Workshops
Coming Back To You
Led by Amy Brooks
Wednesday, April 23rd
5:30 - 8:00 pm
Suggested Price $65 with a sliding scale starting at $50
pay what you are able
This offering will be held in-person only (no virtual attendance)
Coming Back to You is a thoughtfully designed workshop for a small, intimate group, creating a space for deep self-connection. We will explore how relational wounds shape our sense of self and connection with others. Through self-compassion and embodied awareness, we’ll cultivate the courage to meet ourselves exactly where we are.
Together, we will engage in practices that honor the wisdom of the body, mind, and spirit, supporting your journey toward wholeness and authentic relationships. This session includes:
Somatic Experiencing – Tune into bodily sensations
Emotional Awareness – Recognize and process emotions
Grounding – Cultivate presence and stability
Integration – Connect insights with daily life
Reflection – Deepen self-understanding and growth
Please bring a journal or paper, a pen, and wear comfortable clothing. Light movement will be optional during the somatic exercise and grounding at the end of class.
Join us in a nurturing space where you can return to yourself with clarity, compassion, and connection.
Meet Your Guide
Amy is a licensed therapist in Duluth who specializes in helping people heal from relational trauma. She believes that healing is deeply personal and also connected to the bigger picture of the world we live in. In her practice, Amy works alongside clients to help them reconnect to their own inner wisdom and sense of agency, knowing that choosing to thrive can be a powerful act of resistance in a culture that often promotes scarcity and survival. Her approach is collaborative, creative, and grounded in genuine emotional connection. With both professional training and lived experience to guide her, Amy creates a supportive space where people are invited to reflect, grow, and build healthier, more authentic relationships with themselves and in their communities.
Beltane Evening of Spirit & Sound
With Rebecca James Alsum
Wednesday, April 30th
6:30 - 8:30 pm
$40
This offering will be held in-person only (no virtual attendance)
Come on the eve of Beltane to remember your roots with the seasons, rhythms of the Earth, and your effortless radiant being . This is a moment for us to rejuvenate in order that we are equipped for action. Pause in this powerful season for purposeful alignment with your heart and lightest vibration to prepare for a yang season of action. Beltane is a time where flowers begin to bloom and we see more green, softness, light and energy of summer ahead.
What is opening for you so that you can embody and act, in purposeful peace and the focused growth of new paths?
This evening will bathe you in rejuvenation and sweetness. We light the fires on this evening in our Spirit to bloom into our most fruitful, beautiful, powerful Self.
Open to all genders, all bodies, all hearts, all Spiritual paths.
Rejuvenate through
Flower ritual
Poetry readings
Live guitar, drum, and cello vibrations
Meditation with Earth elements
Writing prompts
Ritual outlines you can implement for the Celtic Beltane season
Prenatal Yoga
With Abigail Venuso
6-Week Series : Mondays, May 5 - June 9
5:15 - 6:30 pm
$90*
*Limited scholarship assistance available. Please reach out to apply : hello@svalja.yoga
If you’re unable to attend all the classes in the series, we’d be happy to provide you with a pass for a regular studio class of your choice.
Join our Prenatal Yoga Series for movement, mindfulness, and meaningful connection. This series offers yoga postures, breathwork, and mindfulness designed to support your changing body and help prepare it for your birth journey. Each class will offer space to share experiences and build community with other parents-to-be. Whether you're seeking relaxation, strength, or support, this class provides a nurturing environment for your journey into parenthood.
Connect Through:
Guided prenatal yoga to support your body and mind
Meaningful discussions and shared experiences with other parents-to-be
Breathwork and mindfulness practices for relaxation and preparation
A supportive community to foster connection and confidence in your journey
Meet Your Guide
Abigail Venuso
RYT200 (SHE, HER)
Yoga has been a grounding and healing practice for Abigail for more than a decade. Yoga taught Abigail how to cultivate inner resilience and learn about her body's abilities and limitations. In 2021, Abigail graduated from Svälja Yoga’s HGYS YTT and is certified in Trauma Conscious Yoga and Prenatal Yoga. To Abigail, teaching yoga is about helping others find peace and inner strength.
