Our teachers 

Amalia Sirica - Embodied Yoga & Dance

Amalia Sirica is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (therapist) and a Yoga Teacher. She has spent the last 10 years working with children, young adults, and adults of all different backgrounds and experiences. She received her Bachelors degree in Psychology from
Duke University, and her Masters Degree in Social Work from New York University.

Her areas of expertise include attachment-style based trauma and using mindfulness and somatic practices to improve your relationship with self and with others. When Amalia is not working, you can find her spending time with her friends and family, dancing, and traveling.
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Amalia is trained in vinyasa-style yoga, but recently has been teaching more restorative yoga. She believes that every one of us is deserving of healing and rest.

Birute Kaminskaite - Yoga Stretch & Hatha Yoga & LYS Marketing

​With a passion for an active and healthy lifestyle, Birute discovered yoga more than a decade ago and fell in love almost instantly with the discipline. While traveling and living in different parts of the world, she realized that meeting all the psychological needs is so much more important than focusing on physical appearance.
After years of exploring various styles of yoga as a dedicated student, Birute completed her formal teacher's training and received RYTT 200 Hour Hatha Yoga Certificate in Nepal.
Her classes are relaxed explorations of the presence and ownself with traditional Hatha yoga principles. She chooses different asanas so the practitioners would cultivate awareness, mindfulness, concentration, and relaxation. Birute firmly believes that yoga is for EVERYONE, no matter what age, shape, or gender they are. She considers it a privilege to be guiding other practitioners through their own journeys.
As much as she loves yoga, she is also fond of running, photography, spending time in nature, learning & discovering new cultures.

Deepa Bidd - Forrest inspired Vinyasa Yoga, Yin Yoga, Pre/Post Natal Yoga 

Deepa is a certified 300hr Forrest Yoga Teacher, an Advanced Clinical and Remedial Massage Therapist, Aromatherapist and Reflexologist. She is currently completing a 500hr advanced teacher training with Tiffany Cruikshank of Yoga Medicine. As well as working privately, Deepa has worked for the NHS as a complementary therapist in oncology care.

Deepa has worked with a range of people from all walks of life: new mums, people with cancer and terminal illness, people who have suffered physical and emotional trauma. She has trained with leading practitioners and trainers in their fields including the JING Institute of Advanced Clinical Massage, Tony Porter (Advanced Reflexology Techniques), Mauricio Kruchik (Maternity & Pregnancy Reflexology) and Ana Forrest, the founder of Forrest Yoga. Deepa's experience and ongoing training has helped to develop an intuitive sense for locating restrictions in the body where, often, there is an emotional aspect attached. Her sessions focus on improving body awareness and creating more space and freedom in the body.

In November 2016, Deepa assisted a 200hr Foundation Yoga Teacher Training and in early 2017, Deepa completed a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. Having experienced the benefits of yoga and meditation, Deepa wishes to continue her work towards empowering individuals through their own practice. 

More info: www.deepaliving.com

Johanna Hellinger - Hatha Flow Yoga, Yin/Yang Yoga, Laughter Yoga

Johanna is a passionate yogi and surfer. She is a registered and experienced RYT 500 Yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance, a certified Thai Yoga massage therapist and Laughter Yoga leader. 

After quitting her Marketing job in Austria and travelling around the world Johanna started experimenting with different yoga styles and methods. In 2015 her travels brought her to India where she completed her first yoga teacher training with Trimurti Yoga school in the Himalayan mountain province of Dharamsala focusing on Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Yin Yoga. Back in Lisbon she started teaching at Little yoga space Lisboa whilst training as a Thai Yoga Massage practitioner with Hadadi School of Thai Massage. In 2018 Johanna did further training in Goa, focusing on the Philosophy of 5 Elements from Ayurvedic & Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective.

Johanna loves being out in nature and in touch with the elements; be it surfing in the ocean, walking her dog in the park or hiking in the mountains. She likes to meditate, laugh and to meet people from different places all over the world. Yoga is the ultimate form of balance for Johanna, bringing focus, peace and harmony into every part of her daily life by practising and sharing.

From spring to summer Johanna organises outdoor Yoga classes with Rooftop Yoga Lisboa and hosts Yoga & Surf events. She also leads Laughter Yoga sessions and Yoga workshops at Little Yoga space.

More Info: www.yoganalisboa.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/yoganalisboa/
Instagram: yogana_love_this

Katrin Heuser - Somatic therapeutic Yoga & LYS director

Yoga teacher and bodyworker, Katrin has always been interested in the body and movement. After many years of dance, her Scoliosis lead her to Pilates and finally to Yoga and Thai Massage, which then became her path in life. For her it’s about the never ending discovery of body and mind, to deepen the awareness and to release all tension and stagnation. Only then, the journey towards healing and transformation can begin, the capacity and power of resilience of the body can grow, and more space for positive life energy and joy can develop. She holds a 500h Level 4 NVQ Yoga Teaching qualification, trained in Manual Lymph Drainage and has studied extensively in Thai Yoga Massage and Osteothai, including a Master Osteothai qualification, over the past years. She used to run a Yoga Festival in London and launched an online anti-stress breathing programme. Since 2015 Katrin lives in Lisbon and co-runs Little Yoga Space, where she teaches and gives Osteothai treatments, and is the director of Hadadi School of Thai Yoga Massage, offering foundation and advanced training courses worldwide. 

