iRest® Yoga Nidra at The Yoga Tree

What is iRest® Yoga Nidra?

iRest is a simple and accessible form of meditation designed for modern day living. Backed by extensive research, iRest can help people navigate all of life's challenges and enhance one's sense of well being and peace.

Ongoing Classes,
Workshops, Trainings, Retreats!
scroll down to learn more!

Morning Meditation (mini-iRest)
Mondays and Fridays
on Zoom
9-9:30 am with Susanne Hutchinson
FREE

iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation
Tuesdays, 10:30-11:30 am with Susanne, In-person and on Zoom
Wednesdays, 6:00-7:00 pm with Kelly on Zoom
Use your class pass or drop-in ($22 in person, $16 on zoom)

iRest Advanced Topic Series
Tuesdays, 6:00-7:15 pm with Jennifer
iRest for Challenging Times begins April 8!

iRest Level 1 Yoga Nidra Training is back at The Yoga Tree!
with Jennifer Cabanero, in person!
June 13-15 and 20-22, 2025 Register
See details below!

iRest Fundamentals - 6 Week Series
Mondays, 6:00-7:15 pm with Susanne Hutchinson
Offered every 6 weeks on Zoom
$90 for the series, or drop-in to any single session for $16
Next series begins April 14.

Friday Night Yoga Nidra
Offered monthly, 6:30-8:00 pm, In-person and on Zoom
with Jennifer Kenworthy
$35
May 9, June 6

Songs of the Breath & iRest Yoga Nidra: A Mini-Retreat
with Kelly Walker
May 17, 1:00-3:00 pm, $45, Registration Now Open!

Silent Meditation Retreat at Aldermarsh on Whidbey Island
with Susanne Hutchinson and Kelly Walker
August 29-31, 2025, Registration now open!

iRest® Fundamentals:
A 6 week series
with Susanne Hutchinson
Mondays, April 14-May 19
6:00-7:15 pm Pacific on Zoom
$90 for the Series or drop in to any single session for $16

Mondays, April 14-May 19
6:00-7:15 pm Pacific, Online via Zoom
$90 for the series, or drop in to any single session for $16. You can also use your class pass for any single session.
Preregistration required. You will receive a Zoom link in your email prior to the start of class.
CEU's for Yoga Alliance available!

Whether you are brand new to iRest Yoga Nidra, or have been taking classes but are wanting to spend a bit more time exploring the fundamental aspects of the protocol, this Fundamentals Series is for you.

Each week, Susanne will guide you through an in-depth exploration of a different step of the iRest protocol. Class will consist of some lecture, discussion, and a guided practice.

This series can serve as a great place to begin before taking one of Jennifer’s advanced series, or as a supplement to the weekly drop-in classes.

Week 1 - Inner Resource - Discovering our felt sense of security and well-being - April 14
Week 2 - Intention and Heartfelt Desire - Laying the foundation of Sankalpa: making commitments that support our heart’s longing - April 21
Week 3 - Body sensation - Sensing and welcoming the body as sensation - April 28
Week 4 - Breath sensing - Experiencing the breath as a flow of energy that moves through the body - May 5
Week 5 - Meeting thoughts and emotions - May 12
Week 6 - Joy and Well-being - Welcoming joy independent of objects or circumstance, and Realizing our Essential Nature - May 19

This series will run continuously, every 6 weeks. So if you miss one week, no worries! You can catch it the next time around, or drop in to any single session that you want to spend more time exploring.

Songs of the Breath & iRest® Yoga Nidra:
A Mini-Retreat
with Kelly Walker
Saturday, May 17
1:00-3:00 pm, $45

Saturday, May 17
1:00-3:00 pm, in-person only
$45, preregistration required

This 2-hour mini-retreat highlights the vibrancy of sound via yogic breath practices and a deeply restful iRest Yoga Nidra practice. Pranayama, or breath practices, will be woven through a slow progression from an opening restorative pose to a gentle, easy whole body stretch. These will be followed by an exploration of breath practices, taken while seated, supine, and standing, creating a gateway to inner exploration and well being. The finale will be a rich guided iRest® Yoga Nidra practice, the Sleep of the Yogis. This total experience is designed to uncover pathways to relaxation, peace, well-being, and our Essential Nature of wholeness, while witnessing the truth of each moment.

What to expect:

An opening restorative pose for turning inward
Gentle stretches for whole body release
A variety of guided breath practices for meditative vibrancy, including special variations of Hum Breath (Bhramari) and Ocean Breath (Ujjayi) exploring the sounds of the breath
A guided iRest Yoga Nidra practice for rest and inner exploration

Please feel free to dress comfortably in warm clothing, if you like. Thank you in advance for arriving 10-15 minutes before the experience starts and for bringing a yoga mat. Doors are closed five minutes after the session starts.

