More about our staff

Anthony Finno

Born May 24th, 1979, Anthony Finno a native New Yorker, recalls his childhood upbringing as cultured, educational, and adventurous.  In 1997, he moved south and pursued a degree in International Economics at the University of Florida.  In 2002, a strong interest in third world markets led him to develop a revolutionary model for the second-hand clothing industry in West Africa.  His theory on the social implications of the industry, experiments using locally produced African textiles to repair used western clothing, and new methods for distribution provided an experience that enriched his perspective in the general area of innovation and possibility.  In early 2005 Anthony returned to New York permanently and enrolled with a prominent real estate investment bank where he learned the world of high-stakes deal making in Manhattan.  5 years later Anthony turned his attention to writing in order to develop a greater understanding of himself.  He discovered ideas on how individuals relate to themselves and therefore how we relate to the outside world.  In early 2010 Anthony launched Crooked Hearts Have Character, a collection of his writings and online forum that he intends will hold a space for people to ask themselves tough questions. His insightful approach to common misunderstandings provided guidence for many and greatly influenced a new direction in his life.  In late 2010 he established City Life Wellness. According to Anthony, CLW was manifested in the spirit of ambitious honesty and seeks to hold a space for self discovery through exercise and creative expression.  In 2011 Anthony joined Artist Ashram to further develop artistic programs at CLW.  Artist Ashram is an artistic haven that nurtures innovation by creating an inner space where creativity flows and participants explore their true artistic self.  That same year Anthony combined forces with Unitiribe Productions, a New York City based group focused on assisting to mobilize the global conscious movement.  In late 2011 he and his Unitribe partners established Unitribe Events which focuses on high-vibration events for those who seek holistic, and intentional social experiences.  Today Anthony continues to write, organize community, advise leaders, and develop a personal practice for collective empowerment.

Adam Ahuja

Hosts various events and Sound Conversation at CLW.  Born in Allentown, PA, is a keyboardist / multi-instrumentalist (guitar/vocals/drums) who writes, records, performs and teaches music that incorporates jazz, rock, funk, electronic, and hip-hop.

AJ Block

Hosts various events at City Life Wellness.  AJ is a mindful didgeridoo player whose sounds have been described as "transcendental". Originally from Los Angeles, CA, AJ's unique approach to meditative didge playing takes listeners on a deep spiritual journey. AJ started his musical career as a jazz and orchestral trombonist, studying with such notable teachers as Wycliffe Gordon, Bill Booth, Kevin Bradley, Greg Miller, Jon Nathan, John Doheny and Ken Lasaine. When he started playing the didgeridoo and exploring the power of sound in 2008, a new world of possibilities opened up for him. Soon after moving to New York, AJ began playing regularly in the class of renowned Anusara Yoga teacher Elena Brower and has since expanded largely throughout the New York yoga community. In addition to meditative gatherings and yoga classes, AJ can be found playing in collaboration with a variety of musicians, healers and alternative medicine practitioners. In early 2010, AJ traveled and recorded music in India, much of which can be heard on his myspace page: myspace.com/ajblock7. AJ currently lives in New York where he aims to elevate human consciousness through vibration. For more information about AJ's work, visit his website, www.didgeproject.com.

Alokananda Unitribe

Practices healing and hosts various events and workshops at CLW.  Alokananda is a Visionary, Healer, Yoga/Qi Gong Instructor, Musician and Community Organizer based out of NYC. Deeply inspired by the mystic paths to empowerment, he is a dedicated practicioner of Yoga, Qi Gong, Bio-Energetics, Shamanism, and Reiki. Alokananda studies closely with select group of Healers, Teachers, and Indigenous Elders, from specific lineages in the above mentioned modalities. After extensive studying and travels in India, Central America, Ashrams and Retreat centers in Upstate NY, he returned to NYC to share his knowledge and build a conscious network for community empowerment. Aloka has been teaching workshops, retreats, lectures, leading ceremonies, Kirtan and seeing clients in NYC for the last 3 years.

BIG Love

Love is just a word until action enters. Love is a choice to be conscious of the light in you and we. Together we can experience the love that illuminates the beauty in everything that exists. Let's surrender to the possibility in our potential to push through ego and exist in harmony. Whether regarding ourselves, our children, our spouse, our friends and strangers: if we do more in love then we receive more in love. Love is an art that requires practice.

CC Treadway

CC leads various workshops at CLW. CC has been practicing with energy for 15 year; teaching workshops on healing, sound healing, channeling, psychic development, aromatherapy and spiritual growth. Her work stretches globally through lightwork activtaions, channelings, writings, telecourses, and healings. She is known for her compassionate presence, sense of humor, love of nature and access to the spirit realms.  CC is a graduate of the four-year energy healing and personal transformation program, the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. She believes in the delicate infolding of the soul's desire in relation to the development of consicousness.

Her love of nature and indigenous cultures has inspired her to travel the world working with teachers of all traditions.  Returning back to nature has been the single most healing component of her journey.

CC is an accomplished television and film editor and staff writer for spiritual teacher Drunvalo Melchizedek's ezine, The Spirit of Maat.  Her creative passions include singing, dancing, painting and silliness.

Erin Kurnik

Leads meditation classes at City Life Wellness.  Erin is a certified Clinical Hypnotherpist, meditation instructor, and Reiki Level 2 practitioner. Her studies of conscious living at The Oneness Center have deeply transformed her meditation practice and what she has to offer as a facilitator of healing. Experience in conscious dance and core energetics also shape her perspective, especially as tools for encouraging body-emotion awareness as a key element of the healing process.

