An ecosystem of deeply transformational containers that serve to support
and amplify the evolution of the soul, the heart, the body, and the mind through masterful
facilitation, true sisterhood, ceremony, intuitive guidance, and love.
We're stronger together.
Why The Dojo
through Zahara's eyes
The Origins
Growing up, Zahara was an elite martial artist training for the Olympics in Taekwondo. Simultaneously, she was diagnosed with scoliosis and wore a back brace 20 hours a day with the aim to stop the spine from progressing. The only time she could take the brace off was to shower and go to The Dojo.
The Dojo was literally the place Zahara would go to GET FREE. On a somatic level, she would move daily from LIMITATION inside the brace to LIBERATION inside The Dojo. This reference point of The Dojo being the place of freedom, the place of liberation, the place of passion; is the foundation upon which this field was born and the seed that would bloom into The Liberation Dojo.
The Dojo Field is also very much supported and inspired by the intelligence of our master plant teachers and the spirit of the Jaguar.
In a plant medicine journey back in 2017, Zahara was presented with the spirit of the Jaguar. She experienced full incorporation with its energy and soon after was invited to sit in the Columbian Amazon with the indigenous Kofan Tribe, also known as “The People of the Jaguar.” It was in the Columbian Amazon, amongst the elders of the Kofan tribe, that Zahara received the seed vision for the first Liberation Dojo which would become the foundation for and ultimately unfold into the entire ecosystem of Dojo Transformational containers, programs, and events that exist today.
THE SISTERHOOD
The Dojo field magnetizes women who stand for self, purpose, others, and planet. Year after year, the depth of this field and the devotional work done together have proven to yield true sisterhood that totally transcends any container.
Every year, the women who enter this work choose to stay—stay connected to the Dojo, to one another, and to the trust that this ever-evolving ecosystem has a place for and greatly benefits from their fully activated and unique zones of genius.
As we grow, we are welcoming in the brothers too. A multitude of co-ed spaces and experiences that intentionally welcome the masculine, including The Dojo Artist Event, The Liberation Dojo, and Dojo Retreats.
We truly stand for the collective heart. The collective genius. The collective wisdom. Knowing that with our powers combined, we always have everything we need to serve whatever is needed most for all.
Naia, who was drawn into the very first cohort of The Dojo Core Initiation in 2019, birthed an exquisite membership called “The Undenaiable Sisterhood” while also standing with Zahara in service to the growth of the Dojo field. In 2024, the two decided to partner and have joined forces to create The Dojo Woman Collective, a membership space that empowers women from all over the world to take a first step and weave in AT DEPTH, at any time.
The Dojo Field AND GROWING ECOSYSTEM
The Dojo Initiation houses an ecosystem of ceremonial and deeply transformational containers that serve to support and amplify the evolution of the soul, the heart, the body and the mind through masterful facilitation, true sisterhood, Ceremony, intuitive guidance, and love. These containers work in collaboration with the emergent field that is the curriculum of your life, in order to inform where support is needed most for each individual participant. Each part of the ecosystem has been designed and refined in direct reflection to and in service of the needs and desires of the actual women who have journeyed through them. It is a living, evolving field that will meet you exactly where you are and support your truest expansion from there.
This is an initiatory field, which means that the you who lives on the other side will not be the same as the you who entered. "What the caterpillar calls the end, the butterfly calls the beginning". This is a space where the art of liberation and expansion through love and sisterhood becomes a life practice. Here, you will connect so deeply to your purpose for being alive that you become willing to undergo the micro-death of any parts that have been obstructing the full expression of your design.
When you are deeply connected to your purpose in this way, everything becomes wildly synchronistic and all of life begins to open up to support you in doing the "heavy lifting".
We stand for you as you die to who you are not, so you can live the truth of who you really ARE.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
Zahara Zimring
Zahara is a Martial Artist turned Liberation Artist, transformational mentor, and ceremonialist. She is the founder of The Dojo Initiation, an ecosystem of transformational arenas that shatter limitations while offering safe and emergent spaces for participants (who become family) to expand beyond their edges and embody their highest design while being deeply championed and held in community.
Once an elite martial artist and Olympic hopeful who ultimately overcame a debilitating spinal fusion, Zahara is passionate about helping others turn trauma into triumph and wounding into warrior wisdom.
A practitioner of spiritual psychology, intuitive channeling, and shamanic arts, she has found her purpose in deep study with master plant teachers and in creating safe spaces for others to heal, transform fear, and remember themselves whole while reclaiming true empowerment in all areas of life.