Abigail loves to be in nature, spend time with her little family, and find ways to grow.
Plants of the Thymes
With Angela Krick
Last Thursday of each Month | May - September 2025
5:00 - 8:00 pm
Series Discount $325 | All 5 Sessions | available until May 29th
Drop-In Rate $75 per session
This series will be held off-site
Immerse yourself in plants. Approach earth-based cycles and abundance with practical methods and hands-on experiences with the plants that grow in the Northland, in real time. We will walk the fields and gardens, use our senses to understand and touch and feel the medicine that grows with us. Feel confident getting some wild back in your life. Recall our relationship with earth, cycles, elements and plants. Tend to the urge to feed yourself from the source.
Join local herbalist Angela Krick at her home, where the land is vibrant and rich with local ecosystems.
Wear weather-appropriate clothing, as the class will be held entirely outdoors in the gardens and surrounding land. Details, including the address, will be sent upon registration.
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Let the spirit of spring spark your curiosity and deepen your connection with the plant world. In this immersive workshop, we begin with the vibrant energy of roots, buds, shoots, flowers, and spring greens. Through hands-on experiences, we’ll taste the plants, build relationship, and begin making medicine.
We’ll dig, clean, and chop roots for herbal preparations, steep freshly foraged buds in oil for topical use, and brew teas to drink together.
As we walk the gardens and forage spring greens, we’ll awaken our senses and intuition—tuning into the subtle qualities of our environment and our own inner states.
Seated discussions will offer space to reflect, share, and explore how nature mirrors our health and well-being. Every season brings its own nourishment and healing. This workshop invites you to experience the abundance of spring through the beauty of local plants in their earliest stages.
In each session, we’ll engage in hands-on experiences - harvesting what’s seasonally available and preparing medicinal teas, tinctures, remedies and herbs from the plants we gather, which participants will take home with them.
Meet Your Guide
Angela Krick
Magick Mullein Herbalism & Blue Forest Plants
Angela lives in Duluth near Enger Tower, in a slice of oasis amongst the willows and pines, creeks and wild and cultivated gardens with her family and animals. They live close to home and hearth sharing the love of Earth with a passion for plants, health and wholeness. Angela has many teachers and influences to thank, forever learning and grateful to be a student in awe of the bioregional bounty of botanicals.
The Sacred Queer: A Workshop for Collective Healing
Guided by Melly Weidendorf
Date: Saturday, June 14
Time : 9:00am - 1:00pm
Cost : $90*
Proceeds of this workshop will be donated to Trans Northland.
REGISTER
*Limited scholarship assistance available. Please reach out to apply : hello@svalja.yoga
A journey into the Sacred Queer archetype beyond gender and sexual orientation.
This workshop invites participants to explore queerness as sacred, outside the limits of binary gender expressions. We all carry the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine within us—just as we all carry the Sacred Queer. Together, we will move beyond the traditional archetypes of the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine to explore the expansive, transformative power of the Sacred Queer.
Through discussion, meditation, movement, and reflection, we will honor queerness as an essential, liberatory force that defies the boundaries of culture and challenges rigid norms. In a world that often demands conformity, living an out loud and queer life is a sacred act of rebellion—one that helps shape a more inclusive and liberated future for all of us.
This space welcomes everyone and encourages those who do not identify as queer to join as an act of solidarity and collective transformation. Come join a circle in community as we learn from, celebrate, and reclaim the sacred queer in all of us.
Meet Your Guide
Melly Weidendorf
MS, LPCC, RYT-200 (WE/US/SHE/HER), TRAUMA CONSCIOUS YOGA CERTIFIED
Melly is a licensed mental health therapist, specializing in resiliency and post-trauma wisdom, unwinding mental wellness from a system rooted in colonialism and oppression. She completed the 250 hour Trauma Conscious YTT with Cohort 5 in 2022, and has additional training in Yin and Ayurveda. She lives on the shore with her menagerie of four legged friends, and teaches TC yoga on Mondays.
Kids Nature and Movement Camp
Guided by Erin Cuneo and Krista James
Dates: June 16-20
Time : 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Cost : $100 / youth*
Location : Chester Park
Ages : 6-10
REGISTER
In the case of bad weather, we will meet at the Svalja Whole-Being studio.
