DONNA DAVIDGE
Keenly interested in health and exploration, Donna (Amrita) Davidge is a highly experienced 500 E-RYT yoga teacher. She received her Master in Nutrition in the late 70s, then acted and modeled (living in Europe from 1982-85) from the mid-80s into the early 90s.
In 1985 Donna discovered Kundalini Yoga in New York City, practicing and studying this form as a powerful tool for healing and personal growth.
Her yoga teacher Ravi Singh encouraged her to begin teaching within a year. Pursuing yoga avidly, she became certified by 3HO and Yoga Alliance.
She has been a full-time yoga and meditation teacher ever since and can be found in NYC during the winter months when she’s not at Sewall House. She has taught tens of thousands of hours in New York City in groups and privately, as well as in workshops in the Northeast, Canada, Italy, and Costa Rica.
Her first meditation teacher was Yogi Bhajan, who gave her the spiritual name Amrita (nectar) in the late 80s. She has studied Ashtanga with Eddie Stern since 1999, Dharma Mittra since 1999, and Iyengar with Genny Kapuler since 2004.
Donna’s learning and teaching continue to evolve. Having broken her back skydiving at age 22 and getting hit by a cab on her bicycle in NYC in the mid-90s, her exploration of yoga started as a self-reflection tool leading into an integration tool for body, mind, and spirit through her various teachers, students, and life experiences.
She views yoga as a way to grow from within and study the physical and emotional marks our life has made on us. Her teacher Yogi Bhajan said happiness is our birthright so she explores ways to serve her students in a manner that can aid them in finding health and happiness in their own lives.
She purchased the Sewall House in 1997 to keep the home in her family and to keep the legacy of her great grandfather’s life and love of nature alive.
Sewall House offered its first Yoga Teacher Training by request in 2009, with a small group of committed students.
Donna has appeared in print, on radio, and on television, including on Martha Stewart and Good Morning America. She has produced two yoga videos; The Challenge was chosen top ten by Yoga Journal in 2000. In 2004 Donna produced two Kundalini yoga DVDs, the Awakening and Flexibility and the Spine, available on ihanuman.com. Donna has also produced two audio classes in Kundalini Yoga, with a booklet for one, and most recently a Yoga Nidra.
Donna Davidge, the owner of Sewall House Yoga Retreat shared her Entrepreneurial Accomplishment
Donna’s Videos
Donna’s News
Transition with Ease
Engage in self-study
After menopause, I lost shoulder flexibility, then arm strength. I struggled to attain steadiness in Handstand. I used props and modifications to make the pose more accessible. But I also engaged in self-study (svadhyaya), which helped me process the feelings around my aging body’s limitations, and to develop a sense of gratitude for what it is still able to do. Making adjustments and coming to terms with the body is part of a mindfulness practice. Refining postures within your limitations is a meditation.”
Donna Davidge as quoted in Yoga Journal
Yoga teacher and owner/operator of Sewall House Yoga Retreat in Maine
Learn more about Donna and Sewall House in this in-depth interview with Yoga Love Magazine.
AJEET KHALSA
Ajeet Khalsa is a lifelong yoga teacher, dancer and vocal musician, healing artist, and spiritual health counselor who helps individuals physically, emotionally, and spiritually navigate personal issues, past trauma, family/relationships, and loss.
She is a registered Yoga Alliance Teacher-Trainer in Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, and Svaroopa© yoga, certified in the Acceptance & Integration (AAIT) method. Now as a meditation teacher in her 6th season at Sewall House her purpose: To hold space for those visiting our retreat to embody balance within themselves, discovering the freedom that comes when meditating in nature and touching the essence of their true Self.
Ajeet’s Life and Work
A continuous learner in the Wise Woman tradition, Ajeet has spent more than 40 years studying therapeutic processes focused on holistic healing, including therapy-guided Shiatsu, the Alexander Technique, Authentic Movement, Compassionate Listening, Modern Dance, Acceptance & Integration, Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, Kirtan, Sacred Music, Herbal medicine, Natural Building, Svaroopa© yoga, and most recently, Open Mindfulness and Tibetan Buddhism.
