Soul Source Center for Conscious Living brings together a group of highly talented and skilled, instructors, practitioners and staff who work collaboratively to bring our community the best in conscious, holistic services and education.  We are run by a group of 5 dedicated women who's bio's you can read below (the first 5). The bio's of our wonderful teachers follow (keep scrolling down using the scroll bar on the right note: the scroll bar is faster than the arrows above and below it). Please contact us if you have questions! We are here to help!

Clair Oaks RYT 500, CSYT 

Founder of Soul Source Yoga

Musician, Musical Meditation,

Senior Svaroopa Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist

Clair is a musician and kirtan/chanting (musical meditation) leader, offering sacred music/chanting practice/concerts on an ongoing basis at Soul Source and other venues locally and beyond, such at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, in the Berkshire Mountains, Rehoboth Beach, Washington DC, Boston, Connecticut, and more.  In addition, Clair regularly tours as a part of Wah's band (well known chantress) up and down the east coast and most recently in Costa Rica!

Clair and her band are also available for leading kirtan at other yoga studios or for other groups. To arrange a kirtan for your group/students, contact us by clicking here.

Clair's CD's of Sanskrit Mantra are used in yoga classes and body work around the globe - use the links below to hear why.

Listen to CD's & Purchase Clair's chant cds/music.

Listen to Clair's live kirtan/music.

          What do those letters and numbers after Clair's name mean?

RYT = Registered Yoga Teacher through the Yoga Alliance, a national Yoga Teachers' Registry established to recognize and promote teachers with training that meets the designated standards at two levels of training, 200 hour and 500 hour levels. And CSYT = Certified Svaroopa Yoga Teacher. She is also an Embodyment Therapist, a bodywork that uses the same principles as Svaroopa Yoga.  

Clair first became interested in yoga in 1975. Since that time, she has practiced various styles of yoga and meditation.   Her yoga career began in 1995 after receiving her first yoga therapy certification.

Clair met Rama Berch (creator of Svaroopa® Yoga) in July of 1995. Since that time she has trained extensively with Rama and was for years, a part of the Master Yoga Teaching Institute faculty, which trains Svaroopa Yoga teachers. She also serves on the Board of Directors. She is trained in Svaroopa Yoga Therapy and Embodyment Therapy (body work associated with Svaroopa Yoga) and has been teaching yoga classes since 1997. In addition to regular yoga classes, she has completed her training to teach a variety of specialty classes. These include Pre-natal yoga, Yoga for your Back, Gentle Yoga, Meditation and other workshops on various aspects of Svaroopa Yoga.  Clair has had over 500 contact hours of Svaroopa Yoga teacher training and over 900 hours of advanced Svaroopa yoga teacher training and is currently among a small group to be recognized as senior teachers of Svaroopa Yoga.

Clair's dream of having a studio space dedicated to yoga, healing and transformation was realized February 1, 2005 when the doors of Soul Source Yoga opened at 631 Fairview Road, Swarthmore!
Clair's passion and respect for yoga continue to fuel her study and inform her classes and private sessions which she conducts at Soul Source.

Contact Clair at 610-690-3620 or clair@soulsourceyoga.com

Nicki Neff, CSYT, RYT 500

Nicki Neff initially began her exploration of yoga 20 years ago, because of pain and poor posture due to spinal scoliosis.  In yoga, she found not only a way to manage muscular pain, but also a positive practice for optimal living. “Throughout a full -time scientific career, yoga kept me physically fit, decreased stress, and is a practice that helps me understand and then improve flexibility and strength changes associated with aging and sedentary jobs.”  Having formerly practiced several styles of yoga, Nicki began Svaroopa classes with Clair Oaks and Cate McCarthy.  She is enthusiastic about the quality of SVAROOPA classes, the attention given to individuals, and the comfort and relative ease with which the benefits of SVAROOPA are experienced.  Recently retired from a first career as a cell biologist in the pharmaceutical industry, Nicki is a certified SVAROOPA Yoga Teacher and Embodyment Therapist. She is a wife, mother of two grown sons and an avid gardener and reader. 

