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Our Team
Berta Prevosti
Co-Founder & Owner
Lead Trainer & Master Yogi
Berta is a Student of Raja Yoga
&
Metaphysical Studies
Her Dharma in this life is to continue to study and teach on many different subject matters. She lectures regularly on Astanga - Eight Limbs of Yoga, The Chakras, Healing, and Disease, as well as the teaching of The Bhagavad Gita, Raja Yoga & Meditation
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She is also the Founder of Jiiva Yoga, Healing & Meditation Center in Stratford, CT
Colleen Pogemiller
Co-Founder & Owner
Business Manager
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Colleen Pogemiller, not only a devoted mother but also a certified Reiki Master and Meditation Teacher, found inspiration and guidance through her enduring friendship with Berta. This deep connection led them to collaborate in establishing the foundation of Berta’s first yoga studio, The Jiiva Center. Their shared vision extended further as they reunited once more, this time to bring Berta's teachings to a global audience through the digital realm. Colleen is excited to support yogis of all ages and yoga teachers, alike.
Mingo Perez
Yoga Teacher & Trainer
Domingo has been practicing asana yoga since he was fifteen and discovered the vast world of yoga that goes beyond the asana a few years after that point. He has spent hundreds of hours exploring his own practice on the mat which has translated to clear, conscious direction while teaching. Mingo has deepened his practice by traveling to India to study ashtanga with Pattabhi Joi's daughter, Saraswathi, and also began to meditate. Having felt first-hand the transformative powers that yoga, meditation, and conscious breathing can bring to life, he has spent the last 8 years teaching his students what he has learned. Always with patience, always with compassion, you will find his class rejuvenating and challenging. Mingo is certified as a E-RYT 500 and YACEP with Yoga Alliance.
Maryanna Harrington
Meditation & Yoga Teacher
Maryanna began her yoga journey in 2013. Her whole life she had been an athlete but found that yoga was something different. Initially attracted by the physical asana practice, it didn’t take long before yoga began to seep into her mind and spirit. Maryanna completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training through Jiiva Yoga with Berta Prevosti and Domingo Perez and she began teaching vinyasa in October of 2019. She Completed her 300hr through the Raja Center in February of 2023. She has completed her 100 hour meditation teacher training, is a certified reiki practitioner, and is certified to teach yin and restorative yoga.
Yoga is not only a way to create beautiful poetry in the movement of our physical bodies, as well as a way to find physical and mental strength beyond what we know ourselves to be capable of, but yoga is also a pathway to inner healing and a way to transform our lives. Maryanna is grateful to be able to share this gift of yoga and all that she has learned through her years of practice with all whom she has the privilege to teach.
Kristi Pena
Yoga Teacher
My name is Kristi Pena. My journey with yoga is something I deeply cherish. I used to be an athlete so I’ve always been active but yoga is different. When I began practicing, my body instantly responded but beyond that, my mind and soul responded as well. I realized that yoga is an integration of mind and body like nothing else. When I began studying yoga to become an instructor, I had no idea about the root metaphysical and spiritual nature of yoga that I would come to fall head over heels in love with. I graduated from my 200 hour yoga teacher training from RajaYogini in 2022 and I feel so passionate about the practice. I am also studying to become an occupational therapist and feel so blessed to be learning more and more every day about the path of yoga and generally living a happy, healthy life. Yoga is my refuge and my safe place. It is so much more than a series of movements. It is a call home, a way to worship, and a way to heal. I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn and grow and share this incredible practice with others.”
Sevi Perez
Meditation Teacher
Sevi studied Sheng Zhen Healing Qigong with Grandmaster Aiping Cheng for 3 years. He also did an extended study of Qi-Gong and Chinese Medicine in China and attended Robert Peng's "Become A QiGong Healer" certification course at Omega.
Sevi is also a Reiki Master, trained by his mother and the founder of Jiiva and Rajayogini, Berta Prevosti.
Sevi is a graduate of both East West School of Planetary Herbology and the Arborvitae School of Traditional Herbalism. He is currently studying Theology at The Franciscan University.
His healing energy is strong and powerful and a must to experience.
Kate Wessman
Yoga Teacher & Workshop Facilitator
When Kate began practicing yoga 13 years ago, she quickly realized that yoga is much more than just a form of exercise. The physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits were profound and all of the teachings really resonated. This led her to pursue deepening her knowledge and practice through a 200hr Yoga Teacher Training with Passion Yoga School in 2017. She then continued her studies with Berta Prevosti’s 300hr training through Jiiva Yoga School, graduating as a 500hr RYT in May 2021 with additional certifications for Reiki, yin, restorative, chair, and yoga nidra. She is also an enthusiastic Stand Up Paddleboard yoga teacher.
Kate is passionate about energy work, healing, and metaphysics. She is devoted to her study and practice of Raja Yoga and enjoys leading moon circles and manifestation workshops. Kate loves to share the ancient and beautiful wisdom of yoga with her students to support them in creating lives filled with peace and joy.
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