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…
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I completed the 200hr (2011) and 500hr (2016) advanced Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi (DY LOAY) teacher training immersions at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York.
This is the practice that inspired me to be a yoga teacher in the first place. To this day, it forms the backbone, structure and inspiration for all other forms of yoga that I practice and teach.
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To complement my Dharma Yoga practice and teachings, I did further training in Restorative Yoga (Cyndi Lee, USA), Yoga Nidra (Taryn Diamond, USA) and Yin (Kate Lombardo, USA).
If Dharma Yoga is my inhale, these practices are my exhale. They are the practices I wish I discovered sooner.
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I took a deep dive into feminine wisdom and learned to hold space for women through Aiste Anandi´s 40-hour Circle of Women training.
Facilitating these circles has been the most fulfilling work I have done in recent years.
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After discovering Yoni Shakti and the teachings of Uma Dinsmore-Tuli during my Circle of Women training (see above), I went on to do Uma and Sivani Mata´s Yoni Shakti: Well Woman Yoga Therapy Immersion, a pre-requisite for their full teacher training.
This is a spiritual work in progress.
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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).
“Our lives are just one big ceremony. When we practice yoga, sit in circle, take the medicine, we are experiencing ceremony in the grander ceremony of life. Knowing this, may we remember to respect and support each other´s energy, space, healing and growth, so we can all have a good journey 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).
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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…