Satya Yoga Collective Teachers
Lakshmi Nair: Having been steeped in the stories and philosophy of yoga and Ayurveda from a young age, Lakshmi formally studied yoga at Vivekananda Yoga Kendra and Kaivalyadhama Ashram in India in 2002. She also attended 4 years of graduate study in South Asian Studies at UC Berkeley, where she studied Sanskrit, Tamil, and contemporary South Asian literature. She has been teaching yoga in Denver since 2005, focusing primarily on gentle, prenatal, Trauma Sensitive Yoga and teacher training. She has taught trauma sensitive yoga for Center for Trauma and Resilience and currently teaches at 3 Little Birds Counseling in Littleton and is a lead instructor for Littleton Yoga Center’s 200 hour teacher training program, as well as an adjunct instructor for various 300 hour teacher training programs in the Denver metro area. In 2014, Lakshmi started Satya Yoga Immersion for People of Color, the country’s first and perhaps only yoga immersion and teacher training programs exclusively for people of color. Since 2014, Satya Yoga Immersion has grown into Satya Yoga Collective , a yoga collective offering yoga for people of color by people of color. In 2016, Lakshmi was a panelist at the 3rd annual Race and Yoga Conference at Mills College in Oakland, California and also at the Center for Trauma and Resilience's Diversifying Your Practice Symposium in Denver. She writes about her experiences as a South Asian American yoga teacher and about her journey to POC yoga in the Yoga and Body Coalition’s new book Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body, edited by Melanie Klein, available via Llewelyn Worldwide.
Class Style: You Will be guided through a gentle practice that incorporates classical yoga tenets focused on unwinding accumulated stress from the body, activating the restorative power of the parasympathetic nervous system, and developing subtle awareness. She aims to leave her participants feeling nurtured and relaxed, spines lengthened and limber like they just got a good massage!
Jamie Jones: "Years ago I was Introduced to yoga by a work colleague and I loved the effects it had on my body. I had assumed, as so many people do, that as we age it is natural for our bodies to lock up and freeze. We tend to lose flexibility and strength due to lack of movement. As a teacher I like to create space for people to find movement and prevent or address any loss of mobility." Jamie is a proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training for People of Color
Class Style: Designed to build balance and strength and increase access of the healing practice of yoga to people of all ages
Aishah Muhammad is a 2018 Graduate of Satya's 200 hr POC Yoga Teacher Training program. She has been creating one of a kind jewelry since the tender age of 10. At 16 she started a business called “Spiders and Bumble Bees” that produced much local acclaim. She is the co-owner of Jiridon apothecary and teaches community about the medicine that surrounds them in their everyday urban life. Born 10 of 12 artistic siblings, Aishah grew up heavily involved in crafts such as sewing, painting, and creating jewelry. She is fusing her love of stones with a healing practice that will give back to the community. Her goal is to create jewelry that is well beyond the realm of fashion. She hopes that through her jewelry she can also help those who suffer from anxiety, depression and other conditions that negatively affect the heart, mind and spirit
Class Style: Gentle, nourishing, guided with feminine wisdom, therapeutic and soulful.
Sarah Jones: A proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training for People of Color
Class Style: In children's yoga we use breath, movement, music stories and games to learn the guiding principles of yoga. We focus on how we can use breath to control our emotions and use games and yoga poses to improve focus. We have a snack (parent-provided) and open play for the last fifteen minutes of class.
Celeste Ma'at is a Yoga Teacher Certified through Satya Yoga Collective in May of 2018. She received her BA in Wellness for Marginalized Communities. She is a certified Reiki Master, Yoni Steam Practitioner, Full Spectrum Doula, Evidence Based Birth Instructor, Lactation Consultant, Yoga Teacher and Wellness Coach.
Class Style: She brings feminine wisdom, intuitive medicine, and her great love of community to every class she teaches.
Beverly Grant is an evangelist for healthy eating and a mom with three children. Grant started the first farmers market in the historic Five Points neighborhood, called the Mo’ Betta Green MarketPlace.Her mission is built into the name itself. “The slang part, mo’ betta, is about self- improvement, something that’s easy and that you can do one step, one bite at a time,” she said. “Green is about the lifestyle, sustainability and regeneration.” She is a 2018 Graduate of Satya's 200 hr POC Yoga Teacher Training program.
You may have spotted her on a bus or heard her voice on the radio. Or maybe you’ve been lucky enough to have filled your belly with prana full food that she grew and cooked from her own pure heart and hands at one of her summer farmers markets. Beverly Grant is a local honored celebrity for her many contributions to the community. She is like Denver’s very own Annapurna (Hindu Goddess of Food)! On top of all that, she is just the warmest, funniest human being!
Class Style: Athletic, yet gentle, fluid, graceful, and complete for the body and spirit.
Tamika Thomas began exploring movement and yoga 4 years ago after receiving a flyer for a free 4 week trauma-informed yoga series. Through that experience, Tamika decided it was time to dive deeper into her yoga practice. She received a 200 hour teaching certification from Satya Yoga Collective in 2018 for People of Color. Their primary purpose is to diversify the yoga teacher pool in Colorado to represent people in all communities; supporting People of Color to be inspired, empowered, and to heal the symptoms of oppression.
Tamika is in the process of receiving her teacher educator certificate from BhavanaKIDS--- a yoga and mindfulness program that serves school age children in underserved school systems and within their communities. She is passionate about making a difference in the lives of others and through her own personal yoga journey, she has found healing and strength she now brings to others.
