YTT Collective

Meet Melanie Marcano 🌿

🧘‍♀️ Melanie’s journey into yoga began with a curiosity for meditation and pranayama, eventually expanding into asana and a deeper study of yogic philosophy. In 2019, she completed her first teacher training solely to deepen her own practice, but over time felt led to share the sense of rootedness these practices had given her. She followed that call by diving headfirst into teaching, facilitating retreats, workshops, and ceremonies both locally and internationally.

✨ An ERYT 200 certified in Hatha Vinyasa and Yin Yoga, Melanie offers alignment based practices and creative sequencing steeped in yogic philosophy and rich with tradition. Central to her teaching is the practice of being fully present with what is, offering our best effort while releasing attachment to the outcome. Her classes explore the balance of effort and surrender and emphasize how the practice continues long after we leave the mat.

📍 Melanie has taught throughout Atlanta, including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Atlanta Falcons, and currently teaches at Life Time Buckhead, Bring It Om, and Capital City Club.

🏔️ Yoga and Mother Nature are at the heart of Melanie’s work. As a mountain guide and outdoor educator, she teaches wilderness first aid and survival skills and has led hikes and retreats shaped by the seasons and rhythms of the natural world. She sees the mat and the mountains as places to practice many of the same things: meeting the edge, staying present when conditions change, and finding steadiness without needing to control the outcome. Both have taught her to listen more closely.

🌱 Melanie joins the YTT Collective with a passion for helping emerging teachers find their authentic voice and step fully into the seat of the teacher. Her modules will explore voice, agency, confidence, and the art of developing meaningful themes to thoughtfully structure a class. She’ll also help trainees navigate the world as new teachers, offering practical mentorship around what comes after certification and how to begin sharing their gifts in a way that feels grounded, authentic, and uniquely their own.

🌿 Anchored Mind is growing!

And we are honored to have them as a partner in the YTT Collective!

Read about their exciting expansion: 🎉

For 3 years, we’ve supported your mind and body through counseling and nutrition. Now we’re expanding to care for the whole you — introducing our new fitness services! 💪

✨ Yoga classes ✨ Group strength training ✨ Personal training ✨ Open gym access ✨ Recovery sessions (sauna + cold plunge)

Join us for our Community Launch Party! 📅 October 10 | 10:00 AM–2:00 PM

1265 Minhinette Dr, Roswell

Tour our spaces — counseling, nutrition, fitness, and our community cafe — and enjoy: 🧘 FREE yoga class 🏋️ FREE strength & conditioning class 🔥 FREE sauna + cold plunge sessions

Plus, enter to win our giveaway — a Manduka mat, memberships, and more! 🎁

See you there. Come as you are, leave more anchored. ⚓

Meet the two modules Bethany Lord is teaching in our Yoga Teacher Training! 🧘‍♀️

✅ Intelligent Sequencing & Alignment: Building a Purposeful Power Yoga Class

Students learn to build power yoga classes with real intention — purposeful progression, functional alignment, effective cueing, and thoughtful adaptation. They’ll structure classes around a clear purpose, anatomical focus, theme, or peak posture, then put it into practice through collaborative sequencing and hands-on teaching.

✅ The Yamas & Niyamas in Modern Practice + Arm Balances & Inversions

We open with Deborah Adele’s The Yamas & Niyamas as a companion text, exploring yoga’s ethical principles through a modern lens — how they show up in our lives, our practice, and the way we teach. Then we bring that awareness into an Arm Balance & Inversion Teaching Lab (Crow, Side Crow, Eight-Angle, Headstand, Forearm Stand, Handstand), focused on preparation, alignment, progressions, modifications, and safe teaching — not just “sticking” the pose. ✨

👉 Spots are open for our next YTT cohort — link in bio to learn more.

✨ Meet Gina Minyard ✨

Gina’s yoga journey began in 1999, deepening through 1,000+ hours of Anusara Yoga training starting in 2000 — she became Georgia’s first certified Anusara teacher in 2006. A meditation practitioner since 2000, she’s been an Authorized Teacher of Neelakantha Meditation (Blue Throat Yoga) since 2017, after years of devoted study and practice in deep meditation.

Her path weaves together Ta***ic philosophy, Ayurveda, yoga psychology (Applied Psychology for Yogis), natural wisdom, and feminine mystery teachings. She’s also trained in Reiki and Thai Yoga Therapy and has a degree in Romance Languages from UGA. Since 2021, she’s found new creative expression collaborating with kirtan artist Gershone Hendelberg, offering mantra and music in Atlanta and beyond.

All of these knowledge streams infuse Gina’s transmissions, making her offering uniquely well-rounded, compelling, and transformative.

An E-RYT 500 and YACEP, Gina teaches classes, private sessions, workshops, and YTT modules, and is a regular presenter at festivals in Atlanta and around the country. As well, she is two-time lululemon ambassador and was honored as an Atlanta yoga community luminary (Natural Awakenings).

She wakes up every day to face the rising sun. Feeling the tremendous blessing of a life in surrender to the flow of Grace, her fierce and tender commitment is to serve planetary upliftment. May all beings be safe, joyful, and free.

***icYoga

Meet Carly Milyo 🌀

Carly traded pom-poms for a yoga mat during her senior year at Virginia Tech — and never looked back.