*Limited scholarship assistance available. Please reach out to apply : hello@svalja.yoga
Come play and explore in the forest with us!!
In this class kids are given opportunities to explore and connect with their own true essence of self, others, and nature. Participants will engage with a variety of ways of connection including the practice of Qigong, immersion in nature, science, exploring literature, journaling and play. This time will include plenty of movement and opportunities for getting into all the fun elements that a forest provides!
Meet Your Guides!
Erin Cuneo, she/her
Erin strives to provide her students with opportunities to explore the natural world and their place within it. She has taught all grades from Kindergarten through 5th and currently teaches 4th-grade Science and Social Studies. Teaching Science allows her to take students outside, giving them hands-on experiences with the wonders of the world. Through Social Studies, she helps bridge the gap between school and community, encouraging students to see themselves as active members who can make a difference.
Erin has been a dedicated yoga practitioner for 25 years and has integrated mindfulness into her classroom, using yoga to help students calm their bodies and regulate their nervous systems.
She holds an MA in Education with a focus on Reading Pedagogy.
Krista James, she/her
Krista loves creating opportunities for children to connect with their own true, beautiful essence and providing tools for self-expression. Through her years of working in education, she has witnessed the power and energy that young people harness for positive interaction with themselves and their communities, creating a ripple of life and love.
Krista has found Qigong to be a powerful practice for healing and spiritual development within her own life journey. Her relationship with nature in all its forms has also been an integral part of her life path, providing her with grounding, healing, peace, and love—essential elements of her daily life.
Krista holds an MA in Education with a focus on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, is a certified Qigong practice group leader through Spring Forest Qigong, and is certified in Trauma-Conscious Yoga and Yin Yoga.
Krista led a successful kids' camp for nine elementary-age youth in the summer of 2024 through Svälja Whole-Being and looks forward to expanding it this year.
Girls Camp
Explore the powerful and beautiful you!
Guided by Erin Cuneo and Krista James
Dates : June 23-27
Time : 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Cost : $100 / youth
Ages : Girls entering grades 5-8
Locations :
June 23: Svalja Studio
June 24: Chester Park
June 25: Svalja Studio
June 26: Park Point
June 27: Chester Park
Date/Location may shift with weather
REGISTER
Girls are full of strength, wisdom, and power!
This camp offers a nurturing space for girls to explore and connect with their true essence, building confidence and self-awareness. Through engaging discussions and hands-on experiences, we’ll dive into topics such as self-love, standing strong in one’s power, grounding in nature, and self-discovery. Activities will include hiking, journaling, yoga, qigong, creative expression, and plenty of time to relax, have fun, and form meaningful friendships! All attendees will be provided with a journal and pens for journaling activities.
Meet Your Guides!
Erin Cuneo, she/her
Erin strives to provide her students with opportunities to explore the natural world and their place within it. She has taught all grades from Kindergarten through 5th and currently teaches 4th-grade Science and Social Studies. Teaching Science allows her to take students outside, giving them hands-on experiences with the wonders of the world. Through Social Studies, she helps bridge the gap between school and community, encouraging students to see themselves as active members who can make a difference.
Erin has been a dedicated yoga practitioner for 25 years and has integrated mindfulness into her classroom, using yoga to help students calm their bodies and regulate their nervous systems.
She holds an MA in Education with a focus on Reading Pedagogy.
Krista James, she/her
Krista loves creating opportunities for children to connect with their own true, beautiful essence and providing tools for self-expression. Through her years of working in education, she has witnessed the power and energy that young people harness for positive interaction with themselves and their communities, creating a ripple of life and love.
Krista has found Qigong to be a powerful practice for healing and spiritual development within her own life journey. Her relationship with nature in all its forms has also been an integral part of her life path, providing her with grounding, healing, peace, and love—essential elements of her daily life.
Krista holds an MA in Education with a focus on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, is a certified Qigong practice group leader through Spring Forest Qigong, and is certified in Trauma-Conscious Yoga and Yin Yoga.
