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Seeker School Faculty
JAINA PORTWOOD
I have been practicing yoga since 1998 and teaching since 2002. As a youth, I accomplished incredible achievements as a competitive athlete. I consistently rose to the top, even as a young swimmer, breaking state records at the age of 7. This confidence and physical power has allowed me to see the world in a different paradigm, what some athletes call “the zone.” I was instantly attracted to yoga as a means to experience magical altered states of reality, manifestation, magic, and longevity.
I first studied yoga in college alongside calculus, physics, and cellular biology. After experimenting with a 100% raw foods diet for 8 years, I birthed 4 children naturally, and fell deep into health and healing modalities. Starting in 1999, I gained certifications in massage therapy, craniosacral therapy, thai massage, energy work, permaculture, herbalism, flower essences, and a range of other studies related to human anatomy an physiology, nutrition, and advanced esoteric yoga. I have a wealth of yoga experience through over a decade of svadhyaya (study of self), bhakti (devotion), and I have trained with yoga masters all over the country.
Above all else I hold an intention for spiritual, and physical expansion. Yoga is union. To be united to the Self, through the Self, into the Self…the heart….unconditional love. This is achieved through pranayama, asana, nutrition, intuition, and insight to take you beyond the seen world and into cosmic consciousness.
Betsy Weiner
For over 20 years, Betsy has had the great honor of guiding, teaching, coaching, facilitating and mentoring, rooted in the foundation of the practices of yoga, meditation, Yoga Nidra, mindfulness, integrative well-being, and Ayurveda. Tantra and the lineage of Sri Vidya and the Himalayan Masters has been the main focus of her study, practice, and teaching. It is through these ancient techniques, and their application to modern living, that she finds the intersection of where the inner Self and the outer self meet. Betsy believes that each individual is born with innate wisdom, freedom, and joy. She finds deepest meaning in facilitating the process of guiding others towards remembering what is inheren; that they are a spark of the Divine, and ultimately, the architect of their own lives.
Meredith Foss
I see you. I hear you. I love you. We will see you. We will listen to you. You will love you. I guide, channel, teach based on my current and past life experiences. In this lifetime, I've experienced homelessness, alcoholism, a bipolar father, abuse, and more painful lessons early in life. I've experienced an immense amount of love, community, creation, motherhood, deep friendships. One experience isn't better than the other and one emotion isn't better than the other. All are beautiful love messages sent for us to listen deeply. As both human and spirit - we feel, breathe, pray and stand with feet rooted, crown lifted, and live our blissful truth again and again…to understand the power & resiliency of the human spirit. We are here to remember who we are. We are incredible unique beings that are cut from the same cloth of light and love. I’m here to assist you as you remember who you are infinitely and who you can become in this lifetime. I will guide you in opening to life’s challenges and life’s divinity – and see that all is one. When we meet, we will tap into ways to see and feel into your spiritual bodies. Together, we can discuss, discover and explore the Akashic records, archangels, spirit guides, spirit animals, drumming, elementals, yoga, meditation, mantra.
Training -
220 hr Power Yoga
220 hr Kundalini Yoga
Ceremonial & Native American Traditions
Teachings of the Delicate Lodge
Level III Reiki Practioner
Lightworker Training (2 years)
w/ Nielle Arnold Sovell
Light Body Yoga Training w/ Shannon Port
Mother, Warrior, Earth Angel, Shaman, Bear Medicine.
Goldie Harmon
Goldie has been an avid student of Yoga since she was 18 years old. By around the time she was 23 years old, she became a hand-balancer and subsequently started exploring acrobatics through the strength and awareness she had cultivated in her own yoga asana practice. She realized that acrobatics and yoga were beautifully complementary and began naturally exploring AcroYoga before she even knew it had a name or that there was a passionate culture already forming around it. Soon enough, she realized that she was merely one of many people who were realizing the potential in combining two or more persons in a conjoined asana practice. In July of 2014, Goldie completed a 200hr AcroYoga Teacher Training in Montreal, QC. Here she was able to connect with the worldwide AcroYoga community and became exponentially more inspired to explore the possibilities. For the last 7 years, Goldie has been on this journey of sharing AcroYoga through teaching and performing internationally.
Rachelle Campbell
Rachelle has been working with and sharing kava since she was first introduced in 2010 on the Big Island of Hawaii. She honors the ancient tradition of kava ceremony in the way she was shown by local Hawaiians. The euphoric yet grounding effect of the kava sets the tone for intentional gatherings, creating a platform for deep heart connection. She has shared kava throughout the United States and in numerous other countries through ceremony, workshops, and pop up kava bars-providing knowledge about the kava roots medicinal, social, and spiritual benefits. Her passion for kava shines through her line of hand crafted kava products that provide direct access to its multitude of medicinal and health benefits including the treatment of anxiety and depression. She honors the legacy of kava by sharing a percentage of profits with organizations helping to protect sacred land. As the founder of Ohana Kava it is her goal that through providing access to a safe and holistic approach to improving mood, that we see less addiction of pharmaceutical drugs and ultimately happier and healthier humans. In addition to her work with the root medicine, kava, she also applies yoga and mediation as a means to live from a more conscious state of being. She received her 200hr Yoga and meditation training at Yoga Alliance certified Luminous Heart Institute in Costa Rica in 2019. As well as a certification in Buti, a more modern approach of combining yoga, tribal dance, and plyometrics. Rachelle combines these offerings in workshop and retreat settings in the U.S. and abroad. To learn more about Ohana Kava or any upcoming workshops or retreats please visit www.ohanakava.com and be sure to follow her IG handle @ohanakava.
