Melissa Spamer, E-RYT, has been practicing yoga for fifteen years. She completed her first certification to teach yoga in 1997 in the Sivananda tradition, and has been consistently teaching yoga for ten years. Her teaching has been primary influenced by Angela Farmer, Victor Van Kooten, Rama Jyoti Vernon, Shiva Rea, Kali Ray and the students of Desikachar at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. In 2005, Melissa completed her 500 hour teaching certification with the International Yoga College, specializing in Yoga and Conflict Transformation. She is currently near completion of a second 500 hour yoga teaching certification with Samudra~Global School for Living Yoga. Melissa offers an innovative 200 hour teacher training of her own, based on all that she has integrated from the numerous practices she has learned over the years. Melissa finds the depth and diversity of the teachings of yoga and ayurveda to be a complete and artfully expressive path to holistic self-care and unified liberation. Her practice is continually evolving, always becoming more Alive in Spirit and Form. She feels incredibly blessed to be carrying the light of yoga beside so many radiant beings in this great ocean of Awakening.

Melissa has founded The World Yoga Fund to help increase the level of diversity within the global yoga community. Melissa donates a percentage of her yoga income to The World Yoga Fund.

Melissa is also a certified massage therapist and credits the majority of her knowledge of the energetic and physical body to her ten years of hands on healing around the globe. She has completed her professional certification from the Kalamazoo Center for the Healing Arts and has trained in a range of modalities including, myofascial release, reflexology, deep tissue therapy, and craniosacral therapy. Melissa completed a one year internship studying acupressure therapy and incorporates the energetic philosophy of East Asia in all of her treatments. She has traveled to Thailand several times and is certified in Thai Massage. She has a graduate certificate in Holistic Health Care from Western Michigan University, with an emphasis in Expressive Arts Therapy. She has co-facilitated groups and retreats incorporating a full range of therapeutic processes to help unveil the truth of the soul's yearning for engagement.

Melissa has lived and traveled in Asia, Africa and Europe. Currently she resides and teaches in Indonesia and the USA.

What others have said about Melissa's teaching...

"You are a teacher to me of many things - inspiration, yoga, loving my body - but most of all by how you live. Your willingness to go deeper, to sustain discipline, to live what you speak, all teach of the beauty and radiance one carries when they are doing what they love."

- Pamela Poley, Therapist/Group Leader

"I extend gratitude to you for creating a space in which I was able to travel deeply within as I explored the practice of yoga under your guidance. Your words are poetic and powerful. Your excitement and love for the practice is inspirational. I was able to hear your words all the way through my being and this allowed me to work honestly towards healing, growth, and strength. It has also encouraged me to live my own practice as it evolves and unfurls towards the light."

- Gina Greene, Momma and Yoga Instructor