Workshop Presenter

Sheila Patel

Sheila Patel

Oceanside, California
United States

Dr. Sheila Patel, M.D. is a distinguished figure in the field of holistic healthcare and a trailblazer in merging traditional Western medicine with holistic healing practices. Currently serving as the Chief Medical Officer for Chopra, she plays a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s mission to bridge the gap between modern medicine and holistic wellness. Dr. Patel’s journey in medicine has been marked by her unwavering dedication to transforming healthcare paradigms. With her board certification...
Heidi Borsch

Heidi Borsch

Oceanside, California
United States

Heidi’s enthusiasm for yoga began in 1991. With 28 years of on-again-off-again personal practice at local gyms, she took the layoff from her sales job in 2011 as a sign – it was time to do something she loved. In 2012, trusting the universe, Heidi became an RYT-200 graduating from the yoga teacher training program at True Nature School of Yoga. Heidi Borsch completed an additional 300-hour program through the Soul of Yoga in 2014,...
Mary Baker

Mary Baker

Carlsbad, California
United States

Being a teacher for most of her adult life, teaching yoga truly brings Mary joy. Mary loves connecting with students on a personal level, enabling them to find comfort and ease in their bodies and guiding them on their yogic journey as their practice deepens. Mary Baker began her 200-hour teacher training in 2009, the same year her parents were diagnosed with terminal cancers. She credits her yoga practice with giving her the physical, mental,...
Tami Ridley

Tami Ridley

Escondido, California
United States

Tami is one of the Founding Members of All Ability Yoga, an inclusive adapted yoga program designed specifically for all levels of physical challenges of people using wheelchairs. “If you can breathe and visualize, you can achieve the benefits of mind-body-connection.” She is an Advocate for Inclusive Fitness: Advocating inclusiveness for gyms and fitness centers with equipment accessible to someone in a wheelchair and programs, such as weight training, adapted dance, yoga and martial arts,...
Courtney Kilian

Courtney Kilian

Vista, California
United States

Courtney Amber Kilian is a writer, gentle yoga teacher, and the founder of Om & Ink: Live, Breathe, Write, which offers prompts for mindful creative practice and Yoga For Writers classes. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at UCSD, and loves working with others to inspire their creativity, deepen their intuition, and use writing and yoga as therapeutic practices. Follow her on Instagram @Om.And.Ink.
Helena Bray

Helena Bray

San Diego, California
United States

Helena is the Co-Creator of Yogazander and a Yoga instructor. Yogazander is a special combination of Yoga and the Alexander Technique. Participants practice classical Yoga poses or postures with hands-on support to invite a gentle release of muscle tension and facilitate an easy, natural alignment. This support allows you to experience more ease and freedom in each pose awakening new levels of awareness. The goal of this practice is less stress and more flexibility on...
Teresa Austin

Teresa Austin

Ocean Beach, California
United States

Teresa teaching and practices Yoga. She is the creator of Mythasana. “I believe that the power of myth and the magic of yoga can guide us back to our innate navigational system towards our pure raw self, sahaja.” Teresa taught World Mythology for ten years and created the World Mythology curriculum for her 12 grade class through the prestigious University of California Standards. She has been especially touched by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,...
Nina Boswell Brown

Nina Boswell Brown

Bristol, North Somerset, California
United Kingdom

Nina is the founder of SittingFitYoga.com and a Yoga Vista Academy Chair Yoga Graduate and Yoga Teacher. She is a paraplegic and a key collaborator on the Academy’s Wheelchair Yoga Teacher Training and Certification Course where she lends her first hand experience of being a Wheelchair Yogi and teaching classes for this demographic. She lives in the UK and converted her barn to be especially designed for working with Yogis who have movement limitations.
Kat Gregory

Kat Gregory

Bend, Oregon
United States

Kat Gregory is an experienced Restorative Yoga teacher having achieved the highest level of training from Judith Lasater. She teaches all styles of Yoga from Kids Yoga to Gentle, Hatha, Vinyasa and Restorative Yoga.
Dr. Kimberley Bell

Dr. Kimberley Bell

Encinitas, California
United States

Dr. Kimberley Bell, DPT is a Licensed Physical Therapist, Yoga Teacher and Laughologist. She owns a private practice in San Diego, CA, specializing in dizziness, vertigo, imbalance and unexplained repeated falls. Dr. Bell’s wisdom, experience and compassion promote peace, well-being and passion for life for her patients and her professional colleagues. For more information about Dr. Bell, visit BetterBalanceInLife.com or check out her YouTube channel “Kimberley Bell.” Find her on Facebook at Kim Bell PT.
Monique Lonner

Monique Lonner

Rancho Santa Fe, California
United States

Yoga Therapist, is the Director and creator of Soul of Yoga Institute Advanced Yoga Teacher Training and Yoga Therapy Training Programs. A Yoga teacher for 15 years, she studied in India, New York and California with Master teachers and spiritual sages including, most notably, the teaching faculty of the Soul of Yoga Institute Advanced Program. Drawing upon her professional skills as a non-profit event organizer she developed the Advanced Teacher Training and Yoga Therapy Program...
Marjorie Old