“Pranayama is an art form, a way of communicating – purifying, detoxifying, spiritually enlightening, freeing. Its gifts, numerous and varied, accrued through practice. Enjoy creating energetic pathways with abandon…”
-Linda Oshins, “Pranayama: A Compendium of Practices”

Registration now open!
iRest® Yoga Nidra Level 1 Training
with Jennifer Cabanero
June 13-15 and 20-22
In-person at The Yoga Tree

June 13-15 and 20-22 (see detailed schedule below)
with Senior iRest Trainer Jennifer Cabanero
In-person at The Yoga Tree
Early Bird Price: $1,495 (Available through May 13, 2025)
Regular Price: $1,695

iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1 Trainings are designed to provide you with the basic principles, history, theory, practice, and delivery of iRest. This will allow you to incorporate the simple 10-step iRest protocol into your personal life, professional teaching, and/or clinical practices.

This training is a multi-day practical and experiential program that teaches the research-backed 10-Step iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation protocol. It offers you all of the tools and experience required to deeply enrich your personal practice and teach the fundamentals of iRest to others.

This training is a dedicated time to embark on a journey to discover your unwavering inner resource of wellbeing and unlock simple and profound tools that transform how you meet yourself, navigate life and learn to support others to do the same.

Our students usually fall into three categories:

The self-practitioners: People from all over the world who are seeking authentic connection, relief from inner turmoil, or are simply curious about meditation as a tool for self-inquiry.
The 1-on-1 practitioners: Yoga therapists, psychologists, clinicians, and practitioners of the healing arts looking to learn new skills and incorporate this complementary practice into their toolbox.
The group facilitators: Professionals looking to teach iRest to people in general settings like yoga classes and more specialized treatment facilities such as rehabilitation centers.

What will I learn?

How to better understand your thoughts, emotions, and difficult experiences so that you can use them as messengers toward inner freedom and renewed ease.
How to move beyond attachment and identification with your body, mind, and experiences to uncover feelings of peace, wholeness and authenticity.
How to apply the 10-step iRest protocol in your own life and deliver it as an offering to individuals and groups.

By the end of the training you’ll be confident and competent in your personal practice and ability to guide and teach others.

Schedule:
Weekend 1 Friday-Sunday June 13-15
Friday, June 13:
3:15 PM - 3:30 PM Orientation
3:30 PM - 8:00 PM Program
Saturday, June 14:
9:00 AM-6:00 PM Program
12:30 PM-2:00 PM Lunch
Sunday, June 15:
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Program
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch
Weekend 2 Friday-Sunday June 20-22
Friday, June 20:
3:00 PM - 8:00 PM Program
Saturday, June 21:
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Program
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Lunch
Sunday, June 22:
9:00 AM-5:30 PM Program
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM Lunch

Registration now open!
iRest® Meditation Silent Retreat
with Susanne Hutchinson and Kelly Walker
August 29-31, 2025
Aldermarsh Retreat Center on Whidbey Island

August 29-31, 2025
With Susanne Hutchinson and Kelly Walker
$850 Early Bird Price until June 25, 2025/$900 after June 25
Price includes shared lodging and delicious vegetarian meals prepared by Ayurvedic Chef, Aria Peterman

Aldermarsh Retreat Center on Whidbey Island
6436 Maxwelton Rd.
Clinton, WA 98236

Silent retreat is a chance to connect with ourselves at a deeper level. With fewer distractions we become tuned in to our inner life, our hopes, and our dreams. We also become aware of the beliefs that we have about ourselves and the world around us. With time, as the stream of thoughts begin to slow down, we experience mini-moments of true calm and peace. In this way, silent retreat can yield fresh perspective, and bring clarity to our state of mind. Coming out of silence, there is often a renewed sense of gratitude for ourselves and for life just as it is.

The ancient non-dual teachings behind iRest Yoga Nidra help us to reconnect with our essential nature; the part of ourselves that is grounded, whole and unchanging no matter what occurs in our lives. Retreat is a precious time that we can set aside to dedicate our selves to nourishing our inherent wholeness.

This retreat offers the perfect combination of guided iRest meditation, body-sensing movement, breath-sensing, sitting, walking, and co-meditation. It is through practicing meditation in movement, stillness, and with others that we experience first hand how these teachings come alive for us as a practice of life.
This retreat is open to students of all levels who wish to sample the fullness iRest offers for health, healing, and wholeness of being. Come prepared to explore stillness, movement, laughter, and delight.

Upon registration, please let us know of any food allergies or dietary restrictions and if you are coming with a friend or would like us to pair you with a roommate. All rooms are shared lodging.

