GAIA Facilitators

WELLNESS

Jonathan Pearl is an avid practitioner of traditional astrology and author of Star Pearls, a weekly astrology column with a focus on the Moon. The planetary goddesses and gods are alive and well, and Jonathan delights in witnessing and reporting on the rhythm of their dance. For his clients Jonathan combines the insights of astrology with practical recommendations and real-life predictions. Jonathan has owned a research business for 7 years and holds a BA in religion from Williams College. Please visit  www.starpearls.com for more information.

TRANSFORMATION

Sondra Slade is a Musician, Ritualist, Event Producer, Visual & Media Artist, and Herbalist.  She has performed with a variety of bands from Rock n' Roll, to Spoken Word, Acid Jazz and Sacred Sound.   She has studied and performed music her whole life, and in the 60's and 70's was a singer and percussionist with renowned Jazz and New Music Composer Bill Russo's Rock Opera "Free Theatre" companies in both Chicago and San Francisco. She studied Classical North Indian music with Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, (Vocal), Zakir Hussain and Shankar Ghosh (Tabla), and Vince Delgado (Dumbec), at the Ali Akbar College of Music in the 1970's, which is when she first became involved in Sacred Sound as a spiritual path and began journeying the mystical road of Trance Drumming as an integral part of her practice of Kundalini, Bhakti and Anahata-Nad Yoga.   She continued her studies of Middle Eastern and Indian Percussion at The Center for World Music and with several other private teachers. She founded the Sacred Sound Trance Chant Ritualists AXIS MUNDI and is the band's Producer, Artistic Director and lead Percussionist. Sondra has been an Adjunct Instructor of Spirituality at Holy Names College, where she taught a course in: "Immersive Media Environments For Ritual, Healing & Celebration", & in 2005 she will be teaching "Sacred Sonic Techno Ritual" through the Interfaith Ministry program of the Chaplaincy Institute at Grace North Church in Berkeley. 

http://pweb.jps.net/~axismundi   http://www.soundclick.com/axismundi .

Julia Stege, artist and activist, has been working with rainforest herbs of the Amazon for 6 years and has experienced and witnessed in others what she calls "transformation from the inside out." Her body, mind and spirit have been intimately transformed in a natural and gradual way over the years through injesting the plants, and she feels so great she wants to share this magic with the rest of the world. Julia is involved in a program that partners with indigenous tribes of the Amazon to sustainably harvest wild-crafted herbs and help restore the ancient shamanic traditions of the people. Through this program the rainforest is made more valuable alive than cut for logging or cattle ranching, and thus this pristine wonderland is preserved as are it's people. Through sharing the shamanic formulas of the jungle, the traditions of the Amazon are transferred to anyone desiring to experience a new level of health, vitality, focus, spiritual connection, and joy. See Julia's websites www.lifeismagic.com and www.graphicgirlz.com for more information on Julia's life works.

Jason McClain, I.D.E.A.'s founder, has been mastering NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) for more than a decade. He has over 3000 hours of formal training in transformational technologies and a decade of constant intentional integration of new distinctions. Having been the founder of 3 corporations, he has now fused his entrepreneurial spirit with his spiritual purpose, which is to help reduce unnecessary pain and suffering on the planet and to support others in being more fully self-expressed. His approach is an integration of Eastern spiritual philosophies and Western success technologies. He demonstrates tangible and authentic compassion, intense clarity, rigorous training in the patterning of human behavior, and a great deal of knowledge regarding conscious structures for relating with others.

Akasa Tseng, M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness, is a chanteuse and sacred sound ceremonialist whose Ecstatic Sound Journey came from a mystical experience at the site of the ancient oracle of Delphi in Greece that opened an incredible shamanic sound and otherworldly musical dimension. This swift, energetic shift altered every aspect of her life when suddenly and unexpectedly, she received the gift of transmitting the healing, unifying power of sound. Akasa has studied shamanism of many traditions, worked with vibrational sound healing, taught workshops, and performed for many international spiritual communities and several International Conferences of the Study of Shamanism and Alternative Modes of Healing. After Akasa's Delphic initiation, she has continued to fulfill her vision of assisting our planetary transformation through sacred sounds and rituals of the Divine Feminine.

"Hearing Akasa, opens up in me the recognition of both ancient voices of all the earth's languages and voices from people yet to be the great unborn who wish to see our planet made more peaceful. She is a rare gift. Listen to
her." Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. National Book Award winning author of Matter into Feeling, The Spiritual Universe, and many other books. Dr. Wolf can be seen in the film "What a Bleep do We Know.”

