Mat Yoga Instructors
Amy Freeman
Amy Freeman has been a student of yoga for 25 years and a teacher for 20. She studied with Swami Satchidananda at yogaville Ashram in Virginia in 2001. Amy’s vinyasa classes blend physical alignment and core strength in fluid rhythm. She emphasizes breath awareness and conscious intention to promote ease and stability in each pose. Her goal is to help her students find and maintain a peaceful mind and body, both on the mat as well as off the mat.
Amy has been a reiki practitioner level 2 for five years and hosts our monthly sound healings at the center, 1st Friday of every month 7-8:15 pm. See events page for more information.
Anna Fernandez
Anna Fernandez, the Owner & Director of Pier To Point Yoga & Wellness Center, discovered the beauty of yoga over 20 years ago as she searched for a way to relieve chronic pain caused by scoliosis. She received much more than she ever imagined, on & off the mat! After selling her former business in 2012, she decided to take her yoga practice to the next level. This journey led her to take Elka Yoga Teacher Training in 2013, an experience that ignited her passion for teaching and her personal commitment to helping others discover their own innate healing power. Yoga not only healed her body, but guided her to take the practice off the mat and embody the art of Living Yoga in all areas of her life. Anna has certifications in Hatha, Vinyasa, Children’s Yoga, SUP Yoga and is a Reiki Level 2 Practitioner. Her classes speak to the body, mind, energy & spirit, creating a safe healing for Every Body. She offers public classes and private classes (for individuals or groups). Anna is honored and grateful to share this life-changing practice and this supportive, inclusive, beautiful Community Healing Center.
Cintia Tavares
Cintia Tavares has been teaching Yoga for over 10 years. Her first specialization was in prenatal yoga @ YogaWell in San Diego CA. In 2010 she did her 200hYTT @ CorePowerYoga and moved back to Rio de Janeiro- Brazil where she worked in a center, called “Bella Gestante” a place only for pregnant women. Then she got really envolved with this enviroment and took other specializations as Doula, Baby & Mom yoga, Kids Yoga using the animals as reference for movement, meditation and Reiki. In 2012 she went to Rishikesh- India for volunteer work, teaching Yoga for kids after school and took part of a YTT in the ashram she was staying…
When she came back from this trip she decided to have her own studio:
“Om SatNam Yoga Studio” where she had many co- partners with lots of workshops; Ayurveda/ AcroYoga/ lyengar/ Row Food/ Natural Cosmetic/ Bioenergy/ Chakras/ AyurYoga- Elka and others… Back to San Diego since 2016, she has been teaching at Pier to Point Wellness, where she has been coordinating YTT and mentoring new teachers, helping others find the release and freedom that Yoga brings to their lives so that they can comfortably and competently move their bodies through life.
In October 2022, she will be leading her Prenatal Teacher Training with Yesica Rodriguez.
Elka Hackel
Elka Haeckel (Elka Yoga) is a former owner of Elka Yoga & Wellness Center and Namaste Yoga Center in San Diego and she has been teaching yoga since 2003. She is a worldwide yoga instructor who has developed a unique yoga practice like no other and today, Elka Yoga has become a brand in the US. She’s an E-RYT 500 Hatha Yoga certified Yoga Alliance (international registered yoga teacher), with additional certifications in Ayurveda, Tantra Meditation Radiance Sutra Meditation, Prana Flow, Restorative Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, SUP Yoga (Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga), and Yoga Therapy. She is also a licensed Life Coach through the school Accomplishment Coaching, accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also a health holistic practitioner specialized in Thai Medical Massage. She is the leader of the 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training of Pier to Point Wellness Center where she has trained over 200 people and run over 23 YTT programs since 2011. She also runs the Elka Yoga SUP program in San Diego where she partners up with West Coast Paddle Board Rentals in San Diego.
Elka’s exuberance and passion for teaching, extensive knowledge of yoga philosophy, holistic health, and coaching combined with her experience of owning two successful San Diego yoga studios, leading international trainings, workshops and organizing retreats in many countries makes her a positive force to be reckoned with.
Elka’s friendly approach to students, friends and business partners inspires an inner transformation within everyone she meets. As she likes to remind everyone, “We are just getting started on this journey, so open your heart and your mind to see your true possibilities!”
Karen Beers
Karen (E-RYT 200, RYT 500) began practicing yoga in 1997 and instantly recognized the countless healing benefits yoga has to offer. In 2014, she completed her RYT 200 Yoga Alliance certification through Pier to Point Yoga, with an emphasis in Hatha and Vinyasa. She earned her RYT 500 Vinyasa Yoga Alliance certification with Jason Crandell in 2019, specializing in biomechanics, injury management, and smart sequencing. Being a lifelong learner, she continues to study and practice with world-renowned instructors from around the world.
