Meet Merve, your child’s new favourite yoga and mindfulness teacher 🧘🏻♀️
Monkinya's creator, Merve, is a trauma-sensitive Yoga Alliance Certified Children's Yoga Teacher RCYT and RYT-200 Yoga Teacher with 10 years of experience working with children and families in various environments, including schools, daycares, studios, and hospitals.
Merve is also a certified Mindfulness Teacher in Method Eline Snel, trained by the Academy of Mindful Teaching (qualified according to the internationally acknowledged Mindfulness-Based Teacher Assessment Criteria (MBI-TAC) as well as a certified Life Coach from Canada Coach Academy and is passionate about helping parents integrate mindfulness and yoga practices into their lives in a fun & light-hearted way.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Boğaziçi University and is currently studying Early Childhood Education at UBC in Canada.
Since 2015, Merve has expanded her expertise in coaching, holistic well-being, resilience, positive psychology, positive parenting and positive discipline.
She has a daughter named Iris (named after the Goddess of Rainbow in Greek mythology) who loves practicing yoga (downward dog and happy baby poses mostly), dancing and playing ukulele with her.
After living in 3 different countries over the last decade, Merve is now settled in New Westminster, British Columbia (Canada) and brings her love for nature, art and mindfulness into every class she teaches.
Trainings, Certificates and Selected Courses
Supporting Young Children Through Home, School, and Community Relationships, Early Childhood Education Program, University of British Columbia (UBC), 2025
Supporting Young Children's Health and Well-Being in Early Childhood Settings, Early Childhood Education Program, University of British Columbia (UBC), 2025
Creating Positive Environments in Recreational Settings, Canucks Autism Network - Vancouver, Canada, 2025
Positive Discipline Parent Educator, Positive Discipline Association (PDA) , 2024 – ongoing
Resilience Coaching: Recognizing Resilience Masterclass© 15 Modules, 5 CCE (3 Continuing Coach Education in Competencies, 2 Continuing Coach Education in Development) Online (2024)
Introduction to Positive Psychology, Coaching Masterclass©, 4 Modules, PositivePsychology.com (2024)
Understanding Behavior Problems, Aletha Solter (2024)
95-hour Trauma Sensitive Children’s Yoga Teacher Yoga Alliance Yoga Alliance RCYT, Glowithin (2023)
200 hr Hatha Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Alliance RYT, Yoga Darga (2022)
Life & Wellness Coaching, Canada Coach Academy ICF Level 1 Training (Jul-Dec 2020)
Mindfulness Trainer for Children, Eline Snel, Academy for Mindful Teaching (2019)
8 weeks Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Training Course, The Center for Mindfulness at UMass Memorial Medical Center (2018)
Positive Parenting Course, Generation Mindful (2018)
Qi Gong Level 1 Practitioner, Zhong Yuan Qi Gong (2016)
Children’s Yoga Teacher Training, Rainbow Kids Yoga UK, YACEP (2015)
Children’s Yoga Teacher Training, Dr. Neslihan İskit (2015)
200 hr Hatha Yoga Teacher Training, İpek Darga (2015)
In addition to above certifications, Merve also continuously attends seminars, talks and workshops by inspiring experts such as Dr. Shefali, Aletha Solter, Daniel Siegel, Peter Gray, join positive parenting courses and self-compassion meetings offered by Kristin Neff and continues to follow their work to grow and evolve both as a coach and a parent.