The path of yoga started for Merel in her teens, when she read the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda and later the Bhagavad Gita. Around the age of 20 she let herself be initiated in Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Yogananda and started meditating. A few years later, when she finished university with a burn-out and a chronic hip-injury, she discovered the healing benefits of Yin Yoga. In years following she studied the art of teaching Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga and Conscious Connected Breathing.

She also discovered Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a paradigm in which we learn to bring compassionate and open awareness to our thoughts, feelings, needs and allow life-energy to flow naturally and freely. She studied NVC intensively for many years and this body-based compassion practice forms a foundation for her yoga-classes.

Additionally, Merel works with the therapeutic effects of psilocybine truffles, having experienced the profound benefits of these fungi herself for more than 15 years. She guides in deep-dive plant-medicine ceremonies and offers yoga classes with microdosing and ceremonial cacao.

All of what Merel brings is about offering a safe and sacred space where we can reconnect and remember our true and natural self, and allow life to flourish.