Meet Our inspired yoki yoga Team
Yoki Yoga teachers are certified through a 95-hour training including hands on teaching classroom hours.
Yoki Yoga teachers are insured and CPR certified.
Yoki Yoga teachers are insured and CPR certified.
MONIKA MUCARSEL-GRESSIER
After many years of a fast paced career, Monika decided to jump into the practice of yoga to embark on a journey of mind, body and enlightenment. More than 14 years of practicing different yoga styles such as Ashtanga, Hatha, Anusara and Vinyasa led Monika to complete her 200-hour TTC certification and a 95-hour Yoki Yoga childrens certification. With her daily observances of the sun and the moon, she guides her students through a passionate Hatha yoga flow, bringing awareness to the energies of the subtle body: a powerful tool for self-transformation. Her goal is to help the practitioner become more present in the unfolding of each moment, resulting in bliss and relaxation. Monika aims her teachings towards centers specializing in people with disabilities, children, seniors, and anyone seeking to heal their mind body and soul. She also gives public and private yoga classes both in studios and in parks. The YokiYoga movement is her long-term goal, providing tools of self-regulation to children, parents and educators.
What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? “Being a Yoki Yoga teacher allows me to tap into my intuition and go with the flow. It has taught me to reconnect with my inner child and remain present with the needs of the children and life in general. To teach through Yoki Yoga is a privilege because it gives me the opportunity to help transform the lives of an entire family and society.” |
ANDREA CORREIA
Andrea Correia was born in Brazil and has 19 years of experience in the corporate business, with background in strategic planning, financing, corporate communications and investor relations. She had a successful corporate career, but after her five year-old son was born she decided to do a shift in her life towards something with a bigger meaning to her. A passionate yoga practitioner even before getting pregnant, Andrea found in yoga a path to work with kids, a deep call that grew strongly after her kid was born, especially knowing all the benefits a kid can get from the practice. She moved to USA in 2015 with her family and joined Yoki Yoga in 2016. She is also a jewelry designer.
What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? “Yoki Yoga opened for me the possibility to work with children and help them raise awareness of themselves, their feelings, the others, the nature, our planet, and the importance of values like kindness, friendship and compassion. It is far beyond doing yoga poses, it is about raising better persons, better citizens, better souls for our planet.” |
MARI DE LA ROSA
Since childhood, Mari always had an intense enthusiasm for the education of children. Her passion of teaching led her to a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Florida International University. For the past 25 years she has been educating children and leading teachers within Miami Dade County Public Schools. Through her years in education she realized the importance of a child’s well being and how she wanted to be the change she wished to see in this world. While completing her 95-hour certification with Yoki Yoga to teach kids yoga she fell in love with its mission and methodology and the importance of teaching yoga and mindfulness to children. Knowing then that this is what she needed to take back to the children in her classroom and kids yoga classes. It was what she also felt important to create with the teachers and parents.
What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? "Educators are sculptors. They help create the future by molding today's children into tomorrow's adults. Every child can one day be a contributing member of our community. It is possible to enhance children's self-image so that they can begin to believe in themselves and learn to create their own masterpiece." |
ANA MARIA LARIOS-FERNANDES
Ana Maria received her 200-hour teacher training with Ian Darrah at Green Monkey in May 2014, her second 200-hour with GreenMonkey Powered by Bala Vinyasa in April 2015. She also completed her Kid's Yoga teacher training under the guidance of Jill Rapperport. Ana Maria was born and raised in Alajuela, Costa Rica, but has lived in Miami most of her adult life. She loves to spend time with her family and loves to bake sweet treats for her husband and little daughter. It is her family and the practice of yoga that lifts her spirit and brightens her days. She is both honored and grateful to be able to share the gift of yoga and mindfully designs her classes with movement that builds upon itself and purposefully adjusts her approach in order to lead her students to a beautiful expression of self.
What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? Being a Yoki Yoga teacher is a privilege and an honor, because (as cheesy as it sounds) children are our future. As a Yoki Teacher I have the opportunity tconnect and guide children through yoga to be themselves and self regulate (skills that will enhance their lives). I am thankful and proud to be part of this team! |
KRISTA MILLER
Krista has been a 200-hour certified yoga instructor for 5 years and a licensed massage therapist for 16 years. She came from a dance background so she loves to move the body and finds it fascinating. She used to do a lot of yoga but really fell in love with it during her pregnancy, doing prenatal and postnatal yoga with her son, who is now 10. Her yoga practice enables her to find strength, peace, focus and all amidst a supportive community. Doing the teacher training changed her life in many ways and has opened several doors, including completing the 95-hour Yoki Yoga training. She now feels this is how she’s giving back, how she stays connected to her true spirit. Having a son, she sees the importance of sharing these tools that she learned with him and other children. She knows there is a need and our children are the ones who are going to make a difference in this world, and this shift is already occurring. She believes it is our responsibility to nurture that and to reach out, to be there for them, show them how to be there for themselves. To be kind, aware, mindful and that all the tools they need in this life are already inside of them.
What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? “As a Yoki Yoga Teacher, I am willing to continue to learn and to work with passionate and like minded people so we can go out into our communities and spread the love. I believe the more we know, the more we can give and the children are waiting for that and so are the parents and teachers. So I am committed to this journey...to learn, to share, to support, to pread knowledge, to give love, to give back in any way I can through Yoki Yoga and in my everyday life.” |
CLAUDIA PORTO
Claudia was born in Brazil and moved to Japan when she was 18. While living in Japan she practiced meditation at a Byakko Shinko Kai’s temple. In 1982, back in Brazil, she had her first experience with yoga with a Kundalini yoga master.
Few years after getting married she moved to Africa and then to the US, where she got her master’s degree in Education from Marymount University. She worked as an assistant in a Montessori pre-school and with special education at Taylor Elementary School in Virginia. Claudia lived for four years in Germany and then she moved back to Brazil, where she worked as a second grade teacher at an international bilingual school and got involved with Vipassana Meditation. She was so inspired by the benefits of meditation that she began to practice it with her students on a daily basis. A year after Claudia moved to Miami she fell in love with yoga again. She did her 200-Hour Professional Teacher Training Course with Ian Darrah and got her certificate from Dharma Studio. Soon after that she joined Yoki Yoga team and got her certification to teach yoga to pre-scholars and teenagers. Today she teaches yoga to kids and volunteers to teach adults with disabilities at the WOW Center in Kendall. What does it mean to you to be a Yoki Yoga teacher? “It means a great opportunity to help children and adolescents feel good about themselves. Through the asanas they develop body awareness, through meditation and breathing they calm their minds, through yoga they practice tolerance, patience, gratitude, and compassion. It is rewarding to see them using those tools to feel at peace.” |