted hundreds of women in labor and early postpartum care, including being an international board certified lactation consultant. Since 1989 I have taught prenatal yoga to thousands of women, their families and yoga teachers from all over the world.
Another one of my specialties is therapeutic yoga. In 1992 I created Heal Your Back as a result of my own healing journey using yoga after I had suffered a severe back injury in a car accident while eight months pregnant. At this time I experienced my first CranioSacral Therapy treatment which gave me great benefit. After years of referring out I received certificates from Upledger Institute to practice CranioSacral Therapy for all ages with a specialty in pregnancy and pediatrics.
My commitment is to helping you on your journey of health, healing and spiritual growth. I am dedicated to assisting women and their families to actualize their inner wisdom to birth and parent consciously. It has been a gift and privilege to parent my four children with my loving husband, Bruce. The path of family is my meditation.
Colette teaches on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She is also available for CranioSacral appointments for adults, pregnancy and infants/children as well as lactation consulting.
Iliana Minkov
My yoga journey started with a book* (‘The Book of Yoga’ by Lucy Lidell with Narayani and Ciris Rabinovitch) back in 1995. I was intrigued and upon opening the first page I simply couldn’t put it down. I was smitten by the discipline and since then yoga has been in my life in some form or another. My personal practice (which includes asana, meditation, and pranayama) has helped me grow stronger, more flexible and fearless, both on and off the mat. Yoga fills me up with grace, inner beauty and inspires me to live each moment more mindfully.
I am a firm believer that Yoga teachers are changing the world. They are helping humanity live an examined life and as such making the planet a better place!! I was yearning to partake in, thus during the pandemic I parted ways with the corporate world and completed my 200-hour YTT with Yoga Renew.
I teach group classes combining creative and invigorating sequencing, conscious breathing, good music and calming energy, as well as working one on one.
In my classes, I enjoy making yoga accessible to beginners, and I seek to help everyone thrive in life by nurturing body, mind and soul with yoga. You will step off the mat feeling refreshed, nourished, and balanced.
So give it a try! It may feel nearly impossible, but the benefits—more calm, more productivity, feeling better about yourself, enriched friendships, getting better sleep, being healthier—are so worth it.
Hannah Blomberg
I am a mother of four children, born over a span of twelve years, each with their own unique birth stories and their own unique personalities. Motherhood is the greatest joy of my life and I continue to learn how to be present in each moment, cherishing every stage from the trials to the triumphs, knowing that weathering the storms makes the sunshine so much sweeter.
Parenting is one of the hardest and most rewarding journeys in life and now, as an “older” mom, I delight in encouraging other parents and connecting them with resources and relationships that will allow them to be the parents they desire to be. I especially have a heart for parents of neurodiverse children as I continue to navigate that path myself. I believe that neurodiversities make us unique and that our struggles can also be superpowers.
In addition to spending my days as a mom and a volunteer for several community organizations, I also work as an independent Event Coordinator, a career that has evolved from years of work with local non-profits and cultural arts programs.
My husband, Phil, and I are blessed to have friends and family all over the world and we have had the opportunity to visit many of these countries as a family. It is our desire for our children to grow as global citizens by sharing experiences with people in a variety of cultures.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, my parents taught me to appreciate art, music, and nature. Dance has always been an expression for me and I continue to find ways to use it – whether choreographing a mom flash mob, volunteering for my kids’ musical theatre group or just having a dance party in the kitchen.
I am excited to combine my passions for motherhood, art, and culture, to work with parents and children as we exercise our bodies and minds with creative play, music, dance, and yoga. I’ve known Colette for nearly 20 years and her classes have helped me to form deeper connections with my children and grow in my confidence as a mother. I hope to offer that blessing to other parents and children as well.
Nisreen Azar
Diverse landscapes spanning the Middle East to the Pacific Northwest shaped my passion for weaving nature,creativity and well-being throughout everyday life. I hold a BA in Studio Art from Scripps College and a MLA in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona. My formal training in Studio Art and Landscape Architecture led me to work in the fields of landscape design and ecological restoration.
I re-discovered the benefits of yoga while pregnant with my daughter and after her birth in 2018. This inspired me to deepen my yoga practice and to complete my 85-hour prenatal yoga teacher training with Colette Crawford (Sri Janani Yoga) and then my 200-hour yoga teacher training with Richard Schachtel (The Center for Yoga of Seattle).
The art of motherhood is one of my greatest joys and inspirations. I am dedicated and honored to support women on their unique journeys into empowered birth and motherhood.
Aditi Grandy
I began my journey with yoga when I was pregnant, with Colette in 1997. From that moment, yoga became a golden thread that has weaved through my life. In 2012, I met my teacher, Anand Mehrotra, master yogi and founder of Sattva Yoga, awakening a desire to dive deep into the knowledge and practice of this expansive, ancient tradition.
In 2013, I traveled to India for my first teacher training. With Anand Ji’s guidance, I continue to experience yoga as a way of life that touches every part of me. Yoga is not a practice done once a day or once a week but a fully integrated way to live that is healing, nourishing, and enlivening. Yoga supports us through the most challenging dark moments, while pointing us toward bliss and joy.
In addition, since 1996, I have practiced as a nurse-midwife, caring for over a thousand mamas as they birthed their babies. It is a joy and honor to be present with women and their partners during the transformational time of pregnancy, birth and postpartum.
Prenatal yoga is the intersection of my two passions: Supporting women on their journey of becoming mothers and the transformative practices of yoga.
Currently I spend about 8 months in India and 4 months in Seattle. While in India, I am a part of the teaching team for 200/300 hr yoga teacher trainings at Sattva Yoga Academy. I am also the lead teacher for Sattva Prenatal Yoga 85 hr Teacher Training.
When here, I live in Bothell with my beloved partner, Paul, who is also a Sattva Yoga teacher. I have one daughter who is in her late 20’s and living in Seattle. I enjoy nature, gardening, flowers, hiking, chanting, dancing, tea with friends, and heart connected conversations.
In addition to offering classes at Sri Janani, I am available for Vedic Astrology readings and 1:1 mentoring.
Vedic Astrology, also called the Science of Light, is an ancient, evolutionary knowledge that provides a window of insight into our individual expression in this life and offers the steps we can take to grow and evolve. Vedic Astrology readings for babies and children gives insight on how we can best parent and support them as they grow.
Sessions can be in person or on Zoom. www.evolveandradiate.com