PRACTITIONERS

Practitioners

Cyndie Marler - India/USA

Cyndie has practiced, studied, and taught yoga and yoga therapy in the U.S., Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and India for the past 20 years. Having dedicated her career to working in marketing, public relations and graphic design for the private and nonprofit sector, she jumped off the treadmill of conventional 'success' and sought to experience the world in an authentic, off-the-beaten-path style. She has combined her interest in public service with a dedication to a yogic path in the culmination of Akesia in India and the U.S.

Sandhya Patki - India

Sandhya Patki, a highly effective yoga trainer to more than 12000 people in and around Mumbai, Maharashtra, India over the course of more than 20 years, has fused Classical Yoga, Pilates and modern adaptations of Yoga to synthesize an effective results-oriented program to work on the body and mind. Specialized weight management solutions work on the four principal aspects of weight loss 1] Exercise 2] Diet 3] Lifestyle 4] Ayurvedic formulations and meditation techniques to accelerate your effort. Sandhya is also one of the first in the world to receive with honors the coveted Global Yoga Teacher certification from the Ayush Department and Quality Council of India.

Lisa Brown - USA

Lisa Brown is trained as a dance/movement therapist and has studied and been certified in body-mind centering and authentic movement. She works with individuals, groups, couples and families utilizing a wide-range of bodily-based approaches to help people be more embodied. Breath, movement, touch, sound, stillness, and energy flow inform her work as does creativity, imagination, metaphor, symbolism, the natural world and dream. She is also a fiber artist using yarn, felt, beads, and found objects in her creations.

Dr. Robert L. Groves - USA

Dr. Robert L. Groves, DD, ThD, ND has been in private practice since 1974, and has been teaching massage therapy and holistic healing methods since 1976. His Naturopathic Healing Arts Center is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a traditional Naturopath supporting integration of body, mind, and spirit through the education and application of scientifically examined and/or time-tested, safe, natural methods of healing. He helps empower his clients through education and application of modalities based on his formal training, self-study, constant research, and his private practice experience.

Dr. Hien Nguyen - USA

Having received his medical training at the University of Melbourne in Australia and practiced for 10 years in the ER and Critical Care, Hien Nguyen, MD, MPH came to realize the profound impact that holistic and lifestyle medicine can have on even serious end-state diseases. He went on to study preventive medicine at Harvard University and served as a research associate at Harvard's renowned Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine. He is now a leading specialist in wellness and regenerative medicine with Vitalyze.me in Tulsa, OK.

Dr. Karishma Mukherji - USA/India

Dr. Karishma Gautam Mukherji was born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. A practicing Homeopathic physician, she studied at the YMT Homeopathic Medical College in Mumbai and is now practicing in Chicago. In both locations, Dr. Karishma practices homeopathic medicine and counseling and also maintains a very successful tuition practice where she works with gifted and talented students toward increasing their learning and retention capacity through the use of holistic methods and a homeopathic approach.

Dr. Namrata Thakur - India

Having practiced Ayurveda since 1995 Dr. Thakur holds a degree in Ayurvedic medicine & Surgery (B.A.M.S.) from the University of Mumbai. She is also a consultant to the Mumbai Police. She had also managed the Ayurvedic Spa Therapies in leading five star Hotels like The Lalit Intercontinental, Hotel Renaissance, Hotel Retreat, Hotel Ramada to name only a few. Through her clinic in Andheri, she teaches people from all over the world about the ancient healing science of Ayurveda and its many paths toward health and healing.

Donna Aquino - USA

Donna recognized the vast benefits of Yamuna and pursued her certification to teach, attending workshops in both Costa Rica and New York City to become the first certified Yamuna practitioner in Oklahoma. Donna truly loves helping people discover body sustainability through Yamuna body rolling at www.yamunaokc.com. In this work with a series of varied-sized balls, the body is gently massaged to create space and new life in areas resulting in the release of old holding patterns and limited motion.

Jan Morrill - USA

Twelve years ago, Jan Morrill left the corporate world to follow her passion as an author (www.janmorrill.com) and artist (www.janmorrillartwork.com). Since then, she has published four books, including her award-winning historical fiction, The Red Kimono, (University of Arkansas Press, 2013), a book about racial tolerance and self-examination. In presenting the workshop based on her book Creative Characterization, she has helped other authors “discover” their characters. In doing so, she serendipitously found authors often discovered themselves. She believes all writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, can reveal many secrets about ourselves and the lives we want to lead.

Stephen Vanek - USA

Stephen Vanek has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the Dallas area for 25 years, working as an educator, therapist and coach. His formal education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. After discovering art as a means of moving out of thoughts and worries and into the moment, to a state of curiosity, exploration, openness and discovery, Stephen began incorporating art and writing into coaching others toward living a more whole and healthy life. (www.svanek-art.com)

Claire GuYu Johnson - Mongolia

Claire GuYu Johnson grew up in Beijing and in the US in a family of tai chi, herbal medicine, acupuncture and qigong practitioners. Through her parent's Qigong Association of America she met and studied with a number of masters including ZY Qigong Grandmaster Xu Mingtang. In 1999 she traveled and studied with Xu Mintang as he taught and practiced healing worldwide. She has practiced solitary meditations without food and water in Chinese and Tibetan caves. In 2000 she established America's first ZY Qigong School and Healing Center in Seattle.

Jerigtu Borjigin - Mongolia

Jerigtu Borjigin, Mongolian healer, hails from the land where Shamanism originated and comes from a family of well-known Shamans, healers and Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoches. He is the sole successor of a rare Taoist lineage of Yi Jin Jing. Jerigtu has apprenticed with Taoist healers and studied with ZY Qigong Grandmaster Xu Mingtang. He is also an accomplished musician, and a virtuoso on the Mongolian Horsehair Fiddle.