Krista led a successful kids' camp for nine elementary-age youth in the summer of 2024 through Svälja Whole-Being and looks forward to expanding it this year.
Special Events
Come Join the Circle: Child-Centered Song, Dance & Movement
Sundays: May 18 | June 22
10:30 - 11:30 am
Led by Kristy Marie Chisti
Cost: 1 Credit (one paid adult can bring any number of children)
REGISTER
Held in Rose Studio + In-person only (no virtual attendance)
Join us for an hour of connection and joy for all ages. Together, we’ll sing songs, dance, and explore breathing movements designed to uplift our spirits. As social beings, children thrive when we thrive, and this shared experience aims to nurture everyone involved.
This guided session allows plenty of space for individual creativity and inspiration. Even the shy can find their spark as we embrace the muse of the spirit. Here, you are free to be exactly as you are—nothing is forced, and gentle, sweet inspiration is our guiding principle.
The songs will be universal, creating a safe and welcoming environment for all.
The Rose Studio (street level) is located at 18 1st Ave West, the door just to the left of Svälja's main studio entrance.
Grief Ritual: May the Circle be Unbroken
Sundays: April 27 | May 18 | June 22
12:30 - 1:30 pm (with space for you to stay longer for continued processing)
Led by Kristy Marie Chisti
Cost: 1 Credit
REGISTER
Held in Rose Studio + In-person only (no virtual attendance)
Bring a photo of a loved one who has passed or something that represents what you are grieving to place on the altar. This is a safe and supportive space to hold the tenderness of grief—for personal loss and for the collective sorrow of what is dying in our world.
Together, we will have an opportunity to share, either with words or silently, what we are carrying. This process will be held with care and reverence, in a simple yet meaningful ceremony. You are welcome to come for yourself or on behalf of loved ones who are struggling.
In this confidential and safe container, we support one another and lighten the weight of what it means to be alive during this time on the planet.
The Rose Studio (street level) is located at 18 1st Ave West, the door just to the left of Svälja's main studio entrance.
Art of Asana Discovery Class
One Saturday per Month :
April 26 | May 24 | June 28 | July 26 | August 30 | September 27
10:30 - 11:30 am
Led by Daniela Pelayo
Cost: 1 Credit
REGISTER
This class is held in Rose Studio
Join this discovery class to delve into the richness of Asana, the third limb of yoga, which focuses on the practice of physical postures. This monthly session offers a glimpse into our upcoming comprehensive training module, Art of Asana in October 2025, exploring the joy and general properties of various yoga postures. The class will explore SomaYoga, Vinyasa and LYT Yoga®, a specific blueprint that reestablishes postural imbalances and sets you up to move in a variety of ways.
The Rose Studio (street level) is located at 18 1st Ave West, the door just to the left of Svälja's main studio entrance. The space is roomy with two private bathrooms. There are mats and props available, but feel free to bring your own if you like.
Meet Your Guide
Daniela Pelayo, PTA, E-RYT 500, YACEP, C-IAYT (she/her)
Daniela is a yoga instructor, yoga therapist, lifelong student of yoga, and Physical Therapist Assistant. A native of Mexico City and a Duluthian at heart, she holds a BA in Women’s Studies from the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
With over 2,000 hours of training, Daniela has studied through CorePower Yoga, Yoga North International Soma Yoga Institute, LYT Yoga Method, and Svalja Whole-Being. Her certifications include a 200-hour Vinyasa and Hot Yoga certification from CorePower (2005), a 1,000-hour Yoga Therapy Certification from Yoga North, and advanced training through LYT and Svalja Whole-Being’s Trauma-Conscious program.
Daniela teaches with joy and an open heart, offering weekly classes at Duluth Yoga.
IG: @pelayogadany
e-mail: danielapelayoga@gmail.com
Gentle Yoga and Writing in the Rose
This guided yoga and writing session will be offered on the first Thursday of each month in Svalja Yoga's Rose Studio. The class will begin with Gentle Yoga where postures are practiced gently and slowly with a combination of moving and stillness accompanied by ambient music. In the second portion of the class, your guide will offer grounding exercises, short readings, and writing prompts followed by a time for free writing (approximately thirty minutes). At the end of the session, there will be time for a check-in and option to share writing and/or experiences. Please bring a journal and pen or other materials for the writing portion of the session.
