A letter from Ateeka, founder of Yoga Somatics and Somatic Awareness Institute:

I am inspired to share a contemporary perspective of yoga that is immediate, fluid and experiential.   It is a healing and meditative process infused with a tantric attitude and the grace of many teachers, guides and masters. 

Rather than committing to a particular yoga system or lineage, perhaps we shall say that the experiential self-development work that we dive into comes from the “lineage of life!” 

My teachings reflect and encourage the innate intelligence of your bio-system by bridging traditional yoga studies,  modern somatic approaches, meditative techniques and inquiry towards consciousness.

When you come to one of my classes, you can expect an exploratory, changing, growing and evolving process towards centered being-ness through your own body and experience. No class is ever the same and each offers an opportunity to move deeply into movement that is initiated by the fluid systems of the body.  

It is a yoga of possibilities. . . of exploring our evolutionary ancestry, elemental heritage and energetic spectrum . . . of natural intelligence and playfulness and fluidity and compassion. 

It is my hope that my teachings are as much without doctrine or dogma or hierarchy as possible while nurturing a great respect for the wisdom I have received from my teachers and their lineages.  My intent is to create a grounded, open and flowing environment that my students can learn in.

My background includes extensive practice and teacher training in Ashtanga, Iyengar, Integral and Kundalini Yoga. Continuum Movement has had a great influence on my developments in yoga and I logged more than 300 hours of study of Continuum with its founder,  Emilie Conrad before her death in early 2014.  Her teachings are still very influential in my work today.

Currently I am a student of Helen Gamborg and deeply inspired by Danish spiritual teachers, Jes Bertelsen and Madhurima Rigtrup

For many years, I maintained the status of E-Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 200) with the Yoga Alliance and was the director of an internationally recognized Yoga Teacher Training program.  A several years ago,  I have chosen to let go of those designations and teach without official credentials . . . in a more free, teacher-student transmission flow.  

Throughout the years, I have had some fun in the surrealistic world of the press with articles and reviews in YOGA JOURNAL, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED WOMEN, REAL SIMPLE and BODY & SOUL and MODERN BRIDE, LA VIE TAIWAN and Taiwan’s NATURAL HEALTH Italy’s NATURAL STYLE and Norway's KK and VAKRE HJEM magazines. 

A dream has come true in the fall of 2012 in the publishing of my first book, LOVE IS UNDER MY SKIN: Experiments in Living Yoga.  

I have produced 2 Yoga instructional videos “Yoga With Ateeka” which is has been translated and distributed in English, Mandarin Chinese, Italian and Spanish and Yoga-AntiStress: Restorative Yoga with Ateeka in English and Italian.  Also, 5 instructional audio CD’s available in “Divine Yoga Flow”, “Moon Cycle Yoga”, “Bliss”, "Free Your Mind" and "Return to Center".

With writing as a deep passion, I have also co-authored TANTSU: A YOGA OF THE HEART and I am the creator, teacher and practitioner of SOMATIC BODYWORK.

My nomadic spirit loves to travel to share Yoga, Somatic and Bodywork practices. And my Taurean side with deep roots loves staying home, living close to nature with my chosen family and animal companions.

Follow me on Instagram @ateekayoga

Ateeka is available for individual sessions in person and via Skype. If you are curious to work with her, please read the page on individual sessions and send an email.

Ateeka's meeting with her spiritual master, Osho, when she age 26 changed the course of her life and teachings forever. Ateeka is deeply grateful for the grace of the presence of Beloved Osho in her life, her loving, her teachings .  .