Certified Teachers
a team with 20+ years of experience, who are certified and friendly professionals
Joana Cadete
Certified Hatha Yoga Teacher, Certified Yoga Alliance Professionals – Senior Teacher
Joana Cadete is passionate about yoga, surfing, and nature, which is why she moved to Ericeira in 2009 and founded the Ericeira Yoga Studio, creating a space where Yoga is experienced not just as a practice, but as a path to health, well-being, and self-knowledge.
She has been surfing for 35 years, practicing Yoga for over 30, and teaching for more than 25. She is a certified teacher by the Centro Português de Yoga, after three years of instructor training, and recognized by the Yoga Alliance Professionals as a Senior Teacher. Since 2000, she has dedicated herself daily to teaching, namely Haṭha, Vinyāsa, Aṣṭāṅga, and Vedānta, under the guidance of her teachers, Tomás Zorzo and Glória Arieira.
Her journey in Yoga began in 1995 with the practice of Haṭha, under the guidance of Carlos Rui. In 2000, she began her journey in Aṣṭāṅga with Tomás Zorzo and Camino Diez. From 2003 to 2008, she annually attended, for extended periods, KPJAYI in Mysore, India, to study with Sri K. Patabhi Jois and Sharath, and since then she continues to travel annually to India to deepen her Vedānta knowledge and practice yoga.
Since 2019, together with her friend Rita Cachaço, she has been conducting a Yoga Teacher Training course, for those who wish to deepen their practice and knowledge, or to transmit it to others. In 2020, she launched an online course, “The Path of Yoga”.
Her classes, always based on fluidity and the principle of Vinyāsa, the synchronization of movement with breath, have the particularity of inspiring students to self-observation, self-knowledge, and to recognize their deepest dimension of fullness. For Joana, teaching yoga is, above all, sharing a way of life, a path that she also continues to walk with dedication, humility, and the certainty that she will never stop being a student.
Yoga Teacher: Vinyasa, Vedānta, deepening hatha yoga
Rodrigo Santos Pereira
An experienced and friendly teacher, teaching in a relaxed way
Yoga Teacher of: Vinyasa
Born in Lisbon in 1973, Rodrigo lives and teaches in Ericeira all year. Practicing Yoga since 2004, teaching since 2008, and with a talkative and extroverted character, he is an experienced and friendly teacher, teaching in a relaxed but safe way. In his Vinyasa classes his main concern, besides the constant synchronization of movement and breath to achieve a meditative state of mind, is to help his students find balance – between right and left side of the body, inhalation and exhalation, movement and stillness, effort and comfort.
Complementing is formation in 2008 – a 3 years Teacher Training at Centro Português de Yoga with Yoga Master Carlos Rui Ferreira – Rodrigo participated in several courses and workshops in Portugal and India: Iyengar Yoga Course with Sharat Arora (2 weeks | Dharamkot, India, August 2008); Shank Prakshalana Retreat with Carlos Rui Ferreira (Mafra, Portugal, February 2009); Therapeutic Yoga Workshop with Inês Neves (Parede, Portugal, November 2009); several budist meditation retreats with Tulku Pema Wangyal Rinpoche (Alcochete, Portugal, 2010-2012); Yoga Self-Practice Course with Pedro Kupfer (Azores, Portugal, February 2014); Yoga in Pregnacy Workshop with Daniela Gfeller (Lisbon, Portugal, 2014); and Yoga Vasistha Sára – Vedanta & Yoga 6 Days Course with Pedro Kupker (Ericeira, Portugal, 2017).
More recently, along with his Yoga classes, he dedicated himself to the study of Ayurveda, the traditional indian medicine and sister science of Yoga, having completed the master in Ayurvedic Therapy and Consulting in June 2025 (Centro de Ayurveda de Lisboa, with David Ferreira).
Catarina Mota
Certified Aerial and Vinyasa Flow Yoga teacher and Therapist of Ayurvedic Massage
Catarina Mota is a Mother, Certified Yoga Teacher and Therapist of Ayurvedic Massage, and in love with traveling.
