Wholehearted Yoga
Wholehearted Yoga
Yoga should be available to everyone. Rich and poor. Flexible and tight. Young and old. Playful and serious.
Wholehearted Yoga is more than physical poses and touching your toes. It is about breath, meditation and showing up in the world with kindness, honesty, compassion, generosity and gratitude.
If you can't afford yoga right now, take classes for free. If you can, your kind donation will support others. Sign up now!
Wholehearted Yoga
About
Wholehearted Yoga
Yoga should be available to everyone. Rich and poor. Flexible and tight. Young and old. Beginner and advanced. Playful and serious.
Wholehearted Yoga is about much more than physical poses and touching your toes. It is about breath, meditation and showing up in the world with kindness, honesty, compassion, generosity and gratitude.
Wholehearted Yoga provides a fun, gentle, and calming environment accessible and available to everyone. Donation-based, community yoga is provided online and in Redwood City, California. If you can't afford yoga right now, take classes for free. If you can, your kind donation will support the community. Find out more about where your donation goes.
Meet the Team
Vicki Martell
Vicki fell in love with yoga over 20 years ago when expecting her second child. She came to yoga for the calm. She didn't realize it would make her body feel so much better and help her experience childbirth and motherhood with greater ease. She is passionate about sharing her learnings with new moms in prenatal yoga classes.
She also offers gentle yoga classes that move slowly through poses giving you time to feel them in your body. Yin yoga slows the pace even further. Yin is surprisingly effective at increasing your flexibility with its simple, long-held poses.
Her favorite teachers offer a playful, accessible approach. They drop in pearls of wisdom and stories. She aspires to be like them and sends gratitude to Margaret Kramer, Denaya Dailey, Robin Jaffe, Bernie Clark, Jane Austin, Lindsey Rozmes, Kate Lombardo Rajaa Azouqa, Allison Ray Jeraci and Julie Pasqual.
Certifications & Training
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Registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance 500 hour & prenatal.
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Certified for Hatha Yoga at College of San Mateo and YogaRenew.
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Certified for Yin Yoga with Bernie Clark Yin Yoga.
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Certified for prenatal and postnatal yoga with Jane Austin Yoga
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Certified for children's yoga at YogaRenew.
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Almost 700 hours of training!
Tina Real
Tina discovered yoga while working as a Registered Nurse in an OBGYN clinic. A lot of her time was spent waiting with patients....waiting for doctors, procedures or post procedures. Patients were often anxious in this setting and in her attempts to provide a calming, supportive atmosphere, she discovered chair yoga. She'd share breathing techniques and seated yoga to patients who found the distraction soothing and helpful. Stacie Dooreck at Sunlight Yoga provided her chair yoga certification in 2015. After retiring from nursing in 2022, she graduated from the 200 hour Yoga Teacher Certification
program at CSM receiving training from Denaya Dailey and from Robin Jaffe for Yin Yoga.
While she enjoys teaching all ages, she particularly enjoys students in mid life and beyond. She teaches chair yoga to seniors with dementia at Hearts and Minds Activity Center in San Jose which is an absolute joy. You can expect to breathe, stretch, tone, move, balance and relax in her yoga
classes.
Amanda Modell
Amanda brings a spirit of play, exploration, and inclusivity to their yoga teaching. They hold certifications in both trauma-informed yoga and Anusara (alignment-based) yoga and have been practicing since 2009, when an inspiring co-worker and a persistent back injury prompted them to get on the mat and see what all the fuss was about. Outside of yoga, Amanda leads programs in equity-minded teaching at Stanford University, loves live music and spending time outdoors, and lives in the Santa Cruz mountains with their little rescue dog, Dezzy.
"I think your classes are more fun than other yoga I have been to, because you have a good sense of what our bodies enjoyed as kids like Happy Baby pose! I love it!
- Claire
"I really love Vicki's yoga classes. She is easy to follow even for beginners like me. She has a positive focus. I always feel better afterwards."
- Gala
"I always look forward to yoga in the park - relaxing under the redwoods to Vicki's soothing voice. It feels so good to slow down, even for an hour!"
- Gina
"Vicki's yin yoga class always gives me something to look forward to on Monday nights."
- Sherry
Thank you for the online Yoga classes! I am very grateful to have found your class during the pandemic, and it has allowed me to practice some Yoga from the comfort of my home. You are very kind and helpful, and I look forward to the class every week!
- Payal
"Even with Covid-19, life is still busy. I am new to yoga, and Vicki's Monday 8:00 evening yin class is the perfect time and the best way to head into the week! I enjoy her interesting tidbits she shares and the position options for those of us who are novices."
- Debbie
“Spending time every week doing prenatal yoga was such a great way to practice self care away from all my other tasks and to-do’s and bond with my baby before he was born. I also used many of the different breathing exercises while laboring at home for several hours before going to the hospital.”
- Kristina
"Thank you so much for offering this. Your class is so relaxing and feels great. You are very calming."
- Helen
Wholehearted Yoga
Kind words
Wholehearted Yoga
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