Bluebird Yoga House & Wellness Studio
What our clients are saying...
Bluebird is my happy place! Love Jess and all the instructors. It's such a lovely environment, and I always feel welcome. The monthly membership is very reasonable and there are a lot of available classes.
~ Wendy
Love, love, love this adorable studio in the heart of downtown Dahlonega! The instructor was fantastic with a beautifully quaint space for practicing yoga. Highly recommend!!!
~ Anna
An amazing Yin class with Starr! Thoughtfully planned, fully supported, and easy to slip into the poses. Thank you!
~ Danna
What a lovely space and lovely classes. Your body and mind and spirit will be content.
~ Andrea
Bluebird Yoga House & Wellness Studio is...
...a community-focused boutique yoga and wellness studio located in Dahlonega, Georgia, supporting local residents, university students, and visitors alike. Bluebird Yoga House offers numerous wellness services including group yoga & meditation classes, private sessions, workshops, retreats, and retail products, all designed to support physical health, mental wellness, and personal growth.
At our yoga studio, we offer a welcoming space where people of all experience levels can strengthen their bodies, calm their minds, and reconnect with themselves. From energizing flow classes and gentle restorative sessions to beginner-friendly instruction and mindfulness practices, our experienced teachers are here to support your unique wellness journey.
Meet the Team...
Jess Place, PhD
In 2014, Jess began her yoga journey and became a yoga instructor in 2019 after earning her 200 hour certification through Yoga Alliance. She obtained her 500 hour certification in 2023.
Jess is also a Continuing Yoga Education Provider (YACEP) as well as an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 200). She has also procured her 160 hour meditation teaching certification (CMT).
Incorporating Mindfulness and breathwork into her classes, Jess provides alignment cues and modifications so everyone can derive the benefits of the practice. Her yoga teaching repertoire includes: Power, Vinyasa, Restorative, Slow Flow, Chair Yoga, Beginner's Yoga, Yin, Bikram, and Gentle. She believes all humans can access their authentic selves and live life deeply through the practices of self-acceptance and compassion, both on and off the mat.
Jess is the owner of Bluebird Yoga Studio. She also facilitates and leads yoga and meditation retreats.
Betsy Nagy
Yoga did not just change Betsy's practice — it changed her life. What began as an exploration of movement became a journey inward, opening a path to balance, healing, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be whole.
Betsy is an E-RYT 500, certified Yoga Therapist, Ayurveda Wellness Coach, Reiki Practitioner, and Licensed Mental Health Counselor with Master's degrees in both Counseling Psychology and Business. She spent 25 years navigating the professional world while immersing herself in every dimension of holistic health — and she brings all of it, every lesson, into the room with her.
Her work weaves together the wisdom of yoga, the energetic healing of Reiki, and the insight of counseling psychology into a truly integrated approach to wellness. She believes that mind, body, and soul are inseparable — that one cannot exist without the others — and that healing begins the moment we choose to live with love and acceptance for ourselves.
Danna Foster
Danna is a retired military wife, yoga teacher, farmer, herbalist, and
aromatherapist in training. She has a special fondness for Military Veterans and families and those working through their personal traumas. On her mat, she has worked through experiences that brought her pain and share the profound insight she has learned about living life to the fullest as we heal and grow on this journey. In her classes, we breathe,...a lot. She loves to share her knowledge with others and enjoys using the earth's resources to support lives. She enjoys discussing with students after class the ways they can make their life more enjoyable through yoga, breath, Ayurveda, and natural living. People deserve to live fully and as pain free as possible in
their lives. Additionally, she offers private or group Restorative or Vinyasa sessions.
Christy Holland
Christy’s yoga journey began on the water in 2012, when she started teaching stand-up paddleboard (SUP) yoga. What began as a passion quickly grew into a lifelong calling, and in 2013 she earned her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) certification in power yoga.
