Yossum Team
Each team member of Yossum has enhanced their lives not only with the practice of yoga asanas and meditation but also by recognizing and embracing the need of a self-understanding journey through 1 to 1 therapy.
Ma Prem Kali
Yossum Founder
 Kali is the founder and creator of Yossum, a powerful and transformative process of personal growth consisting of four pillars - Yoga, Silence, Self-Understanding and Meditation. She has been teaching Yossum for nine years.
Born in Brazil in 1963, Kali has been practicing yoga and engaged in therapeutic processes since the early age of 15.
Straight out of high school, she studied Sociology and Anthropology at the Goias Federal University in Brazil in order to better understand human nature, but discovered that these studies would not provide the answers she was looking for. Disillusioned with the academic approach to understanding life, she then spent the next seven years building up a prominent company in the São Paulo fashion industry. However, having a successful corporate career and all the material luxuries did not satisfy her either. Dissatisfied, she immigrated to Australia, where she renewed her burning interest in spiritual and human development, embracing meditation as a natural complement to her existing practices of yoga and therapy.
In 1989, she moved to India and became a disciple of Osho, the enlightened mystic, participating, assisting and training in various types of therapeutic approaches - such as Hoffman Process preparation stages, Tantra Sexual Deconditioning, Primal Healing - as well as meditation retreats at Osho's International Center in Pune.
 Her inner exploration then took her to the Himalayas, where for seven years she experienced long periods of silence in meditation retreats under the guidance of her teacher Swami Prem Samdarshi. She was subsequently fortunate to meet in Mumbai the Advaita sage, Ramesh Balsekar, and received his teachings for four years.
After fourteen years in India, Kali returned to the West and moved to London. She trained in the Enneagram with Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson both in the UK and the United States, and learned the language of this practical and powerful psychological system of self-understanding.
The synthesis of all that
she integrated from her spiritual teachers, yoga practice
, therapeutic training and the Enneagram wisdom, ultimately
led her to develop her powerful 1 to 1 Self-Understanding sessions as well as create the Yossum Process. This is her unique approach to self-development.
It integrates yogic philosophy with
the ordinary challenges of day-to-day
life. Through her work, Kali offers her clients
and students the opportunity to experience
a deep-rooted sense of harmony, and
acceptance of self and others, which
she believes to be the foundation of
a fulfilling life.
Kali has personally designed the structured programs presented in the Yossum Retreats. She also develops modules of meditation, philosophy and self-understanding for Yoga Teacher Training Schools, including those that provide certification with the Yoga Alliance of the United States. She is currently deepening and refining her therapeutic skills training in Trauma Healing through the School of Somatic Experiencing, founded by Peter A. Levine, as well as participating in studies of Diane Poole Heller in her Healing Early Attachment Wounds Program.
Kali has a 1 to 1 private practice with a clientele based all over the world. Her sessions are delivered in person for those who come for a Yossum Private Retreat in Marbella, south of Spain and, mostly, via skype and telephone. She continues to deliver
the Yossum Group Process personally with her highly-qualified team in Spain and India.
Kali
now lives in Marbella in the south
of Spain with her precious dog, Disha.
Lori Sjollema
Born and raised in America, Lori Sjollema began her career 28 years ago in the fitness and dance industry in Chicago U.S.A. Her talent and adventurous spirit led her to Europe where she travelled extensively as a professional dancer and taught fitness side by side. Tired of the rat race, she knew when she walked into her first Dynamic Yoga class several years ago that her search was over.
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Her style of teaching is perhaps that of a ‘rebel’, integrating elements from various Yoga traditions. Certified as a Jivamukti Yoga Instructor, she is also trained in the methods of Ashtanga, Iyengar Yoga and Raja Yoga especially in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Foremost Lori teaches from her own experience and intuition as a practitioner of Yoga in its entirety. Yet her teaching is highly influenced by her travels to America working with highly renowned teachers such as David Life and Sharon Gannon, David Swenson, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea and Sean Corn. Her teaching is also very much influenced by her studies with Jose Maria Vigar in the Iyengar lineage.
Lori is continuously expanding her self-understanding through the Enneagram system and deepening her meditation and silence practices according to the Yossum concept.
Lori teaches a challenging Vinyasa-style Yoga integrating a deep understanding of alignment and the benefits of restorative postures. She holds regular classes in Marbella, Spain where she combines intuition, strength, flexibility, breath and meditation. Her training as Thai Massage therapist enables her to assist her students to overcome fears and to create more flexibility and movement within their bodies.
Her greatest challenge and desire is to be a dedicated mother to her child, to serve Yoga and to share it with everyone.
Valérie
Devillers
Teaching, travelling and exploring are Valerie’s passions. She started school teaching in New Caledonia where she was born in 1972, then moved to another Island in the Pacific - New Zealand to keep teaching secondary school students.
Spain was next, it is there that she met Kali, her teacher with whom she discovered the world of Yoga, and her desire to teach yoga was born. |
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The path of Yoga as a whole had such a resonance in Valerie that she dove into exploring it. A strong drive for an inner search was another motivation.
