About the salt barre

The Salt Barre, owned by Michele Casey, Katie Duffy, & Alyssa Kashuda is honored to be part of the Downtown Pittston revitalization. The mission of The Salt Barre is to channel a clear perspective and encourage personal power; take steps every day to be stronger and better; fundamentally seeing the goodness of others, and being “the salt of the earth”. The studio offers hot yoga, barre, and pilates in a brand-new facility, with a properly controlled heating system. It also includes Pittston’s first Himalayan Salt meditation room and a flotation suite room.

Meet The Owners

Michele Casey was born and raised in Pittston PA, a graduate of Pittston Area High School & Misericordia University with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy and a minor in Psychology. After many years practicing OT in geriatric nursing facilities & home health, she was constantly surrounded by illness. Michele suffered back pain and exhaustion daily as a result of her scoliosis and her long term issues with posture and pain. Then, Michele found yoga.

After a few years of practicing yoga and seeing her transformation, Michele’s focus changed to wellness. She completed 100 hours of yoga teacher training and has previously taught in Luzerne County. Michele believes health is not an absence of illness, but overall wellbeing.

Michele currently works as the CFO for Casey Dental with her husband Shawn. They expanded his dental practice to include multiple professions all on one campus. Now she is ready to share and empower others in their personal journey. Michele believes a full breath will ground the physical body, which is why she incorporates salt therapy with body movement and muscular and cognitive relaxation.

Michele says her goal is for the Salt Barre clientele is to, “incorporate a lifestyle change.” She says, “Transformation only begins with you. I hope the services we provide are a tool for wellbeing and empowering your journey. Many will say how long do I have to do this? I say if you feel good doing it, why would you want to stop? Just like brushing your teeth, if you stop doing it, you will lose the benefits? I continually find yoga to be my therapy. Greater Pittston is my home and I want to make The Salt Barre feel like home.”

Katie Duffy is not sure if she found barre or if barre found her. Regardless, she fell in love! How can a routine that is so graceful and soft be so intense? After nearly 3 years of teaching, Katie has not plateaued. For those of you not familiar with barre, it is an isometric routine that encompasses segments of ballet, yoga, and pilates. There is something gratifying about holding a first position plie and having your legs shake like crazy. Katie knew she was hooked and felt motivated to get certified. She is certified by the International Ballet Barre Fitness Association in beginner and advanced barre.

Katie loves the versatility of barre. There are classes where she will spend most of the time at the barre, whereas other times, she'll have everyone always on the mat. Sometimes we do arms standing, sometimes sitting, and props can range from a mini ball to bands, to nothing. It always changes.

For all of her professional career, she worked in corporate Human Resources. Despite long hours, enormous stress, and travel, it has taught her the most fundamental aspects of business and operations management: customer service, people management, and efficiency operations. She plans to incorporate these fundamentals to the studio, including respect for people’s time.

Katie says, "I get it. Its hard to fit in exercise. I want to be sure your time at the studio is worth every penny, every minute, and you walk away feeling stronger, better than when you walked in, empowered, and relaxed. We owe that you!"

She has taught at Home Yoga & Barre in West Pittston & volunteers at the Greater Pittston YMCA. She loves getting to know her students saying, "it's humbling to see progress with their balance and strength. I have 70+ year old standing on one foot without holding onto anything standing next to a teen – it’s incredible how barre can adapt to a wide range of students."

Katie is excited about the studio mission: those that we will inspire, and those that will inspire us. She's grateful to the opportunity to offer so many health and wellness benefits to the greater Pittston area. Katie resides in West Pittston with her husband Jay and boys, Chase and Cash.

The Salt Barre is home to a variety of yoga classes for you to find some peace of mind. We tailor our class offerings to experts and beginners alike. Not every yoga class is alike. Every class can offer you something different.

hours of Operation:

CLASS SCHEDULE

At The Salt Barre, we are open 7 days per week with a variety of classes and therapy sessions. On a daily basis we have the following activities:

Barre Classes
Pilates Classes
Yoga Classes
Massage Therapy
Reiki Sessions
Salt Room Therapy Sessions
Float Pod Sessions

Alyssa Kashuda came to yoga when she was in a depression and experiencing anxiety after a bad breakup. Surprisingly to her, it became a staple and is still a constant for her.

"My yoga and meditation practice is how I come 'home' to myself daily. Whenever I feel off balance or out of sorts, is when I need these practices most, and they get me through the worst of times and allow me to see new perspectives daily."

Alyssa has been teaching yoga since 2013, along with diving into anxiety coaching for women.

She has also been teaching barre since 2015 and has just begun practicing Reiki in 2022 to enhance her classes and support others even more on their journey to wellness, mind, body, and soul.

Alyssa loves to meet everyone and learn their stories as they come to the studio. "Seeing everyone on their own journeys and learning what this practice has done for them makes this so rewarding to be on this journey with them."

She really loves teaching all levels yoga classes and beginners, as there is no "right" way to "do yoga" and you cannot be "bad" at it.

"My mission is to help people connect so much with themselves that they truly believe this after attending yoga classes."