welcome to the collective
Collective Flow
Hi! We're the Chirches, a husband and wife duo dedicated to making a healing impact in the city of Milwaukee. We met in a yoga studio, lived above a yoga studio, and adopted our dog at a yoga studio, which is why yoga is one vessel we utilize to create change. While the physical movement of yoga is beneficial and a huge part of our practice, we also focus on incorporating mindfulness, breath work, and functional health practices into daily life to create long term change.
meet us
Jess Chirchirillo
Jess Chirchirillo
Jess Chirchirillo
Owner
Yoga Instructor & Functional Health Coach
Hi! I’m Jess. My journey into yoga and wellness started with efforts to strengthen my mental health and the search for self love. I quickly realized how I unintentionally gained noticeable strength, confidence, and physical health along the way. Yoga has been a resource to me in the times I've needed healing most.
I have been practicing yoga for 13 years and a 200 hour certified yoga teacher for 6 years. I have experience teaching many styles of yoga like Yin and Restorative, Vinyasa, and Sculpt. I feel very passionately about the yoga philosophy & lifestyle, and have made it my mission to help others practice daily movement, meditation, and breathing techniques. I work to create an environment where students feel comfortable to practice and think freely.
When we work to find balance and creativity outside of business tasks, I love reading books or crafting while Mike plays music, learning through continuing education and podcasts, and taking our sweet yoga puppy, Kota, to the dog park.
Mike Chirchirillo
Jess Chirchirillo
Jess Chirchirillo
Owner
Personal Trainer & Functional Health Coach
Hey, I’m Mike. I feel like the past 17 years of my life’s thoughts have pretty much been consumed with answering my own question “What’s my why?”. I’ve been on a journey trying to figure out what the hell I’m passionate about….and then figure out how to get paid to do them. That endless journey has led me to the world of one-on-one, performance enhancement coaching.I’ve been an ACE certified personal trainer since 2017 and received my Functional Medicine Health Coach certification through the FMCA in June of 2021.
I’m coming to find that I may not be for everyone. I try to only speak from my personal experiences. And personally, the biggest hurdle on my own wellness journey has been figuring out how to practically build healthy habits into the craziness of my busy life that’s actively in motion. You know… all the those “successful people” routines you read about with early AM wake ups, dedicated fitness practices, control eating habits, reading, journaling, meditating…like how? It sounds great and all, but how?So that’s my focus, that’s my crowd, that’s my jam, that’s who I want to help.
The everyday hustler out there that won’t accept that high ambition has to mean high stress. The lone CEO trying to find the elusive balance between leading employees, loving a family, and caring for yourself. To help us get there, we will focus on your strengths first and foremost. Find out what is working well for you and build from there by following the “Aware, Explore, Apply” model to expand your toolbox of healthy habits, mental strengthening techniques, and discovering your personalized list of physical activities that you actually enjoy doing.I’m not “your guy” if you are only looking for a 6-pack, or to bench 350 lbs, or to get ready for “beach season”.
Those may be effective and motivating goals to some, but that’s just not my style. Collective Flow is focused on Whole Body Health and helping our clients #FeelGoodFirst. We believe that all of the aesthetics are the by-product of small, bite-size, healthy habits. Our individual health and happiness is a very personal, intimate aspect of our lives. I understand, respect and appreciate that. I believe that all relationships must start from a place of understanding and listening with an empathetic heart. So, I would be honored to find a time to simply start by having a conversation. If we aren’t the best fit for each other, we pride ourself on our expanding network of coaches, trainers, gyms, therapists, practitioners, and other highly specialized health care professionals to get you surrounded with the right team at the right time.
Meet the team
Emily
Studio Manager + Instructor
Hello Collective Flow fam, I'm Emily! My yoga love story began when I moved away from my hometown, La Crosse, WI, for college in Madison, WI. I wandered into a yoga studio in search of consistency, a place to exercise, and stress reduction. Needless to say, I gained so much more from yoga than just those things! Eager to learn more and share the practice with others, I enrolled in a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training with Dragonfly Hot Yoga in 2018. I began to teach hot yoga classes there shortly after and continued until summer 2021.
After graduating from UW - Madison with a B.S. in Neurobiology and a certificate in Studio Art, I took some time to travel to Costa Rica to complete my 300-hour yoga teacher training. Now I am proud to be a 500-hour certified instructor! My class style is a creative and fun vinyasa with a healthy balance of movement and stillness. I honor that each person and each body is different - whether this is your first class or you've been practicing for years, feel welcome to join my class!
When I am not on my mat, you can find me at a local coffee shop or brewery, hanging out with friends and family, biking, or painting! I look forward to seeing you in class!
