Our Instructors
Carson Ford
Carson serves many roles at Balance, including Owner, Studio Director, and Instructor. With over 13 years of experience teaching different types of movement, Carson has had the privilege of working with all ages, backgrounds, and learning styles. Carson developed a love for the body and how it works while earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Exercise Physiology from Midwestern State University. After finding yoga in 2015, she was instantly drawn to the mind-body connection reached through the practice. She felt that the body awareness she developed through years of classical dance training and the mechanical understanding of the body she gained through her degree came together perfectly to give her a special connection to the practice.
Carson trained with Toni Farris at Yoga Tree in Plano, Texas and is registered with the Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT500, RPYT, RCYT, and YACEP. Carson specializes in beginner and modified yoga and has a passion for teaching a safe and mindful practice aimed to quiet the mind and reduce suffering. Carson enjoys teaching Hatha, Vinyasa, Prenatal/Postnatal, and Restorative styles of Yoga, as well as Barre and Balletone. She considers herself a lifelong student of yoga, and is now honored to share her knowledge and experience with future yoga instructors through 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Trainings at Balance. Carson enjoys spending time doing anything outside with her husband, JT, their son, Sutton, and 2 dogs, Beyonce and Margot.
Adam Deatherage
Adam has completed six teacher teacher trainings and is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the 500HR level. He is certified in Dharma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Yinyasa, and Partner Yoga. He is also a certified Reiki Master level practitioner, a MBTI® certified practitioner, and holds a B.S. in Psychology. Adam learned to meditate at the age of 12, promoting a passion for mindfulness. When he is not teaching yoga, Adam also works as an advertising consultant with the Wizard of Ads and produces and hosts his own TV show. Adam brings a curious passion for yoga history, philosophy, and poses to his classes with a constant theme of "letting go". His classes are all-level so everyone is included.
Irene Lutz
Irene was born and raised in Switzerland, but has called Texas her home since 1995. She has found a way through yoga to balance her active lifestyle working outdoors and training horses.
Irene completed her 200RYT with Yandara Yoga Institute in Baja, Mexico. She also completed an Advanced training in Yin and Restorative, as well as a Master Level Reiki certification. Irene is also certified in Equine Yoga, Horse and Yoga Integration through Equine Om. She likes to teach with an intention to bring more meaning onto the mat. Inspired by the rhythm of nature, Irene often embodies organic movement in her classes. She believes that yoga is all about feeling good and finding what works for each individual, as we all are on a different journey. Through years of practice, she has learned that yoga can provide us with helpful tools on and off our mat. Irene believes that yoga has transformed her life and has given her an expanded sense of purpose. She likes to spend time at the ocean, and practice yoga with her horses.
Chris Brogden
Chris Brogden, a retired veterinarian and military wife, believes in the magical healing power of yoga, both in the physical and spiritual realms. She started practicing yoga as part of an exercise program to heal from a long and chronic illness. Chris completed her first teacher training with Holy Yoga and her second with Yahweh Yoga in Tempe, Arizona. She is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the 500HR level and is also certified in Yoga Therapy, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, Chair/Senior Yoga, Yogalates, Yoga with Weights, Yoga Touch, and Aqua Kriya Yoga. She has also completed a trauma sensitive training through the Warriors at Ease yoga program.
Chris started the Chair Yoga class for Balance and has a passion to see people of all ages and physical conditions learn to stay healthy through movement. In addition to the Chair class, Chris loves to teach Flow and Restorative Yoga, along with Core Pilates, Barre, and Balletone classes, integrating new and innovative movements into each class.
Julia Lamberth
Constantly seeking new ways to keep her creativity growing, Julia is a yoga instructor and the marketing designer and photographer/videographer for Balance Studio. She received her 200RYT certification in 2017 through Yehweh Yoga. She has also completed a training through YogaFit for Injury Prevention and Recovery. Julia's pursuit of yoga began in college when she led an overactive lifestyle of being a student, runner, swimmer, artist, teacher, and youth leader in college. Never sitting still for long or allowing her mind to rest, yoga became the answer to the stillness she desperately needed to maintain a healthy mind/body balance. After college, she began attending classes and continued to allow yoga to be a pivotal part of her life.
Julia has also had a heart for the arts and growing her creative spirit. She opened her business, Julia M. Photography, in 2011 and primarily photographs weddings, portraits and commercial work. She is a member of the Professional Photographers of America. While running her business, she also graduated from Midwestern State University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
Carolyn Bell
Carolyn is an experienced Yoga instructor sharing a passion for movement that builds strength and balance in the body, mind, and spirit. She is a prepared, educated professional with a caring passion for students to discover the healing breath and the peace of stillness. Carolyn began teaching yoga in 2005 after discovering the personal benefits of practicing yoga as a student since 1998. She is a certified 200RYT working on her 500RYT through My Vinyasa Yoga in Austin and teaches Vinyasa Flow yoga. She is also a trained Pilates Instructor through Fitour. She has continued her yoga studies in Vinayasa Yoga training and has studied with well-known teachers such as Seane Corne, Shiva Rea, Eddie Modestini, Nicki Doane, Kathryn Budig, Liz Arch, and Iyengar Yoga teacher Carrie Owerko. Previously, she graduated from the University of Texas with an Education degree and taught for 27 years with 25 of them being at FUMC's School for Little People. While teaching there she created a Yoga for Kids program for 4 and 5 year olds. Carolyn feels called to teach yoga so that others may benefit from the breath and movement practices to calm the body, mind, and spirit. Her desire is to bring emotional healing, peace, and restoration to the lives of others. She likes to teach a creative yoga flow with strength building Pilates moves incorporated into the practice and an emphasis on breath, balance, and meditation.
