I started taking yoga classes from Rahel during the pandemic after a number of years of a lapsed yoga practice, and I am still taking them! I have taken virtual, in-person and private classes. She worked with me after shoulder surgery and was invaluable in my recovery and in helping me return to my practice. Rahel is an extremely skilled teacher whose dedication and love of the practice is evident. She is always prepared, demonstrating a deep knowledge of yoga. She is a resourceful and intuitive teacher who will take the time to find what works for each student. Her enthusiasm is evident and her patience abundant. Classes are well paced and varied. One of the best yoga teachers I have ever had!

I mean it all!

Rahel is a superb Iyengar teacher, knowledgeable about both the poses and philosophy behind them. Every class is thoughtfully choreographed to help her students improve alignment, build strength, and gain new insights. Ever curious, she is continually exploring innovative ways of using the props to deepen her students' practice, with an emphasis on the journey and not the perfect pose.

Beyond her considerable expertise, it's Rahel's compassionate and caring nature that truly set her apart--that and her melodic accent! She creates a warm, welcoming, and supportive atmosphere, keeping a kind and watchful eye on each individual (whether in the studio or on Zoom) and actively adapting poses to particular needs. The carefully curated poems with which she ends each session are the cherry on top, assuring that we leave the studio with our practices enhanced and our spirits lifted. I'd call myself her #1 fan but I suspect I'd have plenty of competition!

My many years of yoga practice changed forever the day I walked into a class with Rahel. Her teaching of Iyengar yoga was like a bell ringing.

At the time, I was just visiting the city off and on and ended up only taking class with Rahel sporadically for a number of years. It was a great joy to get there when I could. 

The challenges of the pandemic, however, ended up creating an opportunity for me to study with her regularly, via Zoom. That relationship has continued with practice both online and in person, and I am deeply grateful for it.

Her teaching combines fundamentals--taught with clarity, specificity, and with continual offerings of modifications so that everyone is challenged appropriately-- as well as an enlightening mix of yoga philosophy woven through the class. This makes for an always thoughtful and meaningful experience that rises above the usual.

Rahel’s teaching has deepened, broadened, and heightened my study and practice of yoga.

IYENGAR – what is it and can I really do this?

Iyengar is a practice to calm my mind, further open my heart and make more space for:  Kindness, Compassion, Honor, Equanimity – and I have learned - possibilities. I soon found out that these concepts embody my new instructor, Rahel Wasserfall.

Can I really do this?  

When I approached the studio for my first Iyengar class - I felt a sense of calmness, beauty, love and safety inviting me in – all emanating from Rahel. This real-life introduction was a remarkable experience, for which I am eternally grateful and humbled.

Thoughts and feelings ran through my mind: “Wow, this is a gift for me!” “What an extraordinary spirit filling the room”; and – “however did I find myself at this threshold?”

Rahel greeted me, as she does with all students, with a sense of open arms, calmness, pleasure, such strength and a humbled confidence. There is, what I can ascribe, a magical dimension of Rahel and her true gift of connection, leadership, the betterment of us as an expansive entity and her skills as a Iyengar instructor. She conveys possibilities, adjusts poses, acknowledges hard work and seems to rejoice in even the slightest improved movement of students’ pose, patience and commitment.

Rahel leads by example, expresses self-reflective humanity; easily acknowledges that she is learning, as are we all. Rahel demonstrates the characteristics of learning and integration, and reminds us to observe ourselves without judgement. She speaks of our practice as brilliant and expresses words and an attitude of encouragement. Two examples that resonate with me are, when she says “where our body is today”; and are we “friendly to ourselves”.

I have learned about the integration of my Iyengar practice and the living of my life.  Rahel’s belief in her student’s abilities, has taken me to extend beyond my limits -  to a glorious place of self-discovery. I continue to find neglected aspects of my body, a body I thought I knew so well. The poses and discoveries are amazing.

My spinal structure and associated compensating body parts are challenges. Rahel has given thought to ways to enhance my practice. She has done so with apparent mindful contemplations and very effective accommodations. Additionally, she recently attended a workshop on Yoga and Scoliosis, certainly not just for me, yet quite coincidentally germane.

I am grateful to whomever or whatever led me to Rahel Wasserfall and Iyengar. Working with her has further opened me up to possibilities of all kinds. I am learning how to become friendlier with and to myself. I rejoice in my practice, and am awe inspired that I have found Rahel in my life. She had done so much for me. I feel appreciably healthier, stronger, freer and calmer as a result of working with her and I always look forward to her classes.

I have been taking yoga for over fifteen years: I started at the age of sixty, when my first teacher was 65. Rahel Wasserfall is by far the best teacher I have encountered. She can lead a class mixed in age and practice, in a little over an hour, from warm-up stretching to safe difficult poses (that would have seemed impossible in advance). 

Wasserfall has a deep knowledge of the body and the positions that are safe for people each with her or his own individual problem. With many moves, she shows the position and talks us through the steps to get there.  (There is no foolish flow, where people stumble into the next position.) 

The readings are always interesting. We dedicate the practice to our own aim. Her deep spirituality shines at various times. 

Iyengar seems to me the best kind of yoga, for all these reasons, And Wasserfall, who is also a Brandeis colleague (in peace studies), is a fine exemplar. The originator, Iyengar himself, would be proud of her.