The Light Within Yoga Studio is a 200 hour Registered Yoga School through Yoga Alliance.

Interested in 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Program information?  Please request an application and curriculum details by contacting Alison at: Alison@thelightwithinyoga.com

Alison Donley discovered her love for yoga when, at the age of 16, she discovered B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga in the library of the small town of Waynesboro, PA. While she continued to practice yoga asana throughout the next 5 years of competitive gymnastics, 4 of the 5 years competing in NCAA Nationals, the real journey began when the competition ended, and the true practice of Yoga began. Alison has been practicing yoga for 34 years and teaching for over 26 years.   She started yoga programs for 2 large health clubs in the West Chester area, and opened The Light Within Yoga Studio in November of 2004 after she and her husband Dean, and two children, Rachel and Trevor, moved to Southern Chester County. Alison created 2, 3-credit electives (Yoga I and Yoga II) for West Chester University, where she has been teaching since 1998, and continues to teach full time. 
Alison has been through numerous teacher-training and certification programs through the years, including guidance and training from Tim Miller, Richard Freeman, David Swenson, Beryl Bender-Birch, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.  She is an
 E(xperienced)-R(egistered)Y(oga)T(eacher) 500 (hours).  Alison is the author of a text/workbook entitled Yoga: A Path to Wellness, that was published in August, 2010 by Kendall-Hunt Publishers. Alison believes that her strongest quality as a teacher is her passion for sharing yoga and her love for her students. The Light Within Yoga Studio was featured in the October 2005 issue of Yoga Journal magazine, as part of Omtown Heroes, an article about small town yoga studios. 

Alison is infinitely grateful for the love and support of family, friends, and students and for the ability to share this ancient (and AMAZING), system of self-care.

Katie Brodie has began practicing yoga when she was 14, and feel in love with the practice.  She began teaching at The Light Within Yoga Studio in May of 2007, and continued teaching throughout her undergraduate career as a student in the Fashion and Apparel Studies program at the University of Delaware.  Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of Delaware, studying French Literature.  Katie finished her 200 hour RYT at The Light Within Yoga Studio in August of 2011.  She continues to teach and spread her knowledge and love of the practice of yoga through a variety of classes, including Mixed-Level Ashtanga, Mixed-Level Vinyasa, Gentle-Evolving Level, and Gentle/Beginner.

Patricia was first drawn into yoga, as a way to exercise when the cold winter weather dissuaded her from riding her mountain bike. But, since her very first class at The Light Within when it opened in 2004, she has been drawn even deeper into yoga, as a way of experiencing so much more than the physical postures. Patty appreciates all that yoga has brought into her life both on and off of her favorite blue mat. At the studio, she has been involved with many of the marketing and promotional events. She has helped to develop and assist such programs as the Children's yoga classes, "Yoga Grooves" (a music inspired class) and "Barefoot in the Park" (a community event celebrating the summer solstice). In addition she has assisted Alison Donley, owner of the studio, with teaching classes at West Chester University. Patricia's informal yogic education includes reading, continued practice, and ongoing learning from her gifted teachers. Future goals include: incorporating more yoga into her special education classes (she is a certified Child Development Specialist); collaborating with friend and creativity coach, Paula Graham on a series of wellness workshops; and attending teacher training workshops.

Sarah Moran Martin received her 200-hour teacher training certification from The Spirit of Yoga in 2009. She practiced yoga sporadically since first discovering its wonders at Duke University. But it wasn't until serious knee injuries in the late 1990s that she eschewed the pounding of tennis, snow-skiing and running and returned to yoga for good. At The Spirit of Yoga in West Chester, she revitalized her practice under the wise tutelage of Alison Donley and Pam Walsh, Spirit's owner. Sarah has attended workshops at Kripalu and the Omega Institute, as well as taking numerous yoga classes and workshops locally and wherever she travels with husband Tom, a retired attorney and now a metal sculptor. She and Tom have three sons and live in West Chester. With a teaching style best described as eclectic, she is particularly interested in how pranayama supports and sustains yoga asanas, and how staying with the breath often brings serenity to her own life and can do so for her students. Various sports-related injuries help her to better understand students who approach yoga with trepidation, injury, soreness or stiffness, while she encourages students to work hard and find their "edge." Often, Sarah's classes incorporate bolsters, straps and other props to deepen asanas. Always, there is music! In addition to teaching at The Light Within, Sarah is developing stress-reduction breathing/yoga clinics for corporations and chair-based yoga practices for active seniors. A journalist for the past 40 years, Sarah is a contributing writer for West Chester's Daily Local News and has written for a variety of regional and national publications, including the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, The Detroit News, the Kiplinger Washington Letter and numerous trade publications.

Anne Marie has been practicing ashtanga yoga for the past 6 years at The Light
Within. She discovered her love of yoga at a 6 week program offered by Alison
Donley through Avon Grove Youth Association over 6 years ago and has been
hooked ever since. Anne Marie currently is a student in The Light Within Yoga YTT
program and is loving the journey of learning to instruct and bring the love of yoga
she experiences to others. Anne Marie lives in New London Township with her
husband Roger and two daughters, Nicole and Megan and is a long term employee of Genesis HealthCare in Kennett Square.