She creates a safe, non-competitive space for her students to dive beneath the surface of their daily lives to find deeper meaning and inspiration. Her classes offer creative sequences with intentional themes, emphasizing the importance of proper alignment, pranayama breathing techniques, mindfulness, and meditation. Modification and advanced options are made available for new students and experienced yogis so that all can reach their potential. She is honored to teach yoga, helping to bring balance, awareness, health, and happiness into other’s lives.
Kellie Livingstone
Kellie Livingstone has been sharing healing through Yoga and Yoga Therapy since 2011. With over 2000 hours of teacher trainings under her belt, her classes and workshops are deeply inspired by her thorough knowledge of both the physical and energetic body. She strives to inspire her students to foster an interest in slowing down, paying attention to the subtle things, and remembering their innate ability to heal themselves.
Her asana classes typically involve a deep focus on breath, postural alignment, and investigation of heart-felt intention. Because of her love for both yogic philosophy and poetry, there is often an interweaving of the two within each asana class. She has taught classes and trainings in the U.S, Costa Rica, Bali, Thailand, and New Zealand. When not teaching yoga you can find her lost in a good book, handstanding in the sunshine, or exploring remote corners of the planet with her partner, Chris.
Lindsay Monteagudo
Lindsay Monteagudo began a regular yoga practice in 2008. In 2011, shortly after the birth of her twin boys, she completed her 200 hr certification at Prana Yoga in La Jolla. Yoga has provided the tools to create balance while wearing many hats in life.
Lindsay approaches life and her classes with playfulness and curiosity. Classes always involve an emphasis on the breath, and she encourages students to cultivate a conscious communication with their bodies and utilize the class as their opportunity to reconnect and renew oneself.
Nam Chanterrwyn
Nam is an E-CYT500 teacher and student of yoga and functional movement modalities. His yoga classes are grounded in biomechanics, strength, anatomical detail and mindfulness. Nam focuses detailed verbal cues and expert hands on adjustments/assists to help his students find a fuller experience in their movement practice; emphasizing specific learning objectives in each of his classes. Nam’s belief is that teaching yoga is just like teaching any other subject, in that the teacher has a responsibility to not just provide a unique experience, but to educate their students on the subject itself. Whether taking his restorative or vinyasa class, students can expect to explore their strengths, work on focus, and learn to about the subject of yoga on and off the mat.
Nam has worked with professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, and NBA in a myriad of ways such as aiding in recovery from injuries, maintaining strength and flexibility Pre/Post season, improving range of motion, and increasing strength at the end range of motion. He has worked with other private clients as well, to help them recover from injury, improve their skills in specific yoga postures, and/or find mindfulness and stress reduction.
As a YACEP (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider) educator, Nam has been considered by his community as a “Teachers Teacher” who enjoys helping students as well as other teachers further their study and understanding of yoga and movement.
Taqiyya Robinson
Taqiyya Robinson, New York native and San Diego transplant, discovered her love for yoga in the summer of 2015. It wasn’t until she regularly began her practice did she start to experience the transformation she admired in yogi’s many years prior. Looking back she realized, her mat was the first place she ever found compassion for herself and safety in her body. She knew then, she’d like to bring this practice to those suffering with love for themselves as she had.
Taqiyya’s unique teaching journey started In 2017, where she completed a 40 hour-intensive- Aerial Yoga Teacher training without ever taking an aerial class before. Truth is, she wanted to stay close to her favorite yoga teacher; the woman that held such a safe space for her to heal. After about a year of teaching aerial to everyone and their mama (literally, she taught private yoga to couples, to bachelorette parties, to kids, to parents and their toddlers, you name it), Taqiyya decided it was time to deepen her practice and knowledge of yoga. In early 2018 she completed a 200 hour-intensive- yoga teacher training at Elka Yoga & Wellness. The training had such a profound impact on her mind, body and spirit, that she quit her corporate job and decided to take teaching on, full time.
Since then, Taqiyya has committed herself to living fearlessly. She has traveled to the Peruvian Amazon Jungle to journey with Ayahuasca and continues to experience indescribable transformation through healing modalities such as reiki, yoni steaming, plant medicine, and breathwork. She holds additional certifications as a Reiki Master, Vaginal Steam Facilitator, Breathwork Facilitator, and is a self proclaimed warrior for womb holders looking to live wild, liberated, and fully embodied in their fierceness.
Tiffiney Childress
Practicing since 2009 Tiffiney acquired her 200hr training from Pier to Point Yoga. As a teacher Tiffiney believes yoga is more then just a physical practice, yoga is a way of life reflected on and off the mat. Her classes offer an intentional theme as well as a creatively structured asana practice. As you move through a class with Tiffiney, her hope is that you will find that space within yourself to go deeper. Her classes offer an entire mind/body/spirit experience that will leave you floating as you walk out the door.
