IG: @kyle.leia FB: Kyle Leia Elden Heyesen
email: kyleleia@svalja.yoga ph: 218-341-6115

Kyle Leia is the owner of Svälja Yoga, a Lead Teacher in our 250 hour Yoga Teacher Training guiding the trauma-conscious track, and you can learn more about her in her FULL BIO!

She is also a published poet. Her book Grace Intoxicated and some of her newer poems are available on our website.

“I can’t help it!
I’m smitten with you, Life,
downright grateful.

I’m grace intoxicated,
buzzed on happiness—joy spins circles
and makes me dizzy,
leaves me smiling.”

— k y l e l e i a

IG:@miribeach FB: Miri-YumYum Hanson
email: miriam@svalja.yoga ph: 218-390-4933

Miriam is the Yoga School Director at Svälja Yoga. She is a lead teacher for Svälja’s House of the Gathering Yoga School, and a lead specialty trauma-conscious yoga guide.

Duluth native Miriam built a bilingual elementary school in Roatan, Honduras after completing her BA at U of MN Twin Cites. Yoga showed her the way to practice being connected and present. She has been a student in yoga classes all over the world, which has broadened her perspective and complemented her practice.

Miriam completed TT200 on the island of Roatan with Martha Berry School in 2011. With Martha's worldly view, Miriam was able to find her voice and personal power in guiding Vinyasa. After discovering Yin Yoga in 2002, Miriam has come to embrace this style. She is now a certified Yin Teacher Trainer with training from the world-renowned instructor Bernie Clark, and is a Levels 1 & 2 Yin Teacher Trainer through Michelle Pietrzak-Wegner. She took her first Yin Yoga Teacher Training in 2015 and has continued to deepen her Yin education with over 70 contact training hours. Miriam has led weekly or twice-weekly Yin studio sessions since 2012, including extended workshops and specialty offerings. Additionally, she is certified in trauma-sensitive yoga through the Center for Trauma and Embodiment, Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga, and has Advanced Adaptive Yoga and Yoga for Trauma & PTSD Training with Matthew Sanford and Mind Body Solutions. She extensively studied Patanjali's Yoga Sutra with her esteemed instructor Bhavani Maki and weaves yoga philosophy teachings into her classes. She completed her RYT500 with the final project of memorizing the entire Samadhi Pada in Sanskrit. See her published piece on Sutra 1.20 in Midwest Yoga+ LIfe. Miriam is also grateful for her extensive studies with Indu Arora in Ayurveda and Yoga Philosophy.

Miriam believes in the power of yoga to transform trauma and stress and lead us to freedom from suffering through daily practice of Patanjali’s Eightfold Path. She enjoys the fellowship and healing power of yoga, as well as the opportunity to nurture a loving space of breath, movement and discerning awareness.

Miriam primarily is dedicated to guiding Svälja’s weekly Trauma-Conscious yoga classes through partnerships with several community organizations. Join Miriam for her Yin + Live Music Collaborations that she has been doing for many years. Also check out her specialty refined-study workshops and Yin Certificate Program!

IG: @indwellingduluth FB: Hilary Buckwalter-Wilde website: www.indwellingduluth.com
email: hello@indwellingduluth.com ph: (218) 213-8786

Hilary is the owner/founder of Indwelling and is also the original founder of House of the Gathering Yoga School. Hilary is an experienced embodied movement Guide that taught yoga for over 15 years. In 2020 Hilary stepped away as the owner of HGYS and as a lead teacher in the Svalja YTT program to focus on Indwelling. Through Indwelling Hilary offers one on one Sacred Counsel, consultations and training for businesses and nonprofits, as well as workshops and retreats. Hilary specializes in holistic counseling, depth psychology, boundaries, trauma healing, dreamwork, ancestral mending, spiritual direction, embodied movement, bodymind integration, and somatics.

At present Hilary is focused on offering Sacred Counsel as a path of reclamation for individuals and couples that are seeking holistic and creative pathways for healing. Indwelling is a path of reclamation that centers around bodymind integration, imaginal ways of knowing, and trauma informed care.

In 2022 Hilary will be taking a somatic sex coaching training through Somatica Institute in San Francisco, CA, in order to become a certified sex and relationship coach. She looks forward to helping her clients overcome sexual issues and expand their erotic horizons in a depth psychological and trauma conscious manner in an effort to reclaim embodied wholeness, pleasure, and joy.

