STAFF

All of our staff has worked in the corporate world and understands what it is like to balance a career, family and personal time. We are delighted to share with you what we have learned about how to balance the demands of modern life.Sharing our diverse and unique knowledge and skills, we offer the holistic wellness experience in Houston.

So that you can get the most out of your time with us, we take the time to get to know about your lifestyle preferences and health goals. Then, we create a plan that will help you meet your needs in the best way. Perhaps a combination of yoga, stress-relief meditation, massage, or nutrition.

With your consent, our staff then works together to help you along the path of self-care.

Dana Shamas
Fourteen years of practice and intensive study with master yoga teachers inform the teachings of Dana Shamas, founder of Bayou Bliss Yoga. Through her yoga practice, she has learned to walk through the challenges of life with grace, and enjoys helping her clients to do the same. Dana began her yoga practice while studying at Bryn Mawr College before moving to New York and London,  where yoga helped to keep her grounded after long days at the Goldman Sachs office. Later on, she took her practice with her to U.C. Berkeley where she earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business, and subsequently helped to start a variety of socially-conscious companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dana uses the infinitely powerful tool of human breath to help bring about awareness and positive change in her clients lives. A certified transformational breath facilitator, she leads individual, corporate and group breath sessions, and offers life coaching.

Dana wishes to thank her teachers Sharon and David Gannon, John Friend, J.D. Thomas and all of the other beings who have helped her to become who she is today. She is grateful to be back home, once again serving her home city of Houston, and passing on the gifts she has gathered during her life and study

Service Offering: Yoga, Breathwork, Coaching, Thai Massage

Mary Opperman
Yoga practitioner since 1996.  Certified through Yoga Alliance at the E- RYT500 level, Mary has over 500 hours of Yoga training and study, including Teacher Certification in 2002, and Advanced Teacher Training in 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2009.

Mary’s teaching style combines several traditions to emphasize safety and awareness in every movement, allowing students to take exactly what their bodies, minds and spirits needs from each practice.

Mary believes that everyone has the innate desire to improve their quality of life.  Her goal as a teacher of Yoga and breath coach is to share knowledge and information about the practice of Yoga and the recuperative powers of the breath in order to help others integrate this practice into their everyday lives in a way that makes life improvement a very personal and applicable occurrence.

Service Offering: Yoga, Breathwork, Meditation

Marisa Iila-Bai

Marisa is an RYT500 internationally certified Yoga Teacher by Yoga Alliance Ishta Yoga (Beyogajapan), teaching Ishta Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Restorative Yoga and Senior Yoga. She was raised in a multicultural background with French mother and Japanese father. Her interest in yoga came after studying psychology, sociology and modern dance at university. Marisa embraced the idea that no matter what country, background and culture you are from, we are all the same when it comes to yoga. After years of studying, she recognized yoga’s amazingly deep world and enjoys sharing the experience with other people. She is located in Texas, USA from 2012 and continue to teach yoga and practice Indian Abhyanga massage. She will be back to Tokyo few times a year to give yoga classes and massage.

Service Offering: Yoga, Thai Bodywork, Meditation

Sonya Nelson
Sonya believes that life is meant to be felt and enjoyed! It is her intention to walk through life with all of the energy and physical stamina needed to live joyfully; with a mind that is clear and peaceful so she may live in the present moment; and with a heart that is open thus allowing her to stay in deep connection with her Self and to make heart-felt contact with those around her.

Her personal journey has shown her that all lasting transformation begins from within. The energy healing she offers you emphasizes the need to befriend yourself and become your own best ally. Sonya helps you connect to your body so you can feel what’s happening internally both physically and emotionally. She teaches the tools necessary to begin within creating lasting change for vibrant living! She is trained in Brennan Healing Science from the four-year program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Miami, Florida.

Sonya is also a skilled and compassion yoga instructor teaching Forrest Yoga. She creates an environment of nurturance, acceptance, and fun! Classes are designed to be engaging, challenging to your appropriate level, and safe. Within a class you can expect to improve your breath power and flexibility while gaining strength. The objective is to bring your body to life so you leave class feeling relaxed, rejuvenated, and ever so
grateful to be alive!

www.SonyaNelson.com

Offering: Energy Healing, Yoga

Christin Staszesky Harper
Christin Staszesky Harper has been practicing yoga for over 20 years.  She has been teaching classes, workshops and privates for 10 years.  She has studied through the years with doug keller, christina sell, mitchel bleir, mary romeo keator, john friend, raye lynn rath and robert boustany.  these last few years she has enmeshed herself in the study of partner yoga and been in apprenticeship with Elysabeth Williamson, the founder and creator of Principle-Based Partner Yoga.  She is Elysabeth’s primary assistant and assists her in trainings across the country.  Christin brings her own unique flavor of teaching to students in a playful, uplifting, individualized and accessible way.  Christin’s eye for detail and innate understanding of the body provides her students with a therapeutically healing experience.

Offering: Yoga, Partner Yoga

Clemente Javier

Living & Breathing, Realizing & Healing, 30+yrs
(Yoga Instructor, Holistic Health Counselor)
I believe my life passion is embracing and/or creating expressions and beings of beauty. Actually I have been an artist of many forms believing always in the perspective of the sculptor Michelangelo who said “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free” I, Clemente Javier,  am not necessarily the creator of beauty but I see it everywhere and I know how to bring it into the light. For over ten years now I have been a hairstylist where this perspective proves true every day. Every single woman in my chair has the elements to express the essence of powerfully beautiful femininity. The color, texture and shape of hair that plays with light and shade is literally wearable art. What is most amazing to me in that realm of my life is how the truest beauty is revealed within the conversations with my clients. If you honor someone with the devotion of your attention they will reveal to you the depth of their beauty! After that the hair is just the crown on the queen.

Raising a family with my partner of ten years now has offered me the opportunity to both require and benefit from all that I have learned as a Yoga instructor and Holistic Health Counselor. Just the practical implications of a long term relationship with my partner and our children, dogs, careers, and extended families makes my Yoga practice essential to maintaining my peace of mind and our happy household. What I have learned is that a holistic approach to life works! The more I work people in Houston dealing with the same struggles, the more I see holistic health and nutrition is about integrating all parts of your life so that every aspect of your day is nourishing.

http://clementejavier.com/

Offering: Health Counseling, Yoga

Amanda Barrera

Already licensed in esthetics I decided to further my education and went to school for massage. It was there, at Texas School of Massage, that I discovered my passion and knew that massage was it. Since coming to that realization I have been oncology certified through MD.Anderson, trained in work on upper and lower extremities for medical massage. And am also recently certified to perform lymphatic drainage massage. I know first-hand how beneficial massage is and am very much eager to share this knowledge with world!