Offerings Beyond The Fragrance of JOY
Programs, teachings, and invitations offered independently by our teachers & guests
In addition to their work within Fragrance of JOY, our teachers offer independent programs, mentorship, and teachings through their own platforms. The offerings below are shared for informational purposes. Registration, pricing, and participation are managed directly by each teacher.
Lydia Hwang
Lydia has been practicing vibrational healing using color and sound since 2004 through private sessions, group sound baths, retreats and workshops. She studied with sound masters Fabien Maman and Wolfgang Dienert. In her private practice she channels divine energies using gong chimes tuned to specific frequencies, monochords with healing overtones and tuning forks for releasing, balancing and harmonizing. Color essences and color silks are also used as part of the vibrational healing. After years of practicing Aura_soma, she created Color Soul Reading. In keeping with her passion for nature's healing, she is also an herbalist deeply attuned to the vibrations of plants, specializing in flower essences. As a passionate dog lover, she uses her gifts to help dogs with anxieties, pain and suffering as well as offering death transitions as a dog doula.
Gabi Barysch-Crosbie
Gabi is a Nia and Yoga Instructor, Reiki Practitioner in The Let Animals Lead® method and a Mindful Meditation Teacher.
Bringing mindfulness to every step, stretch, and silence, weaving presence into movement and stillness alike, Gabi’s classes are an invitation - to listen, to feel, to express and to remember the joy that lives in simply being. She loves to teach, whether it is Yoga on Zoom, Nia on the Oak Park stage, or side-by-side with a private client. One practice informs the other and she enjoys them all.
Gabi believes every body has a rhythm, and every moment is a chance to begin again - with kindness, curiosity, and a little room to wobble and find balance.
Clia Tierny
Clia is a yoga and meditation teacher, Ayurvedic health counselor, and life coach devoted to the art of attunement. Drawing from her lived experience as a mother, partner, and lifelong educator, she guides others from the noise of modern life toward a state of deep nourishment and balance.
By weaving together Ayurvedic wisdom, transformational coaching, and yogic practices, Clia supports individuals in cultivating clarity, connection, and embodied presence. Her work is a gentle invitation to listen more closely to inner wisdom and live with authenticity, compassion, and care.
Nilgün Aksoy
Nilgün Aksoy is a Turkish singer and teacher of traditional Anatolian vocal music. Born and raised in Istanbul, she later studied Turkish Music at Codarts Rotterdam Conservatory and completed years of private study with ethnomusicologist and bağlama master Talip Özkan.
She currently co-leads the School of Anatolian Music in Hamburg with her husband, where she teaches and preserves the living traditions of Anatolian sound and song.
The power of sound and the voice is experienced as one sits with Nilgün. Her presence, humility, and depth of musical lineage embody our respect for sound as a healing force. This shared commitment has led us to Nilgün, and we look forward to upcoming opportunities to include her in our sangha and on retreat.
Lorna Vander Ploeg
Lorna is a contemplative guide, meditation teacher, and facilitator whose work weaves together Eastern and Western mystical traditions, somatic awareness, and subtle energetic intelligence. Drawing from decades of lived practice and study—including yogic and Buddhist meditation and intuitive inquiry—she invites embodied presence where insight is not only understood, but lived.
Her approach centers heart-based wisdom alongside nervous-system coherence, supporting a grounded and deeply aligned relationship with life. Lorna gently accompanies individuals as they reconnect with the fullness of their own divine nature through awareness, compassion, and embodied inquiry.
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