Contact Nicki at nicki@soulsourceyoga.com

Suchitra Davenport: Counselor/Healer/Teacher/Celebrant/Creator

Suchitra Davenport offers vision, the art of manifestation and much group leadership experience to Soul Source, Center for Conscious Living.  She is a well-respected soul-based counselor and healer in the Swarthmore area and has recently returned here after five years of adventurous work in New Zealand to help ground this next phase of Soul Source. She is one of 5 women who are currently facilitating the Center.  Suchitra sees private clients of all ages through SPIRALS, her Counseling/Healing practice, acts as Program Director and Communication Liason for Soul Source and teaches meditation classes and an ongoing variety of workshops at the Center.  She is a Registered Flower Essence Practitioner with the Flower Essence Society of North America. She also leads Full Moon Meditations and is a Celebrant who facilitates sacred ceremony, such as Equinox/Solstice ceremonies, blessingways, weddings, etc.  Art and creativity are another interest; she taught art at The School in Rose Valley for many years and at StoneFire in New Zealand, The School Down Under, a school she helped to create (see www.schooldownunder.com).  She has extensive experience working with children and adolescents and is the mother of a daughter who is a sustainable agriculturalist, fiber artist and musician living in New Zealand.  Suchitra’s passion and purpose is to support others to higher consciousness and freedom and to find joy through service, thus seeding a more sustainable, peaceful and compassionate Life for all on the planet.

To email her suchitradavenport@gmail.com. 

Click here for more info about her work.

Susan Graves, Soul Source Massage Therapy

Liscenced Massage Therapist

Susan B. Graves, LMT, proprietor of Soul Source Massage Therapy, a native of Glen Mills, PA, relocated to the Swarthmore area and is excited to have her practice at Soul Source. Susan holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University and spent six years performing all over the country while calling New York City her home. Before leaving New York, she completed a year-and-a-half (1200 hour) degree program at the Swedish Institute of Massage Therapy, the oldest massage school in the country.

Since completing the bulk of her training, Susan has made Massage Therapy her career, practicing full-time in Maine, Montréal, and now here in PA. In her work, she gracefully combines her extensive knowledge of massage technique and human anatomy with an innate sensitivity to each client’s individual needs.

Because of her background in theatre, dance and music, Susan is dedicated to helping artists through massage and has worked on members of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Portland Ballet, Les Ballet Jazz de Montréal, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, as well as many aspiring musicians, opera singers and actors.

Susan holds a Massage Therapy license in New York State (there is no PA licensing at this time), she is Nationally Certified and a member of the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. She also received training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the Lotus Palm School in Montréal, Québec.

Contact Susan for appointments and information at 610-203-6329

Also see Susan's website.

Kevin J. Barr M.Ac., L.Ac. Accupuncturist, Healer, Artist

Kevin J. Barr is owner of Healing Axis and has a Masters degree in acupuncture from The Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He is nationally certified and has been doing acupuncture for over eight years.

After graduation, Kevin worked for 11/2 yrs. in a clinic working with people who had pain and disability. As an acupuncture intern, Kevin worked in a homeless youth clinic, a progressive nursing center, a community clinic, a minimum-security prison, a pediatric clinic and a Japanese-style acupuncture clinic.

Previously, Kevin worked as a creative director for a digital imaging company. He has a Masters degree in Painting, has exhibited nationally and internationally and still endeavors in creative pursuits.

Healing Axis offers a personalized, caring and empowering form of healthcare. Your treatment is a cooperation between you and your practitioner. Your condition and concerns are highly respected and taken into account when a treatment plan is made. Since most illness and disease can be attributed to stress, if you wish, we can address this underlying cause to get at the root of your condition.

Healing Axis encourages preventive healthcare with a wellness program that can include acupuncture, bodywork therapies (acupressure, massage, cupping, guasha), dietary, supplement and lifestyle suggestions, sound therapy (using tuning forks and metallic bowls), cranial sacral therapy and light therapy. For needle sensitive patients, Japanese style acupuncture is available which uses a more gentle approach.

Whatever the approach, the goal is to rebalance you energetically so that your body’s ability to heal itself is maximized.

Kevin currently practices at Soul Source Center for Conscious Living in Swarthmore, PA. and welcomes inquiries about his work. He can be reached at 484-494-3172. For more information see his website at healingaxis.net.

Robert Potter, Film Maker

Organizer, Robert Potter, is a proponent of awakening consciousness, with many years of experience in a variety of philosophical, spiritual and esoteric schools, as well as a life-long passion for watching and making films. His chosen vocation is the empowering of groups and communities to identify and tap into their own resources, to envision clearly what they desire and then to manifest that. He has performed his work through a 25-year career in community organization in the National Park Service, and an equally long practice of documentary film-making and videography in his company, Media Media.

One of Potter’s current film projects centers on his own group of former Peace Corps volunteers (from 40 years ago) in the West African republic of Niger. He is also a writer, poet and carpenter. His latest book, "Soul: In the Boat of Myself ", is in process toward publication. He loves working with groups and highly values human relationships, maintaining contacts with colleagues, friends and kindred spirits around the world.

Contact Robert

OTHER YOGA INSTRUCTORS at SOUL SOURCE

Leslie Beckett RYT 500, CSYT
Beginning Continuing level Svaroopa Yoga

Leslie began studying yoga in 1983. From the beginning she intended to teach, but it was not until participating in a workshop with Rama Berch in 2002 that she knew what type of certification to pursue....

