Your Life Curator
Hands-on and heaven sent
I'm Andrina, and I'm good at connecting quickly and communicating deeply - yet, I'm able to remain grounded in who I am. Especially when things get really emotional, which I love. I want the same for you, so we can lift you up to your highest version of yourself - sustainably.
These are the values I stand for. It’s important for me to share them with you so you have a better understanding of whether working with me will work for you.
If you want to move forward from where you are to where you dream to be, while I hold a safe space for you to grow in, we should talk.
In the end, it all comes down to love. When you work with me, you’ll see that my whole business is built on love. It’s important to me that you learn to love yourself, but I understand how difficult that can be. I myself have struggled, but through work and guidance, I learned to love and appreciate myself. I will support and guide you so that you can find this higher love inside yourself.
It’s important to me to lead by example and walk my talk. I believe in the power of the tools I share as I have firsthand experience of their benefits. I am constantly learning new things myself and I do my best to stay true to who I am. I bring my whole self to each and every one of my clients. Deep transformation is what I'm interested in, nothing less - but always in a down-to-earth, practical virgo approach.
Every day I’m learning. I wake up with an open mind and an open heart, curious to see what the day will bring me. Life is always evolving and changing. It’s important to me that I learn and grow from the people around me, expand my knowledge and horizons and take on new challenges on a regular basis. This is how I grow as a business and an individual. The same goes for my clients: when something gets unblocked in people, I’m in my happy place. I'm able to poke people because I can hold space when stuff comes up and out. It's such a joy for me when people evolve away from toxic patterns and transform their lives with my support and guidance!
Being mindful to me means being connected to my intuition, my surroundings and staying grounded. To honour and be aware of both my feelings and those of others, as well as of thoughts, actions and reactions, helps me stay in the moment. Being in the moment and holding a mindful and safe space with my clients is very important to me.
Being an entrepreneur gives me the freedom that I always craved. I get to live my life independently, travel when I want to and do the things that I love. I also feel freer knowing that I am an ever changing human BEING curating my life to be the best, happiest and healthiest version of myself. What I want my clients to achieve is a kind of true freedom, without hiding their emotions or restricting themselves any longer.
To me, success is being able to live a life in alignment with my values. Success goes far beyond work, the tangible and materialistic. To become the curator of my own life, to support others to do the same and become who and what they long for - that is success for me. Or you could define it as emotional freedom and luxury. That's why I teach people vulnerability to create that kind of abundance.
I feel very fortunate to do what I love and feel an immense joy in it. I love to have fun. It’s a very necessary part of life. Whether that’s in a quiet, tranquil way or in form of laughing and dancing. Do whatever makes you feel alive!
Health is a high priority of mine. Ever since I tossed that last cigarette, started practicing yoga and changed my eating habits, I noticed how different I started to feel. The problem I see is that wanting to be healthy can become obsessive and destructive. Enjoying nourishing my body, mind and soul in a non-dogmatic and soft way is the aim for me. I want to feel good in my body and good about myself.
My Story
How my calling found me
I was born and raised in Switzerland but my love for travelling has taken me to Australia, Japan, North America and all over Europe. In 2000, I moved to New York and what was supposed to be an 18-month experience turned into 14 years in North America. I travelled back and forth between Switzerland and NYC, completing my hotel management degree in Switzerland and working in the Big Apple.
During that time, my best friend dragged me to my first yoga class, and it was nothing less than a boiling hot New-York-style Bikram class. Little did I know that my life would never be the same again. Timing was perfect as shortly before that, I had extinguished my last cigarette. Yoga helped me overcome that addiction and I became much more aware of my body’s need for health and balance.
Moreover, my skin rashes, food allergies, and sensitive digestive system compelled me to extensively research the connection of food to my physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
In 2007, I moved further west to Vancouver, Canada. It was love at first sight and Vancouver became home.
I continued to practice yoga on and off. I began to realize that each time I was “off” yoga, after a few months, the pain in my lower back from my scoliosis would return. It was a great reminder to continue with a regular practice.