Anna Brenson
Anna Brenson is a military wife, dog mom, and speech-language pathologist who loves movement and music. She was a dancer through college and during her graduate studies found barre as a way to break from the books. She loved the musicality, low impact, and challenging workout barre provided. Anna has been practicing barre for 8 years and teaching since 2021. She is a certified Pure Barre instructor and is Barre Intensity trained. Anna’s goal is to motivate individuals of all ages and abilities to move their body in order to live a healthier and happier life. She loves that barre can be easily modified to meet the needs of anyone that walks into the studio.
Kaayla Daniel
Kaayla Daniel is a musician, writer, nutritionist, and health practitioner. Her passion for Kundalini Yoga began in Santa Fe, NM, in the early 1990s. In 2021 she earned her Level One teaching certification from the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) and became a member of the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association (IKYTA). She is currently completing the “Vitality and Stress” module of Level Two teacher training.
Kaayla holds a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and Anti-Aging Therapies from the Union Institute and University and is known as The Naughty Nutritionist® because she "tells the truth that’s too hot to handle." She is coauthor of Nourishing Broth: An Old-Fashioned Remedy for the Modern World and author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. She has appeared on Dr. Oz, PBS Healing Quest and other TV and radio shows; been an “edu-taining” speaker at Paleo f(x), Ancestral Health and other nutrition and alternative health conferences; and been featured at mercola.com and other websites. As a nutritionist in private practice, she takes a body/mind/spirit approach and likes to cite the proven health benefits of kundalini yoga.
Kaayla moved to Wichita Falls last year and is restoring a 1926 home in the Floral Heights Historic District. She is the mother of two grown children, supports local farmers and ranchers, plays the pipe organ and enjoys walking her Golden Dood, Johann Sebastian Bark.
Athena Brensberger
Athena is a ballerina turned barre instructor, who relocated to Texas from NYC in 2021. She completed her Barre & Balletone™ certification through Barre Above in 2021, and recently taught in Austin, TX! She fell in love with barre after nearly 20 years of classical ballet training, as well as other dance techniques, and finds that barre is a beautiful way to align and strengthen the body in ways that a normal gym routine can’t do! With her dance background, she loves to synchronize music with movement, so expect a musically-driven workout! She hopes to help others feel good about their body and health, and she believes stretching is vital for good health, so expect deep stretches at the end of her classes!!
Tina Haapala
Tina Haapala remembers taking her first yoga class 25 years ago at a gym in Mesa, AZ. It was part of the many fitness classes offered, and she felt very odd and out of place (in the case of step class, out of pace) in most of them. At the yoga class, however, the strangeness appealed to her (“I didn’t know my body could do that,” she says), as did the peace she felt during and after class—even as the weights came crashing down on the gym floor outside the studio room.
Since then, Tina has continued to be a student of yoga. In Arizona, which included a community college course that incorporated yoga philosophy as well as asana. This gave her a different perspective on exercise as a whole. In the past, such things she thought she “should” be doing for her health felt like punishment. Yoga was different.
Tina continues to be interested in understanding what happens in the mind, body, and spirit that gives people that sense of peace, as well as physical strength, flexibility, and stamina. She took this interest to the fullest extent yet in 2020, when she began her yoga teacher training right here at Balance! Although the course became additionally challenging due to a worldwide pandemic, Tina feels that giving her focus to the practice of yoga during that time allowed her to find a sense of peace that she may have been lacking otherwise. She received her200RYT from Yoga Tree earlier this year.
Since Tina has been a member of Balance since its opening in 2015, she is so grateful the studio continues to thrive and has taken her on as an instructor. “It really feels like I get a chance to become whole each day,” she says, “I have a passion to help others find that wholeness within themselves as well.”
Shannon Pennington
Shannon is an RYT200. She specializes in alignment-based yoga practices with an emphasis on mobility and well-being. It’s not what you do on the mat – it’s showing up! She began her personal yoga practice in 2005. After years of personally experiencing the benefits of this practice she went to teacher training in Birmingham, Alabama through “Here Now Yoga” in 2017.
While not on the mat you’ll find her being a little OCD with the cleaning, obsessing about food, loving her family and cuddling the chihuahua.
Shannon is committed to being a contribution to your fundamental well being through breath, movement and meditation.
Caitlin Doty
Caitlin believes yoga has transformed her life both mentally and physically. She has been practicing yoga for over 10 years, and decided to become a teacher after going through an intensive treatment program for anorexia in her sophomore year of college. Yoga helped Caitlin focus on her body, mind, and breath in a way she had never experienced before. After graduating college in 2019, Caitlin completed her 200hr yoga teacher training in Stillwater, OK at Red Earth Yoga Center. She has over 5 years of teaching experience at several studios in the Oklahoma City area. Caitlin and her husband came to Wichita Falls in the summer of 2023 when he was stationed at Sheppard AFB. They live happily with their two pups and three cats. When Caitlin is not doing yoga, you can find her at her day job selling insurance or growing her photography business.