THE INSTITUTE FOR ALIVENESS

CLASS OF 2020

AMANDA

ARANEDA

Amanda is a student of life. Born Chilean and living with her husband in Berlin, she is passionate about movement, clean spaces, juicing and cleansing. She is committed to constant inquiry and seeing the world with different eyes each day she wakes up! This ceaseless inquiry has led her all over the map for her career. Amanda started getting involved in holistic health in 2013, after having spent most of her life with digestive issues. For this reason, she developed a very close relationship with her digestive health and with food. After fully understanding the link between the digestive system, nervous system, trauma and the enormous need for cellular detoxification, today she is determined to help those going through anything similar to what she experienced. Especially those who have not found ways with traditional methods. She is a very eager student and keeps experimenting with herself in search of learning as much as possible through embodied research.

AMANDA ARANEDA

ANA GUADALUPE

HANK-AMAYA

After the past decade living in Paris, Ana Guadalupe Hank Amaya now lives between Sevilla, Spain and Tijuana, Mexico, where she grew up. A native speaker in both English and Spanish, her brain hops between two worlds, as does her soul, suspended in the discussion between the ocean and the moon. Walking the two parallel realities of “mainstream” and spirit walker grew increasingly difficult in her late 20s. Over the past several years, Ana has dedicated her life to the pursuit of magic - both in the embodiment of humans as well as in the connection to the Spirit world and the divination upon its path. She has joined The Institute For Aliveness to up-level her own life. When Ana's not traveling, she's doing her best to support her family and prepare herself to become a mother one day!

ANA GUADALUPE AMAYA

ANDREA

BUNZL

Traveler, health lover, yogi, and sharer of beauty and authenticity, Andrea well represents the spirit of TIFA. Born and raised in Austria, she has traveled to South America and run cafes in Indonesia. Currently teaching yin and vinyasa yoga in Vienna, Andrea is building a van in preparation to live the nomadic life. For the last 8 years, she has been involved with healthy living, yoga, bodywork (Thai-massage) and everything that influences the feeling of well-being in one's own body. Andrea strongly believes in self-development and refinement.

ANDREA BUNZL

CAMERON

KLASS

From North Carolina, USA, Cameron spent 3 years backpacking through Europe, South America, Nepal and India after graduating university in 2015. She shares how her travel has been super life transforming - deepening her spirituality and opening her mind. She recently self-published two books, one touches on how to take an integrated approach to health and wellness, and the other is a smoothie recipe book! Health awareness and mindful living have become Cameron’s passion. “I am so excited to embark on this course with everyone and deepen my understanding of the body, holistic practices and medicine, health and food!” She is proud to be a founding member of the TIFA Collective!

CAMERON KLASS

ULRIKE

BURGHARDT

Ulrike lives in Auroville, India with her partner, friends and the light of her life: a brilliant, Buddha-like 7 year old daughter name Ahana. Originally hailing from Berlin, Ulrike studied Chinese Medicine and the Japanese healing art of Shiatsu energy treatment. These days she is very interested in holistic birthing. Ulrike's feats are many, and she is undoubtedly a wisdom women who ads richness to the TIFA roster

DANIELLA

SWAPOEL

Daniella Swanepoel, born and raised in Cape Town South Africa, has worked in health/wellness for 18 years. Professionally, she is a qualified Health and Skincare Therapist and now part of an innovative team, working on a wellness startup in the UAE . She has worked onboard a luxury Cruise ship as a Detox Specialist and traveled the Caribbean, Bermuda, Costa Rica, British Virgin Islands, the Panama Canal, Seattle, Canada, Alaska, NYC. After her life at Sea, she joined an innovative Hydrotherapy Studio Start-up in Notting Hill, London for a few years, where she also furthered her studies in holistic nutrition and other complimentary therapies.

Daniella then decided to step back into Hospitality - managing several five star Spa’s, however after 8 years of the corporate world finally followed her heart and has now found her calling working on a new exciting wellness project to be launched in Abu Dhabi in Q1 2021: THE BRIDGE | Lifestyle Hub. Daniella is also busy completing her 200 hr Yoga Teachers Training alongside her 18 month TIFA program. She is passionate about anything related to wellness, integrative nutrition, loves art, dance and other creative ways of expressing self.

