Instructors
Erica Gonzales
Owner/Instructor
Hi, I’m Erica Gonzales, owner and lead instructor of Bliss in the City. I’m an RYT-200 yoga teacher with a passion for making yoga feel welcoming, approachable, and connected to the community.
Through Bliss in the City, I bring yoga beyond the traditional studio and into some of Albuquerque’s most unique spaces—from breweries and museums to hotel rooftops, markets, parks, and special community events. I believe yoga is more than movement; it’s an opportunity to build strength, reconnect with yourself, and form meaningful connections with the people around you.
My classes blend energizing movement, mindful breath, and space to meet yourself exactly where you are. Whether you’re stepping onto a mat for the first time or deepening an established practice, my goal is to help you feel supported, empowered, and at home.
When I’m not teaching, I’m creating new experiences and partnerships that make yoga more accessible throughout Albuquerque. I’m proud to continue growing Bliss in the City as a community rooted in movement, connection, and a little bit of adventure.
Ama Pacheco
Instructor, RYT 500
Ama is a 500-hour registered yoga and meditation teacher and a Level II Reiki practitioner. She is trained and certified in several yoga modalities, including Kundalini, Hatha Shakti, chair yoga, and Yin yoga.
Her classes focus on energy-based healing through pranayama, heat-building movement, and mind-body coherence. By working with both the physical and subtle energy bodies, Ama creates an intentional space for students to build strength, find balance, and reconnect with themselves.
Cascade Lineback
Instructor, RYT 500hr
Cascade has been practicing yoga regularly since 2006. Throughout graduate school, a career in education and various international moves, yoga has been her anchor. She began guiding yoga classes in 2012 and completed her 500 hour Advanced Teacher Training with Sattva Yoga in 2017. Cascade relocated to New Mexico in 2019 and has also lived in Spain, Costa Rica, Myanmar and Mexico. She studies and practices yoga wherever she travels and lives. Cascade teaches vinyasa, yin, restorative and meditation classes and designs unique sequences to work body and mind. She also supports teacher trainings and curates retreats.
Talal Saint-Lot
Instructor, RYT 200hr
Talal has been an active athlete his entire life participating in organized competitive basketball, soccer, volleyball, Shotokan karate, water polo, and triathlon racing. He grew an interest in the benefits of meditation, breathing, and stretching while training and was introduced to yoga by his wife, Elena. Yoga has become the centerpiece and foundation of Talal’s active lifestyle ever since he checked into his first yoga class. Talal believes that yoga is more than a personal journey through which one grows awareness of the connection existing between the mind, body, and breath it is also a process of transforming the self-identity and way of interacting with the world. Talal understands that humanity faces the threat of growing socioeconomic inequality, a deteriorating natural environment, and a disjointed society. He feels that he can help counteract this by sharing yoga with others and contributing toward growing the universal human connection to one another, nature, and the world.
Jade King
Instructor, RYT 200hr
Jade has been practicing yoga for nearly 10 years now. She is a childhood cancer survivor and began her yoga journey after struggling with scoliosis and chronic back pain for years. She took her first 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2015, and her second training at Blissful Spirits in 2019.
Jade loves not only the physical benefits but also the mental and spiritual benefits as well and loves having the opportunity to share the healing of yoga with others.
She understands from experience that everybody is different and her main goal as an instructor is to provide a safe space for people with all body types and abilities to practice.
Outside of yoga Jade works as a veterinary receptionist/technician and in her spare time enjoys knitting, baking, and playing piano.
Brianna Tapia
Instructor, RYT 200hr
Brianna Tapia has always been passionate about physicality and self-healing. Brianna grew up dancing folklorico, ballet, and hip-hop. After high school, she danced semi-pro and completed her degree in physical therapy. Although she loved the creative and intuitive aspects of dance as well as the therapeutic techniques she was learning through physical therapy she still felt a sense of lack in personal and professional life. Brianna began practicing hot yoga on a whim for the first time in 2015 and realized this was the mental connection she was unknowingly craving. It took Brianna 3 years after that to find Blissful Spirits Hot Yoga. Blissful amplified her love for yoga, and she started to feel a strong desire to share what she had learned through yoga with others.
Completing her RYT 200 in 2020, Brianna proclaims herself to be a forever student. Particularly passionate about the mental health benefits that yoga has to offer and linking mindfulness/meditative techniques taught in yoga to everyday life. Her goal is to guide each student into a headspace where they can connect with their inner world and discover that they truly are their best teachers and healers on and off the mat.
Daniel Friedlander
Instructor, RYT 500
Daniel found his way to yoga back in 2009. A lifelong athlete competing in wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing, and kickboxing he was drawn to the physical asanas of a yoga practice. Six years in and only viewing it as a physical practice a way to become more “flexible” but after a life-altering tragedy, it was the many other gifts yoga offers you that had Daniel wondering what else he could learn from YOGA.
Yoga has provided Daniel peace and calm in a hectic world. Meditation and daily practice have helped him to cope with depression, anxiety, and grief and now he is passionate to help others see the many gifts a yoga practice can provide someone’s life. His goal is for his students to find a place of calm and presence in the NOW by being mindful of their breath and body! Pausing the external stimulus for the practice and allowing a moment to just BE. Breaking a sweat with a smile on your face. When he’s not in yoga he’s running a small business with his family and always searching in ways he can help his community or grow as an individual. Come check out a class with Daniel!
Pam Hong
Instructor, RYT 200
Pam Hong has been studying and practicing various styles of yoga, including Iyengar and Ashtanga since 1993, and teaching since 2003. Her flow-based, qigong inspired classes are infused with imaginative sequencing, blending fluid movement with spacious breathing and enhanced by skilled, hands-on adjustments. Students are encouraged to journey through their practice with compassion, attention, enthusiasm and grace. Pam has completed Levels I–III Teacher Training with Tias Little of Prajna Yoga in Santa Fe and has additional trainings with Manju Jois, Richard Freeman, James Cardinale (Ashtanga Primary Series), Linda Spackman (Prenatal Yoga), Zubin Schroff (Spiritual Justice, Yoga for People of Color), Joe Barnett (Functional Anatomy) and Marisol Brito (Anusara). She teaches Ashtanga, Vinyasa Flow & Qi Flow Yoga to groups of all levels at studios, health clubs and community centers in the Albuquerque area, and also offers private/semi-private instruction. Pam has presented at the Albu querque Yoga Gathering, Nomadic Yoga Festival and Santa Fe Yoga Festival, co-leads semi-annual yoga retreats at Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, co-leads an annual yoga retreat in Kauai, Hawaii, offers specialty workshops and teacher trainings, and was involved in the organizing committee for the Yoga for People of Color Sangha in Albuquerque.