About Me

Hi, I´m Krissa! I´m a 500hr certified Dharma Yoga Teacher as well as a Restorative Yoga, Yoga Nidra & Women´s Circle Facilitator. I´m also a global nomad and proud mama to two beautiful girls.

When I first started practicing yoga at the age of 17, yoga to me was a physical practice. I soon learned to call these poses, “asanas” and loved forming shapes on the mat. After discovering Dharma Yoga at the age of 24, yoga to me became a spiritual practice. I still remember my first Dharma Yoga class - I think it was the first time I “melted” and exhaled a long sigh of relief, contentment and gratitude I didn’t even know I needed. I never thought I would become a yoga teacher, but this practice made me feel a strong calling to give back. For almost 10 years, I taught classes and workshops in London, Hong Kong and Norway. Yoga made sense to me because its teachings and philosophy resonated on a deep level. It gave me direction, conscious community, inspiration and a remedy for the mental and emotional aches of life. At the age of 35, I was called to do ceremony in the mountains of Santa Cruz, California. It was through my experiences with shamanism, plant medicine and deep, soulful healing that I now find myself with a new framework for describing what yoga means to me. That word is: remembrance.

Certifications at a glance

  • I´m a 500hr registered Dharma Yoga Teacher (DYRT).

  • I did my Continuing Education Restorative Yoga Teacher Training with Cyndi Lee.

  • I did my Continuing Education Yoga Nidra training with Taryn Diamond.

  • I did my Continuing Education Yin Teacher Training with Kate Lombardo.

  • I graduated from the Circle of Women training with Aiste Anandi.

  • As an E-RYT (Experienced Yoga Teacher) registered with Yoga Alliance USA, I am certified to teach continuing education courses and trainings under the YACEP designation (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider).

“We can look at our lives as one big ceremony, and everyone is on their own ceremony of life. There may be challenging times, where we feel lost, confused. But also incredibly beautiful moments, where we feel sheer gratitude and awe for being alive. May we always remember to respect and support each other´s energy, space, growth and journey. May we all walk each other home…”

— Krissa

More about my journey…

If there is one thing you should know about me, it´s that the places I have lived and the countries I have been to have played a significant part in shaping who I am. Asking, “Where are you from?”, is the hardest question you can ask me. Let me try and paint a picture…

I was born in San Francisco but grew up in Manila, Singapore and Hong Kong. My mom is from the Philippines, so is my biological father, but my dad who raised me is Scottish. I did my Media & Communications degree in London and lived there for 7 years, the Caribbean for 6 months and back to Hong Kong where I met my husband who’s half Norwegian half American. We lived in Norway for 7 years, and had two beautiful little girls, before moving to Vancouver March 2023. In between my many homes around the world, I have travelled to thirty countries - Australia, Barbados, Cambodia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Morroco, Netherlands,

Norway, Peru, Philippines, St Lucia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, UK, USA and Vietnam. This global experience has been priceless and helps me to relate to people on a very human and universal level.

I´m also proud to say that I have practiced/taught yoga in incredible places like New York City, London, St Lucia, Hong Kong, Oslo and San Francisco. Why does this matter? Because some of the studios I have been to, and the quality of teachers I have had, has been absolutely first-class. From the teachers at PURE Yoga in Hong Kong to Indaba Yoga & TriYoga in London, and of course the Dharma Yoga Center in New York… my experience of yoga and the standard of teaching I received has been such a massive inspiration for the last twenty years. The teacher I am today, is a reflection of the places I have been, the life I have lived, and the teachers I have had (both on and off the mat).

  • I completed my 200hr and 500hr teacher training at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York, studying directly under Sri Dharma Mittra himself as well as the Senior Faculty at the Shala. I have practiced and taught classes internationally at locations / studios / festivals / events such as:

    London

    Moving Arts Base, Angel & Islington

    SOHO Gyms, London

    KX Gym, Chelsea

    London School of Economics

    Hong Kong

    Yoga Bam Bam, Sheung Wan/Soho

    Embody, Discovery Bay

    OpenSpaceDB, North Plaza, Discovery Bay

    Movement Improvement, Discovery Bay

    Secret Island Party 2014

    Secret Island Party 2015

    Norway

    Leela Yoga, Oslo

    Raw Yoga, Oslo

    Joy Yoga, Oslo

    Humle Yoga, Hvaler

    Nøsen Yoga Retreat

    Atman Yoga School

    AYS Festival 2020

    Movement Arts Festival 2018

    Canada

    RVN Wellness

    Jai Yoga

    Sadhana Yoga & Sound

    Kushala Yoga

    I have also attended workshops with Sri Dharma Mittra, Andrei Ram, Meghan Currie, Briohny Smith and Dice lida-Klein, Patrick Creelman, Amy Ippoliti, Jason Crandell, Sharath Jois, Tiffany Cruikshank, Dov Mittra, David Swenson, Ana Forest, Duncan Peak, Jason Nemer, Carlo Mendes, Joakim Olin, Kino MacGregor…

  • I am and always will be a Dharma Yogi first and foremost. This is the practice that inspired me to become a teacher in the first place and has formed the roots and backbone of my practice for the last 10+ years. Having said that, since becoming a mother and in this new season of life, I have grown to love, honour and embrace the subtle beauty of restorative yoga and yoga nidra. Together, these 3 practices combined have made me a better teacher and a better student in my own practice.

  • After struggling to find the perfect yoga strap to help teach my own classes and events, I decided to make them myself! Dharma Straps are a new kind of yoga strap. They are buckle-free, hassle-free, closed loops that come in 3 different sizes and a wide range of fun and grounding colours. My goal is simple: to make yoga straps that are easy to use. Browse our store on Etsy.