In addition to teaching yoga, Christy is a certified Health Coach who works with clients to align their life goals with overall well-being—physically, mentally, and emotionally. She believes true health comes from nurturing the whole person, both on and off the mat.
Over the years, Christy has continued to expand her expertise by earning a 300-hour RYT certification, as well as certifications in aerial yoga and TRX yoga. She is also currently pursuing her mat Pilates certification.
A wife and mother of two adult children, Christy finds joy in spending time outdoors and staying connected to nature, which continues to inspire her teaching and wellness philosophy.
Martha Dickerson
Joyful, energizing, and intentional, Martha's classes blend creative asana, breathwork, and mindful transitions to build strength, flexibility, and balance. She encourages students to move with awareness, creating space to fully experience each pose and connect with their breath.
As a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, E-RYT 200, and YACEP, Martha brings experience, inspiration, and heart into every class. Her teaching style is uplifting and accessible, often weaving in inspirational readings and moments of reflection that nourish both body and mind.
Off the mat, Martha enjoys reading more than one book at a time, learning something new every day, traveling, and camping with her husband and her fur baby Ruby. After retiring from a successful corporate management career in 2016, she embraced a lifestyle centered on wellness, personal growth, and meaningful connections. She treasures time with family and friends and is passionate about helping others discover greater strength, balance, and joy through yoga.
Starr Kriener
Starr is a Georgia native who grew up in Roswell and has been inching her way North for over 2 decades, with Dahlonega as the goal for her final destination.
She discovered yoga in 2016 at her local parks and recreation department, was immediately intrigued and pursued yoga on a deeper level, which eventually led to becoming a certified instructor. Starr earned her 200 hour YTT Certificate under Akasha Searcy in 2021 and views her practice as far more than just physical asana. Her outlook on life has changed through yoga, and it is her desire to share that with others by helping them escape their mind and move
into their body. Starr views yoga as a “work-in”, not a “work-out”.
In her off time when she is not taking workshops, teaching, or practicing yoga, Starr enjoys photography, spending time with f(r)amily, hiking, gardening and dabbling in herbalism. She believes in yoga as a healing modality and is eager to share the beautiful practice and all it has to offer with her students.
Starr continues to take advantage of every opportunity to train and learn and will forever consider herself a student of this ancient and beautiful practice.
Rah Howell, (aka Rah Howl)
Rah has been teaching yoga since 2018, moving between two very different energies: the stillness and surrender of yin and yoga nidra, and the precision and activation of Iyengar-inspired alignment-based flow, built to move the body with intention and build resilience. Rah's teaching is rooted in spanda, the tantric pulse of perpetual expansion and contraction that moves through all things ~ the same rhythm found in the breath, the heartbeat, and the ebb between doing and undoing. She also enjoys incorporating sound healing, pranayama, meditation, and nourishing the soul with insightful writings into her classes. Her belief is simple: intentional work, wild play, and radical rest are all sacred, and a full life makes room for each.
What makes her classes different is the depth she brings to the mat: over a decade of bodywork (therapeutic massage, orthopedic manual therapy, and Thai bodywork), and years of work as a Master Transformational Healing Coach, Board-Certified Hypnotherapist and Master NLP practitioner helping people release the emotional and limiting belief patterns that keep them stuck so they may live vibrant and pleasurable lives. That depth shows up in how she teaches: precise, playful, (sometimes a little rebellious), present, and attuned to what's actually happening in the room. As one student put it, "I've never been more IN my body and attuned to my mind until taking Rah's classes."
She recently spent six weeks in Medellín, Colombia, in a yoga teaching internship with an accompanying Spanish language immersion program, studying under a range of teachers and styles from all over the globe, while teaching in the community in both Spanish and English.
When she's not teaching, you'll find her singing karaoke, practicing her Spanish, salsa or pole dancing, going down a rabbit hole with a new interest (currently it's DJing), traveling to a concert or festival, or planning her next trip through Central and South America. She also serves as a Board Member for No One Alone, a local non-profit dedicated to ending domestic violence.
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