In 2001, she graduated in Ayurvedic Massage at ALBA, Lisbon. Later she took the first level of Sound Massage with tibetan bowls by the method Peter Hess. In 2008 she learned Kundalini Massage in India. In 2012 she decided to take a Teacher Training of 200h in Tantra Yoga with Tri Dosha Method, India. Later she went to Croatia and did a course of 20h Vinyasa Flow with Nina Vukas. In 2017 she finished her Teacher Training in Aerial Yoga method, created by Rui Oliveira Costa.
On the present she is fully dedicated to teach Aerial Yoga and Vinyasa Flow at Ericeira Yoga Studio all year long.
Her Aerial yoga and Vinyasa flow classes are dynamic, sometimes stronger, sometimes more restorative, but always connected with the breath. The Aerial Yoga classes are organic, and flow between challenge and a gentle way to go deeper in each asana.
Catarina teaches her classes with peace, happiness and trust.
Yoga Teacher of: Vinyasa Flow & Aerial Yoga
Ana Cravina
certified Yoga Alliance teacher, and Aerial Yoga teacher
Ana Cravina haas been and practicing Yoga for over 17 years and is passionate about the sea and travelling.
In 2014 she took a Teacher Training course, certified by Yoga Alliance, with Paulo Hayes, and later a meditation course in Kerala, India. In 2017 she finished the Teacher Training course in Aerial Yoga at Jaya Aerial Lab with Professor Rui Oliveira Costa. She is a Certified Teacher of Yoga and Aerial Yoga.
Yoga Teacher of: Aerial Yoga & Vinyasa
Carlotta deMaria
Certified yoga teacher specialising in Yin Yoga, Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga
Carlotta is originally from Italy and in 2015 she left Berlin to move to Ericeira, where life follows the rhythm of nature, combining all the elements for a healthy life for her family. Here she met her teacher, Joana Cadete. Passionate about yoga for many years, it was in 2013, after a profound experience at the Sivananda Ashram in southern India, that her desire to deepen her knowledge of yoga philosophy intensified, leading her to complete her first training course (YTT 200h) with Joana Cadete and Rita Cachaço. Since then she has continued to study, specialising in Yin Yoga (RYT 50h), Functional Yoga Anatomy (RYT 50h), Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga (RYT 85h+30h).
Inspired by her personal practice, Carlotta believes that yoga is a powerful path to self-connection, helping each individual to find their own balance. In her classes, she focuses on integrating breath and movement, promoting awareness, strength and relaxation.
Her Vinyasa classes focus is on active meditation, where each movement is synchronised with the breath, strengthening and challenging the body and calming the mind. Yin classes focus on releasing tension and unblocking energy through deep stretching and holding the postures where the mind reaches a state of peace, creating a space to connect with oneself. Prenatal Yoga classes provide a safe and welcoming environment for mums-to-be, promoting relaxation, connection and tranquillity during this special phase of life.
Yoga Teacher of: Prenatal Yoga and Mother & Baby
Carla Alcobia
certified Yoga Alliance teacher
Carla has been practicing Hatha Yoga for several years, and what started as a relaxing moment dedicated to herself quickly became a deep journey of inner rediscovery and reconnection. Yoga became, above all else, a state of being. Feeling the need to deepen her knowledge on this tradition, she completed a Yoga Alliance certified Teacher Training (200h) with Joana Cadete and Rita Cachaço. She has been collaborating ever since in Ericeira Yoga Studio, teaching Vinyasa, Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra.
For Carla, teaching Yoga represents a moment of profound sharing and an opportunity to contemplate the teaching. She feels it’s a privilege to observe her students as they make their personal and intime journey towards within. The energy she puts on her classes is focused on turning the practice into a meditative moment that allows everyone, at their own pace, to reconnect with their inner space of equanimity and well-being.
Yoga Teacher of: RESTORATIVE / YIN & Vinyasa
Gabriela Raposo
certified Yoga Alliance teacher & MBSR – Mindfulness course
Gabriela Raposo discovers yoga in 2000 with Carlos Rui and Clara Rolim in Lisbon. In 2004 she made a trip to India which brought her clarity about how yoga reflects, above all, a way of being in life.
