A Yoga Studio Rooted in Community
Welcome to your new yoga home on Mercer Island
Why Solace, and Why Now?
As a long-time Mercer Island resident, Iška could not find a place to practice that can simply hold space for movement. Just as there is more to who we are than the bodies we inhabit, there is more to yoga than the movement itself.
Solace Yoga is a space where a deepening practice of movement, of meditation, of presence, and of community can all come together. We believe these are all synergistic and transportable. We believe that the lessons we learn on the mat translate well to the many hours of each day we spend off the mat.
Our vision for Solace is a space where teachers co-create experiences with their students, where they can express their own passion for yoga, meditation, and presence as they seek to elevate the lived experience of their students on and off the mat.
With our deepest gratitude We have been humbled by the response we have received from the community. The teachers we had hoped to find found us. In many ways, they have strengthened our commitment and resolve to moving forward with the known sense that as much as we wanted to create this space, Solace Yoga was waiting for us to create it.
Meet Kris
I am a Southeastern native, having spent most of my early life in Georgia and South Carolina. I left there in 2004, called by my career, these vast spaces, and mountains that held snow deep into the summer.
My calling to Solace Yoga was not through the practice of yoga itself. It began about 10 years ago with my first forays into meditation, where I was called as a means of relieving intense stress and anxiety as I was searching for a light in dark times.
And then it became much more. It became a means of understanding the world and my place within it. My practice guided me into an ever-deepening sense of gratitude for life and its splendorous complexity. My practice nurtured my curiosity about the grander senses of meaning and purpose, of the ephemeral and everlasting, of the true nature of being. To be clear, it didn’t offer any answers, only clues and a framework for me to construct my own conclusions based on guidance and intuition.
Meet Iška
I was born and raised in the Czech Republic. After the fall of communism, I left at 18 with nothing but curiosity and a suitcase. My first years abroad were in London, where I learned English, opened my mind, and began shaping the life that would lead me across the ocean. America was supposed to be "just a couple of years." Instead, it's where I built a family, a home, and a life.
I've practiced yoga since moving to the U.S. in 2000. Sometimes devotedly, through both of my pregnancies, and sometimes more loosely, in seasons when life asked more of me: raising babies, navigating hardship, showing up as a single mom. But in every chapter, I found my way back to my mat. It has been my refuge, a place to rebuild from the inside out, and a steady reminder of my own strength.
Before Solace, I poured my creativity into pastry arts and my wedding cake business, a labor of love that closed during COVID. From there, my curiosity led me deeper into the body and healing. I studied integrative nutrition and became a gut health coach and yoga teacher, not for the titles, but from a sincere love of learning how we work, heal, and thrive.
Shiva Rea first inspired my practice. The beauty and grounding presence of the Pacific Northwest shaped it, and local teachers like Lisa Black and Leah Zaccaria deeply supported it.
Solace was born from a very real frustration: I couldn't find meaningful yoga without spending precious hours in the car. As a single mom, I simply couldn't afford that time.
Today, Solace is a sanctuary for presence, connection, and community, a place to move, breathe, and feel supported. It brings me so much joy to watch it come to life and to help cultivate a sense of belonging here on the Island.
My biggest fans are my amazing kids, Yianni, Stefan, Sadie, and Jack, without whom I wouldn't be who I am today, and my incredible husband Kris, my partner in Solace and in life, without whom I wouldn't be where I am today. And of course, Miss Pretzel, the family dog, who makes sure I never go a day without snuggles.
Solace Yoga
Tabit Village Square
7635 SE 27th St
Mercer Island, WA 98040
206.979.7689