Tamika has a Masters of Art Degree in Clinical Mental Health & Counseling from Adams State University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Services with a minor emphasis in Mental Health & Counseling from Metropolitan State University of Denver. She is also a licensed Addiction Counselor I and is currently pursuing her Licensed Addition Counselor Certification. Tamika plans to one day have her own private practice as a Licensed Professional Counselor.
Class Style: includes a gentle flow with a focus on breath awareness, and flexibility, Vinyasa flow set to “Trap”, R&B, or Hip Hop music. Her continued style also includes trauma informed flow with a focus of balance and strength to increase the body’s ability to heal. Tamika, weaves her practice into all areas of her life to ensure yoga is accessible to all people in all its forms.
In her free time you can find Tamika hanging with family & friends, shopping, laughing, reading, and exploring food as medicine with folks!
Natasha Chaoua is a 2018 graduate of Satya Yoga Collective's 200hr POC Yoga Teacher Training Program, CNA and Founder & Owner of Dubwise Yoga Denver.
Dubwise Yoga is a Hatha Yoga practice fused in sound system culture. It focuses heavily on the breath, asanas and finishes with meditation all within an atmosphere of drum and bass that ignites strength, creates peace and promotes self-care. She's also an advocate for women’s health and is available for new and experienced mothers who would like to practice prenatal and postpartum sequences.
Beyond yoga, Natasha recently gave birth to her third child and attends the University of Colorado Denver where she studies Mathematics.
Class Style: Dubwise Yoga, Prenatal & Postpartum Yoga.
Mackenzi Bell-Nugent has been practicing yoga since 2001. She has her yoga teacher certification through Satya Yoga Collective May of 2018 and is a yoga educator with BhavanaKids. Mackenzi studied Iyengar and restorative yoga while undergoing a bone marrow transplant in 2011. As a yogabhyasi and a professional dancer, Mackenzi has always utilized movement to empower and heal; even through obstacles like chemotherapy. When Mackenzi was inspired by Dance Movement Therapy, she travelled in search of different techniques used across the world. From Shanghai to London to Bangkok to New York City, she continued to learn how healing her passion for dance and movement was a universal connection between all people.
Class Style: She is passionate about sharing this wellness lifestyle with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. As a 2 time cancer survivor, Mackenzi utilizes yoga, dance and other movement forms to create a trauma sensitive yoga class making asanas available to all.
Celeste Frances Razavi-Shearer-Spink is a 2018 Graduate of Satya's 200 hr POC Yoga Teacher Training program. Celeste has lived in Colorado her entire life, witnessing the growth and gentrification of the state up close. She is a Queer|TwoSpirit Hopi, Dineh and Colombian writer, artist and enthusiast of gardening. Having played sports through the varsity level in high school, Celeste encompasses sports medicine into her practice, as a knee injury from basketball and competitive dance has affected her quality of life in recent years. Yoga became a part of her life 11 years ago as a mechanism to heal from trauma and substance abuse, and has remained an essential piece of her ongoing struggle for balance. Celeste has a dream of connecting her peoples on the reservation with the ancient medicine of yoga, and encouraging more indigenous survivors and activists-of-color to become yoga practitioners.
Class Style: Warm, athletic, deeply engaging, and therapeutic.
Maurice Ka: A proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training for People of Color. The body is a ritual. Stay blessed.
Class Style: A combination of Asana (yoga poses) and Trataka (fixed point meditation) designed to relax the body. A gentle choreography of poses, meditation and breathwork (Pranayama) accessible to all levels (even those just curious about Yoga).
Euda: A proud graduate of Saty Yoga Immersion & Yoga Teacher Training for People of Color. Euda's wisdom of the body comes from her intense dedication to her practice. Check out her instagram.
Class Style: A beginners gentle, meditative and intuitive style of yoga that I like to call "Connect IN Dots". Occasionally, and given the energy of those in the room I will throw in some heat building postures and/or Yoga Nidra for extreme relaxation.
Maya McDowell: A proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training for People of Color
Class Style: Inclusive, full of variations and all-levels (she particularly loves teaching yoga to beginners). By focusing on the breath as a catalyst for freedom of mind, body and spirit. Students are likely to accomplish more than they could before in Maya's energizing, yet serene classes.
Asia Dorsey: A proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion & Teacher Training for People of Color and the genius behind Five Points Fermentation Co. Asia Dorsey is a body positive yoga enthusiast, radical dreamworker and a practitioner of herbal medicine as people’s medicine. She cultivates the seeds of collective creativity, fun and justice while emboldening radical self discovery. She facilitates classes and events that helps queer, fat and colored people feel at home in their bodies as they are wherever they are. She sees the goal of any practice as coming home to the divinity that lives inside of ourselves.
Class Style: Her style is patient, reflective and intentional.
Nadya Waziri: a proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion & Teacher Training for People of Color
Class style:. Nadya has been exploring the practice of yoga for 20+ years. As a teacher, she pulls from her former years as a professional dancer, as well as from her knowledge as a practitioner of acupuncture and Traditional East Asian Medicine. You will experience a gentle, deep stretching and relaxing class and learn new things about your body you never knew you were capable of.
Maritza Valenzuela is a proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion & Teacher Training for People of Color.
Class Style: A student of Yogic Practices since Maritza teaches with special attention to alignment, breath awareness, and playfulness and seeks to make poses accessible to all through modifications and use of props. Because she's a Gemini she balances deep grounded-ness with a light heart to make it well rounded.
Lyz Riley: A proud graduate of Satya Yoga Immersion and Teacher Training for People of Color
Class Style: a Vinyasa set to Hip-Hop and R&B. You will break a sweat, push your flexibility and deepen your strength.
Beginner/Intermediate/ Advanced - All are welcome!