ULRIKE BURGHARDT

DANIELLA SWAPOEL

DIVYA

VERMA

Brought up in the UK with the spirituality, medicines and spices of the East, Divya’s life revolves around food and family! She brings a sense of curiosity and warmth to those around her and tries to live up to her name: ‘divine light’! Professionally, Divya has spent the past decade unconventionally: developing rural health services in Cambodia, working as a dentist in prisons across the UK to leading an AI project to identify high risk patients. Divya has a passion for impacting health on a large scale. She currently works as a dentist in the NHS with those with disabilities and anxieties. She loves to travel, explore new plant based recipes, practice yoga and dance! Her holistic exploration of health includes panchakarma, sweat lodges, Vipassana retreats, fasting and acupuncture training.

DIVYA VERMA

DONNAMARIE

HIRST

Donnamarie lives in Australia on 10 acres of her own beautiful countryside land, giant garden and space to dream. She has a beautiful family, two grown children and an enlightened spiritual soul for a husband, who works as a chiropractor and acupuncturist. Donnamarie owns and operates a colon hydro therapy clinic near Melbourne. She has been on the healing journey herself for as long as she can remember. She professionally qualified as a massage therapist in London in the 90s and has spent time living in France as well as the UK. Donnamarie is obsessed with growing her own food, sourcing live water, breathing pollution-free air and sleeping with the windows open!

DONNAMARIE HIRST

EMMA

STIRTON

Emma is a full-spirited chiropractor from New Zealand, living and working in southern Australia. She wakes up before sunrise daily and enjoys ocean swims and long runs. Emma loves healing and helping people find their own healing force within. As a girl in year four, Emma had health issues that introduced her to the expansive world of chiropractic and ultimately sparked her destiny. Fully confident about chiropractic methods, she has come to TIFA to journey deeper inside through BODY - MIND and SPIRIT. She is passionate about health and how we take care of ourselves. She is “on the train to educate, and to create a ripple effect of positive influence, while adjusting people’s spines to bring them toward health (as opposed to - away from disease).”

EMMA STIRTON

ELISA

MASSARI

Found dancing on rooftop terraces and questioning everything, Elisa is Italian, currently living in Barcelona, Spain. Over the past few years, she has become increasingly incapable to conform to the rules of the contemporary capitalistic society. She has thus found herself making some ‘unpopular’ decisions, like leaving ‘good jobs’ and starting to search for her own spiritual path. Elisa loves art and knowledge in all its shapes and is curious about the TIFA learning experience. She is hopeful that it will be a step towards a better version of herself: more aware and able to share these gifts with the world.

ELISA MASSARI

FLORINA

BERGMAN

When not chasing her two year old son in circles or helping teach homeless and refugee families, Florina is found at her computer catching up on her latest TIFA coursework or on a date night with her beloved. Born in Austria, Florina lights up at the body’s self-healing capabilities and living foods. She is currently writing her first term paper on young grasses and their potential to heal or hurt - beyond the dogma. Rooted deeply in the spirit of modern Vienna through her social work and life, Florina has taken 2020 to step out of her comfort zone and become a visionary!

FLORINA BERGMAN

JACI

TAYLOR

A true believer in “Magick”, Jaci is on a never-ending quest for freedom and Truth. Having studied several modalities of healing, she knows that the ultimate alignment is an inside job. She brings her playful beauty to light as a part of the TIFA family. Jaci’s upbringing on the east coast of Australia was full of transforming family trauma, which afforded her complex understanding of the human psyche. Her toolkit is brimming and constantly renewed. It currently includes: EFT, non-linear movement and dance, guided meditations, reality challenges/innovative thinking, transpersonal counseling, myofascial release, vocal sounding, art therapy, transfiguration and invocations. Over the past several years she has worked as a birth doula and children’s yoga teacher and more recently has become mystified by the simple power of craniosacral therapy and practice.