RELATING

Francesca Gentile wasn't always a great flirt. Raised in a culture that gives conflicting messages about body, gender, sexuality, and emotions, she lost the centered life affirming power of being a woman. You too? For over 20 years Francesca has studied, researched and practiced in the areas of Sacred Loving and Sacred Living. Today she is an initiated priestess in 3 traditions, Holistic Life Coach and Diva of Divine Relationships. Today she celebrates a passionate life with compassionate boundaries. Join Francesca in the dance of life www.LifeDanceCenter.com for Sacred Living.

Ambe Ray

“I am a guide igniting the cirquit by which all things return to themselves”

Ambe' Ray C.M.T., C.Y.T., H.H.C is a dedicated journeyer on the path that unites body, heart and mind in devotion to the divine. She is a conduit for awakening consciousness, spiritual emergence and embodied presence. Her devotion to personal and planetary awakening has lead her to over sixteen years of practicing and teaching Fluid Wave Yoga, Integrative Healing, Expressive and Transformational Arts. She is a trained and Certified Energy Intuitive, Holistic Life Path Consultant, Yoga Therapist, Expressive Arts Facilitator and Chi Nei Tsang (Internal Organ Massage) Therapist. Ambe' presently guides worldwide transformational workshops and retreats and weaves a wealth of experiential wisdom to create a rich and multidimensional discovery ground for conscious embodiment and whole life mastery.

PROSPERITY

Elyse Napolitano is a Professional Coach who believes that individuals are most effective when they view their entire lives — personal and professional — as assets for their total success. She has helped clients in all walks of life assess their core strengths and values, and design their lives in service of their unique goals. Elyse has led and managed teams for over 15 years in various corporate, nonprofit, and small business environments, including the National Wildlife Federation, Habitat for Humanity, and CareerBuilder.com. In 1999, she left the corporate world to create a more fulfilling career - one more in line with her interests and talents. Now her passions — writing, hiking, and yoga — are no longer viewed as extras in a busy 9 to 5 schedule, but are vital resources that she draws upon in her coaching practice. Her goal is to help clients create similar balance. Elyse earned a BS in English Writing from Middlebury College. She has trained with the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California, and currently assists with weekend courses there.

Adrienne Ng established a private practice providing State Farm insurance and financial services in late 2001. By using a holistic approach, she helps her clients build, protect and conserve their wealth. She builds her business on the understanding that her clients are beginning a lifelong process of achieving their financial goals with the personal assistance from someone who knows them and cares. Not only will she educate you on the many retirement plans available but she will be the one to hand the retirement check to you when the time comes.

Adrienne is pursuing the designation of a Certified Financial Planner. She hopes to use these skills to help others take control of their financial decisions. By running her own business, she hopes to be an example for others to be financially independent and ambitious in pursuing their own aspirations. She would love to see her ultimate dream become a reality and create an organization that provides skills to young and underprivileged women to become entrepreneurs.

THE SENSES

Philippe Lewis is a Life Coach and Sensual Artist based in San Francisco. His training is in holistic radical counseling and perspective shifting, rooted in a healthy mix of existentialism and Buddhism. He is co-creator, co-organizer, decorator and greeter of the Mystic Temple of Bliss community event, and a performer and producer for the Mystic Family Circus. His lifelong commitment is to create safe space for people and communities to explore new possibilities in the areas of intimacy, relationships, sensuality and sexuality. More specifically, his commitment for The Language of Touch is that each participant have the opportunity to safely explore and learn touch as a language to carry back to their lives and their communities, and create healing and a greater sense of freedom and connectedness in the world.

Diana Soline is a sex educator, group facilitator, and orgasm coach. She founded Women's Temple in 2000, which is a place of nurturing, healing and body education for women. She works with women individually and in groups to help them connect deeply with their bodies and celebrate their sexuality. She draws on traditions of Tantra, Taoist Sexology, and Zen Buddhism and is a former instructor at the Body Electric School.

Jan Robinson, M.A., C.M.T., is an exceptional Tantra educator, certified as a teacher through the Source School of Tantra and Tantrika International. Recognizing sexual energy as a gateway to the Divine, Jan assists others to access and channel their life force energy for healing and transformation. Jan unites her natural qualities of warmth and enthusiasm with years of expert training in Tantra and the healing arts.

MOVEMENT

Gitta Sivander is a Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, Somatic Movement Therapist, Physical Therapist from Germany, an Acrobat, Dancer, and Dharma-Yoga teacher. Gitta has practiced, taught and performed partner-balance-acrobatics and contact improvisation and movement since 1993 and attended circus school in Paris. Since 2002 Gitta dances with San Francisco Dance Company “Scott Wells and Dancers”. Besides teaching and dancing she practices Spiral Bodywork and Movement Coaching in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Jenny Sauer-Klein is the co-founder of Contact Acro Yoga and is thrilled to share this work with a group of fabulous embodied goddesses! Besides teaching and studying yoga, Jenny teaches circus arts to children in after school programs in Oakland, and co-leads Circus Yoga workshops for kids and families with her Green Circus cohort and co-director Rana Lee Araneta throughout the Bay Area. Jenny recently relocated to Berkeley with her sweetie and is excited to be putting down roots in this amazing community of inspired creatures!

www.contactacro.com
www.greencircus.org

Isa Isaacs founded the Temple of Poi, a school and community dedicated to empowering artists to gain greater facility with their body movement and increased body awareness through the use of poi and other flow tools. In doing so, she was able to draw upon distinctions from her diverse background and 15 years experience in systems engineering, computer consulting, customer support, courseware development, training, marketing, project implementation and department management. While her career in the computer industry garnered her financial success and various awards for performance excellence, Isa sought to integrate her artistic passion and creative desires with her entrepreneurial spirit which has resulted in building the premier poi school in the world.

Isa, also known by her performance name "GlitterGirl", has been internationally recognized as a leading performer by being featured as a finalist in the Circle of Lights 4 and Circle of Lights 5 videos. Isa and the Temple of Poi were featured in the November 3, 2004 SF Weekly cover story, won a Best of the Bay award in July, 2004 and were featured on the front page of the Living Section of the San Francisco Chronicle in August of 2003.

Christabel Zamor has been performing extreme dance for ten years and is widely recognized as a pioneer of the hoopdance movement. Her performances fuse full contact hula hooping with urban club grooves and elements of East Indian, Belly, African and sensual sacred dance. Her “liquid” style is a sexy flow of undulation, percussive movement and fiery dance. Whether she is performing at a corporate event, Hollywood premier, nightclub, estate gala or on television, she is seen wearing tantalizing hand tailored costumes and she is known for her elaborate adornment of braids, jewelry and make-up. Her amazing stamina comes from teaching hundreds of hoopdance seminars in dance, yoga and fitness centers. She has a huge following in the fitness industry, and women across America use her hoops for body sculpting and weight loss.

Building on her expertise as an entertainer and teacher, Christabel created the company HoopGirl.com which has sold thousands of specialty hoops across the nation and has now expanded to sell collapsible hoops internationally. She published a short book called “Hoopgasm! Getting Sexy with Hoopdance” and will soon release an instructional DVD. Christabel has a rich background in movement and healing. She holds masters' degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Mythological Studies. For Christabel, the hoop has been a tool of self discovery which has helped her loose weight, boost self esteem, enjoy pleasure and feeling sexy. As HoopGirl, her goal is to share the benefits of hoopdance with as many people as possible. She is based in San Francisco, California.

Andres Amador. The guiding light behind Andres Amador's motivations is a passionate commitment to understanding, at the fundamental level, himself and the world that he inhabits. From these pursuits, he attempts to integrate the principles he learns into his life. His class is a way of bringing that experience to others.

Andres has spent the last 6 years developing the art of staff dance, pushing it to new levels of expressive possibility, and combining it with other forms of movement including contact improvisation. This has led him towards the healing arts, where he is developing a style of self-healing and therapy based on his movement studies. His exploration has also led him to the study of classical sacred geometry, form, and rhythmic patterning, which informs his other artistic outlets, including sculpture and design.

Andres works for Velocity Circus as a prop designer and performer, runs staff classes, teaches music and video production to kids, and has decorated events with his artwork around the country.

THE ART OF BEING

Cynthia Stringer , MSS, PCC, is a Minister, Spiritual Coach, and Certified DNA energetic practitioner who inspires others for deeper levels of expression and healing. As a teacher, and facilitator she has integrated 15+ years experience with spiritual practices and formal training to serve and uplift. Her background includes many years of providing counseling, coaching, light ministering and Reiki. As a consultant and seminar leader, she teaches the power of expressing yourself authentically and by living from an expanded place of possibilities and contribution. She is committed to living from a vibrational place of power and teaching others how to do the sa me .

As an amazingly effective networker and resource goddess she inspires people to create their ideal lives. Through her private sessions and classes locally, nationally and internationally, she assists people by being a role model by guiding people to recognize the profound realization of our innate healing and manifesting potentiality and power. She is dedicated to bringing inspiration, authenticity and gracious living to life.

Deborah A. Stehr, Ph.D. is a published poet, writer, dream interpreter, counselor, teacher and founder of DreamSpinning, a sacred practice dedicated to poetically en-souling the world through personal and communal acts of creative joy. Deborah holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duquesne University (1999) with a specialty in existential-phenomenological psychology, dream interpretation, psychotherapy and women's studies. She has over eight years experience in dream analysis, combining multiple perspectives, including Jungian and archetypal approaches. She brings a creative synthesis to dream analysis, her specialty being able to really address the specificity of people's dreams, (he particular existential structure of a person's dream), a method that produces a rich plethora of meaning that belongs innately to the individual she is working with. Deborah also does private dream readings, and teaches classes in creative writing, women's studies, and does healing work through poetry and ritual.