Dr. Marci Mikesell, PhD (she/her), is a 500-hour certified Kundalini Yoga instructor who has been teaching weekly classes at Heart Space Yoga in Saint Johnsbury since 2019. After originally training as a research scientist and a decades-long career in the pharmaceutical industry, she turned to yoga and meditation to recover from burnout and build stress resiliency. She completed Kundalini yoga teacher training at the Guru Ram Das Ashram in Millis, Massachusetts in 2018. Since then she has continued discovering and sharing the life-transforming effects of breathwork, movement, mantra, and meditation for restoring a sense of peace, strength, and wholeness in the midst of a chaotic and challenging world. She also completed gong and sound healing training with Gong Master Don Conreaux in the summer of 2023, and incorporates the power of gong vibration into yoga classes as well as offering more extended gong bath experiences.

Laura Remick (she/her) is a native of the Northeast Kingdom who grew up on a family dairy farm. Her educational background is in nutrition and health education. Laura stumbled upon yoga as a way to help heal herself from sports-related injuries. In 2017, she completed her 200-hour Yoga Registered Teacher certification with Andrea at Heart Space Yoga. Yoga has provided Laura with tools to balance her physical and emotional wellbeing. She feels deeply honored to share what has helped her with others so that they too may find access to their best selves!Laura’s leisure activities include gardening and growing food, running with her dogs, yoga, biking, and spending time with her family.

Her classes are designed for all levels of yoga practitioners. The practice she offers will focus on proper body alignment as the framework to open and move tight fascial tissue in the body. Through breathing, music, and aligned movement, she invites students of all body types, ages, gender, and experience levels to flow through the practice she offers in a way that feels best for them.

Renee Blacken’s (she/her) yoga practice is one that embraces all aspects of her being, without judgment or expectation. It is a safe space where she can exist, breathe, and move, regardless of the external or internal challenges she faces. Her practice welcomes her wherever she may be on her journey, honoring both the highs and the lows. Through yoga, she has learned to simply witness her experiences, cultivating a deep sense of presence.

Driven by the desire to share this sense of acceptance and peace with others, Renee feels called to teach. Her goal is to create a space where students can cultivate their own unique relationship with yoga—one where they are supported, valued, and reminded that they are always whole.

Renee is a guest teacher and speaker at Heart Space, and currently works with DustOff Yoga, a trauma-informed Yoga Studio in Littleton, NH. Renee also supports the nonprofit Outdoor Adventuring for Good, and is planning a transatlantic row in 2026. Learn more about Renee Rows the Atlantic.

Orion (they/them) arrived at Heart Space through what could only be described as a twist of fate and realignment. With no prior experience on a yoga mat, they were immediately drawn to the studio’s heart, its mission, and the profound sense of belonging it offered.

At their core, Orion is a self-described ‘cozy cottagecore hobbit’, chasing what the kids call “main character energy,” and hoping to help others find their own path toward joy and fulfillment. Though not a teacher, Orion believes deeply in the studio and its community, volunteering to help when they are able. When not at Heart Space, you can find them writing, reading, or attempting to befriend their local murder of crows. A writer and a profound sap to boot, they believe that every story has the power to transform the world — and that kindness, in all its forms, is the most powerful story of all.