Our Teachers
Cote Shaw
(Owner, Operator, Instructor)
Cote believes strongly in the idea of maintaining balance, and truly believes yoga is the most ancient and consistent practice to help us strike this balance.. With an ever evolving passion for movement of all kinds, his classes are highly physical but psychologically demanding as well, with a strong focus on mindful movement and breathwork.
A student of his mama, first and foremost, who has been a yoga teacher for over 30 years.. but learning from other greats along the way including David Swenson, Jonny Gillespie and Natasha Rizopoulos, to develop his own traditional but eclectic style, that he is humbled and honored to bring to others through the beautiful space of Mati Yoga..
Chris Peña
Chris is a dreamer, mindfulness practitioner, and leadership coach who brings authenticity, curiosity, and compassion into everything he does. After breaking two bones in his lower back in 2015, Chris began a journey of healing that transformed not only his body but also his life. Yoga became a tool for holding space for chronic pain and rebuilding from the inside out. Today, his practice is rooted in functional strength, stability, and mobility, anchored by a deep respect for the body’s innate wisdom.
Chris has been studying yoga and meditation since 2015, completing his 200 hour RYT through MetroWest Yoga and earning a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. He is currently an apprentice in the Immortal Arts Qi Gong tradition, training with Master Jesse Lee Parker. His studies also include certifications in personal training, nutrition, and wellness coaching from ACE, Precision Nutrition, the Integrative Wellness Academy, and iPEC.
In addition to teaching, Chris is an entrepreneur and business educator. He holds a Bachelor’s in Management and Finance and recently completed his MBA at Roger Williams University. He now serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Mario J. Gabelli School of Business, where he teaches leadership and mindfulness to emerging professionals. Chris also leads Feedback Loop Coaching, where he helps individuals and teams reduce stress, build resilience, and unlock their full potential.
Whether in the studio or the classroom, Chris weaves together his experience with corporate leadership, wellness, and personal transformation to create grounded, heart centered spaces for growth. His classes invite students to explore with presence and love, reminding us that when we slow down and listen, healing becomes possible.
Doreen DeFazio
Doreen began studying Yoga in her twenties, and is an E-RYT500 certified vinyasa, ayurveda and kundalini yoga teacher. She has led workshops, retreats and teacher trainings and studies yogic traditions such as vinyasa, kundalini, hatha, bhakti, restorative and ayurvedic principles.
She received her RYT200 certification in Worcester in 2017, and her RYT300 at The Kripalu School of Yoga in 2020. She completed an additional 300 hours from the Kripalu School of Ayurveda and is a certified Kripalu Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher. Her most influential teachers include Yoganand Michael Caroll, Kia Miller, Tommy Rosen, Kate O’Donnell and Larissa Hall Carlson, among so many other incredible teachers on her path, including all the teachers at Mati Yoga. There is always something to learn from each other in this never-ending practice and she is humbled by her teachers and students every day.
Her classes are often explorative and playful, leaving inner peace and expanded self-awareness. Her goal is to lead students through immersive and transformational experiences, that can bring a level of expansion and personal power. Her classes are a powerful mix of asana, breath and meditation. All the yogic traditions remind us that we are infused with an incredible life force. What prevents us from experiencing ourselves is conditioned behaviors. The practice of Yoga brings us back to our true brilliance and joy.
Rachel Goldberg
As a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner (ELI-MP), Rachel integrates her devotion to energetic health with intuitive pattern recognition skills and iPEC coaching tools to facilitate attitudinal awareness for her clients. Creating a safe space for her clients to withdraw from external pressures and witness their patterns without judgment, Rachel’s coaching practice empowers her clients to radically accept what currently is, while making clear focused decisions for moving forward. Working as a team, Rachel supports her clients in designing and achieving goals born from their authentic spirits.
Rachel hired her first Energy Leadership coach in 2013, who introduced her to Emotional Intelligence as a key trait of an effective and regenerative leader. This knowledge inspired an extensive exploration into the energetics of leadership. After four years of applying her leadership studies in the workplace, Rachel decided to leave her corporate career to embark on a journey to help other sensitive and creative souls uncover the self-propelled leader from within.