In her restorative practices, artistry marries practical healing techniques. Using skills gathered from her diverse experience, Ajeet creatively guides you to navigate seemingly insurmountable issues with loving grace and simple themes that are easy to grasp and implement in your daily life when you return home.
Her private healing sessions are extremely personalized to your needs. When working with Ajeet, you are empowered to take sacred time away to truly see, accept, and gently integrate the gnarly, polarizing bits of the self that get in the way of true spiritual mastery and growth—achieving true, lasting deep healing.
In her own life, Ajeet also loves practicing simple plant herbalism, studying the natural world of medicinal plants, and mud-building to create a symbiotic relationship with the earth.
To achieve a more natural and communal state with others, she has lived in a variety of intentional, artistic communities where life is viewed as a playground of sustainable, vibrant freedom and adventure. Ajeet sees your true, creative spirit and in so doing, guides you as you set intentions for radical shifts and positive change!
Her creative healing sessions focus on that part of us who believes we are in a vicious power struggle each day to be better or have success. With this kind of conditioning at play, learning to live simply and easily is sometimes hard to grasp! Ajeet is a well-equipped yoga teacher that will act as your guide as you come back into balance and harmony with your Truest Self because she knows to heal intimately.
At age 16, Ajeet lost her mother to complications of manic-depressive disorder. This began Ajeet’s lifelong search for the truest expression of motherly love. She’s found it in yoga, process counseling, sacred music, and the creative community. She knew her life was meant for deep exploration, and over time, she has developed a kind and deep relationship with spirit and nature, and a sense of intimacy with the forests (known as re-wilding). In her healing practices, Ajeet now helps seekers and students find a joyful relationship with their natural Selves.
What to Expect When You Visit Ajeet at Sewall House
Ajeet enjoys collaborating with Sewall House each year to bring soulful recognition to the healing arts. As a meditation teacher and through her classes and private sessions, she helps bring each guest’s retreat experience to a deeper level.
Working with Ajeet in a private healing session—or even attending one of her yoga classes or having a conversation with her—can produce a profound positive impact on your personal and professional life, enduring long after you return home.
At Sewall House, Ajeet leads weekly Svaroopa© yoga classes during the regular retreat season, is a guest teacher in the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT200), and lends her vivid, creative light in many other ways.
Within the Sewall House YTT, she offers specialty workshops including:
- Finding Your Voice. A blissful chanting and mantra module exploring the dynamic benefits of practicing Naad Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and devotional and sacred music.
- Color Me Yoga. This engaging module both inspired and embodies the concepts found inside the Color Me Yoga children’s activity book. It elaborates on the benefits of children’s and creative play yoga in the classroom, in therapeutic settings, and at home.
Ajeet’s teaching style is supportive and deep, as she guides you into the slower yoga methods of pranayama (breath), yin-infused poses, and hands-on adjustments—helping you to reach into and release the core of your body’s deeply held tension in both muscles and mind. These slow-release methods allow guests, both advanced and beginner, to experience profound healing insights and lasting, relaxed calm. Besides yoga, Ajeet loves to double up on her healing contribution to Sewall House guests as a cook, serving up happy vegetarian meals and delicious lunches with an Italian, yogic flair! She also leads afternoon kayaking adventures for both beginner and advanced water lovers, along with hikes to pristine local mountain peaks.
Booking a Private Session
New in 2022 – Book Private VIRTUAL Sessions with Ajeet!
At Sewall House, Ajeet lovingly offers the following services that can be booked as private sessions for added value, personal attention, and more profound healing:
- Personalized Acceptance & Integrative Counseling. These serene and profound one-on-one healing sessions help you to go deeper inside your mental garage, allowing for a kind of energetically soothing “massage”. You will expand your access to inner polarities of good and bad, and starting simple, you’ll be able to dissolve both known and unknown issues that have been present for years. Acceptance-based integrative healing restores inner balance and helps you transcend problems and return to the primal, BLISS state. Understanding the inner meaning of personalized trauma, life problems, or work-related stress helps us to accept and then completely transcend it.
