Our

Team

“We’re here to make your yoga experience modern, athletic and therapeutic. We are an award-winning yoga studio focused on mindfulness and therapeutic movement. Strong focus on anatomy, mindfulness and awareness”.

Meet Cathy Gamba

Cathy is a mother of two teenage daughters and a student in Neuroscience and Psychology. She worked in marketing and communications for about 15 years in NZ, Japan, Switzerland and France before opening Pause Yoga in Days Bay in 2014. She describes herself as a total nerd, une “bonne-vivante” with a huge appetite for life, a deep sense of connection to the world and people around her and a true love for animals, food, music and movement. Cathy was plagued most of her adult life with several prolapsed discs in her spine which led her to have multiple surgeries on her back. She changed her life-style in 2010 and developed a real passion for studying anatomy, mental health and back health leading to the opening of Pause Yoga. She started yoga in 2004 and trained to become a yoga teacher in 2013. There are three main areas of focus in her teaching: breathing, anatomy and mindfulness. Her teaching style can be described as athletic, therapeutic, secular and modern. When she doesn’t teach, you will find Cathy enjoying “shirin-yoku” (forest bathing) in the surrounding bush tracks of Eastbourne and Days Bay with her puppy Coco. She loves traveling the world and loves getting out of her comfort zone, you will often see her “sauna-ing”, lifting weights at the gym or spending lots of time with her girls and hubby Brent.

Cathy is a E-RYT500 Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance and a Therapeutic Specialist© with Yoga Medicine.

Cathy’s classes have a focus on preventative physical therapy to help people of all ages and activity level build strength, mobility and flexibility to lower the risk of injuries and chronic issues long-term. Cathy is passionate about neuroscience, anatomy, mindfulness, breath work and helpful movement. In her classes, she loves mixing breath work with movement (vinyasa) to help instil a deep sense of calm, presence and connection to the present moment and to the self; the intent being to quiet down the “busy” default-mode network of the brain and downshift the nervous system. Cathy’s pranayama, mindfulness and anatomy teaching is always informed by latest research. Cathy’s inspiration for her teaching comes from Tiffany Cruikshank, the founder of Yoga Medicine. Cathy has been studying with Tiffany since 2013 and is regularly attending modules every year or so. For more information about the modules she has taken, please check the search teacher section of the Yoga Medicine website.

Cathy is currently studying at Victoria University in Wellington working towards completing a Post-Graduate Diploma in Science, with a specialty in Neuroscience. Her Honour’s research thesis discussed mindfulness and emotion regulation. She hopes to embark in a PhD later on, her areas of interest are “interoceptive awareness”, “prospection” and “emotion regulation”.

She has deep roots in the practice of mindfulness and is acutely aware of the strong connection between physical mental health. Cathy has been practicing formal and informal mindfulness meditation since 2012 and attended various courses and retreats. She completed in 2023 a two-year course offered by the University of Berkeley and the Greater Good Science Centre to qualify as a Certified Mindfulness Teacher. The course was led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.

Meet Claudio

“I found through the practice of attention, conscious movement and breath, sound and vibrations the path to inner silence and peace.”

Claudio Escutia has been a yoga teacher and active musician for over 10 years. He began his spiritual journey in Mexico with the practice of Tai Chi. After finishing his classical guitar studies at the School of Fine Arts he decided to move to Montreal Canada to study jazz music, where he experienced for the first time the power of the sacred Yogic practices, becoming aware of his breathing, body, mind and soul. When he settled in Canada, he expanded his knowledge by practicing Hatha and Kundalini Yoga, with great masters, he learned to play Kirtan (sacred chants circles) with local musicians and started playing live music for yoga classes.

After 2 years of practice, he heads to the mountains of Quebec and begins his training as a resident yoga and meditation teacher at the Yoga Sivananda Vedanta Ashram, with the renowned professor Praladh, a direct student of Swami Vishnudevananda, one of the first teachers of India in introduce yoga in the West. Claudio receives his certification of 300 hours of Yoga by Yoga Alliance recognized throughout the world. After finishing his training and after living 6 months of intense Sadhana (spiritual practice) he began to teach Hatha Yoga in several studies in Montreal.

In 2012 he moved to Europe, where he studied Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in Jivamukti Berlin and Yin Yoga taking workshops and retreats.

In 2013 he traveled to Nepal to take a 300hrs course of Sound Healing with Tibetan Bowls ,Gongs, Bells and Mantras taking certification and courses at the Kundalini Sound and Herbal Healing School in Kathmandu with the renowned teacher and healer Chaitanyashree. After Nepal, he travels to India to study classical music of India on Sitar, Esraj and Bansuri and voice technique in Calcutta and Varanasi.

He returned home to live in Riviera Maya Mexico to teach for 3 years and practice with several teachers getting experience on teaching to big groups of students and teaching workshops on Nada Yoga, Mantra Yoga and playing Sound Healing concerts.

