About Us
Our approach
At Yoga With Spirit we teach spirituality and yoga off and on the yoga mat...
- Off the mat: develop skills to live a more peaceful, contented, meaningful life right here, right now!
- On the mat: learn to work with your body and breath to settle and open your mind.
Our yoga…
- uses yoga’s breathing to calm your mind and soothe your body allowing you to settle peacefully into daily activities,
- helps you use yoga’s life skills for spiritual support in your hectic world,
- leads you to discover yoga’s spiritual framework around which you can center your life,
- teaches you that the physical strength that comes from yoga is a pale comparison to the inner strength of self-confidence and self-awareness,
- enhances your focus and concentration.

About Amy (RYT 500-E)
In late 2005, I was asked to teach yoga one evening at a Mother’s Group meeting at our church. That single class stirred up enough interest that the church asked if I would offer an 8-week “Introduction to Yoga” class. Eight weeks later, Yoga With Spirit was born!
Since that time, my mission at Yoga With Spirit has evolved from a studio offering yoga classes to a center offering a broad spectrum of opportunities to explore and develop your spiritual self. I find myself surrounded by a wonderful, diverse community of students and clients ranging in age from 20–80 and spreading from suburban Philadelphia across the whole country. I wake up every morning grateful that I have the opportunity to do this work!
I discovered yoga when my third child was still a baby. I was searching for a way to reclaim my body as my own. I was as surprised as could be to find the true gifts of yoga lay in the discovery of my spirit. Needless to say, very quickly, yoga went from my weekly two hours of “me-time” to a life-changing passion. It is my great joy to be able to share the gift of yoga, its philosophy and spirituality with others.
I am a certified spiritual director and bring the gift of deep listening to all of my work whether in spiritual direction sessions, my Yoga and Philosophy course in the philosophy department at a local, highly selective university, private yoga lessons or in my Yoga Alliance certified 200 and 500-hour teacher training program.
I am also a “yoga writer.” In addition to my weekly essays, Yoga Thoughts, I co-authored a book on the spirituality of yoga called Faith With A Twist. I also edited a book on anatomy and yoga.

Our lives today move so quickly and are so full of activity that we need to be still more than ever. We need to set aside the time to reconnect with ourselves – our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. When we set aside the time for our practices – movement, breath, meditation – in some amazing way we are always able to find the time for everything else in our lives!
Yoga is truly a gift that gives back – to you and to all the people who fill your life. It would be my honor to give that gift to you.

Amy Nobles Dolan
Yoga With Spirit founder
Our other teachers

The Rev. Dr. Hillary Raining
(Rector, St. Christopher’s Church, Gladwyne, PA)
In addition to parish ministry, Hillary is also a published writer (and co-author with Amy of Faith With A Twist) in both church and academic fields. Hillary serves on several diocesan and national church wide ministries as well as in ecumenical and interfaith efforts. She is a yoga instructor, beekeeper, musician, and is the founder of the online spiritual community The Hive.

Amanda Zavodnick
Amanda completed her 500 hour Ashtanga teacher training at Yoga With Spirit, under Amy Nobles Dolan. Amanda first posed on a yoga mat after getting sidelined from a running injury and it was love at first downward dog.
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Amanda credits yoga as a form of therapy; an inner journey that helped her rediscover patience, playfulness and living in the moment. Amanda vows to forever be a student of the practice, teaching with the same compassion and kindness that was extended to her when she first fell in love with the discipline.
When not on her mat, Amanda spends most of her time chasing after her two children, their rescue dog and visiting foster pups with her loving husband.

Amanda Eiman
Amanda received her teaching certification in the Spring of 2019 and is overjoyed to be sharing the gift and practice of yoga with others. She is an Episcopal priest who connects yoga and faith into her ministry in the church and beyond.
Passionate about introducing yoga to beginners, joining seasoned yogis on their journey, and sharing prenatal yoga with expectant mothers, she is the mother of an almost two year old daughter and is currently expecting twins at the end of the summer.

Sharon Hickey
(ERYT 500, RCYT)
Sharon has been inspiring children with her creative style since 1999. She has conducted classes in a variety of settings for children. She also teaches adult group and private classes.
Sharon graduated from Kutztown University with Bachelor degrees in Elementary Education and Related Arts. She has taken her background, combined and nurtured it, creating an innovative and interactive learning experience for children called Yogaroo.
She currently has Pennsylvania state teaching credentials and is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (ERYT 500 hours) and a Registered Children's Yoga Teacher (RCYT) with the Yoga Alliance.
Deep diving into yoga at the university level
One of my favorite jobs is teaching yoga and philosophy to undergraduate students at a highly regarded university in the United States. The opportunity to present the physical and spiritual practices of yoga to students simultaneously is a rare and wonderful thing for a yoga instructor. Until I began teaching this class, I only had the chance to do a “deep dive” into the “rest of yoga” with my teacher training students.
It has been invigorating to watch yoga’s philosophy transform the lives of students who are not hoping to become “professional yogis.” Indeed, most of my university students are brand new to the practice yet are touched as deeply by yoga’s wisdom as my more experienced students. The opportunity to witness the accessibility of yoga’s “off the mat” gifts when its wisdom is taught in tandem with the physical practice has increased my passion for sharing the full practice of yoga into a world where busy-ness and distraction consistently thwart contemplation, mindfulness, self-knowledge, and contentment.
I believe the power of my university course is it equally emphasizes the physical practice of yoga (asana and pranayama) and the philosophical (the yamas and the niyamas). Unrolling a yoga mat each day provides us with a safe space to practice the ideas and concepts presented by the yamas and niyamas. The more we practice with ideas such as non-violence, moderation, self-study and surrender on our yoga mats, the more likely it is that we will think thoughts, make choices and take actions in life that follow these same principles.
In short, for yoga to become the transformative practice that it is, we must practice all of the limbs. When we do, even beginners will notice that they are living more like the people they hope to be than they ever were before.

Amy Nobles Dolan
Thanks
First and foremost, thanks to my friends and teachers who have shared the gift of their yoga with me. Thank you Amy Gordon, Sharon Hickey, David Keil, and Martha McAlpine. I hope to live into the gift you’ve given me and that it passes on and on.
I would also like to thank my spiritual director, Rita Pursel, for her steadying presence and quiet way of encouraging me to embrace the life I’ve been given to live.
I am very grateful to Guy, Hannah, and Ehron at Wildheart Media for creating this beautiful website. Many, many thanks to them for making the site I dreamed of a reality.
Big thanks to my brother-in-law, Patrick Dolan, for taking many of the photographs for this site. I appreciate the gift he gave me of his keen eye, creative way of envisioning shots, and his talented photography skills.
Finally, I’d like to thank the students and clients who give me the opportunity to share such life-giving practices with them. You make me a better companion, teacher and yogi. Most importantly, however, you make my life better for your presence in it.
