Our Instructors
Rachel James
Rachel has always had a passion for health, for herself and for others. In the summer of 2006, she attended her first hot yoga class. In all of the years she was an athlete, this was the most challenging workout and was addicted after her first class. She incorporated one to two classes a week and within six months, she had lost 25 pounds. She was in the best shape of her life.
At that time, Rachel noticed that the Seattle area had very few hot yoga studios and thought that one was needed in the north end. She has always wanted to own her own business. With her business degree from Washington State University and growing up in a business-oriented family, she wanted to live her dream. In April 2008, Rachel opened Hot Yoga of Mill Creek. God has really given her the best gift, the gift to help others.
Rachel fulfilled another dream of hers, to be a mother. With years of disappointment, she now has two daughters. Life is even more beautiful for Rachel now!
Kristen Morton
Along with teaching at the studio since 2013, Kristen is our studio manager, and director of our 60 Hour Hatha Teacher Training. She received her RYT® 500 through Hot Yoga of Mill Creek.
Having been involved in gymnastics and dance in her youth, she felt an immediate draw to the mind body connection. Her practice became a near-daily part of her life, as it allowed her to feel deeply connected to and trusting of her body during hard times. After a couple years of a committed practice and seeing how it transformed her life, she became a certified instructor to share the gifts of yoga with others.
You can expect to be challenged (with postures such as inversions and arm balances), but Kristen’s kind and gentle manner is well suited in leading students of all levels and encourages her students to prioritize paying attention to how they are feeling, physically and mentally, in the moment, and adjusting the practice to meet them where they are and the importance of honoring their boundaries each and every day.
Stacy Seresun
Stacy is a light hearted human that passionately believes in the benefits of yoga and wants to share it. She enjoys eating chocolate, watching Harry Potter movies and roller coaster Youtube videos.
Yoga has helped her overcome many obstacles in her life. She suffered a car accident 20 years ago and needed an exercise that would heal and not harm her body further which led her to Yoga, which has been an integral part of her life. She spent many years practicing at home but yoga became life changing for her when she took her first studio class. Feeling the energy and connection flowing in one place first hand is where she truly understood and felt the mind-body connection. From this experience and continued practice she was inspired to become a yoga instructor. She is currently the director of the 200 hour Teacher Training. She received her RYT® 500, RYT® 200 and Pretzel kids certification through Hot Yoga of Mill Creek.
She has 20 years of experience with a corporate high stress job which she left after having her 3rd child. She is also a homeschooling champion to her kids. Through her experiences, challenges and blessings of raising a neurodiverse child on the spectrum she has learned to lead with empathy and meet people where they are.
She loves to develop creative flows that will help deepen your practice. She enjoys sprinkling in her witty humor that allows you to laugh at yourself and have fun. She wants her yoga classes to help you find your inner peace, power and strength in a welcoming safe environment providing inspiration for self growth. Remember, it’s yoga practice not yoga perfect.
Lindsay Custer
Lindsay was drawn to the physicality of yoga when she took her first hatha class over thirty years ago. A former gymnast, she found yoga to be a natural fit. Since then, her practice has evolved and been shaped by pivotal life experiences, deepening her appreciation for the mental and spiritual benefits of yoga.
After being treated for cancer in 2017, Lindsay found her physical capabilities significantly limited, and her once active lifestyle came to a screeching halt, leading to anxiety and depression. She turned to yin yoga; the only physical practice accessible to her at the time. Its emphasis on breath work, meditation, and gentle, but deep movements helped her to slowly heal.
Lindsay's lifelong passion for social justice work has also shaped her yoga practice. She is involved with Yoga Behind Bars and believes in the power of yoga to help heal trauma as well as to promote peace, community, and social justice. Lindsay loves the outdoors and is an avid hiker, snowshoer, and sailor. You will frequently find her mini–Australian Shepherd by her side. She has been an educator for over thirty years and has a deep passion for learning and development. The limitless opportunity to grow, practice, and evolve is one of her favorite things about yoga!
Quill Fennessy
Quill moved to Olympia from Northern Indiana in her early twenties, where she studied music and psychology at The Evergreen State College. After college, she went on to attain certifications in teaching yoga and also practicing hypnotherapy, while continuing to follow her passion for music and performance. She moved to Seattle from Olympia to live and work as a performing musician, until the pandemic put a halt to live music and changed the course of her life again. She then moved to a horse farm in Snohomish and began to dive back into her first love - movement, and spent most of her time in quarantine learning aerial arts, horseback riding, yoga, and dance.
In her over twenty years of practicing yoga, she has found it to be a powerful tool for remaining in touch with her self, her creativity, and her overall ability to navigate life with passion, intention, and grace. She believes in the power of yoga to create a better life for herself and is very excited and honored to accompany others on their journeys to self empowerment through yoga.
Megan Disney
In 2010, I was invited to take a yoga class at Hot Yoga of Mill Creek by my friend Kristin, when I was at my peak of my fitness journey. I thought it would be another fun way to exercise. However, over the last year it’s become so much more. In September 2018, I went through my 200 hour teacher training at HYMC and it really opened my eyes to how much more yoga is than just poses. It’s a way of accepting me for me, accepting my body in whatever shape it is and appreciating what it does for me, challenging myself physically and mentally to go deeper into a pose/situation or just holding it there longer, breathing through intense situations, and for real- just very basic stretching my body in ways that feel good. Teaching at HYMC, where I was first introduced to yoga is pretty awesome. The students here are amazing, so supportive of me as I support them, guiding them through class. I started with Hatha and love it, but now I also love Yin and Power. It is so gratifying taking my students through flows that I came up with (or hijacked from Pinterest and made my own) and seeing their alignment and improvements and just the peace on their faces. I can’t even think of the right word besides joy. And as a mom of three, the stresses that come with that, the benefits of my own yoga practice are beyond counting.
Jason Southwick
Jason’s interest in yoga meditation and philosophy reach back to high school when he first read the Bhagavad Gita. He travelled to India in 1997 and has since been back
many times to visit family, explore ancient marvels and meditate.
Jason first joined a lunchtime yoga class offered at work and instantly enjoyed the balancing and rejuvenating effects of the practice. He has enjoyed a regular meditation practice at home since college and found the yoga asana practice to be
an excellent way to enjoy meditation even more by providing the strength and ease to be in stillness.
Jason’s daughter Shivani is a yoga instructor who completed her RYT ® 200 and 300 hour teacher training at Hot Yoga of Mill Creek. Shivani encouraged and supported
him in his interest to learn more about yoga and take the plunge into teacher training. Jason completed his RYT ® 200 through Hot Yoga of Mill Creek in 2023.
Josie Cox
Josie first started her yoga journey at Hot Yoga of Mill Creek and instantly fell in love. After a few years of practicing, she attended the 200-hour yoga teacher training here at HYMC! Shortly after she moved to Oahu with her husband. There, she taught yoga in a studio and on Waikiki beach! Josie was so happy for that experience but very grateful to be back home and at my home studio! If she is not in the studio, you can probably find her hiking on a sunny day or thrifting on a rainy one!
Yoga for her is a never-ending learning experience. Josie likes to challenge herself and her students to push themselves to try new things and have fun on the mat!