Marjorie Old

Vista, California
United States

Marjorie Old, RYT specializes in teaching Gentle and Chair Yoga in north San Diego county. She came to Yoga to strengthen her back after spinal surgeries and found a community and a vision for a happier, more joy-filled life. Due to her own injuries, keeping her students safe and inspiring them to appreciate all their bodies can do is key to her teaching. Marjorie can also be found on Yoga for Every Body, a DVD...
James Knight

James Knight

San Diego, California
United States

James has been an E-RYT, CHSE (Certified Hanna Somatic Educator), and Integrative Therapist for 25+ years and is the Founder of Gentle Somatic Yoga.  His passion is to inspire and encourage others to live a fulfilling life of physical, emotional and spiritual freedom. From his combined experience as a lifelong yogi, intuitive bodyworker, psychotherapist, and movement educator, James founded a method of integrating what he discovered to be the most progressive, life-enhancing techniques into an...
Erhard Rohrmuller

Erhard Rohrmuller

Chula Vista, California
United States

Born in Munich, Germany, Erhard has been close to nature his whole life. Furthermore, he started his Holistic Health Fitness and Wellness career on the East Coast, with the Biogenic Society. Erhard received his training in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. His motto is: “MOVEMENT CREATES AWARENESS”. Erhard embraces the natural healing process and earned his H.H.P. ,M.TH. and E-RYT 500 at the Natural Healing Institute in Encinitas, C.A., where he is a senior faculty...
Pinush Chauhan

Pinush Chauhan

Oceanside, California
United States

Pinush Chauhan, RYT and Gentle and Chair Yoga Teacher, is a Special Teacher Presenter for the Yoga Vista Academy where she teaches other Yoga Teachers her unique style. Pinush came to Yoga to help heal her knee, but what she found was much greater than just a physical benefit. “Yoga is not about the GOAL it is about the journey in getting to the spirit.” She teaches at Yoga Studios and Senior Centers and every...
Olga Danilevich

Olga Danilevich

Toronto, Ontario, California
Canada

Olga is an experienced Certified Yoga Alliance Teacher, RYT-500, and a professional educator who has been practicing yoga and meditation for about 20 years. Olga is the founder of Open Heart Yoga, an innovative program that helps participants become stronger, healthier, more flexible, and restores their natural state of harmony, inner peace, and joy. Olga’s programs integrate various gentle yoga practices designed to enhance general wellbeing and restore balance. Using the time-proven benefits of yoga,...
Paula Montalvo

Paula Montalvo

Vista, California
United States

Paula is a Registered Yoga Teacher and recently retired from a long career as a Family Counselor. She is pursuing her dream and passion for teaching Gentle and Chair Yoga to seniors and office workers in Southern California. In 2005, she completed her 200 hour training with master teacher Lanita Varshell at A Gentle Way Yoga Studio in La Mesa. Paula specializes in Gentle Senior and Chair Yoga. Her encouraging Yoga teaching style makes Chair...
Viki Boyko

Viki Boyko

Stamford, Connecticut
United States

Viki segues the phrase “…it‘s because of yoga that…” to so many important life events and discoveries over the last thirty years. From the forging of friendships; to bringing support in times of pregnancy, illness and bereavement; and to the deep sense of joy that connecting breath, body and spirit bring with each journey on the mat. Viki blends her learning as a core strength vinyasa master trainer with somatics and Franklin method training to...
Lulu Peelle

Lulu Peelle

Carlsbad, California
United States

Lulu has been an AVI Certified Yoga Therapist since 2006 and an Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor since 2009. She has extensive experience teaching Basic and General Therapeutic classes, as well as Seniors, Cancer, MS and Parkinson’s patients, and those with chronic pain. She began practicing yoga in 1996 as just one more form of exercise but soon discovered its multi-dimensional benefits. In her exploration of yoga, she has studied various forms of yoga under the guidance...
Sherry Zak Morris

Sherry Zak Morris

Vista, California
United States

CEO and Co-Founder of the Yoga Vista Academy. Sherry Zak Morris, the CEO and Co-Founder of Yoga Vista Academy, is a Certified Yoga Therapist with a remarkable history of empowering and kindling a passion for Yoga and wellness among the 50+ demographic. As a three-time presenter at the annual Yoga Alliance Conference, the premier professional and trade association in the yoga world, Sherry’s dedication to aiding those with mobility challenges has brought prominence to her...
Justine Shelton

Justine Shelton

Pahoa, Hawaii
United States

Co-Founder of the Yoga Vista Academy. Justine Shelton, C-IAYT is a Certified Viniyoga Therapist, graduate of the American Viniyoga Institute under the direction of Gary Kraftsow. She is the Co-Founder of the Yoga Vista Academy and author of their ‘Gentle Yoga for Low Back Care’ specialty certification program. Justine specializes in structural yoga therapy, specifically spinal disc injuries, back pain management, as well as joint therapy – including prehab and rehab for replacements. Her passion...