During his classes, he uses ancient and traditional techniques to harmonize physical, mental and emotional levels with the sound of Tibetan bowls, Mantras, Mudras and other Yoga techniques that take you on a journey to the heart, inner peace and silence.

Meet Claudio

“I found through the practice of attention, conscious movement and breath, sound and vibrations the path to inner silence and peace.”

Claudio Escutia has been a yoga teacher and active musician for over 10 years. He began his spiritual journey in Mexico with the practice of Tai Chi. After finishing his classical guitar studies at the School of Fine Arts he decided to move to Montreal Canada to study jazz music, where he experienced for the first time the power of the sacred Yogic practices, becoming aware of his breathing, body, mind and soul. When he settled in Canada, he expanded his knowledge by practicing Hatha and Kundalini Yoga, with great masters, he learned to play Kirtan (sacred chants circles) with local musicians and started playing live music for yoga classes.

After 2 years of practice, he heads to the mountains of Quebec and begins his training as a resident yoga and meditation teacher at the Yoga Sivananda Vedanta Ashram, with the renowned professor Praladh, a direct student of Swami Vishnudevananda, one of the first teachers of India in introduce yoga in the West. Claudio receives his certification of 300 hours of Yoga by Yoga Alliance recognized throughout the world. After finishing his training and after living 6 months of intense Sadhana (spiritual practice) he began to teach Hatha Yoga in several studies in Montreal.

In 2012 he moved to Europe, where he studied Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in Jivamukti Berlin and Yin Yoga taking workshops and retreats.

In 2013 he traveled to Nepal to take a 300hrs course of Sound Healing with Tibetan Bowls ,Gongs, Bells and Mantras taking certification and courses at the Kundalini Sound and Herbal Healing School in Kathmandu with the renowned teacher and healer Chaitanyashree. After Nepal, he travels to India to study classical music of India on Sitar, Esraj and Bansuri and voice technique in Calcutta and Varanasi.

He returned home to live in Riviera Maya Mexico to teach for 3 years and practice with several teachers getting experience on teaching to big groups of students and teaching workshops on Nada Yoga, Mantra Yoga and playing Sound Healing concerts.

During his classes, he uses ancient and traditional techniques to harmonize physical, mental and emotional levels with the sound of Tibetan bowls, Mantras, Mudras and other Yoga techniques that take you on a journey to the heart, inner peace and silence.

Meet Beena

“Yoga asks the questions”- my teacher once told me. The deep internal inquiry yoga offers is a limitless gift.

I have practiced yoga for 20 years, discovering its benefits when I was pregnant with my eldest child. I am a Medical doctor, a forensic examiner, a yoga teacher and mother of 2 young adult children- I am also inhabiting a body that is getting older and changing. Each of my roles is distinct but also informs and enriches the other parts of who I am.

The practise of medicine is my day job- and one I am deeply connected to. My philosophy of practise could be described as Mind Body medicine, which embraces all the benefits of western medical practice plus the view of the the mind and body are part of a unitary whole -so we always need to be treating the whole person and not just the symptoms they present with. This aligns per-fectly with the practise of Yoga where the mindful, meditative movements serve to ultimately move us towards inner and outer well-being. Not withstanding all the physiological benefits which the An-cients have known but science is now proving.

I subscribe to no specific school of Yoga but have benefited from practising Ashtanga, Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Satyananda Yoga over the years And have attended trainings in these and many other styles of yoga.

Underpinning my teaching is that the final “form” of the asana matters less than the “how and why” we practise Yoga. I will always encourage people to be guided by how they “feel“ rather than how the asana looks, with good anatomical, physiological and bio-mechanical principles in-forming the movements.

I have no doubt that this beautiful practise is one that can do wonders to improve the health and wellbeing of ourselves and the wider community – and if I could it is one I would prescribe to every-one!

Meet Nicole

I started my yoga journey in 2000. I completed my Hot Yoga training in 2003 at the Yoga College of India in Los Angeles CA. Since then have been I have been teaching, travelling, completing workshops.

I am always amazed at the health benefits yoga has to offer, watching students grow in their practice and evolve in healthy lifestyle changes is my passion. Having finished Maori Ironman in 2019, I stayed injury free and focused during my training. So excited to be a part of Pause Yoga, I can’t wait to share my love for yoga with this amazing Pause Yoga community Cathy has created.

Meet Nicole

I started my yoga journey in 2000. I completed my Hot Yoga training in 2003 at the Yoga College of India in Los Angeles CA. Since then have been I have been teaching, travelling, completing workshops.

I am always amazed at the health benefits yoga has to offer, watching students grow in their practice and evolve in healthy lifestyle changes is my passion. Having finished Maori Ironman in 2019, I stayed injury free and focused during my training. So excited to be a part of Pause Yoga, I can’t wait to share my love for yoga with this amazing Pause Yoga community Cathy has created.