JACI TAYLOR

JIVANTI

MURUGAIYAN

A firey yogi, unafraid to follow what she feels is right, Jivanti represents east Asia in our course. She is part of a big Tamil family and has grown up in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. For several years, Jivanti has worked as a pharmacist for the Malaysian Ministry of Health. She has gained invaluable experience and self-growth through leadership. Having been socialized in such a multi-cultural and accepting society, Jivanti furthers this unconditional love, serving patients regardless of race and background. She is trained in: ISO Quality Management System, Research & Development, procurement and logistics of medications, patient counselling and care, rural community medicine, law and enforcement of drugs in Malaysia. Jivanti’s side-hustle is sharing Truth with her community through yoga. When not working, she can be found writing, photographing and traveling amidst a never-ending quest for growth.

JIVANTI MURUGAIYAN

LAURA

THACKERAY

Born in Britain, Laura has lived in Valencia, Spain for the last 11 years, with 2 years in Asia, deepening her yoga and meditation practice. As a Healing Diets coach, yoga teacher for children and adults, and Reiki Master, Laura continues to delve deeper into how we can heal our own bodies, enjoy more peace and clarity in our minds, and tap into a greater sense of connection and vitality. Laura has explored the tool of fasting through her own experiences and supporting people online through THE INITIATION and at a detox centre in Thailand. She has lent herself to Ayahuasca retreats and a greater connection with Mother Earth and witnesses the Butterfly effect of what is received, integrated and then transmitted with love, understanding and empathy.

LAURA THACKERAY

LISON

MOEGLE

Born in France and living in India, Lison is a 29 year old psychomotor therapist. She is enthralled by human richness and complexity, which led her to work in the psychiatric field. This deeper exploration of how mind, body and emotions co-create subjective realities, through different kinds of body work and expressive approaches as theatre and dance. Enjoying her own company as much as that of others, she finds herself walking alone for hours in mountains, sleeping under stars and connecting people through collective dances and various events. On her path of exploration, two doors opened: a living experience of collective spirit within Findhorn, an international Scottish community, and spiritual-realization through Indian philosophy that fueled her inner fire. They both guided her to Auroville, her now home, in 2015. There a relief: her inner aspiration found an outer space to bloom through a practice called Awareness Through the Body. To Lison, ATB stands for connection within oneself, the others and the world. She currently offers sessions for children and adults.

LISON MOEGLE

NORA

SILINI

Nora’s passion has always been the optimization of our potentials as humans as well as health on all levels of existence. Since she was a teenager, she has been researching alternative healing methods and lifestyles. Indeed, Nora’s past is coloured by many different paths that have contributed to her knowledge today. She has learned Meditation techniques, Ayurveda, Transpersonal psychology, Shamanism, Critical Theory, Sociology and Cultural Studies, among the few and worked with startups in different fields that became unicorns. She loves working with people from all over the world and her curiosity is her main drive in life.

NORA SILINI

PATRICK

LOEUIS

Well traveled like the rest of the TIFA family, Patrick has only yet to visit Antarctica. He lives in New Jersey, where he grew up and is a consultant by day and yogi by night. Patrick spent his younger days in sports and as an Eagle Scout as well as an active participant at his family’s church. After graduating from university, Patrick served as an officer in the U.S. Army where he spent a total of 18 months stationed in South Korea, and 36 months in the state of Oklahoma.

In 2013, Patrick left the Army, and attended business school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he “discovered” yoga, and has now completed hundreds of hours of advanced training. When not on an airplane or the yoga mat, Patrick can be found cooking, reading, watching movies and live music, weight lifting or volunteering to serve the hungry and homeless.

PATRICK LOEUIS

SIVAKUMAR

SUNDARAM

Born in Tirunelveli, Shivakumar grew up in Madurai, the cultural capital of Tamizh Nadu, India. A Master’s graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Shivakumar has 10 years of experience in Marketing and Project Management in start-ups. He has been living in Auroville since 2010. A natural helper by birth, his passion is to coordinate new alliances and partnerships for the betterment of active projects. He has taught automobile engineering at university, worked in community electric vehicle supply and now helps volunteers come to Auroville. His desire is to live the experiment of Auroville, and his aspiration is to be the willing servitor of divine consciousness.

SIVAKUMAR SUNDARAM