Yogatreat Partners
Jordi Ibern
The quest for a coherent and clear answer to the question of “Who am I” brought me here, and to be honest I have to categorically state that I don’t have a clue. But, as I cannot introduce myself with a “I don’t know who I am”, I will write something that I do know: my path until here and the character that I use for it. A BIT ABOUT ME I was born in August 1977, in a small and beautiful town of Lleida, Granyena de les Garrigues. There, I grew close to friends and family until life took me to Lleida and, years later to Barcelona, where I live now. In the year 2002 Reiki embraced me, I undertook several 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level Reiki courses, two years later I was initiated as a Usui Traditional Reiki Master by my Master Julia Costa. I went to Praga to learn more about the so called energetic medicine with Vladimir Durina, and there I did practices and courses for years. I also undertook courses on Karuna Reiki and Usui Tibetan Reiki, but I keep my romance with Reiki teaching and working with Usui Traditional Reiki. What I’m doing now I’m working as a Reiki teacher and therapist since 2005. I use to teach courses in Barcelona and other European cities. In Barcelona I also do courses and therapies in the Fundación del colegio de huérfanos de Hacienda. Also, I’ve taught Reiki courses in the desert of Morocco with Activa Viatges (Sabadell), where we enjoyed the incredible magic of the place. I work, too, with Jose de Groot, a Yin Yoga teacher from Amsterdam, We celebrate workshops and retreats of Yin Yoga & Reiki together, uniting the two practices to improve the benefits of both. We have performed over one hundred workshops in Spain, France, Finland and Holland. We use to do retreats during Easter, Summer and Winter. Apart from my work as a Reiki teacher and therapist, I also like writing and I do whenever I can. I have published 3 books: “El despertar” december 2004, published by Abadia Editors, “El escritor de cartas” a novel that I took personally the market in 2008 and “Vacío”, June 2012, published by Ediciones oblicuas. Also I founded and I’ve been working with Voluntarios Reiki, a nonprofit association that lived to bring Reiki to disadvantaged groups in our society, during 7 years, but unfortunately this year we had had to stop our work. Now I’m teaching Reiki in different countries, mainly in Europe, and doing private sessions in Barcelona (Spain). If you’re interested in Reiki and you would like to know it better or perhaps learn it, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Jasmijn Koelink
Jasmijn Koelink – trained as a social and organizational psychologist – is a Yoga Alliance® recognized yoga teacher. Her teaching style is suitable for both beginners and experienced yoga practitioners, as Jasmijn integrates different options and individual guidance in her sessions. Her classes are breath-oriented, intense and at the same time grounding. She has been teaching weekly classes, workshops, retreats and yoga teacher training courses for years. She offers online sessions. You can take advantage of her guidance at any moment and at any time. You can start right away at JasmijnKoelink.com. In addition, Jasmijn is a certified facilitator of The Work© by Byron Katie. Yoga & The Work “I was introduced to The Work in 2014 after what feels like a lifetime of struggling with thoughts like ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I’m not interesting enough’ or ‘They don’t understand me‘. I was always worried about what others thought of me, how they perceived me. And by doing The Work, maybe for the first time in my life, help me realize how much these thoughts exhausted me. I experience The Work as a yoga practice for my mind. I notice the tendencies of my mind and how they keep me small and trapped in old thought patterns and defense mechanisms. When I question my stressful thoughts, my body follows and releases stress. For me this is the way I bring yoga off the mat into my daily life – which I experience more and more as friendlier, more alive, and freer. I was already teaching yoga workshops, retreats and teacher trainings, and The Work feels like the missing link for me. A flexible mind in a flexible body. Because through yoga I recognized stress in my body and The Work taught me that there is always a specific thought that causes stress. So that they related to each other. The combination of these two practices fascinates and inspires me – and I am happy to share that with you.”
Contact:
JasmijnKoelink.com
Irene Sportel
Irene is a yoga teacher, musician and doctor. She is a yoga teacher at De Nieuwe Yogaschool in Amsterdam where she teaches Yin Yoga and Yoga Flow. She also regularly organizes yoga and silence retreats, mantra concerts and gives live music at workshops of her fellow teachers. She sings and plays guitar, handpan and all kinds of small instruments. She also immerses herself in Shin-do, Tibetan Energetic Healing and gives Conscious Therapy, helping people to heal from the heart. In Amsterdam Irene gives private sessions. For Irene yoga and meditation have had a great impact on her life. She learned (and still learns) to go from head to heart and make choices that suit her. She left it behind her hectic medical life and now lives a life full of music, yoga, healing and above all lots of fun! She likes to share with her students the yoga and meditation exercises that have had a great positive impact on her life, framed with music that comes straight from her heart.
