Teri Almquist - Studio Director

Teri Almquist is a life-long resident of Massachusetts.  Teri was raised with her four sisters in Medford, Massachusetts by her parents, Jane, a stay-at-home mom, and Henry, a firefighter. Her parents, as well as her grandfather, who was the sergeant of police in Medford, instilled in her a sense of community and duty of service to others. 

In 1984, Teri started a family, and now has two daughters.  While her children were younger, she worked as a mental health care worker in a variety of setting including group homes, day programs and hospitals. This work focused primarily on working with the Deaf Mentally Retarded/ Mentally Ill population. In 1995, while at work, she sustained a spinal injury to her neck that severely impaired her ability to move her head. Despite her injury, she continued to work in the mental health field for many years.

In 1996, Teri moved her family to Haverhill to continue her education at Northern Essex Community College. She graduated in 1997 with a degree in Deaf Studies and became a Sign Language Interpreter. Teri went on to work as a freelance interpreter as well as running the Deaf Studies Lab at Northern Essex Community College a position she held for eight years.

Teri was introduced to Bikram Yoga by her sister, and instantly she realized that yoga would heal her neck injury.  After just a few months of practice, she saw great improvement to her head movement. She continued a regular yoga practice. Teri left her job at Northern Essex in 2005 to pursue her new-found passion for yoga, and went to Los Angeles, CA to train to become a Bikram Yoga instructor. Today Teri is a certified Bikram Yoga instructor who  taught in West Roxbury, Stoughton, Swampscott and other Bikram studios in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Her goal was always to open a Bikram Yoga Studio in the Merrimack Valley area to allow others to reap the benefits this practice brought to her.

Terri Fry 

My older sister dragged me to my first Bikram Yoga class in the fall of 2002. To say I was hooked from day one would be an understatement! From the beginning, I knew I wanted to teach this yoga, it was just a question of when. For the next two years, I continued to do my corporate sales routine, but was becoming increasingly worn down and frustrated by the organization and the life I was leading. I knew a change needed to be made but how to make it happen was still the question.

Overall, human beings are reluctant to make change; we tend to stay in our comfort zone, in what we have become accustomed to even when the situation is not a healthy one. The practice of Bikram Yoga takes one out of that comfort zone and provides the opportunity to make profound and lifelong changes. I literally was “slammed” out of my comfort zone and into the necessary changes to become a Bikram Yoga Instructor. Stopped in traffic one night after being on the road since 6:00 am that morning, I glanced into my rear view mirror and said “HOLY *$%#, THERE’RE NOT GOING TO STOP!”

Sitting in a sea of glass and with the rear end of my car now in the back seat, I knew changes were desperately in order and the time was NOW! I was done with Corporate America; I was over the thrill of closing “the deal,” done with suits, heals, and hose and ready to move onto a new life path. I quit the job, rented the house, put everything in storage, took the dogs to my parents, and went off to attend Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in the spring of 2005. With no regrets, no tears goodbye, and no looking in the rear view mirror!

My life has been an adventure ever since. The opportunities Bikram Yoga has provided me are numerous and wonderfully rewarding. During the past four years, I have been a traveling Bikram Instructor. Teaching as taken me near and far and I have made friends from around the world, seen many, and amazing new sights, and lived all over. In addition to teaching in various places in my home state of California, I have taught here on the east coast, including New York City. I spent a year teaching in Hong Kong and just recently returned from teaching in Malaysia, talk about hot and steamy!

The practice of Bikram Yoga has helped my body stay strong and fit and has improved my mental clarity and focus. The teaching of Bikram Yoga has provided me the opportunity to travel the world and to broaden my life experience through the exploration of new cultures, customs, and people. 

Thida Prete

Sohka Keo-Prete

Maria Wolman

Scott Robinson

Liz Cutts

Dixie Tyrrell