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CYA Foundational Level Faculty Members

CYA Foundational Level Faculty Members

Contact us directly if you’d like to know which faculty members and assistants will be supporting Avani during your training program.

Avani Gilbert: Founder & Director of CYA Programs

E-RYT 500 / YACEP / Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher / Reiki Master Teacher / Doula / Prenatal Yoga Teacher / LMT & Clarity Breathwork Practitioner

Mother, teacher, friend, bodyworker, lightworker and breathworker: Avani started exploring yoga as a teenager to counter participation in high school competitive sports and stress/anxiety induced lack of sleep. It was then that she began a lifelong love, journey and an endless (on-going) study in wellness. She has participated in yoga teacher trainings throughout the last 16 years while accumulating 7,000+ hours of teaching experience and over 3,000 hours of wellness studies.

Avani is the director of the Retreat and Training Center AmaSer; the first of its kind in the Caribbean of Costa Rica. She is the lead trainer at the Caribe Yoga Academy where she directs the yoga teacher training program which is rooted in tradition blended with modern science.  She emphasizes the importance of CommUNITY and Seva (Service) in her teachings and in her practices. Her flows are creative and founded with a strong knowledge of functional anatomy and biomechanics. This allows each student to move in a way that is exactly right for their own unique body. She is a lover of Indian Mythology, Mantra and Indian Devotional Song, Ayurveda, nature and whipping up delicious vegan creations.

Avani enjoys sharing Clarity Breathwork as a means to awaken to our truest and highest potentials and unveil limiting core beliefs. She incorporates Reiki into her yoga classes and offers Reiki Attunements (trainings).  She is trained in and teaches vinyasa flow, yin yoga, MFR, Yin-Vin and Restorative style classes.  All of which are Trauma Informed and Sensitive in appreciation for her training with the TSTSY with the Center for Trauma and Embodiment. When not in training, you can catch her on the public yoga schedule at AmaSer.

She is deeply grateful for her studies and time spent with Indira Kalmbach, Sheela and Sreedevi Bringi, Stephen Cope, Dr. Ray Long, Seane Corn, Jo Phee, Dr. Paul Jerard, Donna Kraft Smith, Ashley Ludman, Jillian Pransky, Dr. Rosy Mann and Dr. Jyothi Bhatt, Erin Casperson, Larissa Carlson, Jack Kornfield, Yoganand Michael Carroll and Sharon Salzberg.  She thanks each for inspiring deep enquiry into the philosophy, lifestyle, anatomy, functional alignment, myofascial release, mantra and lifestyle of yoga…but more than anything for contributing toward her path and in the finding of her authentic teacher’s voice. Avani is currently working toward her MS in Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine with Maharishi University.

Follow Avani @AvaniGilbertYoga or visit AmaSerCR.com to learn more about classes, workshops, trainings, and her offerings.

Avani Gilbert - Caribe Yoga Academy Faculty

Adriana Leiva: Physical Therapist, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Mantra, Mudra, History & Philosophy Faculty 

E-RYT 200 / CYT 500 / YACEP

Adriana’s passion for spirituality and body movement started at a young age. At the age of 18 she received her first certification for Yoga and Massage. The process has not slowed down or stopped since! Adriana is  a 500 hours Certified Yoga Teacher, Yogakids Facilitator and co-founder of the ASOyoga (Costa Rican Yoga Association).

She has studied a variety of yogic styles as well as philosophy and Bhakti under Dr. Mark Dycscowksi in India and earned her degree in Physiotherapy. She is on the Costa Rican board of Physicians.

Adriana is also an experienced bodyworker and lightworker and is currently a student with the International School of Methaphysical and Spiritual Sciences. Adriana teaches at AmaSer, with the YTTs of the Caribe Yoga Academy as well as being on the YTT team of the Hari Om Yoga School at the 200 and 500 hour levels in both Costa Rica and Italy.  Adriana joins the Caribe Yoga Academy team for the 200 hour yoga teacher training and for the advanced level training, and the Advanced Level Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher Training lending her expertise in Ayurveda.

