About Us
Tamika Schilbe Cole, MSW, RSW, E-RYT-1000
Carolyn Burke, MSW, RSW, E-RYT-1000
Carolyn is an experienced yoga teacher trainer, therapist, and past life regression specialist. Carolyn artfully guides students in the Yoga for Anxiety, Meditation in the Modern Age, and HeartRise® Children’s Yoga programs. Carolyn studied at the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica where she was a Director in their 500-hr program for 5 years. Carolyn was a long-time Faculty at the Toronto Yoga Show & Conference. She has designed and led numerous wellness and therapeutic groups for people of all ages, including a mindfulness and meditation program for adults in recovery from addiction. Carolyn is the creator of Mystic Moms, an online program that helps moms tap into their natural energetic powers. Known for her spontaneity, warmth, and deep wells of compassion, she creatively weaves mind-body practices into everything she does.
Candice Lapointe, RYT-500
Program Coordinator and Host of The Love Who You Are Podcast
Our Mission Statement
At DevaTree we are deeply committed to supporting people to be who they are and honor their unique path. With an unwavering dedication to wellness of mind, body, and spirit, we are committed to a standard of excellence that ensures our services are safe, effective, compassionate, and life-enhancing. Our mission is to support people to uncover their deepest joy, truest path, and greatest potential.
What Does DevaTree Mean?
Derived from the root ‘div’ meaning to become bright, Deva [dave-ah] is a Sanskrit word that means radiant light. DevaTree symbolizes the healthy balance between light, hope, expansion, and growth, contrasted by the solid and steady foundation of our roots that ground us in the here and now.
Our Faculty
Bija (Kerri) Repta, RYT, teaches Down Dogs & Doshas: An Integrated Approach to Ayurveda and Yoga, our Faculty-Mentored Self-Study program. Bija is a Certified Yoga Instructor, International Retreat Facilitator, Spa Therapist, and Spa Educator and trainer. Her yoga classes are fresh and alive with meaning, mindfulness, and deeply creative movement. Bija’s yoga guides her way of being in the world as she teaches, coaches, mentors, and co-creates with Spa Therapists and Instructors throughout Canada and the US. Bija has co-facilitated yoga retreats in Ontario, Costa Rica, and Mexico where she helps students find freedom and personal meaning in their practice. Bija considers herself a life-long student of Ayurveda, and her formal studies have taken place at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Massachusetts. Ayurveda’s richness and depth has called to Bija for many years, and she enjoys interlacing its wisdom into her yoga classes & retreats, as well as her daily life and routines. One of her life’s passions is sharing Ayurvedic concepts with others and witnessing the lightbulb moments they apply to their own personal lifestyles and relationships.
Brenda McMorrow, RYT, teaches Kirtan Academy: Bhakti HeartFire, our Faculty-Mentored Self-Study program. Brenda McMorrow is known for her unique and warmly embracing style of mantra medicine music, in which she blends elements of acoustic folk, world rhythms, and ancient Indian chants with a sweetly introspective singer-songwriter’s sensibility. With Sanskrit Mantra and Kirtan (call and response singing) as the basis, Brenda weaves in the power of Spanish Medicine songs and her own inspiring English lyrics to create a healing and uplifting tapestry with the audience. Brenda has performed alongside or shared festival stages with esteemed mantra singers: Snatam Kaur, Deva Premal, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Mirabai Ceiba, and many more. With 5 celebrated albums and over 16 million streams on Spotify alone, her music has been touching people’s hearts across the planet. Yoga Journal describes Brenda as having “a knack for expressing the deepest realizations in the sparsest lyrics”. Spiritual teacher Ram Dass has said: “Brenda has a gift”, and her intention is to help bring more beauty, peace, understanding, and well-being into the world through the joy and healing power of music.”
Catherine Tansley, RYT 500+, teaches in our HeartRise Children’s Yoga Teacher Training. A yoga instructor since 2008, Catherine has assisted and taught in a variety of foundational and advanced teacher training programs with DevaTree. Catherine is also a kindergarten teacher in outdoor education where she incorporates yoga into her work. She brings joy, enthusiasm, and curiosity to children and adults alike.
Cindy deJong, RYT-1000, teaches our Restorative Yoga Teacher Training, a Faculty-Mentored Self-Study program. Cindy is core faculty at DevaTree and has taught in multiple foundational and professional level teacher training. Cindy has also studied energy healing and the body/mind/spirit connection since 1999. She is a Reiki/Master Teacher trainer who has studied and apprenticed in shamanism and oracle card work. Cindy brings an inspiring, grounded, and loving energy to her teachings. Famous for her infectious laugh, she offers students a compassionate and down-to-earth experience through her private classes and workshops.
Kristi Corlett, B.A., M.A., B.Ed., RYT-1000, teaches Whispered Wisdom: Walking Between the Worlds of Yoga and Shamanism, our Faculty-Mentored Self-Study program. She is a certified Yoga Instructor, Shamanic Practitioner, Author, and Reiki Practitioner. Her formal studies in history and eastern mysticism have led her on a journey that forever spirals back to yoga. Kristi has a passion for yogic philosophy and the delicious stories of the gods and goddesses who make up the Hindu Pantheon. Truly gifted in the art of storytelling, Kristi takes the complexity of these glorious beings of light and brings a fascinating clarity to their role in our lives today. Inspired by the interconnected dance of yoga and shamanism in her own heart and soul, she brings forth a whispered wisdom that simply must be shared. Visit her online home at Silver Bough in Canada.
Lotus Why, RYT 500+, is a guest teacher in our Yoga for Anxiety course. She has directed, taught, and assisted in numerous DevaTree courses. A student of yoga since 1999, her expertise in anatomy, therapeutics, pranayama, meditation, and the mysteries of the brain assist her in supporting a diverse and changing population. Lotus’ classes are gentle, thoughtful, and brimming with experience and wisdom.
Wendy Brown, RYT 1000, teaches in our HeartRise Children’s Yoga Teacher Training. Wendy has extensive experience teaching children’s yoga and has assisted the HeartRise program since 2013. Wendy delights all with her honesty, contagious laugh, playful spirit, and love of music. When Wendy’s not teaching, assisting, or supporting people in recovery, she is “Grammie” to 4 incredible little souls.