Naia Kete
Naia Kete is an accomplished artist, song healer, and Certified Transformational Breathwork Facilitator and coach. She is the founder of Song Healing Trauma and co-founder of the urban-reggae band SayReal. Naia is also an alumna of NBC’s The Voice. Her journey from being a broke street performer in Los Angeles to performing on some of the world’s largest stages such as Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, and SXSW has fueled her passion for empowering women and young people to express their true voices and share their gifts with the world.
A gifted and prolific songwriter, Naia has written thousands of original songs and collaborated with artists like Linda Perry, Colbie Caillat, and John Forte. She has opened for A-listers including Ziggy Marley and Michael Franti and toured nationally with “A Bowie Celebration”.
Her work with Zahara Zimring and the Dojo container helped her cultivate a deeper understanding of true sisterhood, which she now brings to her own initiatives. Recently, Naia was a featured speaker at the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference in New York City and SNF Nostos where she spoke alongside notable figures such as former President Barack Obama and Goldie Hawn. Hailed by Rolling Stones as “An Earthy-Soulstress”, Naia continues to inspire and uplift through her music and transformational work.
The women of
The Dojo Council
Have all committed to and graduated from THE DOJO CORE INITIATION. Each year, one group of 10 women is invited into the 8-month Core Initiation. Upon completion, the fully initiated women are invited to join The Dojo Council where they are qualified for facilitation roles within the Dojo ecosystem and experience ongoing deepening and expansion via our signature shared leadership model of mutual support, devoted sisterhood, and next-level collaboration.
Kathleen Hooper
A musical mixture of mantra, prayer, celebration and honesty, Kathleen's music offers a soulful invitation to open the heart and feel the vibrations within us all. A songbird since her earliest memories, Kathleen digs into the depths of beauty and grief, inviting listeners into a personal experience of navigating her path. Connected with the sounds and gifts of nature, her music is an offering, a bow of appreciation for all that is.
Vickie Lau
Vickie is a ceremonialist, musician, sound healing practitioner, and artist of the heart. She is honored to carry sacred songs from medicine lineages that have deeply impacted and informed her spiritual path.
Lily Fangz
Lily is an internationally touring artist, freestyle Channel, and public speaker, visual artist and record producer. Founder of the Phoenix Studies with a background as an LPN in hospice nursing and trauma informed care she studies the cross section of art, cycles, and human behavior
Shanna Gilfix
Shanna, our Lion Papi, is a captivating musician specializing in medicine music, enchants listeners with a voice like honey – both healing and angelic. Her soulful renditions create a transcendent experience, weaving spiritual resonance into her melodies and establishing her as a beacon of soothing and transformative soundscapes.
Amanda Migoya
Drawing inspiration from the raw essence of Mother Earth and the powerful feminine energy, Amanda is a mixed media visual artist. Through the use of diverse paints, unique elements, and personally crafted earth-derived pigments, my art aims to capture the enchanting beauty of nature’s magic in its purest form.
Erica Dean
Erica, with ten years of transformative self-exploration, passionately leads Soft Landings. Her journey involved deep healing and reconnecting with her true self, inspiring her to adopt various therapeutic practices. Erica combines these methods to offer a compassionate, multifaceted coaching program aimed at guiding others towards profound self-discovery and personal growth.
Dr. Galya Loewenstein
Dr. Galya is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, and Herbology; and a life-long student of poetic linguistics and rhythmic cadence. She identifies as a Spirit Healer, Floetry Feeler, Story Teller, Earth Dweller, Galactic Warrior, Ascendent Ancestor, Bridge Builder, Fire Tender, Shadow Weaver, and Miracle Believer.
Devon Dennis
Devon, Creative Director of The Real Magic House, is a dynamic and multi-passionate artist + entrepreneur. As a transformational coach and non-denominational reverend, she guides individuals on journeys of self-discovery through sessions that blend connection, reflection, and creativity.
Pardis Goshtasb
Pardis is a multi-faceted, Iranian-American artist and visionary whose work is intended to explore the depths of being human, inspire inner alchemy, and encourage others to liberate their own creative genius. She loves blending the sacred and the cheeky, as well as designing experiences that will have you soaring, softening and lifted on love. Whatever the expression or offering, her vibe is captivating, soulful and otherworldly.
Adeenah Hammer
Adeenah is a mama and Founder of Feminine Healing Ministries. Her service is in helping women heal their relationship with God through prayer, gnosis, and the devotional arts.
Monique Benabou
Monique Benabou is a vocalist & multi-medium performance artist, plant medicine facilitator, and artist development mentor. Mo first debuted on NBC’s The Voice in 2011, and has since performed on stages worldwide with the likes of Christina Aguilera, Jason Derulo, Colbie Callait, and more. In 2021, Mo graced the TEDx stage with her hybrid performance/talk “Your Purpose is Calling... Will You Answer?”, exploring the courage it takes to follow a one-of-a-kind life path.
