2 Night Zen Den Disconnect to Reconnect Retreat

Ira Schneider Ohm, EYRT 500, founded Zen Den Yoga Studio in 2008, Zen Den Yoga School in 2009, and Zen Den Retreat Center in 2013. He has always been blessed with an awareness of something larger then himself. As a boy he embraced practicing Pranayama, meditation, and positive thinking. In his first yoga class Ira knew that this practice was like a coming home, three months later he went to Nicaragua and got his 200 hour yoga teacher training certification. Upon completion of his YTT 200 with School Yoga Institute, Ira immediately started to teach private and large group classes in Boca Raton, Florida. His strong entrepreneurial background made the creation of Zen Den Yoga Studio the next logical step. Within eleven months he returned to Guatemala for his 500 and 800 hour certifications in order to launch Zen Den Yoga School. He fell in love with the culture, the nature and the Mayan people. He decided in 2009, along with a few other inspired yogis, to build a sustainable yoga farm on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. The Yoga Farm is a retreat center and a yoga school. Ira still leads retreats to the magical energy vortex on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. Much of Ira's training has been deep in the world of shamanism. His skills of astral travel and ability to see into people make a significant difference in people's lives. His teachings bridge the gap between our illusion of maya and true consciousness. Ira loves sharing his deep knowledge and love of the Sivananda tradition of yoga, Ashtanga-inspired Vinyasa, restorative yoga, and shamanic breath-work with his students, retreat guests and the South Florida community.

Valerie Leeds is an ERYT500, and a dynamic wellness entrepreneur teaching people to access their best selves in mind, body and spirit for 28 years. Valerie is also Certified as a Bodywork & Energy Therapist and a Health Coach. She owns and facilitates Zen Den Yoga School & Wellness Retreat Center with her husband, Ira, in Boca Raton, Florida, where they guide people in disconnecting to reconnect. Valerie developed her unique ability to connect mentally and emotionally with people on a deeper spiritual level through her first certification in Bodywork & Energy Therapy at the The Academy, (originally located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, now in Stamford, New York and called the Harrison Center for Personal Development). The Academy of Natural Healing has been an alternative education center and school offering diverse natural healing programs run by Director, Lewis Harrison, an internationally respected visionary, author, speaker, trainer and coach. Here she found like minds and developed an understanding of how managing our mindsets can be life altering, and our bio-magnetic fields intersect with and impact our physical and mental bodies. She continued expanding her expertise in healing and transformation training through multiple disciplines: Access Consciousness and Energy Transformation coursework; Summit Education; The Gratitude Training; Masterful Living; and Compass Coaching. She was a student turned coach during this decade of work, which gave her many hours with clients one on one, both on the massage table and off, and later as President of Kevin Heaphy Fitness Studio. This boutique studio, in Soho, New York City, offered personal training, yoga, pilates, bodywork and energy therapy, personal development coaching, along with a juice bar and cafe in a gorgeous 5,000 square foot store front. Valerie cultivated a set of tools based on the premise that human potential is limited by our belief systems to bring a fresh look at how your mind and consciousness can be adapted on a moment to moment basis to live life in greater mastery, and she teaches how to deepen our connection to what she calls our “internal barometer.” During this time she also went through a number of years of sales training and psychology working with Equinox International and Advanced Marketing Seminars; Staten Island Boat Sales; and AOL Time Warner, and others, which gave Valerie a diverse foundation to teach, train and educate people how to shift their belief systems and behavior. She realized that there are many barriers people form to resist change and personal growth, one of them is being out of alignment in our physical health. She spent a year living in Colorado deepening her own practice while she got Certified as a Dr. Sears Health Coach in order to give people a system to follow a simple healthy lifestyle. Over the last two decades Valerie Leeds has created many programs that give people tools to step into their “next level,” whatever the category of life their desire may be: relationships, career, spiritual growth, physical fitness-- all of her creations will give people a vehicle to create greater ease, joy and greatness in their lives– Language of Energy, Energy of Language Course; Invigorate U: A.R.C. Angel Coaching Program; Extreme Concepts for Golf Mind Coaching; Be The Blossom Workshop; and My Voice Matters Worldwide Workshops for children. These days she can be found teaching at Zen Den Yoga School & Wellness Retreat, and being a loving wife to Ira and step-mom to their fifteen year old Hali. Testimonials and references available upon request.