From 2011 she attends Yoga and Vedanta classes with Joana Cadete in Ericeira. In the meantime she completes teacher training in Yoga (YTT 200h) with Joana Cadete and Rita Cachaço, Yin yoga training (RYT 50hr), and MBSR – Mindfulness course – Budadharma, Lisbon.
With her classes and personal practice, she tries to find moments of self-observation and self-knowledge through the reconciliation between movement and conscious breathing, whose experience, when carried into daily life, helps us to glimpse the unique beings that we already are.
Joana Martins
certified Yoga Alliance teacher
Joana lives with the sea as her backdrop, having chosen Ericeira to live in several years ago. In the last three years Yoga has taken on a greater importance in her life and she has dedicated herself to the practice with greater depth, which led her to the Yoga training course (RYT 200hr) with Joana Cadete and Rita Cachaço. If initially the purpose was to learn more about this ancient knowledge, she soon began to feel the need to share with others the benefits and discoveries that Yoga had already brought her.
Following the premise that yoga works on its own and that it is not the individual that has to adapt to the practice, but rather the practice that adjusts to the individual, she intends to transmit the basic tools so that each person, at their own pace, can make their own path. She brings with her a background of studies in Philosophy and, more recently, certification as a Neuro-linguistic Programming practitioner as well as certification as a Health Coach, which she believes are valuable resources in this journey through the world of yoga as a holistic practice and promoter of integral health.
Yoga Teacher of: Vinyasa + Yin, RESTORATIVE / YIN & Yoga Seniors
Bárbara Moura
certified Yoga Alliance teacher & Shiatsu therapist
Bárbara has been practicing Hatha Yoga for over 20 years and it quickly became a need to connect with herself, a way of being in life. After becoming a mother, she felt the need to support other women at this important time and trained in yoga for babies, children and
families at the Babyoga Portugal School. She became even more eager to practice and share this tradition and so completed the Yoga Alliance certified yoga instructor course with Paulo Hayes. She has also completed various training courses with teachers such as Pedro Kupfer or Tomás Zorzo and, more recently, a course in Yin Yoga, Myofascial Release and Somatic Movement. She is also a Shiatsu therapist and macrobiotic consultant.
She is currently studying Yoga and Vedanta with Joana Cadete and attending the third and final year of The Syntropy of Yoga: 3 years advanced studies program in Iyengar Yoga with Billy Konrad and Tobias Lotan.
She is a certified Yoga Alliance teacher (RYT 500H) and brings to her classes the search for homeostasis and equanimity, through the connection with our body-mind and everything that surrounds us.
Yoga Teacher of: RESTORATIVE / YIN
Nuno Vintém
Certified Ashtanga Yoga Mysore teacher
Nuno Vintem is a yoga practitioner since 1998, has been teaching Ashtanga Yoga Mysore style for more than 20 years and is a dedicated student of the late Sharath Jois since his first trip to Mysore, India in 2007.
Since then, he has spent many months studying in India and was one of the first assistents of Sharath in 2011.
He has helped build and support Mysore programs around the world namely in Australia, Indonesia (Bali), Malaysia, Brazil, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Yoga Teacher of: Ashtanga Mysore
Nuno Rodrigues
certified Yoga Alliance teacher & Ayurvedic Therapist
Nuno Rodrigues started yoga and surfing in 2010, the year he moved to the West Coast and discovered these two new passions.
He practiced Ashtanga for several years under the guidance of Joana Cadete and participated in several retreats and training given by renowned teachers such as Tomás Zorzo, Pedro Kupfer, Isa Guitana and Joana herself.
In the year that Covid-19 stopped the world, he took the opportunity to obtain the Yoga Alliance certification to teach, through training given by Joana Cadete and Rita Cachaço. And as Yoga began to ask for a change from the stressful life of 15 years in marketing, in 2022 Nuno ventured on a trip around the world, solo, for 9 months, where he did not miss a 2-month visit to mother India.
He continues his journey on the path of Yoga, balancing teaching with continuous learning. He is currently an Ayurvedic Therapist and is deepening his training as a specialist in Ayurvedic Phytotherapy and Naturopathy.
Yoga Teacher of: Vinyasa + Yin,
