Awakened Spirit Yoga Educators
Meet our team of experts with a broad range of knowledge and experience
Julia Forest
Founder + Lead Prenatal Facilitator + Doula
Julia is an international yoga teacher, birth doula, women’s health advocate, and closet artist who is passionate about health, environmentalism and empowered birth. She is co-creator of the Sacred Birth Yoga & Doula Training, is founding director of Awakened Spirit Yoga and co-founder of the Wellkind Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on community empowerment and wellbeing through the lens of permaculture. She also created the Sacred Earth Yoga Training, the first yoga teacher training program that combines yoga, mindfulness, permaculture and leadership to transform lives and communities.
Suvas Vajracharya
Co-Founder of Teravana & Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
Suvas has a deep-rooted interest in personal development and meditation. Previously, as the CEO of Lightning Bolt, overseeing a thriving startup of 55 employees, he made a significant shift from the IT industry to align with his passion for wellness, spirituality, and environmental concerns. Suvas is the co-founder of Teravana, the NGO that oversees Awakened Spirit. Suvas now applies his thought leadership to stewarding 640 acres of land, leading conferences and retreats on mindfulness. He also teaches meditation at Teravana and brings a mindfulness-based approach to wellness.
Kylie Roswell
Awakened Spirit Yoga Marketing Director + Yoga Teacher Trainer
Kylie is a 500 E-RYT yoga teacher trainer that has facilitated over two dozen trainings around the world. Kylie’s natural joy and creativity form a relatable, reliable and inspirational space for growth. She is dedicated to support others on their healing journeys, as she embarked on her own after being disabled for two years. She’s a musician and weaves song into her offerings. Her studies and passions are in anatomy, thai yoga massage, philosophy and communication.
Stefanie Antunes
Doula Facilitator
Stefanie Antunes has been a Lamaze® Educator and doula since 2002, after the birth of her second son showed her just how valuable it is to be prepared for birth and to have good support around you. Stefanie is a visionary in the childbirth field. She leads the Discover Birth organization providing a variety of services to expectant parents and training for those wishing to pursue work in the childbirth field.
Dr Aviance Rhome-Boroff
Psychologist + Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga Teacher
Dr. Aviance Rhome-Boroff (she/her/hers) is a psychologist, a prenatal/postnatal yoga teacher, and a mother of two young children, who works in the Department of Psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente in Richmond, California.
She provides individual and group therapy and specializes in peripartum mental health, mindfulness-based interventions, trauma, and multicultural therapy. Dr. Rhome-Boroff is certified in perinatal mental health and currently triages and coordinates services for peripartum patients with peripartum mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs).
Scott Davis
Integrative Medicine Doctor + Movement Therapist
Scott Davis has been sharing his passion for health as a doctor of Integrative Medicine, movement therapist, yoga teacher and health educator for the past two decades. He integrates therapeutic traditions, contemporary approaches to health and the latest research in biomechanics and human movement in ways that are clear, accessible and results-based.
Sofia Tsakiridou
Women's Circle Facilitator & Yoga Teacher
Sofia Tsakiridou is a certified 800 hrs yoga teacher, women circle facilitator, holistic health coach and co-founder of SOMA space with the vision of guiding women back to connect with their body temples, the innate wisdom that resides within and the deep power of gathering in sacred sisterhood. She believes in collaboration and the uplifting of each individual spirit and potential to create a spirited, empowered and bright community. She loves to bridge the power of movement with the wisdom of the ancient science of TCM and empower others to truly live a balanced, vital life with an open mind, heart and body.
Dr. Sairupa Krishnamurti (ND)
Naturopathic Doctor, Ayurveda Practitioner & Yoga Teacher
Dr. Sairupa is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor (ND), Ayurveda Practitioner, speaker and seeker. Her clinical focuses include: womb health, fertility, pregnancy, postnatal-care and psycho-spiritual health. From a heart-centred space, Sairupa guides people to re-discover their inner wisdom through herbal medicine, nutrition, lifestyle transformation, and counselling. As a doctor and teacher, she aims to provide non-judgmental care, rooted in a compassionate and trauma-informed framework.
Stephen Cope
Yoga Scholar + Writer
Stephen Cope is an award-winning writer, teacher, and yoga scholar. For over thirty years, he has been the Senior Scholar in Residence at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts— the largest residential yoga retreat in America.
