Our Team
Welcome to the Shambhala Family
Shambhala is an independent, family-owned yoga school, created and guided by two people who believe yoga should never become an industry.
We have intentionally chosen to keep our team small and our teachers close. We don’t bring in a constantly changing stream of instructors. Our teachers are part of the Shambhala Family, and many have been with us year after year.
We believe that when we take care of our teachers, they can take better care of our students. It also means that when you return to Shambhala, you see familiar faces — teachers who know you, remember your journey and continue to be part of it.
For us, a yoga teacher training is not simply a course to complete. It is a human experience, built on trust, connection and genuine relationships.
Meet the people who make Shambhala what it is.
Maya Lindvall
Lead Teacher — 50h, 200h & 300h Yoga Teacher Trainings
(E-RYT 500)
Originally from Sweden, Maya was introduced to yoga and Qigong by her mother from an early age. In 2019, she returned to yoga and quickly felt a deep sense of connection with the practice. She completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Shambhala, beginning a journey that would become an important part of her life.
Since then, Maya has taught a wide range of students and practices, including Vinyasa, Yin Yoga, Ashtanga and chair yoga. Her teaching experience also includes working with seniors with dementia and teenagers with disabilities, experiences that have shaped her understanding of how differently yoga can be experienced by each person.
Maya completed a trauma-informed yoga training in 2022, deepening her interest in creating respectful, supportive and inclusive spaces where students can feel comfortable exploring their practice.
Her journey at Shambhala continued in 2023, first as a volunteer assistant and later as a co-teacher on our 200-hour and 300-hour Yoga Teacher Trainings. She completed her 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training in Ashtanga and Yin Yoga that same year, becoming an E-RYT 500.
Today, Maya brings together the strength and discipline of Ashtanga, the quieter depth of Yin Yoga and her trauma-informed approach to teaching. She is known for her grounded presence, genuine care and ability to make students feel seen and supported while encouraging them to discover their own confidence and voice as teachers.
Maya is an important part of the Shambhala Family and continues to teach and support our students year after year.
Sylvi Kühn
Lead Teacher — 50h, 200h & 300h Yoga Teacher Trainings
(E-RYT 500)
Sylvi first stepped onto a yoga mat in 2019 and quickly discovered that yoga was going to become a big part of her life. What started as curiosity soon turned into a deep passion, taking her all the way to India, where she completed her first 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
Her journey showed her that yoga is so much more than the physical practice. It is diverse, full of different paths and, above all, a way of connecting — with yourself and with others. This sense of connection and balance is something she loves bringing into her teaching.
In 2024, Sylvi found her place at Shambhala, first joining us as a Karma Yogi. She continued learning with us, completing her 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training before becoming part of our teaching team.
Sylvi’s classes are playful, energetic and full of life. She loves bringing something different to the mat, encouraging students to explore, experiment and try things they may not have expected from a yoga class. Her teaching can be strong and dynamic, gentle and grounding, but there is always room for curiosity, movement and a good laugh.
Alongside yoga, Sylvi works in social care, where her natural empathy and love for working with people are just as much a part of her.
For Sylvi, yoga is all about balance — between effort and release, challenge and play, and taking the practice seriously without taking yourself too seriously.
Tiana Prince
Lead Teacher 50 Hours Bhakti Yoga/Kirtan TTC &
Somatic Movement & Meditative Arts TTC
(E-RYT500)
Tiana is a lifelong lover of creative movement, mythology, magic, and devotional expression. She draws from her background in yoga, dance, theatre, and education to offer unique, heart-centered classes that weave together somatics and storytelling, movement and music, philosophy and poetry.
Since 2018, Tiana has been teaching yoga internationally, facilitating teacher trainings and retreats in India, Peru, Europe, and her hometown in Canada. She specializes in Bhakti, Vinyasa, and Yin Yoga, infused with bardic inspiration and creative embodiment.
Tiana completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Yandara Yoga Institute in Mexico, where she fell in love with kirtan. A deep calling to explore the path of devotion led Tiana to complete her 300-hour Bhakti Yoga Teacher Training with Audrey Sarquilla, and to spend time living, studying, and volunteering at Bhakti Yoga ashrams around the world.
Before discovering yoga, Tiana was a competitive dancer and dance teacher, experiences that shaped her asana practice and continue to inspire her study of somatics and embodiment, including training in SacredDance and Shake the Dust.
A certified arts and language educator (Bachelor of Education: Artist in Community Education from Queen’s University), Tiana is very passionate about teaching and learning. In her classes and courses, expect dynamic, immersive explorations that are both playful and profound.
Tiana is deeply grateful and very excited to sing, dance, practice, and create magic with you at Shambhala!
Adam Duke
Lead Teacher 50 Hours Somatic Movement & Meditative Arts TTC
(E-RYT500)
Adam is a friendly yogic character, ever-evolving his teachings and learning from a space of playful spiritual seeking. As a yoga teacher and artist, with countless visual art pieces and murals displayed around the world, he brings his unique creative expression into all of his classes.