Rachel’s greatest passion is cultivating intimate connection through ceremony. Connection between self and spirit, humanity and nature, and most of all, unconditionally loving and accepting connection between people. She believes the art of ceremony is one of the most potent ways to create a sacred space in which each soul feels seen, heart, and witnessed. A space in which to surrender to vulnerability and expression. After having developed a personal ceremonial practice with cacao as her guide in 2018, Rachel is honored to spread this heart-opening medicine to the western world. To foster and nurture intimacy among those called to take the journey. To hold space as we drop from the busy and guarded head space into the raw and open heart space.
Sara Basile
Sara discovered yoga in 2010 to cope with the stressors upon the completion of her undergraduate degree. Not long after her first class, she quickly fell in love with the asana practice, and the affirmative effects it had on her overall attitude. As someone who attempted many modalities of movement in adolescence, Sara knew yoga would soon become essential in life.
Sara completed the YogaWorks 200-hour RYT certification and began teaching in 2017. She then completed the 500-hour advanced training with Jason Crandell in 2021, amongst a handful of other trainings with incredible teachers who have influenced her teaching. The approach Sara take to her classes is foundational, functional, and 100 % inclusive. With these components, we can take the yoga practice off the mat and make effective into the world.
Sara believes that this practice is for all people in all communities. She welcomes everyone into a diverse space to create deeper connection with the self and to cultivate positive conviction in the world. Sara aspires that her classes will leave you feeling embodied, impowered, and invigorated.
What You Can Expect from Sara’s Classes
“My education is influenced by the Vinyasa method, with a focus on linking breath with movement in a way that allows the body to fully connect to the offered asana postures. Although, I have become inspried by a variety of contributions from multipole yoga schools, including concepts from mediation and mindfulness practices. I ask students to challenge themselves during their practice through an approach that is compassionate and embodied. Giving students full agency to mindfully choose posture variations for their experience. Expect to feel challenged in a way that is strong, balanced, and explorative. It is my deep-held belief that yoga is not only a practice on the mat, but a way to live; it is about liberation. Liberation for everyone. It is my hope that my class is a space where people can come to connect with themselves and others.”
Melissa Aura
Melissa is a Reiki Master, 200-hour yoga teacher, and lifelong spiritual practitioner. Raised in the Chicagoland area within a Buddhist household, her early years were immersed in chanting, meditation, and spiritual exploration. These foundations continue to shape her holistic path of healing, creativity, and embodied practice.
Melissa was first attuned to Reiki energy healing in 2013. Yoga found her in her early twenties, and what began as a physical practice soon became a profound journey of self-discovery. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training with Metrowest Yoga in May 2022 and received her Reiki Master certification in the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage in March of the same year. In March 2025, she expanded her studies into Taoist internal arts through an online Neidan Inner Alchemy training based in Japan.
Melissa’s classes are infused with integrity, self-love, and deep meditation. With a playful connection to the inner child spirit, she invites students to blend joyful curiosity with grounded presence. Her intuitive and sensitive approach helps students feel safe, seen, and supported. She creates space where others can fully let go and return home to themselves.
A devoted mother and creative soul, Melissa brings the rhythm of daily life into her teaching. For her, creation is at the heart of everything. Whether through writing, painting, music, or simply living with intention and joy, she sees yoga as a sacred return to essence and holds space for others to explore their own inner landscapes with compassion, presence, and love.
Michele Hutchinson
Michele is a 200-hour certified yoga teacher through Breathe For Change, with a teaching approach rooted in mindfulness, self-awareness, and holistic wellness. She holds a background in Early Childhood Education and is currently pursuing a degree in Counseling Psychology, integrating therapeutic and trauma-informed principles into her classes.
As a long-standing member of the Mati Yoga community, Michele draws from years of personal practice and community connection.
While she primarily works with young children, incorporating yoga and mindfulness into early education settings to support emotional development and self-regulation, she is also passionate about sharing her practice with adults and fellow educators, offering gentle, reflective classes that support nervous system balance, self-care, and inner growth.
Her teaching invites students of all ages to move with intention, breathe with awareness, and reconnect with themselves in a supportive, accessible space.