The physical and spiritual aspects of yoga intrigued me so much that in 2010 I decided to enrol in a teacher training program to learn more and dive deeper into the vast aspects of the practice, philosophy, and lifestyle. At that point, I didn’t even think of teaching, I just wanted to learn more.
While working in various capacities of customer service and corporate sales, my practice of a balanced diet and yoga fuelled my body, mind, and soul to withstand the challenges of high expectations, unpredictable schedules, and travel.
To deepen my knowledge and to follow this passion, I enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2011.
In the same year, my own company, under the name Wholelicious, was born.
2013 was a big year; I decided to leave the hotel industry and fully commit my time to coaching and teaching others how to live a healthy and happy lifestyle. However, my personal situation changed drastically that year which made me question my future.
A few months after I decided to make the big leap to the entrepreneurial life my husband and I decided to separate and get a divorce after being together for 12 years. We were both no longer able to be for each other what we each wished for in a partner and even though we, to this day, remain friends, it was heartbreaking.
Getting used to my new entrepreneurial and single existence, life had something else coming for me.
Another few months later, my brother came to visit me from Zurich and on the 2nd day after his arrival, we went for an incredible hike that ends on the top of The Chief (name of the mountain). While being up there, enjoying the incredible views down the inlets of the Vancouver Coast and taking pictures of us, I felt happy and free. We started our descent and about half way down the mountain, my brother was walking in front of me, he tripped, or that’s what it looked like. Bending over him within seconds, I realized it was not just a fall.
I was screaming for help, which, within minutes, in the most professional, yet for me, spiritual way, arrived. It soon became evident that it didn’t look good and later, we learned that in this instant, he had died of a heart attack…at the age of 36.
How ironic that on the drive up to where we started the hike we talked about how we have cardiovascular disease running in our family from both sides – my dad passed away from a heart attack also at an early age, at 53, my brother and me being teenagers, and my mother just had bi-pass surgery a year prior to my brother’s passing.
The reason I said earlier “professional and spiritual help” is due to the fact that an emergency doctor visiting Vancouver from San Diego, three nurses on their day off and two off-duty rescue workers all happened to be hands on helping within minutes. I later realized they were not there for him. He was taken care of already, they were there for me. To find peace and to know that everything was done that could have been done. They were there so that I didn’t have to live the rest of my life with a guilt that I did or didn’t do something, and that is a blessing and freedom I will always cherish, because guilt can break people.
The following week, I had the most beautiful experiences in that most terrible situation. People, friends, strangers, officials, you name it, made me believe in the kindness of human nature so deeply. It gave me strength, faith and besides the tears, smiles and laugher.
Soon I was back in Switzerland, where I spent the summer just being with my mom.
I probably don’t need to explain that I questioned everything about my future – what, where, how.
Returning to Vancouver, I had the best thing waiting for me. A “job” to dog sit. This was arranged before all of this happened and this little fur-ball named Toby was the best therapist I could have asked for. Funny that Kya, my dog now, four years later, looks very much like Toby (not planned… or maybe it was 😉 )
For the first time in my life, I was not able to work. Work had always been the place I felt at ease and in my element. Now I just couldn’t. I went to yoga, took walks at the beach, spent time with friends. I craved to feel my body, I needed to feel alive, so I did a lot of Yoga. Thank God for yoga and the community I had at the yoga studio there.
For a month, and for what almost ended up a year, I was torn between wanting to be in Vancouver and missing my family and life-long friends in Switzerland. I decided to spend 3 months in Switzerland to check it out – after all, it had been a few years since I lived there.
I organized a retreat and some workshops, got to know the yoga and wellness scene and noticed that there is still much more potential for growth compared to Vancouver.
So later that summer, August 2014, after life had given me quite a few hints, I decided to move back to Switzerland. With mixed feelings I left Vancouver, knowing at that point that I actually don’t need to decide. I can have two homes: Zurich AND Vancouver.
I gave myself time to settle into Zurich, and even though I had commitment issues 😉 with Zurich I noticed how everything just flowed.
Both on a personal and professional level, Zurich has been amazing and full of excitement and curiosity.
I was able to teach, work with clients, organize more retreats and workshops and thrived on being fully immersed in the Yoga and health boom that Zurich was in the middle of.