Uschi Gibson
Uschi was raised in the rich spiritual arms of the Ojai Valley, home to Krishnamurti and the Theosophical Society. Uschi moved from Ojai, California to Varanasi, India more than 13 years ago to live her dream of working with women in rural communities. Since leaving her former fashion career with Versace, her life has unfolded and blossomed in ways she never could have imagined.
As a yogini and teacher at Lulu Bandha's with Kira Sloane, Uschi cultivated the skills and community support to launch her on her path—Founding an ethical business model with women in India, inspiring creativity and resourcefulness in a rural community, and sharing her reverence of the traditions of her chosen home with an international community.
Working initially as the head of the Krishnamurti Foundation India's Women Empowerment Unit, Uschi cultivated a training and production program within the local community. From here, Uschi gave birth to LuckyUschi, a customized clothing line that sources local textiles which are hand-dyed, handwoven, and embroidered, giving employment to Varanasi's traditional artisans. 12 years on, Uschi manages a group of artisans independently. The women she has trained and become close with make up an independent group of empowered women who are now training others.
Uschi founded Lucky Lalita/Samarasya Journeys (**we are changing the name), where she guides sacred and educational pilgrimages, and partners with international teachers to coordinate Yoga teacher trainings, and wellness retreats. Working in Varanasi, as well as other sacred sites in Northern India, Uschi and her partner Rakesh connect groups into the deep soul of India providing cultural and spiritual experiences that could only be offered by locals. Creating a safe container for transformational experiences, Samarasya Journeys offers many trips and retreats throughout the year.
In 2020 Uschi began to teach again, now online via Zoom. Combining her years of study in the texts of South Asia, and her immersion within the cultural traditions, Uschi's current passion is to share the spirituality and connected rituals of her chosen home. Focusing on her deep connection to the traditions of Shakta Tantra, Kashmiri Shaivism, and the major and minor goddesses and yoginis of India, Uschi's teaching imparts the roots of ritual practice, respect for the lineage, and expanding beyond the Asana practice into the deep heart of Yoga.
Koreen Valdovinos
Koreen is owner of Open Minds Fusion Studio and founder of Earth Goddess Yoga, a moving meditation practice that incorporates traditional asana with dance, breath & rhythmic beats. In addition to over 15 years of yoga teaching experience, Koreen is also a Thai Yoga Bodywork practitioner, a Reiki healer, Contributor to MN Yoga +Life Magazine, and a breathwork guide. She developed her teachings of pranayama & yoga with traditional teachers but also by way of experiential daily practice with her community.
Koreen Valdovinos is a practitioner of many kinds of physical yoga practices, from vinyasa to Kundalini Yoga & beyond. As a teacher, she is is a master of sequencing that emphasizes the rhythmic journey, or 'flow' of the practice to parallel the spiritual challenges of real life. As a conscious dance guide, she fuses elements of Dance Therapeutics and ecstatic dance into her yoga classes.
Currently Koreen is guiding multiple yoga classes, weekly and virtually. Her Earth Goddess yoga is a spiritual & physical practice of yoga that emphasis practicing with dancerly ease, rather than perfection. It is a devotional practice & a celebration that reminds us of our connection to Mother Earth, all her Goddess archetypes that we embody, and whose very body is our home. It is a playful discovery of spirit, that can drive yoga in to our hearts, and into daily lives.
Deepali Roth
Yoga Instructor
Meditation Leader
SSY ( Siddhi Samadhi Yoga) instructor
Pranayama Instructor
Artofliving Ambassador
Masala Bhangra work out Ambassador
Bhagavad Gita leader
Sanskrit language instructor
Indian Spiritual leader
Hindu religion Guru
My name is Deepali. I'm originally from India. I am Hindu and grew up there. I started learning yoga in school since I was in kindergarten. Yoga was one of the BEST things school offered.
“Yoga is from the Vedas” - T.K.V. Desikachar
At Its broadest, yoga , from the root word “yuk” in Sanskrit. Means to unite. Most Hindus texts discuss yoga as a practice of control of the sense and ultimately, the mind. The most famous is the Bhagvad Gita in which Krishna speaks of four types of yoga - Bhakti, or devotion, Jnana, or Knowledge, karma, or action , and dhyana, or concentration - as paths to achieve moksha (liberation), the ultimate goal according to Hindu understanding.
Most importantly, the Bhavada Gita makes clear that regardless of which path one embarks upon, yoga is an individual journey that requires lifelong dedication, consistent practice and devotion to god.
My misson....
-I am passionate about helping people change TARUMA & PAIN into fuel and success!
-I am the power of my own Destiny! I am motivated by success, being of service and fufulling my purpose.
-The courage to be True to yourself. I strongly believe the more we get away from painting the “perfect picture” of ourselves and open up to the “ugly “….the more BEAUTY we find in the conversation. And the less that “ugly” has power over us.
Stephanie Sajady
Stephanie is a Certified Hatha Yoga teacher, Certified Ayurvedic practitioner, and Certified Tantra teacher. She was led by her various travels around the world to learn ancient tantric practices. She realized that to truly help people, she needed to learn the holly trinity of sister sciences: Yoga, Tantra, and Ayurveda. Each of these sciences respectively focuses on the mind, the spirit, and the body. Today, Stephanie offers energy healing, Ayurvedic consultations, and talks alongside Yoga classes.
For Ayurvedic consultations: