Our Teachers:
Ashtanga Yoga: Petri Räisänen and Wambui Njuguna-Räisänen
Beginners Yoga: Wambui Njuguna-Räisänen
Ashtanga Yoga Assistants: Kristin Brathagen
Yoga Philosophy: Ro Averin (week 2)
Thai Healing Massage: Miss Nhong (week 3)
Petri Räisänen (born August 13, 1967) is internationally known and respected Ashtanga Yoga teacher. Petri started practicing Ashtanga yoga in 1989 and teaching in 1991. He is co-owner and director of Ashtanga Yoga Helsinki, Finland, which he found with his friend and colleague, Juva Javanainen, in 1997. K Pattabhi Jois blessed the school to teach the traditional Astanga Yoga method.
Since 1994 Petri has been teaching Ashtanga yoga internationally. He got his teaching authorization from K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois in 2001. For the last 12 years he has been teaching together with his wife Wambui Njuguna-Räisänen.
Petri focuses on integrating healing and therapy with yoga, meeting student’s individual needs and guiding their progress. His friendly, relaxed behaviour and intuitive perception give an open, energetic and meditative atmosphere to his classes.
In 2005, Petri wrote “Ashtanga Yoga – The Yoga Tradition of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois” in collaboration with K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson, R. Sharath Jois. His intermediate series (2nd series) book “Nadi Sodhana – The Yoga Tradition of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois” was released in 2008 and is written from the interviews with K. Pattabhi Jois and R. Sharath Jois from 2006-2007 in Mysore, India.
Ashtanga Mysore style, Ashtanga for beginners, Discussions, Pranayama, Meditation, Technique sessions and Extra Workshops.
Wambui Njuguna-Räisänen is an E-RYT 500, TCYM-T certified Yoga teacher, consultant and Chavutti Thirumal massage therapist. Based in Portugal, she’s passionate about making wellness through yoga seamlessly engaged in equity and justice so that more people of the global majority can live well and thrive.
Wambui has lead regular trauma-sensitive Ashtanga yoga workshops in Finland and Sweden. Her Ashtanga Yoga Half Primary practice video has received over 2.5 million views on You Tube. Since 2010, Wambui has co-taught yoga workshops and retreats with senior Ashtanga yoga teacher Petri Raisanen, who is also her husband, throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia.
Wambui studied Ashtanga Yoga under the guidance of Saraswati and Sharath Jois in Mysore from 2009-2016. She studied Chavutti Thirumal Massage by Foot Press with Helen Noakes in 2013. Wambui currently studies Tibetan Buddhist Meditation under the tutelage of Lama Rod Owens, Lama Justin von Budjoss and Dr. Rachael Wooten. She has studied the Bhagavad Gita with Kaya Mindlin, Anusha Wijeyakumar and Sally Kempton; and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with Sally Kempton. Wambui is certified in Nityda Gessel’s Trauma Conscious Yoga Method; The Ompowerment Project’s Ompowered Facilitation for Trauma and Transformation; and Prison Yoga Project’s Yoga through the Lens of Trauma and Incarceration. In addition to teaching yoga, Wambui has also written and edited books about yoga, including the English translation of Petri’s intermediate series book, Nadi Sodhana: The Intermediate Series Practice Manual.
Wambui is deeply inspired by spiritual teachers and communities that apply the insights from their practices and teachings to social, racial, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustices. She would like to see wellness spaces engage more in social justice + activist spaces learn to breathe deeply and practice sustainable self-care in the midst of mitigating systemic harm. This is her definition of community care.
Wambui provides consultation services for individuals and organizations who strive to operate from an ethic of embodied collective healing. To learn more about Wambui and her offerings, visit http://wambuinjuguna.com/ and @wambuinjugunaofficial (IG & Patreon).
Ashtanga for Beginners, Ashtanga Mysore style, Restorative Yoga, Discussions, Meditation, Chanting
Ro Averin (they/she) is a writer, equity/social justice educator, and consultant who focuses on utilizing mindfulness and intersectionality as methodologies for creating sustainable social, racial, and environmental change. With their roots in Turtle Island/Canada Ro now calls Sápmi/Northern Norway home. Outside of consulting/education work, primarily in the arts and academia, through UNLRN PRJCT, they can generally be found in nature, writing and editing in a variety of mediums, on a yoga mat teaching or practicing, organizing art and wellness retreats like Hearing Home, or gardening and foraging on the land she loves so deeply.
Ro will be teaching Always Already There: Equity and Justice in the Yoga Sutras. Join Ro for a walk through the Yoga Sutras with an eye on practices that support Social Justice and Anti-racism work. Through this workshop series, Ro will guide participants through a grounding look at what role yogic practice has to play in struggles for equity and justice, and how principles of, and commentary on, equity and justice have always been present in the yoga sutras and yogic philosophy. This offering will be online via zoom and available for retreat participants as well as whoever wishes to join in separately.
Yoga Philosophy, Social Justice, Anti-Racism, Equity, Intersectionality
Miss Nhong is a local Healer who has a great understanding about the body, energy and Thai traditional healing methods. She has been curing many yogic-related pains and injuries. There will be 5 two hour classes on the third week (Sunday-Friday Jan 14th-21st). Some of the classes will be held at Miss Nhong’s Healing centre. Highly recommended if you are interested about healing, therapy and Thai tradition. Some of the Miss Nhong’s methods are old and rare like hammering techniques, cupping and a special Thai trigger point massage.