Adriana Leiva - Caribe Yoga Academy Faculty
Amala Humphries - Caribe Yoga Academy Faculty

Amala Humphries: Sound Meditation Guide, Physical Therapist & Upholder of the Ancient Texts Faculty

RYT 500 / Physical Therapist / Sound Healing Therapist 

Diana is a physical therapist who started her yoga practice through Bhakti devotional practices in San Jose. She studied Vedic texts of theosophy and philosophy of India as a teenager growing up in San Jose, Costa Rica while living at the Hare Krishna Temple. This set the foundation for her discipline for Hatha Yoga. She finished her first Yoga Teacher Training in 2010 and has continued to study since. Amala has actively been sharing as a yoga guide for over 10 years.

Through Hatha Yoga she found her vocation for helping others through movement and wanted to deepen her practice with knowledge of the physical body which lead her to physical therapy school. Diana continued her yoga practice as a student of the Caribe Yoga Academy and graduated at the most advanced level and continues her studies in Harmonium and Indian Devotional song. Most recently she became a certified sound healing therapist through the Instituto Español de Sonoterapia. Today Amala joins our team for the foundational level and the advanced Ayurvedic Yoga Teacher Training sharing and promotes health through her expertise preventing disease and injury through safe functional movement and biomechanics.

Ryan Tolhurst, Caribe Yoga Academy faculty

Edgar Ortiz: Anatomy & Biomechanics, Philosophy & Mythology Faculty

Edgar Ortiz is a physiotherapist, body therapist and yoga instructor with more than 15 years of experience in the field. He has offered workshops and seminars on yoga and Thai massage in Costa Rica, Guatemala, California, Canada, India, Mexico, the United States, Thailand, and Cuba with the Cuban Association of Yoga Instructors. Edgar graduated as an instructor of Integral Balance at the GAIA Institute, physiotherapy at the Santa Paula University and advanced studies in manual therapies at the University of San Agustin (Florida, United States).

He lived for over a year between India and Thailand studying yoga in Rishikesh (with emphasis on Iyengar Yoga), in southern India he studied Ashtanga (in Mysore) and Vini-yoga studies in Tamil Nadu (in Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram). His Thai massage studies began in Auroville in southern India and then traveled to Chiang Mai, north of Bangkok city in Thailand to study at Sunshine Massage School under the Asokananda tradition and with Pichest Boonthume one of the most recognized masters worldwide in this art. For four years he has continued studying and working with Itzhak Helman, his teacher, friend and great inspiration in the work of Thai massage.

He is currently the director of Yoga Mandir, School of Yoga and Thai Massage located in San Pedro de Montes de Oca, a school that specializes in training yoga instructors in levels of 300 and 400 hours, and also in training therapists in the tradition of Thai massage. He is a founding member of the Costa Rican Association of Yoga Teachers (www.asoyogacr.org) of which he was president from 2010 to 2012. ASOyoga seeks to integrate the country’s yoga teachers, as well as expand the reach of yoga in our society and make this practice more accessible to as many people as possible.

Edgar joins the Caribe Yoga Academy Foundational Level program to give the students an experience in Iyengar style yoga, sing and story tell the myths and Yoga Sutra, and study biomechanics.

Rosa, Antoni, Nati & Jose Pablo: Upholders of Tradition, Ceremony & Ritual

Costa Rican, Yëyëwak & Dojkua Clan of the BriBri People, Talamanca, Costa Rica

Rosa and her husband Antoni are a family of Bribri origin, Watsi territory, of the Yëyëwak Clan which means Butterfly, it is a clan of traditional doctors, singers and servers of Cacao, a traditional and ceremonial drink in them most important celebrations.