Dorian Drislane
Dorian, also known as The Fairy Doctor in her electronic music project, is a multi media storyteller. Merging haunting vocals, poetry, instrumentation, electric sounds, and video production, she creates multi media art and sacred spaces to awaken disenchanted spirits to back to the heart.
Ray Taaffe
Ceremonialist of the Feminine. Ray guides women towards healing and embracing the fullness of their femininity through embodiment, ceremonial living and natural beauty. Ray is the founder of the Sensually Embodied Living Method ™
Jillian Acosta
Jillian is a registered dietitian who specializes in functional medicine. As the owner of the nutrition private practice, The Root Cause Method, Jillian guides clients towards health and vitality in unconventional ways. She collaborates with physicians who administer ketamine to help her clients heal their relationship with food, body and ultimately, themselves.
Janelle Orsborn
Janelle is a master bodyworker, breathwork facilitator and author and uses these modalities to inspire people of all ages to create and live from their hearts. She is based in Colorado and travels around the globe creating experiences in pursuit of her mission of a more authentic and heart-led world.
Rebecca Turlay
Rebecca is a lightworker, lover of nature, ceremonialist, nomad at heart and committed to rising the vibration of our planet. She believes one person’s ripple of impact can truly change the world. Her offerings include psychedelic integration coaching, yoga instruction, meditation classes and transformational retreats.
Hannah Hunter
Hannah is a curious moonchild with a passion for exploration, music and movement. Her mission is to help others become an active participant in their experience and feel more at home in their bodies through mindful fitness and wellness work. She fully believes in the the divine collaboration of the body, mind and soul.
Taylor Wilhelm
Taylor is a Holistic Therapist. Her offerings take an intuitive, multi-faceted approach to create a deeper understanding of what is present in one’s mind and body. This work includes a combination of 1:1 deep dives exploring generational trauma, hypnotherapy, lab work, integrative nutrition and subconscious reprogramming & human design readings. Taylor’s work emphasizes getting to the root cause of disease and takes all areas of life into account when working with someone to improve their health.
Noor Kayyal
Noor is a holistic healer & embodiment facilitator. Once a diplomate, now CEO of Light’s Expressions Wellness — serving collective liberation by providing women self-discovery journeys & conscious community in Arabia.
Naia Kete
Naia is a Song Healer, Transformational Breathwork Facilitator, Empowerment Artist and Co-Founder of urban reggae band, SayReal, “LA’s Hottest New Band” - US Weekly. She also co-founded the Dojo Woman Collective along with Zahara Zimring.
The Advisory
Team
Ishmiel & Patra
Ishmiel and Patra are the beloved guides, elders, teachers and Godparents of Zahara and have now joined The Dojo Field as advisors in support of the emergent unfoldment of the whole. They are artists, craftspeople, musicians, parents, Grandparents, and have been in the study and service with the master plants for decades. Steeped in the indigenous Peruvian lineages of Cristina Mendoza and Don Jose Campos, Ishmiel and Patra share their wisdom with humility and integrity and it is an honor to receive their guidance and the support of this line within the Dojo Field.
Tish Steenkamp
Originally from South Africa, Tish Steenkamp has found her sanctuary in the lush landscapes of Costa Rica, which she proudly calls home. For the past 9 years, she has been meticulously crafting her vision of paradise, curating transformative retreats, immersive wellness experiences, and conscious gatherings aimed at awakening and healing souls.
The Dojo Woman
(noun)
an epic, unapologetic, artistic, and fully-expressed woman who embodies the persistent, resilient spirit of a warrior; fearlessly EXPANDING INTO GREATER AWARENESS AND LOVE by exploring the far reaches of her energetic, spiritual, and emotional capacities with the aim of embodying her greatest expression and truest design in service of self, purpose, planet, and sister.
- She is relentlessly devoted to discovering deeper layers of what it is she would be willing to die for so that she can truly LIVE.
- She embraces women in their vulnerable process because she knows how to treat herself the same way in her own. She deeply celebrates women in their power because she knows her own power at the deepest level.
- She is devoted to receiving and sharing her gifts and her medicine.
- Because of the depth and magnitude of her connection to herself and her purpose, she discerns between what is a conditioned truth and a remembered truth.
- She embraces and expresses the raw, authentic, realness of what it means to be a woman, in HER BODY, on the planet at this time.
- She shows up. She stays the course. She names it when she is triggered and is willing to lean into repair when a rupture occurs.
- SHE HAS RANGE. If you’re a Dojo woman, you know what that means.