Hilary has a Masters in Advocacy and Political leadership from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and a second Masters in Depth Psychology with specialization in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. She is presently a PhD candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute, researching the somatic unconscious--the lived experience and phenomena of the unconscious psyche in the bodymind.

Hilary was the board secretary of Spirit of the Lake Community School from 2019-2021, is a member of the Minnesota Jung Association, a member of the Fascia Research Society, and a passionate supporter of the movement to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. In the Svalja/HGYS YTT program, Hilary continues to teach classes on depth psychology, trauma, ancestral mending, foraging, and more.

Yoga has been a driving force in Emily‘s life for 15 years. She has over 1500 hours of teaching experience and is an E-200 RYT certified instructor with Yoga Alliance. She received her training at the Sivananda Kutir Ashram in Netala, India in 2011, and has continued her training with renowned teachers across the globe. Emily’s areas of focus in teaching are, biomechanically sound movement patterns and cueing, creative flows, pranayama, and giggles. She is as down-to-earth as she is energetic, and her passion for yoga is apparent within moments of meeting her.

She received a BA of Fine Arts from Northwestern State University of Louisiana, and is also a Licensed Massage Therapist, specializing in Myofascial Release, Traditional Ashiatsu, and Thai Bodywork. She has worked at Muggymoose Massage & Thai Bodywork since 2016.

Born in Venezuela and raised in Louisiana, Emily backpacked and bounced around until finding her home on the shores of Lake Superior in 2008. She spends her free time hiking with Niko, her Border Collie, creating, cooking, singing, and dancing ~ with the intention of fully exploring what life has to offer, one day at a time, with compassion and gratitude.

Anissa is an alumnus from Cohort 3 of Svälja’s House of the Gathering Yoga School.

Yoga has been a lifelong intrigue of Anissa’s via books and DVDs since grade school. In 2012 she attended her first in-person yoga class at the University of Wisconsin Superior. Anissa’s personal practice really took root in 2016 to heal and prevent injury while training for Grandma’s Marathon. Yoga has been an integral part of Anissa’s days ever since. In early 2020, she earned several certifications in yoga trapeze, breath coaching, and gravity yoga.

Anissa earned her 250-hour trauma conscious teaching certificate in the House of the Gathering Yoga School’s trauma conscious program graduating in November 2020. Completing the HGYS program opened many doors and has led to a dedication to learning and continued study. She is currently studying and working on a 300-hour training with Authentic Movements.

Anissa is originally from central Wisconsin but is a twin ports transplant and has made Duluth her home. In her free time, she can be found running, crafting, DIYing projects around the house, and hanging out with her dog.

Anissa is the HGYS 2023 YTT Assistant.

IG: peace_of_onion FB: orion.sorrell

Meet Orion!

Orion was a member of the HGYS 2022 YTT Cohort. They describe the program as being a powerful catalyst for self exploration and transformation. Though they are not currently pursuing teaching yoga, they enjoyed deepening and expanding their personal practice of breath work, intuitive movement and ecstatic dance.

Orion is a certified NLP Life Coach, currently working as a Career Coach with the vulnerable adult population here in Duluth.

When they’re not working they enjoy being out in nature with their dog, traveling and exploring, crafting and creating, or getting lost in an antique store or a good book.

Orion is excited to be present in their role as the 2023 YTT Intern, acting as a supportive force for each of you through this beautiful journey!

IG: @grains_of_stars FB: Kristy Marie NurJehan Chisti website : www.kristymariemassage.com
Email: kristy@kristymariemassage.com ph: (218)591-8304

Kristy Marie is a yoga guide at Svälja Yoga and an instructor for Svälja’s House of the Gathering School. Kristy also leads Kirtan, a musical and devotional yogic practice.

Kristy began practicing yoga 20 years ago and has been a student ever since. She was in the first cohort of House of the gathering yoga school, Svälja’s first incarnation of the YTT program. She has a full-time massage and myofascial release practice here in Duluth.

