.png)
Changing the World One Chakra at a Time
Meet Our Core Faculty
Anodea Judith
PhD
Anodea Judith, Ph.D., is the director of Sacred Centers Academy, a teaching organization for yoga, psychology, and transformational wisdom. She holds a doctoral degree in Psychology and Human Health, is a 500-hour registered yoga teacher (E-RYT 500), and has engaged in lifelong studies in psychology, yoga, mythology, sociology, history, women’s studies, evolution, and comparative religion. She is considered the foremost Western writer on the chakra system and a ground-breaking pioneer in its application to the modern age. She has several best-selling books, including the classics Wheels of Life and Eastern Body-Western Mind and the award-winning The Global Heart Awakens. She teaches worldwide and is considered the go-to authority on the chakra system.
Nini Gridley
MSEd, BFRP
Nini Gridley is a founding faculty member of Sacred Centers and has been teaching some of our Introductory Teleclasses. Nini began studying the chakra system with Anodea in 1993. She took all the workshops, assisted all the workshops, and was instrumental in developing the certification path. Professionally trained as a Spiritual Healer and Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner, she initiated her private practice, Full Spectrum Healing™, in 1995, offering private healing sessions, meditations, and Bach Flower Essences to children and adults. Previously a Child Life Specialist, Nini worked with children in Pediatrics in Medical Centers for nearly ten years. She has a Master’s Degree in Education from Bank Street College of Education (NY, NY) and a B.A. in Child Development and Education from Connecticut College (New London, CT), which inform her understanding of chakras and illuminate the healing process.
In 2004, Nini completed six years of training to become a Professional Level Kripalu Yoga Teacher (500 hrs.) at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA. She taught Yoga classes to adults and children there for years and continued to teach workshops on the chakras and meditation for Retreat & Renewal until 2015. Nini is currently teaching at Yoga Mandali in Saratoga Springs, NY, where she leads the popular “Full Spectrum Healing Series” for nine weeks about the liberating current of the chakras. Her dynamic workshops weave ancient teachings on the chakras with her expertise in child development to illuminate the midlife healing process and bring Universal light and unconditional love to the process of self-discovery.
Anita Geugien
Anita Geugien is a Spiritual Teacher, Chakra Specialist, Energetic Therapist, Masseuse, Priestess, Tarot and Oracle Card Reader, and Professional Educator. She is the founder of Lichtfontein Studies and Lichtfontein Center for the Art of Living, located in the Netherlands, Europe. Translated to English, “Lichtfontein” means Fountain of Light. At her center, she offers, in addition to professional education, a wide range of workshops, courses, and events such as weekend workshops, festival celebrations, concerts, and fairs. Additionally, she organizes spiritual journeys and yoga holidays. It is also possible to stay in one of the guestrooms at the center.
Anita studied under Anodea Judith of Sacred Centers in California. In 2007, Anodea certified Anita as the first European Chakra Therapist and Chakra Yoga Teacher graduate. Anita teaches most of the Sacred Centers Courses in the Netherlands. For over 30 years, she has worked as a Yoga and Meditation teacher and practitioner, specializing in Energetic Chakra Therapy, Aura Reading and chakra Healing, Chakra massage, Soul Coaching® and past-life Coaching, crystal healing, Tarot and Oracle Card reading, and Intuitive Feng Shui consulting.
Anita is a limitless lover of life. She is dedicated to honoring our sacred earth and helping people live their best lives. She is dedicated to bringing joy and beauty into this world and loves helping people find their true, authentic selves.
Melinda Madhuri Matzell
E-RYT 200, YACEP
Melinda Madhuri Matzell, Chakra-Energetics Creator, is certified in Sivananda Yoga, Chakra Yoga, EnergyMedicine Yoga, Mudra Yoga, and Mudra Therapy and is a Clear Your Beliefs Practitioner. Known for her open-hearted and inventive teaching style, Melinda has been leading classes, workshops, and retreats for almost 20 years.
Inspired by the profound transformation and healing of her chakra work, Melinda innovates unique chakra programs. These Chakra-Energetics experiences, which blend yoga asanas, energy medicine, and yoga mudras, go beyond the physical body to invoke the spirit and guide the journey toward Self-realization. Melinda has the capacity to infuse the teaching space with the love and magic she feels for the practice and remains committed to her intention to help others awaken their capacity and live their best life.
Grateful for the wisdom and guidance of her Guru, Swami Sivananda, and wonderful teachers and mentors, Melinda continues to expand her awareness through practice, study, and self-inquiry.
It is her honor, and greatest joy, to witness the awakening of the authentic Self in those she teaches.
Melinda offers a variety of workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings as well as open, private and semi-private sessions.