After experiencing an intense spiritual awakening on a farm in Mexico, Adam traveled to India to complete both his 200 hr and 300 hr YTTs in traditional Hatha Yoga at a riverside-ashram in South India called AyurYoga Eco-Ashram. In a beautiful and adventurous evolution of events, Adam now spends his winters in India as the lead E-RYT 500 asana, pranayama and kriya teacher at AyurYoga. Adam has taught YTTs, retreats, classes, and workshops around the world. He specializes in Hatha, meditation, artistic expression, kids yoga and inversions.
Before finding yoga, Adam was an amateur skateboarder, music producer and DJ (with releases through Universal Music) in Canada. He is a registered recreational gymnastics coach with over 10 years of experience teaching kids of all ages.
Adam approaches his classes with playful discipline and a smile on his face. He blends asana, somatics, devotional yoga (Bhakti), stories, and is constantly learning from students’ feedback and shares, to teach from a place of trauma-informed accessibility, balanced with a good dose of fun.
You can catch Adam singing to cows, eating lots of watermelon, painting bright contemporary pieces, skateboarding, and spending time in nature. He is honored and humbled to teach at Shambhala and is beyond excited to learn and grow with you all!
Andrea Santos Richardson
Co-Founder & Lead Teacher 50, 200 & 300 Hours TTC's
(E-RYT500)
Andrea is the co-founder and course director of Shambhala Yoga School — a dream she carried for many years before bringing it to life together with Ronny. Today, she is one of the people behind the heart, vision and day-to-day life of the school.
Originally from Tenerife, Andrea has always felt a deep connection to the island and loves sharing its landscapes, culture and way of life with students who come to Shambhala from around the world.
Her own yoga journey began in 2008 after a transformative experience in Thailand, leading her to study Thai Massage and complete her first Hatha Yoga Teacher Training. Since then, she has continued to explore and study different approaches to yoga and holistic wellbeing, including Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Restorative, Somatic and Trauma-Informed Yoga, as well as Prenatal and Ashtanga Yoga, Ayurveda, sound healing and Bhakti Yoga.
Over the years, Andrea has developed and led Yoga Teacher Trainings in different parts of the world. At Shambhala, she is the course director behind the 50-hour, 200-hour and 300-hour programs, bringing together her experience, knowledge and love of teaching into each training.
She particularly loves the Asana Lab and teaching methodology — helping students understand not only how to practise a posture, but how to observe, adapt, explain and teach it to another person. For Andrea, this is an important part of becoming a thoughtful and inclusive yoga teacher: learning to see the person in front of you and understanding that the same approach will not necessarily work for everyone.
Her learning has continued to evolve through specialised trainings, including Bhakti Yoga & Kirtan in 2025 and Somatic Yoga in 2026.
Alongside her work at Shambhala, Andrea is also a mother to two neurodivergent children. This has given her a deeply personal understanding of how differently people can experience communication, learning, sensory environments and the world around them. It has also taught her how much difference a small adjustment, a little more time, a different way of explaining something or simply being aware of what someone needs can make.
This perspective naturally influences the way she teaches and the learning environment she creates at Shambhala. She believes that students do not need to learn in exactly the same way to learn together — and that good teaching begins with being curious about the person in front of you.
For Andrea, teaching yoga is ultimately about much more than becoming a yoga teacher. It is about giving students the knowledge, confidence and space to discover their own way of practising, teaching and living yoga.
Ronny Starke
Co-Founder & School's Keeper
Originally from eastern Germany, Ronny has called Tenerife home since 2004 and has fully embraced the Canarian way of life.
In 2020, a dream he had been carrying since 2006 finally became reality when he and Andrea founded Shambhala Yoga School. Since then, Ronny has been an essential part of everything that happens behind the scenes — helping to make Shambhala the welcoming, comfortable and cared-for place it is today.
With a background in engineering, Ronny brings a practical mind, precision and dedication to everything he does. He takes care of the many details that keep the school running, from repairs and maintenance to refilling the magic frigde, taking care of the garden and orchard.
You might find him baking fresh German bread in the morning, tending to the garden, picking fruit, fixing something that needs attention or making sure there is always enough in the kitchen for our students.
But perhaps what makes Ronny most special is the way he lives yoga without needing to teach it.
For him, yoga is found in everyday life — in being kind to others, taking care of the people around him, enjoying simple moments and being fully present with what he is doing. You might even find him meditating while gardening, turning something as simple as caring for a plant into a moment of awareness and connection.
Outside Shambhala, Ronny loves hiking, mountain biking, swimming, windsurfing, gardening and reading.
Shambhala is not simply a yoga school for Ronny. It is a home he helped create — and he puts a little bit of himself into making sure everyone who arrives here feels comfortable, welcome and cared for.