your Ocean & Yoga team of yoga retreat teachers, guides & plant-based meal chefs
We are most of all, people like you who love to be alive! The team of Ocean and Yoga is made of different nationalities and backgrounds, all of us in different ways, have choosen to live more consciously, closer to nature, dedicating ourselves to our passions and to growth. We are honored to share these sacred practices and teachings and to co-create these retreats. Read a little bit more about us below.
Jana Toepfer
founder of Ocean & Yoga,
retreat guide, yoga and somatic movement teacher, transformative body work therapist
For our 2023 retreats, Jana guides one Mountain Retreat, Back to the Roots, and her new Transformative Bodywork Retreat.
In her retreats, Jana shares her passion for life.
For a life lived in gratitude, in full expression, honesty and integrity.
Jana has been teaching yoga since 2010 (completed her yoga teacher trainings in Anusara Yoga) and has continued her studies in Meditation, Body Mind Centering, Elemental Body Connection, Somatics, Feldenkrais, Contact Improvisation & Contemporary Dance, Animal Movement, and Transformative Bodywork, hence creating unique sessions of embodied presence.
In her sessions you will experience a whole lot of energy moving as well as a deep sense of freedom and relaxation. You will experience the universe of your physical anatomy and anatomy of breath and a deep connection to the Elements.
Jana understands guided movement sessions as places of research, giving each one options to explore the wisdom of the individual body and to contribute to the body of wisdom of the group. You will be challenged, seen and valued.
Jana has completed her training as a Transformative Bodywork LINKKKKK therapist and gives individual sessions of this empowering work since 2020.
Catarina Marques Silva
yoga and meditation teacher, creator at Ocean & Yoga
Cata started her Yoga practice about 2 decades ago with an Iyengar teacher, and what started as a physical practice became deeper with meditation and yoga philosophy infusing her life.
Cata has studied Hatha, Ashtanga Yoga and Ayurveda in Kerala, south of India, Yoga Nidra in Amsterdam and a few years ago, an overworked period of her life she gets in touch with the power of softness with Yin Yoga practice.
A call to study Yoga Anatomy, functional Yoga, the Meridian theory ,TCM principles and Yin Yoga training with Sebastien Pucelle and Murielle Burelier
in Bali. Most recently she studied Breath and Meditation with Chritopher Perkins in Baja California in Mexico.
Alongside, she is trained in Thetahealing® , Reiki I
She has been teaching yoga and guiding retreats for about 6 years, in The Netherlands, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mexico.
Cata now has home in Aljezur, Portugal.
"Through a functional approach to the Yoga practice I want to guide people to feel home in their bodies, to experience presence and to cultivate awareness throughout their lives."
Eduardo Terzidis
yoga and meditation teacher
Eduardo Terzidis is a yoga teacher, a permaculture teacher and consultant, a writer and a facilitator for healing and regenerative spaces. As an engineer, he wanted to help the world, yet he felt the need to “be out there”, learning and sharing with the very people who seek the same change he envisioned. At the core of his work is the understanding that global change needs to be carried from the inside out, recognising the intricate web of which we are part and being able to play our role in support of all life.
Maria Terra
yoga teacher, fascia release, aura readings & trance dance
“With trust and faith I walk my path, praying to my ancestors for remembering why I am here...”
Terra is an experienced yogi, dance and women’s circle facilitator, traveler, moon dancer, writer and a guardian of the forest and indigenous peoples project. She often goes on immersions in Mexico and in the Amazon rainforest, where she has been blessed to study with elders from the forest, indigenous people, wisdom keepers, grandmothers about nature and its mysteries, plants and their healing properties. Terra believes and teaches that yoga is a path of life, a coherence between words, thoughts and actions. Yoga has taught her everyday to walk her talk, honor her existence, respect everything and everyone, be present, have a simple life and always be in gratitude. To always walk with humbleness, to ask permission, learn and teach about the beauty of life and the depth of our existence.
Terra is a hatha yoga teacher, facilitator of indegenious, body, spirit, sound & water work, and shares her wisdom at Yoga events around the world (e.g. Yoga Conference Barcelona, Bali Spirit Festival, Sound & Silence, Boom/Being Gathering)
find out more at Raiz do Ser
Olga Sadowski
plant-based chef, wisdom keeper and activist
Olga creates our plant-based meals made with intention and love during the Family Retreat in Aljezur and the Classic Ocean & Yoga Retreat in Monchique.
Olga has been dedicated to plant-based cooking and mindful eating practices for several years, has worked and curated healthy and creative meals as a chef in upscale yoga retreat centers and is always brewing new and nourishing inspiration for yogis and people who are curious about a healthy and holistic lifestyle.
She will guide us through mindful eating rituals and share her wisdom on conscious & delicious cooking and inspire our understanding of our belonging to nature by eating. She believes the way we relate to food is the way we relate to life. Our daily cooking sessions with her will include stories, recipes, room for questions and tons of insights to take home for a new way to eat.
Olga recently finished her fist cook book "Recipes for the New Earth. Simple food that serves the land and heals the body". You can find the link on her website. She is the founder of the local crafts shop CARDO which support local artisans, designers, and small business owners.
find Olga on intagram: @cardo.handmade
find Olga on the web: www.cardo-utopica.com
Pedro Collares
soundjourneys, kirtan and singing circles
Pedro creates rich soundscapes and brings in the way of bhakti and beauty, co-creating sweatlodges and singing circles in most of our Mountain Retreats. He also guides us through a healing soundjourney in our Ocean & Yoga Retreats, a magical experience of sounds that will lead you into a deep state of meditation.
Pedro is a passionate surfer and recently became a father and is dedicated to this new sacred path of family life. The gifts that he shares include healing music, men's retreats and indigenous traditions of living a sustainable life on Earth. He is also deeply connected to the Yawanawa Nation from the Amazon (Acre, Brazil) by visiting them to study their healing ways and sacred ancient songs.
more about Pedro's work:
Fernando Neves
host and plant based chef
We are hosted by the family of Eva and Fernando, the owners of the beautiful farm Olho Branco. They have two daughters and two cuddly dogs and some chicken and they focus on a simple and healthy lifestyle as close to nature as possible.
Fernando will make sure that you have everything that you need during your time with us. He is the man in the garden and he co-creates with Richie our delicious homemade, local and organic meals with the freshly harvested veggies from the garden.
He is also a passionate surfer and tree-planter and will share his wisdom & home with you: a piece of paradise between mountain, ocean and sky.
