ABBIGAIL COUEY

Pilates

Abbigail Couey is a Pilates instructor with a passion for mindful movement, functional strength, and helping clients feel at home in their bodies. With a gentle, grounded approach, she blends classical and contemporary Pilates to support mobility, core stability, and overall well-being.

Abbigail believes in meeting each client where they are, offering classes that are both accessible and deeply nourishing. When she’s not teaching, you’ll likely find her soaking up the North Georgia mountains with a good playlist and a strong cup of coffee.

DEBRA RAY

Tai Chi

Debra is a native Floridian who recently moved from Tallahassee FL to Dillard, GA. She began her study and practice of Tai Chi around 1986 in Tallahassee and learned the Taoist style 108 move sequence through its originator, Master Moy Lin Shin, and his instructor students. Debra has continued practicing it over the past three decades interspersed with teaching yoga, Pilates, and SilverSneakers.

Of all forms of exercise, Tai Chi has become her favorite. Debra is happy to share Tai Chi through Thrive Wellness Hub. Its slow, fluid movements are deeply therapeutic for body, mind and spirit, creating a feeling of peaceful strength, vitality and enhanced energy flow. It also improves balance, flexibility, coordination and mindfulness, and is a most pleasurable exercise to practice. Come see for yourself!

LISA EZZARD

Chakra Yoga & Book/Writing Club

Lisa studied yoga in California for 12 years, focusing on heated yoga and Synergy Yoga, a mix between Bikram and Hatha. She recently became re-certified at Asheville Community Yoga and also completed an intensive Chakra workshop. Lisa is a trained West African dancer and taught it for 12 years. Her yoga classes involve breathing methods, strengthening and balancing, stretching, clearing the mind, and relaxation. She seeks to help students work on full body alignment, toning, flexibility, and overall health. 

With a graduate degree in comparative literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Lisa taught literature and writing in places as varied as the University of Bordeaux in France, Idyllwild School of Arts in Southern California, and Piedmont College in Georgia. One of her greatest loves is poetry, and her book of poetry Vintage follows the growing seasons at Tiger Mountain Vineyards. She is published in Appalachian Heritage, The Squaw Valley Review, and From the Web: A Global Anthology of Women's Political Poetry. She also has an essay in Appalachian Adventure: From Georgia to Maine- a Spectacular Journey on the Great American Trail, a book nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.

SUE KNOWLES

Yoga

Sue has a passion for health and wellness. She’s a certified health coach, as well as a practitioner of Reiki, Cranial Sacral therapy, Thai body work, and Reflexology. She has been teaching yoga for the past 20 yrs. After experiencing some health problems, she decided to become a Yoga Therapist. She has worked in private practice and in the medical field with a Cardiologist as a Stress management consultant for Heart Health. 

For fun, while living on Lake Oconee, she added paddle board yoga to the classes she offered. Always a student, in 2024 she spent 2 months in Thailand learning new healing modalities. When teaching, she takes the approach of learning and listening to your body through Asana and breath work.