The 4 pillars that uphold her training are: Asanas, the Enneagram, Meditation and Silence.
She learnt the basics of Yoga during a 9 months training that was tailored specifically for her. After that personalised training, Valerie continued with a 200 hours (recognized by The Yoga Alliance) training in India in Hatha yoga and Ashtanga yoga with Louisa Sear, Director of Yoga Arts, based in Byron Bay, Australia. In Venice, California she trained with Shiva Rea, who teaches Vinyasa Yoga. For personal reasons Valerie has been moving from country to country and had the opportunity to learn from many yoga teachers with different styles, creating a huge source of inspiration for her.
In Spain, she had the opportunity to work in many Yossum retreats assisting the teachers and adjusting during yoga classes. Alongside Valerie’s exploration of asanas, she has been working for several years on the structure of her personality through the Enneagram and is still working on it. In order to train herself in this tool, she attended to courses at the Enneagram Institute of New York, with Russ Hudson and Don Richard Riso. Valerie also benefited from the vast experience of Kali during multiple trainings she has shared with her in Marbella, Spain.
Valerie has also studied Buddha’s teaching as well as the Advaita philosophy through the teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar. Meditation, as the third pillar, is part of her daily life and Silence is present in every retreat Valerie participated in.
The understanding of these 4 pillars or Yoga is what Valerie loves to share; she loves teaching yoga, she also enjoys when others discover the fruits of the Meditation and Silence in the context of retreats and when the Enneagram contribute to increase self-understanding for the participants.
Valerie is grateful to Kali, the founder of Yossum, who has shown her the path and who has been guiding her through it.
Emma Dicks
Emma is General Manager of Yossum, dedicated to ensuring that the retreats run a smoothly as possible and assisting Ma Prem Kali and Lori with their teachings.
From the UK, for 12 years Emma built a career as an Account Director for Design, Marketing and Advertising Agencies. Although successful, a lack of meaning in life and life events resulted in a breakdown on a mental and physical level.
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This illness led Emma on a quest to understand human nature, the link between the mind and body and to attempt to understand why, as human beings; living in Western society many of us feel so anxious, stressed, depressed and fatigued mentally, physically and emotionally.
To this end Emma studied yoga and qualified as a teacher. Understanding the positive effects of the relaxation of the body to assist the relaxation of the mind through yoga and meditation, Emma continued her studies to include ancient healing techniques, Psychotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy to further understand the mind and how our thoughts and emotions affect the body.
In 2007 Emma discovered Yossum and the Enneagram system, which she has seen transform peoples lives. From her continuing studies and her own self development and healing through the Yossum Concept, Emma is passionate about providing the tools that she has learned to others.
Emma currently offers a private practice for clients offering one to one therapies and yoga, she also works with corporate clients to bring the benefits of her experience to executives.
Heath Wilson
Heath Wilson has an extensive background in anatomy, physiology and holds a degree in psychology from the University of Colorado. As well as being a Yoga teacher he has been working as a professional Rolf Practitoner since 1996. Heath received his certification at the Guild for Structural Integration in Colorado, USA.
The Rolf method is a system of body work based on structural integration. It is a process of re-educating the body through movement and touch. Injuries, poor body mechanics and diseases can cause the body to lose its natural balance, leading to pain, discomfort and lack of energy. |
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Rolf sessions use an intelligent, systematic approach to bring the body back into balance. Rolf sessions involve deep pressure and gentle movements to release and realign the body. They go beyond the therapeutic limits of massage and localized treatment therapies.
Heath is with us on most of our retreats in Spain and India.
Ian Langdon
Ian has been practising Yoga for 9 years and became convinced of it's many benefits after clearing up a nagging back problem within 2 weeks of beginning his practice!
Now a qualified Yoga Alliance teacher at the 200 Hours level, he remains a dedicated Yogi who is keen to share all he has learned with anyone curious enough to find out what yoga can do for them.
Keen to distance himself from "plastic gurus", Ian teaches a dynamic blend of Hatha Yoga firmly based on the practical aspects of Asana. In an inclusive atmosphere students are encouraged to work to their own personal limits and are never left struggling to keep up.
Ian welcomes everyone to his classes, from beginners to more advanced students, as long as you can put up with Yoga taught in a Yorkshire accent... |
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Marjan Looije
Marjan is the YOSSUM administrative manager, she is a wizard in organizing all the bookings for the Yossum Retreats. She deals with her work with professionalism and genuine warmth towards our participants.
Marjan Looije has been on several YOSSUM Retreats and in consequence of her self-understanding and getting in touch with her deepest wishes, she had the courage to start her own massage business.
Marjan's massages are excellent, she has magic fingers! She is available as a masseuse for Private Retreats.
She is very grateful for the back-up that Kali and YOSSUM have provided to follow her own path.
More details about her therapies can be found on www.marjanmassage.com |
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