Rosa and her family are dedicated to growing, harvesting and preparing cacao.
“The Cacao Ceremonies are something that we have practiced since the generations of our grandparents.
Personally, I like to share the ceremony, because it is a way in which I can transmit the legacy that my ancestors left me.
And my Clan Yëyëwak allows there to be a connection with the spirit through songs, history and meditation with mother earth.
In our culture, the woman who serves cacao is always accompanied by her husband, in this case I am accompanied by my husband Antoni from the Dojkua Clan, who through his Clan has great leadership and knowledge of how to work the land and take care of it.

In the Ceremonies and Cacao Circles they are accompanied by Nati Fernández, the Founder of SIWÖ Mujer (Holistic Therapies for Women). She has spent many years studying medicinal paths of Latin American and its rich Indigenous traditions. Nati is a medicine woman, student from different indigenous traditions of America and a holistic therapist. Her partner José Pablo, is also a student of indigenous traditions, a musician, a permaculture teacher and acts as translator for Rosa and Antoni.
Together we will create a sacred and contained space for you to enjoy the ancestral tradition of these Lands, the Cacao and history, infused with sounds, songs, ritual, tradition and meditation. Together they offer us an authentic way to honor this part of Costa Rica that holds us so sweetly during our Yoga Teacher Training experience: the mountains of Talamanca.

Rotating & Seasonal Faculty

Read about our incredible, international and seasonally rotating faculty below!

Ryan Tolhurst, Caribe Yoga Academy faculty

Ryan Tolhurst: Biomechanics & Anatomy Faculty

E-RYT 200 / YACEP

Ryan first came to yoga to deepen his practice and understanding of the spiritual and philosophical. He is a graduate of the Wilmington Yoga Center 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training. Ryan earned his degree in biomechanics and kinesiology from The University of Richmond.

While attending the University of Richmond, Ryan was a member of both the football and track teams. Following his collegiate career in football, Ryan went on to play for the Carolina Panthers. Yoga was an integral part of supporting his athletic career both physically and mentally. Ryan embraces the physical challenges that yoga can provide and enjoys sharing how those physical challenges can lead to a deeper understanding and connection with oneself. Ryan’s classes have a focus on alignment through a strong understanding of anatomy and physiology. By integrating a spiritual and meditative awareness in his classes, he hopes to inspire students through their own practice to look within themselves to live more mindful compassionate lives.

Ryan is currently living in Costa Rica where he and his wife Meghan work together teaching and support in running a non-profit program for local children

Dr. Adriana Molina-Muñoz - Caribe Yoga Academy Faculty

Dr. Adriana Molina-Muñoz: Sanskrit Language and India Culture

Ph.D Linguistics

Dr. Adriana Molina-Muñoz’s bond with India began with her first Sanskrit classes in University as a student of philology. Her captivation and passion for the language has continued to grow.  Under her mentor, the late Dr. Oscar L. Chavarría-Aguilar, an expert in Sanskrit, she learned the grammar of Pāṇini and the philosophy of the Sanskrit language and literature. Dr. Molina-Muñoz was awarded a Fulbright-LASPAU scholarship for university professors in 2006 to studied for her second master’s degree at the University of Illinois. There she continued study under Dr. Hans H. Hock, a specialist in Sanskrit and Indian languages of world renown. This included expanding on previous studies as well as Vedic Sanskrit.  She also had the opportunity to study conversational Sanskrit with Dr. Sadananda Das in Germany as well as to complete the Hindi program in Illinois and study advanced Hindi in Jaipur, India. Dr. Molina-Muñoz has designed and taught the course “India: Languages, Culture and Society” for the University of Costa Rica Department of Anthropology and has worked to revitalize the Costa Rica-India Association (CRIA) for the promotion of Indian culture in Costa Rica. They have organized Diwali and Holi events as well as collaborated with the Embassy of India to coordinate the International Yoga Day and Kuchipudi dance performances at the National Theater.

She currently acts as visiting researcher at the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) in New Delhi.  It is her hope that her work and research will serve to promote cultural extensions in Latin America and motivate others to learn about the great cultural and linguistic legacy of India.

Keep In Touch with CYA

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