In 2015 and 2016, I was both hosting retreats in Switzerland and Canada and expanding them to Italy and Spain in 2017, 2018 and 2019. I was also able to teach at festivals in Switzerland and Austria and grow my coaching practice steadily.
Through my own journey, loss, divorce, moving and settling, corporate job vs entrepreneurial life, health ups and downs as well as all my studies, therapies and soul-family time, I feel grounded and rooted. At the same time, I know the only constant in life is change.
I am excited to see what the future has to offer.
My Qualifications
How I learned to help you
My expertise comes from a blend of different trainings, all therapeutical in nature. It's what I do with them that results in you moving forward - to where you want to be.
I am very hands-on with the tools at my disposal. And I employ them step by step, as you need them. I curate them not as a quick fix, but as a long-term, sustainable solution, grounded in routines, rituals and practices.
We individually merge different teachings and traditions - and together, we create an environment to encourage very deep, positive transformation for you.
I received my training as a Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition‘s Health Coach Training Program.
During my training, I studied over 100 dietary theories, practical lifestyle management techniques, and innovative coaching methods with some of the world’s top health and wellness experts.
My teachers have included Dr. Andrew Weil, Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; Dr. Deepak Chopra, leader in the field of mind-body medicine; Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center; Dr. Walter Willett, Chair of Nutrition at Harvard University; Geneen Roth, bestselling author and expert on emotional eating; and many other leading researchers and nutrition authorities.
My education has equipped me with extensive knowledge in holistic nutrition, health coaching, and preventive health.
Semperviva’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training Program is designed to make yoga accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and fitness levels. During the training, all styles of yoga are explored, including Hatha, Power, Kundalini, Yin, Ashtanga, Prenatal, and kids yoga.
In addition to the 200-hour certificate, I went on to complete the additional 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training certificate with Semperviva. This included the comprehensive Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training with Teresa Campbell which is heavily influenced by the Khalsa Way; Kundalini Training and Immersion with Gloria Latham; Yin Yoga with Bernie Clark and Meditation with Nathalie Keiler and Bernie Clark.
I have also studied with Gurmukh and Gurushabad and completed The Golden Bridge Kundalini Yoga Level 1 training which is based on the comprehensive science of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
Additionally, I completed 2 Modules of the Level 2 Kundalini Yoga Training with Gurmukh and Gurushabad – Mind & Meditation and Stress & Vitality.
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My Yoga Teacher Trainings included:
- How to teach yoga asana safely and effectively
- A variety of meditation techniques to focus and quiet the mind
- Different breathing techniques also called Pranayama
- Western & yogic anatomy and physiology as well as Humanology & Yogic Lifestyle.
Amongst others, I’ve also had the privilege of participating in workshops led by the following Master Teachers:
Elena Brower, Carolyn Cowan, Mark Whitwell, Max Strom, Seane Corn, Sadie Nardini, Janet Stone, Kia Miller, Maya Fiennes, Karta Singh, Guru Dev and more.
At The EFT Centre in London, I trained in EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) to help my clients move beyond the physical, mental and emotional blocks.
Amongst other things, EFT has proven to be very successful in helping and relieving effects of trauma, physical pain, phobias, weight & body issues, insomnia, stress and much more.
The training at The EFT Centre is AAMET Accredited and includes various techniques within EFT as well as questioning skills, psychological reversal and how to find core issues.
The EFT Centre believes that our thoughts, beliefs and feelings create the biochemistry of our body and shape our health and wellbeing. They value the evidence of modern quantum science which shows that the mind and body are inseparable.
The training focused on integral theory and practices to provide competent support to individuals, couples, families and companies to achieve more balance, success and fulfilment.
I learned to evaluate the situation and circumstances from a wide and all-encompassing angle to provide the advice, mentorship and optimal coaching geared to the uniqueness of each person.
The training emphasizes meta-perspectives, the interplay of many interactive methods, and the development of one's personality through self-awareness, knowledge and experience.
It encompassed the latest scientific findings including neurobiology as well as old, universal wisdom traditions like mindfulness and meditation.
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