Central to her perspective, is the exploration of living life from the heart and present moment awareness. She brings a warm and grounded feeling to her gatherings and private sessions which provide easier access for participants to slip into the still and playful space of healing and awakening their unique soul gifts.

To learn more about Erin please visit www.tranceawakenings.com

Jamie Huggins

Practices Reiki at City Life Wellness.  His intention is to live life to the max; with spontaneity, love, passion while pursuing self discovery at every moment. As he works closely with energies and the love that people share he wishes to bring his soul into center with the drive and enthusiasm that he feels for life. He enjoys incorporating his acting experiences, his musical influences and diversity into a work place where all are so different but at the same time swing from the same branch of a very beautiful tree.

Jesse Johnson

Teaches contact Contact Improvisation at City Life Wellness.  Contact improvisation is a dance form based on following, maintaining and developing a point of contact between dancers. The dance can be acrobatic, healing, subtle, virtuoustic and everywhere in between. Dancers listen to and follow their own sensations and impulses, gravity, the point of contact, and their partner(s). They share and take weight with their partners and find infinite pathways to the floor, across space, and into the air.  In Jesse's contact improvisation classes, participants explore contact as both a physical and spiritual practice, cultivating presence and listening, and studying the foundations of rolling, taking weight, falling and flying, and delighting in the playful mystery of the dance.

Jesse Johnson has been practicing contact improvisation (CI) for 13 years, and her teaching is directly influenced and inspired by her work with Nancy Stark Smith, Kirstie Simson, Chris Aiken and Hana van der Kolk.  Jesse teaches and practices CI in NYC where she facilitates a monthly practice of the Underscore, a CI structure developed by Nancy Stark Smith.  Jesse recently organized a global practice of the Underscore which had over 35 participating sites in 14 countries all over the world simultaneously practicing the Underscore.

Jesse is a public high school math teacher in NYC and teaches meditation to her students and colleagues throughout the city. Her contact classes are deeply informed by her spiritual practice of bhakti and meditation and the exploration of the soul through the body.

Prepare for diving into sensation, pushing your boundaries and enjoying your own body's glorious sensations. Class is appropriate for all levels, and all are welcome.

Juliette Salas

Juliette teaches Agama Yoga at City Life Wellness.  Juliette is an RYS & Yoga Alliance 500 hour certified Hatha yoga Instructor.  Juliette first began practicing yoga at the age of 16.  Prior to practicing yoga, Juliette studied ballet from the age of 3 and gymnastics from the age of 9.  After attending many yoga classes in N.Y.C., she travelled to India and encountered what is to her the most authentic and comprehensive form of yoga.  The following year she became a yoga instructor with Agama Yoga led by Swami Vivekananda.  In the middle of a three month long teacher training she surrendered to the spiritual path.

Juliette is a moondancer with the Meschika tradition.  She aims to integrate her native teachings of the red road with the yogic path.   In addition to teaching yoga, she teaches English both at Newschool University as well as the United Nations.

"What is most profound is how yoga reveals, unites and harmonizes the true essence of  our being-and that at its core is both the manifestation and emptiness of divine consciousness. " Juliette

Maryia Matveyeva

Maryia teaches Intro to Kripalu Yoga at City Life Wellness.  Maryia has been studying, practicing and teaching yoga since 2005. She has established a strong foundation as a yogi through deep understanding of Hatha and Integral Yoga, Iyengar and Sivananda, Ashtanga and Bikram, learning Kripalu Yoga from Jai Raj Williams & Megha Buttenheim, Jivamukti Yoga from Derek Quigley, Sharon Gannon & David Life. She graduated from the Kripalu School of Yoga in 2007. Since that time she has been teaching at different studios throughout New York City as well maintaining her private practice of personal instruction to her numerous clients. Originally from the Republic of Belarus, Maryia speaks 3 languages fluently, she is also a professional dancer, Reiki practitioner and Astrology counselor.

Learning to listen to one’s heart and let it shine is a beautiful lifelong journey. And yoga is a valuable tool for one traveling this way... As it brings balance, balance of the healthy Body, clear Mind and free Soul.

And like with other styles of yoga, students notice the effects of practice from the first time they step onto their mats…

Melody Kiersz

Teaches Shake it Off! Active Meditation at City Life Wellness.  As a Self-Love and Intimacy Coach, Melody Kiersz blends holistic health counseling, practical healing work, and ancient traditions into modern life with an intention to turn your self-consciousness into a Self-consciousness that allows for a life full of discovery, curiosity, playfulness, adventure, freedom, and a real and true connection to yourself and others. She is an expert at creating a safe and intimate environment where participants feel free to be themselves, share their stories, and ask their burning questions.


Making love to life, and a life to love: 
http://www.nakedwellness.com/

Srikalogy

Beyond this body.. there's so much to say.. Within this Body.. I'm from BK.

Ximena Rojas

Ximena teaches Vinyasa Yoga at City Life Wellness.  Ximena was born in Argentina and moved to the US in 2001; and to New York City in 2006. She has worked in the corporate world for more than 10 years. On her search for a way to relieve stress, she turned to yoga, which also led her to re-connect with her inner self, breath and body; which made her fall in love with yoga. It didn't take long before she decided to study about healthy eating and how food can act as a healer at Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a way to broaden that inner connection. Continuing on her path of feeling better with exercise and healthy eating, she decided to do a yoga teachers training at Sankalpah, where she found passion, love and kindness from her teachers and classmates; and she is very grateful for that. Ximena is passionate about integrating nutrition and yoga in helping others use exercise and food as a way to heal themselves and have a more fulfilling life.