Maria J Garcia
Founder of Portals Of Grace, Maria is a visionary thinker, transformational guide,
master life/professional coach, workshop leader, speaker, author, and is fully dedicated to a life of joyful service.
“My passion for service to humanity is rooted in a powerful knowing that
service to each other is a universal calling, a fundamental human need,
and that ignorance of this leaves a gaping hole in our hearts.”
Her personal journey started in her twenties in NYC with training in healthy eating, yoga, meditation, bioenergetics, New Thought, Science of Mind, Divine Science, the Esoteric tradition, women’s wisdom traditions, and more.
For five years she lived at “Kripalu at Sumneytown,” where she served as executive director. At this point, a heightened spiritual experience illumined an awareness that our personal and collective awakening required reconnecting with the divine feminine. As a result, she delved into a deep exploration of spirituality as a woman, and was graced by the love, power, and wisdom of the Divine Mother.
An important part of her life mission has been to awaken women, to their unique and essential role in activating the power of love and truth, in these times of global fear and illusion.
Her introduction to the chakra system came through Anodea’s books which “revealed the missing piece in the puzzle” in her spiritual journey. After training with Anodea she dedicated herself to awakening the timeless wisdom of the chakras in all beings.
To that end she Founded Sacred Centers East, in creative partnership Sacred Centers Academy. It was here that she designed a chakra-based life/professional coaching program, as a life-changing process, that she has practiced for over 20 years. She also offered the first level curriculum for the SC Certification Program, workshops, and yoga classes.
During that time, she expanded her training, including undergoing many sacred light activations that enabled her to work multidimensionally. This led to co-leading workshops where she accessed these energies to assist groups in deep healing and reclaiming their power and authentic voice.
She also cofounded and led “The Way Of The Butterfly” – Sacred Passage From
Girlhood To Young Womanhood, a 12 month chakra-based program for girls.
Maria is committed to helping others hear their heart song and realign with their truth and passion as their contribution to humanity and this sweet earth.
Selene Kumin Vega
PhD
Selene Kumin Vega, Ph.D. is a licensed psychotherapist (CA MFC #32604), workshop leader, and professor in Saybrook University's Mind-Body Medicine graduate program. Her work with movement and experiential modalities evolved over 50 years of facilitating self-exploration, connection, and transformation. She has published chapters on psychospiritual approaches to anxiety and movement practices in psychotherapy, and journal articles on ritual and creative consciousness. She was editor of the Spiritual Emergence Network Newsletter and co-authored The Sevenfold Journey with Anodea Judith (Crossing Press, 1993), now in six languages.
Selene has introduced movement and mind-body techniques to universities, hospitals, high schools, performing arts centers, and psychospiritual growth centers throughout the U.S.A. and internationally. She has been an adjunct faculty at Bastyr University and JFK University, an associate core faculty at Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology), and currently supervises psychotherapists through ShineALight Counseling Center in Santa Cruz and Center for Somatic Psychotherapy in San Francisco as well as independently. She is a past president of the Santa Cruz Chapter of CAMFT (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists), is a board member of the Center for Mindful Body Awareness, and is on the advisory board of Akhila Health. She hosts occasional workshops at her strawbale, off-the-grid home and studio, Skyote Mountain, on 73 acres of redwood, madrone, and fir forest in the Santa Cruz mountains, where she lives with her husband and two cats.
At Saybrook University, Selene teaches courses, mentors students, and works with dissertation students in the Mind-Body Medicine graduate program in the College of Integrative Medicine & Health Sciences (CIMHS).
Gwen Rebbeck
E-RYT 500, YACEP
Gwen Rebbeck is a dedicated yoga instructor who advocates wellness and has a deep passion for holistic healing and personal transformation. As a Sacred Centers Teacher, Gwen integrates the wisdom of the chakra system into her teaching, providing a comprehensive approach to mind-body wellness. This foundation led to the creation of Yoga4Sobriety™, a unique program that aligns the Twelve Steps of Recovery with the chakra system, offering a powerful pathway for individuals seeking sobriety.
In addition to her foundational training, Gwen has completed specialized certifications, including the 100 Hour Yoga of Recovery® for Counselors, S.O.A.R.™ Success Over Addiction and Relapse, and the Prison Yoga Project. These programs have equipped Gwen with the skills to support individuals facing addiction and those within the criminal justice system. Further training in Yoga for Trauma and Teaching in the Criminal Justice System underscores her commitment to creating safe, transformative spaces for all students. Additionally, Gwen is certified in Divine Sleep™ Yoga Nidra, offering a profoundly restorative practice that enhances overall well-being. With a holistic approach that integrates mind, body, and spirit, Gwen empowers individuals on their journey to health and healing, fostering resilience, peace, and self-awareness in every class.