Kristy studied and lived in Hawaii for four of the most formative years of her life. It was in Hawaii where she was immersed in a melting pot of different spiritual paths and an abundance of teachers ready to share these ancient wisdoms. She was Initiated as a Sufi in 2005 and has been studying all paths of the heart, religions, and traditions, finding unity between all ways. She uses mantras from the sacred traditions in a Bhakti (devotional) yoga practice called Kirtan. In this practice, we use the tool of the voice along with these archetypical sacred phrases to eradicate negativities of the mind and raise the essence of virtues and high ideals within us.

For the past 9 years, she has studied at length with John Barnes and the Myofascial release approach, taking 11 or more courses and shadowing him in his Pennsylvania clinic. The greater understanding of the fascia and its role in both the physicality and psyche/consciousness of every person feeds everything Kristy brings to both her massage practice and her yoga practice. She brings this deeply rooted fascial understanding into YTT also, co-leading the fascia workshop.

Kristy has also contemplated Death and Dying for over 20 years with the mantra “you have to learn how to die before you can live'' as her guide. She has studied with masters such as Ram Das and Bodhi Be at the Doorway to Light in Maui Hawaii, stewards in the conscious dying movement. She also has studied with Jerry Grace Lyons from Final Passages, Institute of Conscious Dying, Home Funeral, and Green Burial Education. Kristy has led workshops locally, including for House of The Gathering YTT students on exploring the deeper meaning behind the corpse pose. Embrace death, and enhance life.

email: seth.qigong@gmail.com

Seth has been practicing Qigong since 2019 and yoga since 2015. He has been guiding Qigong and yoga since 2021.

Seth is a Certified Qigong Practice Group Leader through Spring Forest Qigong. He is also a 2021 graduate of Svälja Yoga’s House of the Gathering Yoga School and Yin Yoga Certification Program. Though these ancient traditions are different in many ways, he has found them to be congruent and helpful in his life as they have allowed him to find more awareness and connection to his body. They are both powerful, healing, and enlivening in their own ways. He seeks to bring a trauma conscious lens into all of his practices.

Seth loves being in nature and is often in the parks throughout Duluth, in the woods in Northern MN and WI, or in the Boundary Waters. He loves being in nature in whatever way possible, including walking, sitting, swimming, hiking, mountain biking, or canoeing.

Through Qigong, yoga, and intentional time in the Forests, Seth has learned to connect with his body and with the Earth. He has had so many deep healing experiences with Nature that have expanded his understanding of community, sensuality, and communication. Seth has been outside his whole life-- spending his childhood barefoot in the Woods, sleeping in the Trees, breathing in the Forest, and immersing himself in Water-- Nature is in his bones. It was the draw of Nature, the draw of the Wild, the draw of the Boundary Waters, the draw of Lake Superior that brought him to Duluth.

Seth works in the non-profit human services field as Executive Director of Damiano Center among people experiencing housing insecurity, poverty and all that comes with these realities. Seth is also a Rule 114 Facilitative Mediator through the Conflict Resolution Center.

IG: @bloodthirstybabe FB: Laura Sellner
email: lauramaesellner@gmail.com ph: website: superiorsiren.com
email: lauramaesellner@gmail.com ph: 218-491-1726

Laura Sellner is a trauma-conscious yoga guide at Svälja Yoga. She is a 2020 graduate of Svälja Yoga’s House of the Gathering Yoga School and was the Teacher Assistant for Svälja’s 2021 Yoga Teacher Training.

Laura has practiced yoga for over 14 years. She was first introduced to yoga at a music festival, then went on to take an in-depth study of Hatha Yoga at Lake Superior College. Since then she has continued to develop an authentic home practice and participate in different styles of yoga. She has found growth and transformation on the mat, which she incorporates into her journey of healing and self-discovery.

Laura’s main passions are music and yoga. She is a singer-songwriter and guitarist, and leads the eerie-folk project Superior Siren from Duluth, Minnesota. Laura is inspired by the human experience, the depths of the psyche, and the beauty of natural surroundings. She continues to promote creativity and compassion in hopes of encouraging a more connected community. Laura is excited to expand her practice of yoga alongside her career in music, and aims to be a vessel in which the tools of meditation and art can pass through.

Laura also is employed as a server and bartender at Lake Avenue Restaurant & Bar, and is a member of the Washington Studios Artist Cooperative.