More information: www.hadadithaimassage.com/

Kirsten Wilkinson - Vinyasa Yoga

Kirsten (Kaye) Wilkinson, MA, TCTSY-F, E-RYT, RCYT, Mind/Body Practitioner, SEP Student Cohort, IAYT Candidate, Qi-Gong Certificate Student, R-DMT Candidate, PhD Student Psychology/Somatic Therapy, Meridian University
 
Kirsten is the Founder and Executive Director of Legacy Motion, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organisation committed to sustaining the ongoing preservation and documentation of endangered ancient dance forms, as well as promoting resiliency, empowerment, trauma resolution, psychosocial coexistence, community and peace building through restorative, movement based practices. Through interrelated projects Legacy Motion dedicates itself to evaluating, creating and implementing high quality sustainable programs based on experience and collaborations in the field.
 
 Her professional dance career spans over 10 years during which she performed with such companies as The San Francisco Ballet, David Dorfman and Heidelberg Ballet.  She has held positions at The Library of Congress, Dance Heritage Coalition, and various adjunct professorships at American University Cairo, University of Oregon, University of Hawaii and many more. 
 
After much physical trauma sustained in a car accident, she has found sanctuary in her yoga practice and teaching.  She is a certified Hot Yoga and 200YTT yoga instructor with thousands of hours teaching moving bodies.  Kirsten’s training comes from a broad background including Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Nidra, Alexander Technique, LabanNotation, Dance Therapy, TCTSY, and Mind/Body Therapy.  
 
She is also the Founder of Healing Motion, a place where you can discover your innate wisdom, restore yourself, and transcend to holistic wellbeing through private sessions, community events, and free offerings. 

www.legacymotion.org / www.healing-motion.org

Lucy Bryan-Smith - Slow Flow Yoga

Having originally trained in Hatha/Ashtanga, Lucy now practices and teaches in a much more embodied way, allowing space to drop out of the mind and into the body. She uses a combination of Yoga Asana, somatic movement and breathwork to rebalance and calm the nervous system. These have been the practices that have been most profound in her own personal practice. Lucy's style is soft, fluid and often breath led. There's no strict alignment, just you and your body, however, it needs to be in that moment.

Lucy initially came to yoga feeling unfulfilled. She was also looking for something to help calm the anxiety and stress she was facing at the time. Over her years of practice, she has gained tools to help her manage her energies and anxieties and has found an access to an inner peace and quiet (this of course, needs consistent maintenance and is why it’s called a 'Practice').

Peggy Ziehr - Pilates

Peggy started dance at the age of seven, but only later in life it was contemporary dance that opened her curiosity and understanding for her personal capacities and ways of moving. This eventually led her to teaching Pilates and Yoga. The combination of Pilates and Yoga helps to gain awareness and strength, and consequently also leads to changing habits. Peggy’s classes holistically strengthen the body and the mind and at the same time she encourages a sense of ease so that you are working with your body and not against it. Her respect for the diversity of human bodies continues to grow with every class she teaches and she keeps on following the path of offering individual support for individual beings. Everybody is different, so also every body is different.

More information: www.peggyziehr.de

Susanne Mayer - Pilates

From early on Susanne had a passion for moving and especially for dance. Originally from Munich she moved to London to study Contemporary Dance. She graduated with a BA in Theatre Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and a MA in Dance Studies from Freie University in Berlin. She has worked as a performer, choreographer and dance teacher in the UK and Germany.
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Having experienced the benefits of the Pilates method during her professional training, Susanne decided to become a Pilates instructor. She did her teacher training at BASI Pilates in Munich in 2010. Whilst living in Berlin, she gave regular classes in various studios. Further training included workshops in Fascia Pilates and Pilates for Women’s Health. 
She is also interested in other forms of physical expression and exercise including: Feldenkrais, Klein Technique, the Axis Syllabus/Fascia Training and Yoga. 
Susanne has been living in Lisbon since 2017. 

Susanne is a certified BASI Pilates Mat Work Teacher and gives regular Pilates classes since 2010. She works as a Dance Artist, performs and practices dramaturgy, holding a Bachelor in Theatre Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and a Master in Dance Studies from Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2017 she lives in Lisbon. 

More Information: https://www.facebook.com/emmovimentolisboa/

Vanessa Naumann - Soundbaths

Vanessa is a Sound and Breathwork Therapist working with low-frequency sound vibrations and the breath as tools to help you navigate through change, release stress, and overcome trauma. Releasing what we hold in our body, is the foundation to heal, and expand our awareness, creativity, and resilience to live a healthy, fulfilling life.

More information: www.decodewithsound.com