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Amanda Dawn Blackley
Communication has been a passion in my life from a very early age. As a young child in London, gymnastics provided a form of self-expression through movement and body awareness; one still very present in my life. After finishing my university degree in French and Spanish and certifying as a Teacher of English abroad, I left the UK with another ‘passport’ to explore and discover new places, cultures and people. Settled in Spain since 1995, I have worked as an English teacher for much longer, yet life has also allowed me to change professions several times, and among other jobs I have been an interpreter, conference organiser and international radio journalist for Round the World Yacht races and international event communication teams. Yoga and me In 2008 Yoga became a permanent part of my life after the practice made a strong impact on me during a business trip to Singapore. Shortly afterwards I completed my first Teacher Training in Thailand, an experience that completely changed the direction of my life. With a new perspective and some initial teachings of Yoga I moved to Barcelona to deepen my practice and knowledge and began to explore Vinyassa, Ashtanga, Rocket and my real passion: Yin Yoga. With a constant desire to learn and study, I regularly attend trainings and workshops both in Spain and abroad (Jose de Groot, Paul and Suzee Grilley, Sarah and Ty Powers, Donna Farhi, Uma and Nirlipta Dinsmore-Tuli, Sri Dharma Mittra, Doug Keller, David Swenson). Assisting Gabrielle Scanlon on the Hot Yoga Doctor Teacher Training (2011) was of great value and an unforgettable experience. Yin Yoga has revealed a wonderful new panorama of insights and teachings. It is a kind of Dharma; a need to reach out and share a path towards self-discovery, inner balance, peace and harmony so that we might in turn be able to offer the same to everyone in our lives. What I’m doing now I teach several Yin Yoga classes a week, and workshops in Barcelona and abroad, encouraging the balance of our two distinct and complementary yin and yang energies. My partner Xavier and I also organize retreats in different locations throughout Spain, where we combine the teaching of Californian Massage with yoga, in both English and Spanish. Teaching yoga allows a natural fusion of communication on a physical, mental and emotional level, and enables me to offer my little contribution with enthusiasm, energy and love. Every personal practice, class shared, breath taken and word offered is learning and sharing each new experience with others is a continuous source of fascination.
Helga Baumgartner
Looking back I would say may conscious way as a Yogini stared aged 14, when I decided to stop eating meat and started practicing relaxation through self-hypnosis. I had always been fascinated by movement and sports, but more as a tool to exhaust my energies, as I could not sit still for one minute. I still remember coming home from my first Yoga class, aged 20, and how I surprisingly could sleep without a restless legs syndrom for the first time in years.That has been almost 15 years ago now, and it was the beginning of a never-ending love story and a very dedicated and investigative Yoga practise. My first Teacher Training Years later, after my architecture & urbanism diploma, I discovered Vinyasa & Ashtanga Yoga and completed a Hatha Vinyasa Yoga teacher training in Mandiram Barcelona (YA 200). The 5 years in Barcelona were the most transformative for me, where I met important teachers who are now best friends, and ways of practicing Yoga that brought me even closer to what I had been looking for. I got to know Yin Yoga via my good friend & first Yin teacher Jose de Groot, and I started practicing Vipassana Meditation, both inseparable from my daily life ever since. Since then I continued to study Yoga, Meditation and Vedanta intensively in Europe, the US and India. When I left Barcelona to come back to Germany after 5 years, I found that Yin Yoga was totally undiscovered here! So I had to help myself and take my own first Yin Yoga TT with Paul & Suzee Grilley in California. I continued to teaching and studying with Paul & Suzee Grilley ever since, and I am happy to be completing the 5th level of Yin Yoga teacher training this summer of 2014 (YA 500) . Whenever I could, I studied Yin Yoga with other well known teachers in the last 5 years, as so Sarah Powers, Biff Mitthoefer, Bernie Clarks, Josh Summers, Jose de Groot and Joe Barnett. What I’m doing now I am teaching Yang Yoga , what means dynamic Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga, and Yin Yoga, which is physically, mentally and emotionally calming as well as revitalizing . This pair of opposites represents the balance I am looking for in Yoga, both for my own practise as well as to share Yoga in a class with others. Myfocus, though, lies in the calm beauty of Yin Yoga, which for my has a deep and therapeutic magic I truly admire. I am offering Yin Yoga classes, workshops, retreats and teacher trainings in Germany, Austria and Greece. I teach in english, spanish and german (my mother tongue). The philosophical base for my teaching lies in the study of Vedanta (the foundations of Yoga) with my mentor Swamini Pramananda in Europe and India. I am a founding member of Purna Vidya Europe and its non-profit foundation. We organize and offer conferences and retreats on Yoga and Vedanta led by Swamini Pramananda in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and India. www.purnavidya.eu The body stable as a mountain, the breath free as the ocean, the heart open and free as the sky, that to me means Yoga
Sanne Blom
The outside world functions as a mirror to my inner world and helps me grow in consciousness. My ambition for inner growth led me towards psychosocial and systemic therapy. I have gained a lot of knowledge, but above all I developed the skill to closely look at my own patterns and to transform them into something that actually serves me and – with that – everyone around me. Becoming a mother also served as a great mirror for my life, my relationships and health. It teached me to look at children in new bound breaking ways. Gradually an inner drive arose to create a training and meeting space where everyone can work on themselves, to develop and expand on a personal level. What I’m doing now In 2014 I founded De Krachtwijzer. A ‘school of life’ where consciousness growth, systemic work and life science are the basic subjects. It is a place to expand self-knowledge, your sense of purpose, resilience and emotional health. To explore life’s questions in depth and to learn to fully experience life with all the rocks and bumps along the way. Inner work, reflection and self-development are central to everything I offer. I support others in their process. In obtaining insights in the field of (protection) mechanisms and patterns that invite you to take action on. That invite you to become more self-aware and fulfilled with life. Yoga and Systemic Work After accomplishing the 200 hrs Yin Yoga TT another idea arose. I developed a unique method in which (yin) yoga and (family) systemic work come together: Krachtwijzer-Yinsteem©, or System Yoga©. This method is part of the 300 hrs Yin Yoga Anatomy & Meridian TT which I developed with José de Groot. During this training you will be introduced to System Yoga © and how to integrate this into your classes as a yoga teacher. The module functions as a pre-training for the basic training System Yoga© TT basic training.