Go Yoga Sonoma is an exercise in networking

There’s an abundance of yoga studios with a variety of offerings in Sonoma County, but according to Deacon Carpenter, owner of Santa Rosa’s YogaONE studio, many students in the community still flock to San Francisco or Marin for known master classes or workshops.

One reason for this, Carpenter explained, is that it is sometimes confusing and overwhelming for students to synthesize all of the information they need to find the right class in the area, especially when access to local yoga teachers and studios is not simple or coordinated.

“In a small community like ours, yoga teachers are a shared resource between several studios,” Carpenter said in an email.

But, he added, many studio owners aren’t sure how to collaborate or are concerned about taking business away from each other.

But Carpenter, along with his colleagues Lisa Murray from Yoga Community in Sonoma, Michaela Codding from Windsor Yoga Haus, Lisa Ellison from Soul Yoga in Santa Rosa and Jenn Russo and Katina Knapp from Yoga On Center in Healdsburg, are trying to change this. On Aug.27, they launched “Go Yoga Sonoma,” a “VIP” subscription program that allows members, who sign up through their “home” studios, access to multiple other “networked” studios.

For $49 per year (which will be waived for the month of September), students can take yoga, pilates and dance classes at any participating studios for a discounted drop-in rate and receive discounts on workshops, massage therapy, retail items, teacher training and Ayurvedic consultations and get one free class per month.

Carpenter hopes Go Yoga Sonoma will be a way for some of Sonoma County’s best yoga studios to collaborate and provide clear, simple access to everything they have to offer for everyone in the community.

“We believe that yoga is a highly beneficial practice for all people, no matter their size, shape, physical ability or socioeconomic background,” he said.

In addition to helping students find local yoga resources and information that is currently “disparate, confusing and not clearly communicated,” Go Yoga Sonoma provides a chance for yoga teachers to collaborate and reach a much larger and vetted substitute teacher pool.

Ultimately, Carpenter explained, it is a way for teachers and students alike to deepen their yoga practice while staying within Sonoma County.

For more information visit www.goyogasonoma.com or email info@goyogasonoma.com.