Karen began practicing yoga 7 years ago when Alison first opened her studio.  She fell in love with the practice immediately, and has been a regular student at TLW ever since.  Yoga has had a tremendous impact on Karen, not only increasing her strength and flexibility, but it has helped her find a way to feel peaceful and calm.  Yoga has brought a balance and purpose to her life.  Wanting to share her love of yoga with others,  Karen completed her Yoga Teacher Training at The Light Within this past June, and is excited to be teaching her Thursday evening MLV class at the studio.

Karen is a Bi-lingual Paraprofessional at Glasgow High School.  She lives in New London with her husband Dave, and has two grown children: Kristin and Stephen.

Margaret recently completed the Yoga Teacher Training program with Alison Donley at The Light Within. This has served to deepen her understanding of the philosophy and practice of Ashtanga yoga. She loves the joy and peace yoga brings to her life. Margaret began practicing yoga in the Triyoga system approximately 23 years ago while living in California. She attended Triyoga teacher trainings and is certified to teach Triyoga Basics and Level 1. When Margaret moved to Pennsylvania in 1994, she founded the yoga program at the Jennersville YMCA and taught there for eight years. In 2001, Margaret became certified as a school counselor and has worked for the Avon Grove School District for the past 11 years. She is so happy to have discovered The Light Within as her new yoga home. She is enjoying learning the Ashtanga yoga system and sharing yoga again.

Kristin Moore fell in love with Yoga ten years ago while working on an organic farm. Yoga kept her strong, limber and free from injuries. She also started to feel a profound sense of peace and calm as her practice continued, and realized Yoga was a key component to her overall wellness. Today, mother of two, she finds even more gifts in the practice of Yoga. During her second pregnancy, she practiced up to the ninth month and experienced an amazing pregnancy and birth that she largely attributes to yoga. As a birth doula, she has also seen the effects that a yoga practice can have on other laboring mothers. Kristin has just completed her Yoga teacher training with Alison Donley from The Light Within in West Grove, and looks forward to sharing her practice with the community.

Shannon has been practicing at the Light Within for the last two years and has recently completed the teacher training program at the studio.  She is enthusiastic about sharing her passion for yoga as an instructor!
Shannon believes that yoga is for everyone and students can benefit both physically and spiritually from consistent practice.  An educator by background, Shannon also works for the Avon Grove School District.

Candace’s love for yoga began over 25 years ago.  She began by learning how powerful yoga was as a fitness practice, but soon discovered it to be an enriching and nourishing way of life for mind, body and spirit.  Yoga created the structure that Candace believes to be what held life together at those times when all else seemed to be falling apart.  According to her, “Yoga is the joy, the power,  and the peace that sustains my life”.

Candace is a KRI certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher (as taught by Yogi Bhajan) and a member of IKYTA.  She earned her certification in 2009 at the Khalsa Healing Arts and Yoga Center in Yardley, PA with Mahan Rishi Singh Khalsa and Nirbhe Kaur Khalsa- venerated teachers who were long time students of Yogi Bhajan. 

Candace is a mother of four grown children and she is also a professional New Thought/ Religious Science Practitioner offering spiritual and life coaching. Some other life passions include organic gardening and farming, landscape design, photography and dance/movement. She also offers chakra clearing and Radical Forgiveness classes. Candace is working toward her Level ll, 500 hour Yoga Training. She is very grateful to Alison Donley for the opportunity to share Kundalini Yoga at the Light Within Yoga Studio.

Kasi Crossan has been a Zumba instructor since November 2009. Her students describe her class as "a little bit of everything".   From Belly dancing to salsa to hip hop, Kasi is always adding new songs and routines that explore the different dances around the world.  As a recent graduate from West Chester University, Kasi hopes to enter the field of education. She currently holds her degree in English education.

Professor Mitch Goldfarb is a Kinesiology Department faculty member at West Chester University, and teaches Tai Chi throughout Chester County. Mitch is fascinated by the phrase "Do Less - Achieve More", one of the backbones of T'ai Chi's Taoist philosophy. He has investigated the benefits of practicing an exercise that elevates laziness to an art form.

Along with writing and music, teaching T'ai Chi is one of Professor Goldfarb's great passions in life. The Taoist philosophy and background of this discipline has helped to focus his creativity both in and out of the studio. Goldfarb has written and narrated a guided instructional CD for the Short Yang Form and is currently at work on a non-fiction T'ai Chi text. His articles on T'ai Chi and meditation can be found in Yoga Living and PhillyFIT magazines. He is actively involved in writing and producing various healing and meditation recordings, including five CD's for Dr. Deepak Chopra. Goldfarb's latest CD "Native Path" for T'ai Chi, Yoga and meditation is available on iTunes.

Mitch is a member of the World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day Organization. In addition to T'ai Chi, Mitch is certified as a Reiki Master in the Usui System of Natural Healing. For More Info Contact Mitch at mitch@mitchgoldfarb.com or 610-873-1923