© TENTH GATE CENTER FOR YOGA & MEDITATION – 2020
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Co-Founder and Director/Tenth Gate
Reinette has been a student of various schools of yoga for almost 40 years. In 2003, she walked into her first Kundalini Yoga class. “I really had no knowledge of what Kundalini Yoga was,” Reinette said. “It turned out to be quite different from anything I had done before. What I remember the most is leaving that class with an incredible and unforgettable sense of well-being and peace. I felt lighter and brighter with a calm beautiful energy… I couldn’t wait for my next class. I can honestly say that my experience with Kundalini Yoga has changed my life in ways I never could have imagined.”
Reinette became so passionate about this form of yoga that she soon entered the 200-hour teacher training program at Baba Siri Chand Ashram in Millis, MA., where she became KRI certified. She holds the E-RYT500 and YACEP designation from Yoga Alliance.
In 2008, Reinette and her husband, Tom Speare, opened the Tenth Gate Center for Yoga and Meditation in Portsmouth, RI. She served as its director for 12 years. In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision was made to close the doors of Tenth Gate’s brick and mortar and take all classes and programming to Live Stream.
In 2016, Reinette founded the Tenth Gate School for Yoga and Energy Healing, which is registered with Yoga Alliance. The school offers 200 and 300 hour Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training certification.
In 2017, she spent a month in India for a 200 hour esoteric advanced teacher training–The Making of a Yogi– with master teacher Yogi Amandeep Singh. Her other teachers have included Hari Kaur Khalsa (Co-Founder Hari NYC), Guru Singh (LA), and Gurucharan Singh (Former Director KRI).
Reinette is also a Reiki Master Teacher and holds an MFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts/Dartmouth. In addition to teaching kundalini yoga and meditation, she also teaches Reiki Certification courses from First Degree to Master Teacher level and offers Reiki Healing sessions at the studio. She resides in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine with her husband, Yogi Tom, who is also a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher.
Co-Founder and Director of Corporate Programs & Director of Tools for Today & Tomorrow
Having been given the nickname “spirit” by his mother at a very early age, Tom took the long route to discovering the true meaning of the word. After many interests and many career moves over nearly a half-century, he landed in the yogic realm in the early 2000s. At first it was a Hatha practice, and then Kundalini yoga, the place where so much has unfolded over the past 15 years. Slowly but steadily Tom has embodied a life with spirit at the center of all things.
Tom completed his 200-hour Level 1 Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training program in June of 2007 at the Baba Siri Chand Ashram in Millis, MA. In October of 2008, he and his wife, Reinette Fournier, opened The Tenth Gate Center for Yoga and Meditation, Inc.
Since 2008, Tom has been teaching Kundalini Yoga and meditation in weekly classes, offering workshops and participating in additional trainings offered at Tenth Gate and beyond. He completed a 200-hour Advanced Teacher Training, “The Making of a Yogi,” in Leh, Ladakh, India in 2017 with Master Teacher Yogi Amandeep Singh. His teachers also include Hari Kaur Khalsa (NYC), Mata Mandir Singh (MT) and Guru Singh (CA). In 2016, he completed the five KRI Level II courses, a 300-hour program, and has been designated as an E-RYT500 teacher by Yoga Alliance.
Tom is also Director of Corporate Programs at Tenth Gate and leads the Tenth Gate WorkPlace WellBeing, and the Tools For Today & Tomorrow programs, providing stress and anxiety reduction courses to schools, businesses and non-profit organizations in RI and Southern NE. A gifted speaker, Tom is known for his grounded and heart-centered approach to teaching.
Kundalini Yoga Teacher
Tessy Seward has been a joyful and devoted student of yoga for more than 25 years. She began practicing Kundalini in 2016 and completed the 200 hour teacher training program with Reinette Fournier and Tom Speare at Tenth Gate in 2020. Tessy’s spiritual path is closely connected with her commitment to social justice. She believes in the power of creativity, collaboration and radical love to both foster community and to evolve it. In 2007, just before welcoming her first child, Tessy co-founded Maine Inside Out, a collective of artists leading theater workshops in prisons and jails. She has spent the past fifteen years growing both her family and this fledgling nonprofit organization focused on theater for social change (both have expanded considerably!) Tessy is licensed as a clinical counselor (LCPC) , with a Masters Degree in Counseling from the University of Southern Maine, and a BA in English from Williams College. In addition to her yoga practice, Tessy’s connection to the natural world forms the foundation of her well-being and joy. She considers herself a student of many teachers, including her three children and the animals and plants of the forests, mountains, and waters of her home state, Maine. She is currently studying herbalism. You can find her roaming the woods in all seasons of the year to forage for wild medicinal plants and fungi, and then in the kitchen preparing tinctures, teas and salves to share with family and friends.