Jesse is a graduate of HGYS Cohort 2 and a current teacher in the YTT program at Svälja’s House of the Gathering Yoga School. She is RYT200 with additional training and certifications in trauma-conscious yoga and body-positive yoga and guides yoga through a lens of accessibility and self-trust. Jesse was introduced to yoga through her mother as a young person and has enjoyed a lifelong practice. Jesse also studies Tantra and Ayurveda and is a student pursuing a degree as a Registered Nurse. Jesse has worked in service to our community in a variety of ways from the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival to advocacy for women as a doula, childbirth educator, and placenta services provider since 2008.

Jesse is excited to be offering a 6-week series at Svälja called Yoga & Body Image Exploration. (This session is sold out) Yoga & Body Image Exploration allows participants to interrogate how body image is formed, explore the potential for body acceptance, learn how to adapt yoga asana for their bodies, interrupt their negative self-talk, and find yoga as a movement for embodied pleasure - not fitness. Jesse hopes to schedule a weekly drop-in class for folks in abundant bodies/series graduates beginning this summer. If you are interested in a future series of Yoga & Body Image Exploration you can join the waitlist by emailing hello@svalja.yoga

email: rjamesalsum@gmail.com

Rebecca is on a path of creating spaces where healing and deep inner wisdom can blossom. Through her many years working in advocacy and fostering healthy communities, she is most interested in empowering people to find healing that is centered in their own body through re-discovery of their own deep wells of wisdom and authority. She seeks to support in fostering deep relationships, holistic listening, meaningful communication, and spiritual growth.

Rebecca holds a BA in Sociology. She is a Certified Qigong Trainer and a Certified Practice Group Leader through Spring Forest Qigong. Rebecca has additional certifications in Embodied Innerwork, Dream Work and Trauma Conscious practices. Rebecca is currently enrolled in a Clinical Sexology program with a Sex Coaching Certification through Sex Coach U, with anticipated graduation in 2023. Rebecca works for Duluth Aging Support as an Outreach Coordinator and guides Qigong classes regularly in the community.

Rebecca came to Qigong as a trauma survivor seeking healing for her own physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. As a teacher, she focuses on a gentle, trauma conscious approach that offers practices to ground, in order that participants might feel the power of their own wisdom and healing within. Embracing the knowledge that one can heal one’s self is powerful, centering and life giving– this is a beautiful truth that Rebecca knows intimately.

Rebecca loves spending time with her partner, two kids, pup, cat and the loving community of friends and neighbors around her. Sitting with Mother Earth and playing cello are key healing practices she enjoys along with Qigong. Engaging the magic of curiosity, learning, and the sun and moon keep her spirit wondering and flourishing on the way.

Angela has been cultivating an interest in health and healing for over fifteen years. From traditional food preparations and herbal remedies to markets, classes, and workshops, she is passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience. Fermenting vegetables was one of the great lessons she learned while residing in South Korea in 2006-7. This experience opened a realm of taste, food preparation, safety, and health that was unknown to her until then. Back in Minnesota in 2009, she and her husband Ted started studying Permaculture and Herbalism as this was inevitable in their passion for plants as medicine, food, and ecological function.

As a natural outgrowth of studies and experiences, Angela began pursuing formal traditional healing knowledge of Herbalism and soon realized this was to be a lifelong journey. She knew instinctively that to round out the wheel, she was going to learn from many teachers and traditions. Angela completed numerous programs and classes within the School of Green Wisdom, Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism + Phyllis Light, Sajah Popham’s Evolutionary Herbalism, and Paul Bergner’s Food for Optimal Health program which highlights diet and identifying food sensitivities as the foundation to health.

As a student of Nature and plant purveyor, Angela recommends we all get back in touch with the rhythms and cycles of the natural world by simply sitting and tuning in, tasting plants, and recognizing health as our right and responsibility. We are intuitive beings from the natural world and healing is our innate ability. One can catch Angela, Ted, and their three children hiking the trails, river romping, and enjoying the gardens of Duluth.

email: madelineheikkila@gmail.com

Madeline Heikkila was a part of the first cohort at House of the Gathering Yoga School (HGYS) in 2018, returned the following year as the YTT Assistant, and in 2020 began as a YTT Teacher. She has special training in guiding trauma-conscious Yoga through HGYS. Since becoming certified, Madeline has taught in healthcare settings for pain management as well as studio classes that focus on slowing down and turning inward. Madeline strongly believes in the power of yoga to heal body and mind as one and continues to weave that connection throughout her classes.

