The Story Behind LPY

THIS IS LPY

Started in Lexington in 2012. Built together ever since.

It started with a little bit of fate.

Jillian and Yolanda were both dreaming about opening a yoga studio in Lexington. They were looking at the same spaces, talking to the same people—and somehow had never met.

Then Yolanda heard Jillian had signed a lease and sent her an email: “It is my dream to open a yoga studio in Lexington too. We should meet.” One meeting later, they decided to do it together. Basically one blind date followed by agreeing to get married.

Lorraine joined them soon after, and LPY opened its doors in 2012. Different strengths, different personalities, one shared idea of what a studio could be. More than a decade later, that still feels like LPY.

Women participating in a yoga or fitness class, some standing on yoga mats and a woman in the foreground adjusting yoga blocks on a wooden floor.

Meet Jillian

Simple line drawing of a person in a meditative yoga pose with arms raised, inside a circle, against a black background.

Jillian McDonough

Founder + Owner · Yoga Teacher · Teacher Training Faculty

Jillian found yoga in college and loved it almost immediately. It was the closest thing she had found to the feeling gymnastics gave her growing up—the heat, the intensity, the upside-down stuff. The fact that she could work the front desk in exchange for unlimited yoga as a broke college student didn’t hurt.

She went on to earn her MA in Cultural Studies and Women’s Studies at Dartmouth, thinking she might become a professor. Instead, she discovered she preferred the yoga studio to the library. A corporate job, a wedding planning business and a business plan that kept calling her back eventually led to the thing that made the most sense: opening a yoga studio.

LPY opened in Lexington in 2012. Jillian and her husband, Tim, welcomed their first child the following month—and three boys followed over the next five years. Building LPY alongside Yolanda and Lorraine has allowed her to do two things she cares deeply about: build a business she loves and be there for her family.

Jillian completed her first 200-hour teacher training at Prana Power Yoga in 2008, trained again with Lorraine in 2014, and completed LPY’s 300-hour training in 2016. She is an E-RYT 500 and teaches on LPY’s 200- and 300-hour teacher training faculty, with a particular love for creative sequencing, breathwork and the neuroscience of yoga.

Outside the studio, Jillian is deeply interested in neurodiversity, learning and education. Her own experience with ADHD—and raising kids who learn differently—has made advocacy for diverse learners an important part of her life.

A woman in a pink tank top and black leggings sitting in a splits pose on a white window seat, smiling with her hands pressed together in a prayer position.
Outline illustration of a person sitting cross-legged in a meditative pose inside a circle, with arms raised above the head forming a 'V' shape.

Meet Yolanda

Yolanda Taylor

Founder + Owner · The Finance Brain Behind LPY

Yolanda found yoga after hip pain kept her from returning to marathon running following the birth of her fourth child. After countless appointments with specialists, hot yoga became the one “appointment” that actually brought lasting relief. With a consistent practice, she eventually began running again—and somewhere along the way, she was hooked.

When Lexington's zoning laws changed to allow group fitness in town, Yolanda knew she wanted to bring yoga to Lexington Center. Jillian happened to be dreaming up the same thing. Fate—and one very important email—did the rest.

Today, Yolanda is the finance brain behind LPY, largely working behind the scenes while balancing a career in the investment world. Lexington and LPY are where she has built her family, her community and a business she is incredibly proud of. Her husband and kids became yogis along the way, and Jillian and Lorraine became much more than business partners—they became lifelong friends.

LPY is woven into her life, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

A woman in a pink sleeveless top and light blue leggings sitting cross-legged on a wooden floor, smiling against a plain white wall.

Meet Lorraine

Line art illustration of a person sitting cross-legged in a meditation pose, with arms raised overhead, enclosed in a circle.

Lorraine Shedoudi

Owner + Manager · Teacher Training Director · Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Lorraine found yoga while studying Anthropology and Psychology at UC Berkeley. After years of competitive sports, the practice gave her a completely different way to understand movement—one that connected the physical with something deeper.

She went on to earn her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology at Boston College and worked as a substance abuse counselor in Boston, where she incorporated mindfulness and meditation into her work with people struggling with addiction. During those demanding years, yoga became her own way of staying grounded. Eventually, the practice that supported her became the work she wanted to share with others.

Today, Lorraine is an owner and manager of LPY and the director of its teacher training school. She teaches yoga, meditation and Yoga Sculpt and is a Reiki Master. A lifelong student herself, she continues to study the connection between movement, mindfulness and the way we move through everyday life.

Lorraine believes the practice matters most when it comes off the mat. Her teaching reminds students of their own strength—and that sometimes the simplest way back to yourself is through the next breath.

LPY has always been about the people.
The ones who teach here. The ones who practice here. And the ones who keep showing up.

MEET THE TEAM

Two Yoke Girls - LPY Podcast

A glimpse behind the scenes of building LPY loving, developing, and strong community, of students and teachers.

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