Meet Our iRest® Teachers
click on pictures for credentials and bio

“One day you finally knew what you had to do and began...” ~ Mary Oliver

Jennifer was introduced to Hatha yoga when she was a child by her mother who had learned it in turn, from her mother. Jennifer began teaching Hatha yoga in 1998. In 2003, Jennifer was introduced to the teachings of Dr. Richard Miller and the deeply healing practice of iRest® Yoga Nidra. In just a few sessions, she felt a profound shift in her ability to be at ease amidst the ups and downs of life.

Jennifer has trained extensively with Dr. Richard Miller in the art and craft of iRest® Yoga Nidra. She has been assisting in iRest trainings and retreats since 2012. She is a Senior iRest Teacher Trainer and a Certification Supervisor for the Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI) an educational non-profit, that provides programs, teacher trainings, and retreats based on the ancient teachings of Yoga. Come to her Tuesday morning or Wednesday night classes to find out more about this profound practice of restoration and self-inquiry.

In her movement classes she encourages connecting with the breath and sensation, moment to moment, so that the poses arise from an inner wisdom rather than an outer form imposed upon the body. Jennifer’s students describe her as wise, approachable, intuitive and supportive. She infuses her classes with poetry and with a profound insight into the workings of the body and the nature of the human spirit.

Her Hatha Yoga teaching has been inspired by Donna Farhi, Gary Kraftsow, and Richard Miller, She loves exploring BodySensing Yoga, Developmental Movement Patterns, Somatics, functional movement, and strength training.

She is known for her infectious laugh and her abundant garden (those are her beautiful flowers you see at the studio). In addition to brightening the studio with her plants and personality, she also co-manages the studio.

In her own life, she has used yoga to heal from a severe back injury and uses iRest Yoga Nidra meditation as a way to nurture herself as she supports her husband, who lives with cancer. In her spare time she runs wild with her two nieces, enjoys cooking (she used to be a pastry chef!) and spending as much time out of doors as possible.

Through the teachings of iRest Yoga Nidra, Jennifer has become aware of a deep sense of wholeness that has always been present and with this wholeness, an ability to fully welcome life with all of its ups and downs. How could she not share this with the world?

Jennifer Cabanero (she/her) E-RYT 500, C-IAYT iRest® Senior Teacher Trainer iRest® Certification Supervisor

Susanne’s early experiences with yoga began as a small girl practicing along in her fuzzy pink pajamas with PBS’ Lillias, Yoga, and You. Many years later she tiptoed shyly into a class at the local gym searching for a way to alleviate stress and anxiety. She has been a devoted practitioner ever since, exploring many different styles and teachers.
Susanne firmly believes in the accessibility of yoga, and that anyone and everyone can experience its joy as well as its physical and mental benefits. Susanne is a student of yoga first and foremost, studying with amazing teachers from all over the world. Susanne has been teaching since 2010, and is registered with Yoga Alliance. In addition to Hatha Yoga and Chair Yoga, Susanne teaches the mindful practices of Yin and Restorative Yoga and Yoga Nidra. She is a Certified iRest® Yoga Nidra Instructor, and has assisted in numerous trainings, retreats and immersions.

With Susanne, you can expect a class that is approachable, balanced, and a little bit playful. You might hear the occasional giggle or “ya’ll”. You will be encouraged to explore how poses feel in your body and maybe discover something new about yourself or experience a pose in a different way.

Off the mat, Susanne enjoys hiking and traveling with her husband and celebrating life with family and friends.

Susanne Hutchinson (she/her) Owner, Director of Teacher Training E-RYT 500, YACEP Certified iRest® Instructor

Kelly Walker is a Certified iRest® Instructor, Registered Yoga Instructor (RYT 200) and Certified Pranayama Instructor, with a Master in Education. She began her Yoga Nidra journey in 2013, taking her first iRest class with the masterful Senior iRest Trainer & Supervisor Jennifer Cabanero, at The Yoga Tree. Over the years, Kelly has dedicated herself to the practice and study of Yoga Nidra and Pranyama, studying Pranayama with the esteemed Linda Oshins and iRest with Jennifer and many other wonderful Senior iRest Facilitators, as well as taking general yoga studies with Susanne Hutchinson. At the iRest Institute, she serves as an Professional Assistant for teacher training and retreats. Kelly is thrilled to offer Yoga Nidra and Pranayama classes, workshops, and retreats at The Yoga Tree, as the studio is near and dear to her heart. To all of these endeavors, Kelly brings skills from a 25+ year career as an educator, offering a warm atmosphere, space for exploration, and a sincere, heartfelt dedication to these beloved, transformational practices!

Kelly Walker RYT 200 Certified iRest® Teacher Certified Pranayama Teacher

Jennifer Kenworthy (she/her) RYT 200 iRest® Level 2 Teacher