The Rose Studio (street level) is located at 18 1st Ave West, the door just to the left of Svälja's main studio entrance. The space is roomy with two private bathrooms. There are mats and props available, but feel free to bring your own mat if you like.
Yin & Live Healing Sounds
Yin guided by Kristy Marie Chisti; Music provided by Shane Nelson & Corwin Pederson
One Thursday per month
7:00 - 8:15 pm
Please check our schedule for upcoming dates!
Cost: 2 Credits
The intentional, curated sounds of live guitar, vocals, and harmonium guide you on an illuminating soundscape to support your whole-being release during this Yin Yoga practice. Yin Yoga is a therapeutic, slow-paced form of yoga where postures are held passively with the support of props for longer periods of time (1-10 minutes) to move into our connective tissue and activate sensation to release and open more deeply. The interplay of music and deep fascial release encourages discerning awareness within the physical and emotional bodies.
Yin & Live Healing Cello Vibrations
Yin Yoga guided by Kyle Leia Heyesen : Cello performed by Rebecca James Alsum
One Thursday per Month
7:00 - 8:15 pm
Please check our schedule for upcoming dates!
Cost: 2 Credits
Yin Yoga is a therapeutic, slow-paced form of yoga where postures are held passively with the support of props for longer periods of time (1-10 minutes) to move into our connective tissue and activate sensation to release and open more deeply. Live cello provides deep, resonate healing vibrations that gently break-up long-held tensions encouraging your physical body to soften and release. The soothing sounds of live cello offer comfort and calm, encouraging you to turn inward and explore your inner landscape, helping you connect with yourself more deeply. This beautiful coupling of Yin and healing cello vibrations may awaken new awareness, insight, inner-connection (mind-body-spirit), and transformation.
Into the Night
Sacred Music with Kristy Marie Nur Jehan and The Way Of The Heart Crew
One Friday per month
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Please check our schedule for upcoming dates!
Cost: 2 Credits
Join Kristy Marie and friends for an evening deep dive into a 2-hour participatory musical offering. These nights will be full of experiential unity as we come together from all paths, many lineages, and all directions to share a moment together in song and great heart.
We will be engaging in universal Kirtan, dances of universal peace, and a deep dive into the Sufi practice of Zikr. These practices encourage sovereignty while sharing space with others, and no experience is necessary—it is forever and always a practice, not a performance. Kirtan is a more sedentary, sonic experience, while the dances of universal peace and Zikr are more of a guided, moving, and harmonizing meditation. The vibrations of our voices coming together help to dissolve the barriers between us and our hearts, and our hearts alongside all other hearts.
Honoring the Ruhaniat Lineage
The Ruhaniat is a world-wide spiritual family, walking in the footsteps of Murshid Samuel Lewis (our founder), and of Hazrat Inayat Khan, his teacher, who brought "The Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty" from India to the West in 1910. Our stated mission is, "helping individuals unfold their highest spiritual purpose, manifest their essential inner being, and live harmoniously with others, with the hope of relieving human suffering and contributing to the awakening of all of humankind".
Workshop Cancelation Policy
Cancellation up to 48 hours prior to the workshop will be refunded less a 10% Administrative Fee. Cancellation 24-48 hours prior to the workshop receives a 50% refund. Cancellation less than 24 hours prior or a no-show receives no refund.
Other Svälja Yoga Offerings
Classes
Visit class descriptions to learn about our variety of styles of trauma conscious yoga, kirtan, fitness classes, and more; or if are ready to register for classes, visit the weekly class schedule.
Deeper Study
Looking for a way to dive deeper into your yoga journey? Svälja Yoga hosts dozens of certification programs which provide a wide breadth of opportunities. To view these, go to the top of our website and hover over Deeper Study to discover the wide array of deeper study opportunities for growth, development, and transformation.
We also offer Yoga Teacher Training Programs — 250 hr (for 200 hr certification) and +300 hr (for 500 hr certification).