Kamini Nataraja
Musician + Indian Classical Music Teacher
Kamini is a musician and devoted Kirtan and Sanskrit Mantra teacher based in LA area. She grew up in India and studied intricacies of Indian classical music as well as Sanskrit scriptures for over a decade. Kamini is very passionate about sharing her traditional knowledge with yoga and music practitioners worldwide. We are grateful to welcome her as a guest facilitator in our community.
Sami Arabi
Yoga Teacher Trainer
Christine Alevizakis
Registered Clinical Counsellor + Yoga teacher
Based in Victoria, BC Christine is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and yoga teacher who has been studying and teaching nationally and internationally for more than 20 years. Her teaching style is compassionate, inclusive and informative and reflects her belief that we have an innate capacity to heal but learn best in a supportive community. In both her clinical practice and on the mat.
Shad Qudsi
Permaculture Leader + Facilitator
Shad has 15 years experience in organic and commercial gardening and farming. He is certified in Permaculture Design and has over 6 years experience in holistic site development and homesteading. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a double major in Applied Mathematics and Psychology, Shad and his now-wife, Colleen, moved to Central America with only vague goals of farming at some point in the near future.
Hannah Deriemaeker
Certified Midwife
Hannah is a passionate certified midwife from Belgium who made a home for her heart in Guatemala. In 2011, she finalised her training by working for several months in the labor and delivery ward in Nyakibale, Uganda. After this intense experience, she worked for several years as the medical director of the Belgian + Guatemalan joint venture NGO, Vivir en Amor, located in a remote village in the mountains of Huehuetenango.
Hannah was taught by traditional midwives on how to use herbal medicine during and after pregnancy, the use of the temazcal (Mayan sauna), and traditional Maya abdominal massage.
Eran Dolev
Ayurvedic Practitioner & Yoga Teacher Trainer
Eran is well known for his inspiring presence, emphatic heart, wisdom and insight. Since a young age he was called to the elements of nature and the philosophies of the Far East. Traveling extensively in India over a decade he went on different Yogic pilgrimages and through various initiations by Healers and Gurus in Ashrams and ancient mystical sites. Discovering the Yogi within and experiencing a profound awakening, healing and transformation in his life he eventually returned back to his homeland, Israel.
Leza Lowitz, M.A.
Meditation Teacher + Writer
Leza Lowitz, M.A. is the founder and sole proprietor of Sun and Moon Yoga, Tokyo, which she established in 2003. She has been practicing mindfulness and meditation for forty years, and has had a regular daily practice that entire time.
She completed a 7-year intensive Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist Meditation program in 2012, including many long-term silent retreats. She is a graduate of the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification program at the Awareness Training Institute and the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Main teachers: Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.
Alexa Rittichier
Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga Teacher Trainer & Doula
Alexa J. Rittichier is an artist, mover, maker, yoga and movement teacher, birth doula, anatomy lover, and pre/postnatal exercise specialist. She has been dancing her whole life and practicing yoga for over 20 years. Teaching, tutoring and mentoring have been part of Alexa’s life since 2005. She has taught visual art, creative movement, drama, dance, and yoga in a variety of settings to all ages from 3-years-old and up. Alexa has been training yoga teachers since 2016.
Sue Ann Fisher
Prenatal Yoga Teacher Trainer
Sue Ann has dedicated herself to yoga since 2012. Her passion is to help students feel stronger in their bodies and more connected to their hearts. She is the owner and lead instructor at West Asheville Yoga in North Carolina.
Sue Ann’s prenatal yoga teaching journey began at West Asheville Yoga Studio. She witnessed the beauty and connection that Cat Matlock and Roxy Robbins, two senior Prenatal Yoga Teachers, brought to the community. Under their guidance, teaching private and group prenatal classes quickly became a passion. In 2020, Sue Ann completed the Sacred Birth Prenatal Yoga Teacher & Doula Training with Awakened Spirit under the guidance of Julia Forest and Stefanie Antunes.
Chris Kummer
Naturopath + Anatomy Facilitator
Chris Kummer has been teaching yoga and movement anatomy for two decades. As a naturopath with a special interest in fascia-based functional posture and movement, he developed the AnatomyShow courses to help people around the world discover more sustainable movement and engagement patterns.
Hali Schwartz
Yoga, Sanskrit + Philosophy Teacher
Hali has been immersed in the world of yoga since she was a small child. When she was 19 years old, she would travel for the first of many times to live and study at the International Meditation Institute in the North Western Himalayas. It was there that she was introduced to Sanskrit, scripture study, meditation, chanting, pranayama, as well as hatha yoga āsana and restorative yoga. For the past 20 years she has been teaching all aspects of the yoga tradition in Toronto where she makes her home, as well as in India, Europe and the Caribbean.