Erin
Instructor
In 2007, I wandered into a gym while living in Italy. Honestly, I just wanted a treadmill so I didn’t have to run on cobblestone, and instead, I experienced my first yoga class - taught in Italian. Weirdly enough, I felt liberated not being able to understand my teacher. Just like you, I’ve spent a considerable amount of my life obsessing about doing things perfectly. To my surprise, it was an incredible lesson in slowing down and learning how to give and accept compassion for myself and others. It was such a joyous surprise to enjoy being in my body more than in my head - something I have always enjoyed about dancing, running, swimming, and gymnastics.
So in 2012, I flew across the ocean to study and learn from Karin Kuhn and Nadia Toraman at the Maui Yoga Shala.
Since completing my 200hr yoga teacher training, I have been teaching Vinyasa-style yoga classes across Milwaukee offering what I consider a specialized vibe of “do your own thing” and “let’s see what’s possible”. Some days my students ask for guidance to practice challenging, seemingly mind-bending poses where they can get “lost” for a little while (let’s be honest, Beyonce might do all the work here). Some days, they need a space to feel seen, heard, and supported. Guess what - all of it is a part of yoga and I’m very excited to be offering it for the Collective Flow MKE community.
Let’s flow together!
Alyssa
Instructor
I was never an athlete growing up - I did the occasional sport in school, but I certainly didn’t earn any accolades. I hadn’t touched a weight in college until I accidentally enrolled in the wrong class at my yoga studio - the one all of the athletes took to supplement their training. Little did I know that the anxiety attack I had prior to the class starting would be the gateway to my entire future of fitness. PowerUp was unlike any class I had ever taken, and I fell so in love with it that I became a certified instructor to deepen my practice.
Now with several years of weightlifting and cross training under my belt, my goal is to help you feel empowered through movement regardless of your experience, body, shape, size, or ability. PowerUp is meant to challenge you, and you’ll find me tailoring exercises to help you meet your edge in that moment.
If I’m not at Collective Flow, you’ll find me cuddling with my cats or abandoning yet another DIY craft.
Paula
Instructor
Paula’s interest in yoga began as a very young teenager after buying a yoga asana book at a garage sale. She taught herself the poses in the book and the practice just made sense to her. The concentration of it, the shaping of the body to affect the state of the mind, the physicality of it which simultaneously has nothing to do with vanity or good looks. This sparked an interest that continues to grow to this day. For her, yoga is a vehicle for increasing energy, becoming stronger, more supple, decreasing pain, and connecting mind and body together into a focused state. It’s a social event or a quiet self-care time. It’s an experience in discovering one’s full potential.
Paula has always had a great curiosity for the art of movement. A childhood of dancing, swimming and competitive power tumbling led to a lifelong journey of studying movement. Paula earned a BA and an MFA in Dance and went on to dance professionally in Milwaukee and NYC. Her studies continued as she became a 240-hour certified yoga teacher through Kanyakumari and a Pilates teacher leading to over 20 years of teaching dance, yoga and Pilates at the studio, community, and university level. In 2013 Paula became a Physical Therapist Assistant and since has worked extensively in outpatient orthopedics specializing in musculoskeletal disorders where she combines manual therapy with yoga and Pilates based therapeutic exercise. Paula is currently pursuing her 500 hour and Yin yoga certifications as well. There’s always more to learn and more to share.
Stacey
Instructor
I started running in my mid-twenties and to balance out my training I started taking occasional yoga classes. I didn’t become serious about the practice until about three years ago when I developed an overuse injury from running.
I started practicing regularly and noticed a big difference in both my physical and mental well-being. I decided to pursue my teacher certification and combine my love of yoga with my career in teaching. I hope to make yoga as accessible for as many people as possible. I love that yoga can be personalized for everyone’s ability. I enjoy taking classes from as many different locations and instructors as possible to help me continue on my yoga path.
I love being outside and try to spend as much time in nature as possible. In my free time I run, curl, and spend time with my husband and our two dogs.
Sage
Instructor
My yoga journey began about 7 years ago when I was seeking ways to deal with the pain that I often experienced when sitting in meditation. I quickly discovered that yoga could not only help me build the necessary strength and flexibility to alleviate that discomfort, but could also offer me the chance to deepen my practice of meditation and mindfulness, while better understanding my relationship with my body.
After graduating from UW-Milwaukee in 2019 with a BS in Mathematics and starting my career as a web developer, I was ready to dive deeper into my practice and went on to earn my 200-Hour Teaching Certification through Urban Om. My training inspired me to dive deeper into learning more about yoga, anatomy, and the philosophy and roots of the practice.
My goal as a teacher is to create a practice centered around building strength, flexibility, and mobility while connecting to the breath. One that cultivates a feeling of ease and openness within the body and mind. I especially love to build vinyasa classes that offer unique movements and inquiries into the ways our bodies move and breathe. I hope to help students experience the freedom that comes from letting go, and build the skills required to breathe through difficult moments, on and off the mat.