Meet Our Instructors
AMY ASCH (she/her) “I had tried and even loved yoga but not until I spiraled into a really dark painful place did I get to realize the transformative power of yoga! It is an ongoing practice of returning to my heart-center and responding to all the people and situations in my life with a deeper grace, clarity, and love. These practices have enabled me to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and to dial into my truth and trust my inner knowing. As a teacher, I love to connect with my students and support them in opening up to that potency within themselves!”
NIKKI CABALLERO (she/her) is a Sound Healing Guide, Certified Hypnotist and Energy Worker. Her work focuses on guiding individuals on their path to self-healing by teaching them how to access different levels of consciousness through sound and hypnosis addressing issues concerning the mind, body, and emotions. In addition, her practice weaves together her personal experience in the use of medicinal plants and herbs, symbolism, ceremony, moon phases and Jungian shadow work. For more information: www.nikkixcaballero.com
JACOB FRIEDMAN (he/him) As a yoga teacher, Jacob guides you to cultivate a curiosity that may be panoramic or precise, but is always oriented towards the present. Knowing that the potency of your practice depends upon the quality of your inquiring attention, each class is designed as a formal play structure within which you might extract a morsel of insight from the inner workings of your experience. Using tangible forms of asana and pranayama, we investigate the more ephemeral narratives internal to the form. We play with a plethora of tools, techniques, and maps to orient and organize the mind, body, and breath with integrity. Landing fully alive in the here and now, we set up the conditions to have a joyful experience, and to radiate that joy to others. We practice for personal and communal well-being.
EUGENE LEWINS (he/him) has been teaching yoga for twenty years. He integrates his study of traditional yoga with master teachers in the Iyengar tradition with his western based training as a certified massage therapist. In his own body, he puts yoga into practice as a Tango dancer and as a rock climber. His own journey of full healing from a spinal accident ten years ago informs his compassion and support of his students in dealing with and overcoming their own challenges. He loves poetry as a way to bring heart and inspiration into his classes and life.
FILIPA MARQUES COSTA (she/her) If you are looking to reset and feel re-energized, then Filipa’s Vinyasa Energetic Flow classes are a great pick for you. Filipa loves to flow, creating heat and generating energy through blissful sequences that foster mind and body connection. In her classes, you will be able to practice a variety of asanas, while being fluid and soft through transitions. Filipa is certified in Power Vinyasa (RTY-200) and trained in trauma-informed yoga practice.
ELEANOR STRAY (she/her) Eleanor has been dedicated to embodied meditation practices for 7+ years. In 2023, she studied under Sarah Powers and received certification to teach Insight Yoga, a style of yoga that combines yin (passive), yang (active) and meditation (spiritual) modalities. Eleanor has been teaching meditation for 2 years and is a certified Mindfulness-Meditation Teacher. She is currently studying with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. As a lifelong spiritual seeker and poet, Eleanor's guidance often includes poetry and readings from the Zen tradition. You can find her wandering in Forest Park most days.
ANGELICA NENCHEV (she/her) Angelica's classes encourage play, peace and presence. She aims to support you in deepening your connection to your intuition and felt sense through breath, movement, and curiosity. As a somatic mental health therapist, she is passionate about weaving in education about nervous system regulation to empower students to use yoga tools in their daily lives. Her yoga practice draws inspiration from the rhythms and relationships of the natural world, somatic experiencing, and magic.
LAELA WILDING (she/her) Laela’s classes are approachable, with an emphasis on turning inward while finding a sense of ease in the body with movement and spaciousness. Laela sets the tone in her classes for calm reflection, friendly inquiry, and physical exploration, and often including readings or guided meditations. It is her hope that each student finds their own joy in the movement and the stillness that her classes offer, bringing these qualities into daily life.
Laela has been teaching yoga classes in Portland since 2017 (E-RYT® 200, YACEP®). She received great encouragement from her teacher and mentor, Holiday Johnson; received her 200 hour yoga teacher training at Yoga Bhoga, and has additional training in Yin yoga, Accessible Yoga, Reiki, Yoga Nidra, and is level-2 i-Rest certified. Laela grew up in Portland, and raised a family here. She also works as a graphic designer, is an advocate for people living with HIV, and is the owner of All Heart Yoga. Laela offers private yoga lessons, as well as 1-on-1 guided meditations, Yoga Nidra and Reiki energy healing.
EMILY WRIGHT (she/her) Emily's greatest guides are creativity, honesty and heart, and she strives to bring each to every space she holds for healing. Her classes have a soothing tone that inspires softness and self-compassion, balanced with activation of the physical and energetic bodies to empower a connection to wholeness. The practices she offers are the same ones that have guided her to finding steadfast peace in the most trying moments, and her guidance is rooted in trusting the wisdom of life's unfolding.