- Svaroopa© Yoga. Trauma and pain are stored and manifest in the body. In these private yoga sessions, Ajeet works with your specific body, to find its blissful place in the healing paradigm of light and expansiveness. This gentle (mostly floor- and chair-based) yoga practice is especially beneficial to those who experience unpleasant, daily sensations of burning pain, muscle fatigue, tightness, soreness, and tiredness. On the brain level, Svaroopa© is especially helpful for those who have experienced trauma and debilitating stress from overwork, personal and professional loss, or injury.
Ajeet’s custom one-on-one sessions provide an invaluable added benefit to your retreat experience at a reasonable additional cost.
Want to experience profound shifts in how you interact within your personal and professional life and try exciting, new tools to integrate these shifts once you return home from Sewell House?
Email Ajeet at for more information and to book your in-person sessions once you arrive at Sewall House.
Ready to get started now? Shoot Ajeet an email to book a virtual session anytime, anywhere!
GEORGE
George grew up in the north Maine woods and has always had a fascination with botany and herbs. He studies it profusely, obtaining his Maine guides license in 2016, a lifelong dream.
George is available to take guests up Mount Katahdin or any other hiking expeditions they are interested in. Please prearrange your expedition through Sewall House.
As you hike with George, he’ll share his vast knowledge of trees, plants, mushrooms, and more, while also taking good care of you.
PNINA ZMORA
Pnina Zmora has amassed a wealth of knowledge in many different healing modalities throughout her 25-year spiritual journey.
She started that journey in 1997, studying self-awareness and guided imagery with her meditation teacher Yafa Alfi in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2008 she became a Reiki Master and Spiritual Counselor under the teachings of Margaret Ann Case at the Open Center NY. Pnina continued her Reiki study with Pamela Miles and volunteered at the rape crisis center at St. Vincent Hospital for alternative holistic treatment. She was also ordained through the Sanctuary of the Beloved by Rev. Dan Chesbro.
In 2010 Pnina traveled to India, the first of many trips, where she started her path in Brigu Yoga with Shiv Shankar Tripathi. She would later continue her study and practice with Shani Kedar Sabag in Israel. In 2014 she completed Power by Opposites Yoga Therapy Level I, instructed by Michael R. Gilbert in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In 2015 Pnina found out that she had fractured two vertebrae in her back. Doctors told her that sooner or later she’d be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. This strengthened her resolve in her spiritual journey, and that same year she became a Certified Biorgonomy Practitioner under the teachings of Noga Gazit in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Pnina continued to expand her understanding and knowledge in vibrational healing modalities and was certified as a ThetaHealing Practitioner in the following courses: Basic DNA (Miriam Agnon – Kefar Saba, Israel), Advanced DNA, Dig Deeper, Manifestation & Abundance, Intuitive Anatomy, Soulmate, Game of Life (Dawn Maree – Big Fork, Montana).
In 2016 Pnina completed the following courses in Recall Healing with Gilbert Renand, Ph.D.: Recall Healing Level I, Recall Healing Level II, & Behind the Shadow of Depression, Addictions, and OCD, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
In 2017 she completed her Instructor Certification in Basic & Advanced DNA, Dig Deeper, Soulmate, and Manifestation & Abundance under the founder of ThetaHealing, Vianna Stibal (Big Fork, Montana).
Pnina’s joy and fulfillment comes from learning, so she won’t stop studying. Most recently, Pnina completed 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification with Anna Winkler & Donna Davidge at the Dharmakaya Center for Well-Being.
Pnina will be in Sewall Yoga Retreat in Maine from July 10th to August 15th as a yoga teacher to share her knowledge about Raja Yoga and also to cook healthy, delicious food. She will be offering private Reiki sessions as well as personalized one-day silence/mindful retreats at guests’ request.