Taryn Diamond
Yoga Philosophy Teacher & Yoga Teacher Trainer
Taryn (she/her) will forever call herself a ‘new mom’, despite having a five year old. Her entry to yoga was through movement, but her passion resides in studying its roots in Eastern philosophy. She is unabashed in her commitment to cheesy jokes and not taking this thing called ‘life’ too seriously. If she had to pick one modality to be monogamous with, it would be Yoga Nidra. Through nidra, Taryn is able to express the golden nuggets embedded within the philosophy of yoga, while also facilitating some meaningful rest for her students. Taryn holds the Yoga Alliance’s highest certifications, ERYT-500 and YACEP.
Julia Gräßer
Yoga Teacher Trainer
Julia (E-RYT 500, YACEP) started practicing yoga in 2015, from a sole physical point of view. She wanted to become a better cyclist. After moving from Germany to Denmark, she struggled with the long dark winters and found her sanctuary in her regular yoga practice. During this period she experienced that yoga is so much more than physical postures and fell love with the practice as well as got very curious to dig deeper.
She loves to inspire her students to explore the many tools yoga offers us, as yoga is best to be experienced. Julia will motivate you to discover how to make yoga accessible and integrate the teachings in your everyday life. Further, she is dedicated to create an inclusive, safe and warm learning environment. She is honored and grateful for every student that crosses her way and loves to learn from them too.
Krystalyn Norton
Yoga Teacher Trainer
Krystalyn (ERYT 500, YACEP), has been a coach and facilitator for over 8 years, and she has developed the subtle art of listening in deep ways to draw out people’s strengths and help them identify and rise above their insecurities.
Through observation and tactful feedback, she guides people to discover what they seek in the outside world and within themselves. Krystalyn consciously asks questions that lead to better questions to dig into the roots of the matter at hand. These open-ended questions and her ability to hold a clean container creates a safe space for self-reflective clarity.
Kathrin Brunner
Nutritionist + Yoga Teacher Trainer
Kathrin Brunner is a Toronto-based nutritionist, health educator and movement teacher. She has a passion for holistic living and loves to share that in the clinic, the classroom and the studio. In addition to her nutrition counselling practice, she is a faculty member at The Institute of Holistic Nutrition where she has been teaching since 2014. Her courses examine the connections between environmental sustainability and human health as well as the psycho-social aspects of dis-ease and the impacts of chronic stress.
Kaitlyn Rose
Yoga Therapist + Yoga Teacher Trainer
With over 1000 hours of experience as a Therapeutic Yoga Instructor and certifications in Somatic Yoga Therapy®, Ayurvedic Health Counselling, and Energy Work, Kaitlyn is passionate about uncovering the body’s wisdom.
For nine years, she’s empowered students to find their inner sovereignty, deepen their Soul connection, and embrace Self-Love through movement, breath, and energy tools. She founded “Her Temple” three years ago, focusing on embodiment and training healers in Somatic Yoga Therapy®.
Kaitlyn’s trauma-informed teachings blend clinical somatics, shamanism, yoga nidra, Ayurveda, and nature connection, guiding you to embody Soul-Power and serve Divine Love.
Morgan Cowie
Prenatal Yoga Teacher
Morgan Cowie (she/her) is a Leo Sun, a dedicated learner and a lover of all things that light the world up with joy.
There is not a movement practice in the world that Morgan doesn’t want to find out more about. She is currently enthralled with teaching meditation, barre, yoga and fun dance cardio sequences. She loves the feeling of combining intelligent design and sequencing with straight up sweaty fun.
There’s no feeling in the world better than being at home in your body and Morgan’s classes are created to help you know that amazing is your birthright.
Callie Dunham
Yoga Teacher Trainer & Doula
Callie Dunham, an international Yoga Teacher, has 600+ training hours in Trauma Informed Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Business of Yoga, and Study of the Sutras. Inspired by indigenous traditions, she infuses Earth-based wisdom into her classes.
Callie emphasizes yoga’s spiritual aspects beyond physical practice. Passionate about singing, dancing, and creating sacred spaces for students’ exploration beyond Asana.
Holly Mech
Yoga Teacher Trainer
Holly fell in love with yoga because of the sense of connection she felt every time she came to her mat. Holly now travels around the world teaching yoga and facilitating yoga teacher trainings. She enjoys helping new teachers sequence yoga classes and incorporate philosophy into their teachings. Her classes are creative and dynamic with an emphasis on making yoga accessible to everyone.