"I have studied so many types of yoga, and have gained some benefits from all of them.
Once I discovered Svaroopa Yoga, though, nothing else could compare. What I love about Svaroopa is how reliably I experience both the physical and mental changes for which I practice yoga. Similarly, I found the teacher training program deeply and thoroughly prepared me to share my passion for Svaroopa with my own students."

Leslie is a fully certified Svaroopa Yoga Teacher and is registered w/ Yoga Alliance at the 500 hour level. She is also an Embodyment Therapist.  She teaches at her home studio in Elkton, Maryland as well as at Soul Source.

Contact her at leslie@soulsourceyoga.com

Lisa Holmes—Beginning/Continuing Svaroopa Style yoga

Lisa became interested in yoga while studying at Temple University in 1986, has practiced a variety of styles of Hatha Yoga and enjoys the many benefits of daily yoga practice.  Lisa was introduced to Svaroopa yoga several years ago at the Rehoboth Beach Svaroopa yoga center, and recognized almost immediately the physical and emotional benefits of this style of yoga. “The benefits of the Svaroopa style of yoga have had a profound impact on my health and well being.  Practicing Svaroopa yoga has provided tremendous improvement in back, neck and knee pain.  It is awesome to have the power to heal oneself!”   Lisa has completed the second level of the Svaroopa Yoga Teacher Training program and appreciates teaching at Soul Source Yoga! In addition to being a yoga instructor, Lisa is a wife to her husband Mike and a successful marketing manager who enjoys the beach. In addition to her teaching, Lisa is also an Embodyment Therapist. Contact her at lisa@soulsourceyoga.com

Vicky Fanning - Beginning Svaroopa Style yoga -

Vicky started taking Svaroopa yoga classes 3yrs ago at Soul Source, shortly after their doors had opened - "My personal life was very unsettled at the time and the only thing I could think was “there has to be another way.”   There were many challenging decisions to make.  Stress was at its peak and I was feeling it physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Svaroopa yoga had been suggested to me by a counselor.  As I followed through with weekly yoga classes I began to notice subtle changes taking place.   My physical and emotional body were responding.  I was more relaxed, my shoulder and neck discomfort went away, I was more flexible and most amazing was I was able to “quiet” my mind.  There was peace in my world.  There was peace within me. 

The benefits of Svaroopa yoga have proven to be very powerful to me.   There really is something to be said about “softening” the body and “quieting” the mind.   There is such a thing as “total bliss”.  There is a deeper sense of awareness that awakens from within.

I am a registered nurse and have been practicing for 30yrs.  I have practiced only traditional medicine; however, I have chosen to extend my healing modality by practicing an alternative style to health and healing which is Svaroopa Yoga.  I recently graduated from Yoga’s Foundations Class and have been teaching beginner classes at Soul Source for several months.  I am currently enrolled in Master Yoga’s Teacher Training Level l &2 classes.  I look forward to sharing with you all that I have learned and continue to learn."

Contact Vicky at vicky@soulsourceyoga.com

Heather Dyas-Fried, RYT, PCD(DONA) –

Prenatal Yoga, Mom/Baby Yoga

Heather first visited Kripalu, Center for Yoga and Health, in 1993.  After years of practicing yoga, she completed her 200 hour certification at Kripalu. She trained with Janice Clarfield to become a certified prenatal yoga teacher and studied postpartum yoga in NYC with Baby Om.  Heather is also a postpartum and birth doula.

With a BA in Theatre Arts, she discovered a deep connection between yoga and acting.  She has been working as an actor/activist since 1990.  Heather is a founding member of Equalogy, inc., a theatre for social change.  Since 1997, Equalogy has harnessed the power of live, interactive theatre to raise awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence.  Equalogy tours to colleges and universities in 14 states and is based out of NYC. 

For a description of Heather's classes, click here.

Contact her at heather@soulsourceyoga.com  Phone: 215-873-5622

Debbie Becker - Beginning/Continuing Svaroopa Style yoga

Deb came upon Soul Source in the summer of 2005 when free meditation practice times were being offered.
Very soon, she found herself taking yoga classes 1 to 2x/week, developing a daily home practice & getting Embodyment Therapy when possible. Svaroopa yoga simultaneously opened her body, mind & heart. it continues to help Deb connect to the joy of just being ,relieves the aches & pains of daily life & creates a more stable emotional life.
Deb is currently subbing for classes when other teachers have to be away.  Deb's goal is to help students develop a home practice with the commitment to & support of attending weekly class. It is with great joy that Deb shares this wonderful yoga with students at Soul Source! She is a Foundations of Svaroopa Yoga Graduate and an Embodyment Therapist.

Contact Deb at deb@soulsourceyoga.com