Welcome to Yoga Next Door
Yoga Next Door is Jessica Petrie’s hOMe yoga studio located in North Yarmouth Maine. The studio provides Jessica a space to share her passion for and knowledge of yoga with others. In 2020 Jessica took her yoga classes online, offering live online classes as well as recordings on her Yoga At Your Door Class Library. The online content allows Jessica to easily provide access to the calming and healing benefits of yoga to students near and far. Jessica also provides corporate services, helping companies both support remote workers and host virtual conferences. In addition, she hosts yoga retreats in the summer at Bustins Island in Casco Bay Maine, and cross country skiing/yoga retreats in North Yarmouth in the winter (see the Retreats pages for details).
Jessica’s Vinyasa Yoga classes are a balance of yoga philosophy, breath work, movement, stretching and strengthening. Jessica’s classes use lots of props to support modifications as people begin and advance in their practice. Each class is tailored to the ability levels and progress of the participants. Beginners are welcome!
Teacher Bios
Jessica Petrie (E-RYT 200, RYT 500) ~ Owner
Jessica has been practicing yoga for 20 years. At age 40, she completed her 200 hour Vinyasa Yoga and Ayurveda Teacher Training with Katie O’Connell of Dragonfly Yoga in North Sandwich, New Hampshire in 2018. Jessica has also done Restorative Yoga training with Robin Ivy Patton in Maine and “Smart & Creative Yoga Sequencing” with Rocky Heron and Trina Altman’s “Yoga Deconstructed Creative Sequencing with Somatics” training both through Yoga International. Jessica finished her 300 hour Advanced Vinyasa Teacher Training with Rolf Gates in 2021. Most recently she completed the Yin Yoga Teacher Foundations Module training with the Josh Summers School of Yin Yoga.
When you experience the physical and mental benefits of yoga it inspires you to share yoga with others. My grandmother used to read me Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. The main message of the book is to do something with your life to make the world more beautiful. Ms. Rumphius plants lupines; I am sharing yoga with others to help make my community a more beautiful, calm, and compassionate place.”
Jessica’s Yoga Journey: “I began practicing hot Birkam yoga daily with Mary Jarvis in San Francisco in my 20s. I loved the physicality of the practice, and the focus and concentration required to hold and deepen the postures in the heat. In my 30s I had my three boys and squeezed in yoga when I could. During my third pregnancy, I injured the lining of my spinal cord & subsequently my left hip. I was not able to function without pain for years after my youngest son was born. I did physical therapy, acupuncture, cortisone shots & deep needling, which helped to varying degrees. Despite my physical discomfort and the demands of having young children, I kept coming back to the yoga mat & pursed my yoga teacher training (YTT). YTT gave me a consistent yoga asana practice – moving and stretching my body daily – which led to incremental gains in mobility, decreased pain and significant improvements in range of motion over time. Meditating daily brought new levels of calm to my parenting and concentration to my work. YTT also introduced me to the mental and spiritual side of yoga. Addressing my mental blocks and using positive Mantras led to additional breakthroughs in my healing. In the role of yoga teacher, my body has realized its full capacity again without my mind getting in the way. I am fully present when I am teaching yoga.
Annemarie “Carmie” Heisler ~ (RYT 200, RYT 500)
Carmie became a yoga teacher because she was passionate about teaching in a way that would help students in all bodies feel successful and empowered. She completed her 200 hour Vinyasa training through Jacqui Bonwell’s Sacred Seeds Yoga School. Since graduating in 2018, she has received certifications in Restorative Yoga, Chair Yoga, Yoga Nidra through Robin Ivy Payton, Clinically Informed Restorative Chair Yoga with Jacqui Bonwell, Yin Yoga and Meditation with Sagel Urlacher and trauma-informed teacher training through Mindy Muse Yoga . She also studied with Johnny Gillespie to become a Balanced Athlete functional movement coach. Carmie has studied Reiki through Level 2 and loves it very much. She has two college-aged children and lives in Portland with her husband, Rick. You can most often find her running on Baxter Boulevard or visiting goats at Sunflower Farm or chasing volcanoes in Iceland.
Julie Spugnardi (200-TT)
Julie completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in 2010 at the Namaste Institute in Rockland Maine. Julie has formerly taught Yin Yoga at the Breathing Room Yoga Studio in Portland Maine. She has also taught many friends and coworkers over the years and even preschoolers! Julie also has her Reiki 1 certification and is pursuing her Reiki 2 certification in 2022. Julie lives in North Yarmouth with her husband and two sons. They can usually be found enjoying outdoor activities at Pineland Farms and on the ocean where they spend much of their summer with family and friends. We are grateful this regular Yoga Next Door student is moving her mat to the front of the class to share her passion for Yin & Vinyasa with our community.
The Yoga Next Door Story
In the spring of 2018 Jessica started teaching Yoga Next Door classes in her living room. The response was positive, so she offered classes for six students at a time on the four-season porch the following fall. The Petries renovated the porch, turning it into a full yoga studio the summer of 2019 to accommodate the growing number of Yoga Next Door students. The new studio opened fall of 2019. The Coronavirus of 2020 led Jessica to take all her classes online, offering live-stream classes, video recordings and memberships to her library of class recordings. She also launched the Yoga At Your Door YouTube Channel to offer students anywhere free Yoga Breaks.
INTERVIEW: Curious how Yoga Next Door has navigated the conditions of the pandemic? Please check out this interview I did with WordPress.com in June 2020. Since then I have added a second WordPress site to house the Class Library. This interview also captures the story of how Yoga Next Door came to be.
BLOG & INTERVIEW: At the end of September 2020 Jessica was interviewed by Soutiens about how working, home-schooling parents can find time to fit yoga and self care into their routines. They also discussed the benefits of yoga for parents and in the workplace. Soutiens helps progressive companies empower expectant and working parents to succeed by supporting working parents and the companies that value them. Watch the interview on the Soutiens YouTube Channel or click here to read the blog: Caring for Working Parents: Incorporating Yoga Into Your Work Day