Madeline practiced yoga on and off for a decade before an injury drove her to fully focus on her practice for healing. It was then she discovered the depths of the practice and knew she needed to continue diving deeper. One of Madeline's main goals of teaching is to share a safe space with practitioners so they can focus on their inner worlds and heal however is best for each individual.

Madeline is a native Minnesotan who moved to Duluth in 2014 and currently lives with her husband and dog. She spends her free time traveling, hiking, camping, or in her garden

e-mail: twohungryrabbits@yahoo.com

Many years into an earnest yet savasana-lite at-home asana practice, in November 2015 David Caligiuri attended his first public yoga class. Early in 2016, when he was taking several classes weekly, anger at the death of a friend abruptly softened, during savasana, to grief—and he began to catch on. In October 2018, Dave graduated in the first cohort of House of the Gathering Yoga School then hired on at his mothership studio.

He believes in the breath’s primacy and that spiritual transcendence is a fully embodied phenomenon to be discovered again and again in daily living, right here in Duluth or wherever one happens to be. Not only asana but everything in life is practice; everything else is learning to accept that practice won’t make perfect. If perfection exists, one doesn’t repair it—one remembers it.

David guides a Gyrokinesis practice and is our incredible YTT manual editor!

IG: pelayogadany e-mail: danielapelayoga@gmail.com

Daniela is a Physical Therapist Assistant at Essentia Health Therapy and Performance Center and guides yoga classes at Duluth Yoga.

A native of Mexico city, but a Duluthian at heart, she graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth with a BA in Women’s Studies. It was in college that Daniela was first introduced to yoga but it wasn’t until a few years later while working in the corporate world that she was blown away by the peace of mind that an asana practice brought to her life.

To deepen her asana practice, Daniela completed her first 200-hour yoga Vinyasa certification through Corepower yoga in 2005 and pursued other CorePower trainings including Yoga Sculpt, Hot Power Fusion and Hot Yoga – 26 posture series. A year of service in Massachusetts at Dhamma Dhara, Vipassana Meditation Center and Kripalu Yoga Center allowed Daniela to start the journey of self-discovery and healing. This sparked her continuous curiosity for learning and growing.

Daniela returned to school to pursue an associate degree as a physical therapist assistant in order to guide others in their physical healing and rehabilitation process.

To further her skills as a clinician and to deepen her knowledge of the philosophical aspects of yoga, Daniela enrolled in both the +350/500 Hour and 1000-hour Yoga Therapy Certification at Yoga North International Soma Yoga Institute. Not only did she deepen her knowledge in the richness of yoga philosophy, Anatomy, Ayurveda and Therapeutic skills but she had an opportunity for self-transformation and growth.

As a certified yoga therapist, Daniela serves as a guide in the beautiful journey of interoception, neuromuscular reeducation and connection to one’s own bright being.

Most recently Daniela’s never-ending curiosity for learning led her to the 200-hour certification of the LYT Yoga Method which is grounded in the principles of physical therapy and neurodevelopmental training developed by Lara Heimann. She is currently completing the Level 2, 300 hour LYT method certification where she continues to fine tune her skills in functional anatomy.

Daniela shares her passion for yoga with joy and a kind, open heart. To create a safe and inviting space in her yoga classes and in the outpatient physical therapy clinic, Daniela completed the Trauma-Conscious Certificate through Svalja Yoga in October 2022. This was a rich experience that allowed her the opportunity for continued healing and connection.

e-mail: sam@svalja.yoga

Sam is a graduate of Svalja's House of the Gathering Yoga School's 2021 cohort, and what a transformational journey she has been on ever since!

Her time spent with the Svalja Yoga community has shifted her life in many ways, big and small. It has brought her to the most intimate depths within, and expanded her views of the greater world outside.

She is currently the Administrative Director at Svalja, working behind the scenes to keep things flowing smoothly.

Sam spends much of her time in her kitchen, experimenting and caring for her family. She also spends much time in the kitchen of the Blue Heron, the shop she’s worked at for over 20 years.

She lives up the shore with her husband Paul, their daughter Solvei, and their beloved cat.