She built a following teaching early-morning classes in Atlanta, then founded Thunderbolt Power Yoga in 2014, running her own 200-hour teacher trainings for years.

In 2019, she stepped away to raise her three kids. That season taught her what community really means.

In 2024, she came back — opening Homestead Yoga, a heated yoga + sculpt studio in Milton, GA, now thriving in its second year.

With over a decade of teaching experience, Carly is joining the faculty at YTT Collective, where she’ll help the next generation of teachers find their voice and build confidence on and off the mat.

Carly lives in Milton with her husband Patrick, kids Channing, Nolan & Leighton, and their Maltese, Stella. Welcome back to the community, Carly 💛

That desire to go deeper into your yoga practice? It’s time to make it real ✨

Imagine learning from world-class teachers, in amazing yoga studios, surrounded by people who share your passion. Your practice — anywhere in the world.

📅 Next training begins October 16 🔗 More info on our website — link in bio

Ready to take the leap?

Meet Isabel, one of our teachers for this training! ✨

Isabel’s yoga journey began in 2006 in her hometown of Guayaquil, Ecuador, when she took her first Ashtanga Led Primary Series class — and never looked back.

Since then, she’s dedicated herself to deep, ongoing study: Anusara alignment immersions with the Anusara School of Hatha Yoga, teacher training through The Maze Method, and years of Ashtanga study — first with Ale Chiarella in Buenos Aires, then three years with Todd Roderick of Ashtanga Yoga Atlanta, and currently with Sava at Mysore Yoga Atlanta, where she continues to deepen her understanding of adjustments, biomechanics, and traditional teaching methodology.

She’s also a Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist, having trained alongside Tiffany Cruikshank and the Yoga Medicine team to bring an anatomically grounded, therapeutic lens to her teaching.

Teaching since 2016, Isabel weaves together alignment, philosophy, and two decades of daily practice to help students turn inward and truly meet themselves on the mat. 🙏

YOGA TEACHER TRAINING FILLING FAST!

Whether you want to teach or simply LEARN more about the deeper aspects of yoga, this training is for you.

#1 YTT in North Fulton for 10+ years! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many years ago, my friend Katie Bush painted this sign for me. It’s an expression I say in teacher training all the time.

It’s important that our students know that it can feel uncomfortable to stand in front of a group of people and be vulnerable. However, we take small steps to build courage and confidence in our training.

Some people say “I don’t think I have the courage to do something like this.“

Courage is not something we are born with, courage is something that happens when we do something uncomfortable.

Courage = Feeling the fear and doing it anyway

Graduates say that this is one thing that really grows through their experience: Confidence!

If you want to be trained properly from the absolute best faculty around, you deserve this education.

Unlike traditional YTT programs, we bring together the expertise and resources of multiple yoga studios across North Atlanta.

In addition, Kim is a 20 year licensed professional counselor who works with trauma and acute stress. You will learn somatic techniques to regulate the nervous system and not only help yourself but your students to find more calm and clarity internally.

This unique approach ensures you receive a diverse and well-rounded training experience, learning from various instructors and perspectives.

We are proud to offer a program that is truly one-of-a-kind, just like you.

Plus, you get to practice FREE at our participating studios during training!

If you are considering teaching or simply want to deepen your knowledge of yoga, this program will help you enrich your everyday life and take you to the next level.

Next training begins October 16th

$350 deposit holds your spot

We’ll meet two weekends per month

$2900 tuition (discount if pay in full; payment plans optional)


The secret’s out.🧘‍♀️✨

Since 2014, our Five Star Training has been one of Atlanta’s most popular — 20 graduating classes and counting.

Here’s what you get:
🔥 Free training at multiple studios, all semester
🔥 Top-tier faculty trained by the best in the industry
🔥 Deep dives into Vinyasa, Yin, Restorative, how to teach chair yoga, meditation, breathwork & more

Whether you want to teach or not — this training will change you. Stronger voice.
Deeper confidence.
Real transformation.

Check out our student reviews on Yoga Alliance 👉 https://app.yogaalliance.org/schoolpublicprofile?id=0013g000002pirlAAA&sid=0013g000002noPhAAI&name=The-YTT-Collective

October. Your turn. Do it for you.💫

About Kim Saunders, Founder:
Practicing yoga since age 15, Kim spent 12 years as a National Account Executive with American Express before trading finance for the mat. Also a 20-year psychotherapist, she’s the founder of the YTT Collective, Lift Yoga, and The Lift You Need — bringing together the best of mind + body.

It’s been said that the journey of 1000 miles begins with one step. It’s time for your next adventure 👣

You’re in a transition. 🌿 (Even if you haven’t named it yet.)

Career shifts. New chapters. Bodies healing. Minds that need somewhere steady to land. The YTT Collective isn’t just for people who already know they want to teach — it’s for anyone ready to move through change with a little more grounding.

In 200 hours, you’ll learn Vinyasa, Yin & Restorative yoga 🧘‍♀️, breathwork to calm or energize on demand 🌬️, meditation that fits a real life 🌙, and the yogic guidelines for living well through whatever season you’re in.

You don’t have to know if you’ll teach. You just have to be ready to change. ✨

📍 Fall 2026 program begins October — link in bio to apply → Go to the Yoga Alliance website to read actual reviews from our students and graduates