Manuela Kurkaa is the founder, CEO, and teacher at Naya Yoga. She is a Colombian/Swedish RYT 500 certified yoga teacher, passionate about yoga, mindfulness, and international politics. 

 

She completed her YTT 200 Hr Yoga Teacher Training at Core Power Yoga in Washington, DC in 2016 and her YTT 300 Hr Advanced Teacher Training at Vinyasa Yoga School in Rishikesh, India in 2018 and has taught yoga classes in several countries. She is also a certified breath coach and has taken additional courses in different meditation techniques, yoga nidra, kundalini yoga, ashtanga, yin yoga, Ayurveda, nada yoga (the yoga of sound), and reiki. 

 

She has a master's degree in international law and a bachelor's degree in international affairs and political science. She has worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, the United Nations Development Programme, and the International Monetary Fund.

 

She is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and speaks Spanish, English, German, and Swedish fluently, has an advanced proficiency in French and Hebrew, and elementary in Arabic. 

​

You can reach her at manuelakurkaa@nayayoga.org. ​​