Danya Sher, MOHM Owner
B.S. Kinesiology – San Diego State University
Registered Yoga Teacher 200 hr – Triad Yoga & Pilates
Swedish Massage Therapist – Massage School Santa Monica
Certified Personal Trainer – National Academy Sports Medicine
Youth Fitness Trainer – International Sports Science Association
Danya MOhM of 3 who is passionate about building a community in motherhood that is free of judgment and full of support.
Before opening MOhM, Danya dedicated over 13 years helping clients of all ages and fitness levels in her personal training business in Los Angeles and Orange County. Her clients included pregnant/postpartum women, elderly seniors, and special needs children. She is also a yoga teacher who loves guiding her students through their asana practice, the physical practice of yoga, and enjoys being inspired by the calm and creativity of her students.
Danya spends her spare time playing soccer with her son Jayden, tea parties with her daughter Ora Jo, snuggling with her baby Eden, and sipping wine with her husband Ryan. She enjoys catching up with close friends, practicing yoga, drinking tea, and traveling.
With an intuitive guide to comfort and assist others, it is now her commitment to offer those same qualities to fellow moms through education, guidance, love and support here at MOhM. She believes that these elements are so vital in raising a family in today’s modern world and that sometimes such resources can be hard to find, so she created MOhM to be able to provide a safe haven for MOhMs in our community to gather, validate, encourage, and support one another.
Michelle Smith - Infant Specialist & Mommy and Me Educator
Michelle Smith is a certified infant specialist and nurse who believes in empowering the new mom with education and support. She understands that the first year and beyond of motherhood is beautifully challenging.
Michelle has been leading mommy and me groups for the past 3 years and has a passion for newborns. Michelle has 2 children under the age of five and resides in Ladera Ranch.
Ana Stephens - Student Midwife, Mommy and Me Educator
Ana Stephens is a Mom, Childbirth Educator, and Student Midwife (graduating October of 2019). She is passionate about empowering mothers to take control of their families wellness and health choices through client centered respectful care. She has attended over 200 births through her journey of birth assistant , doula and student midwife. Her passions stay nestled in improving the long term health of the family unit, long after the prenatal and intrapartum period has passed. As a mom of 4 children, ranging in ages from 15 years old to 4, she has a wide range of personal experience with childhood challenges. On a typical day she deals with High Schooler issues... Middle School drama....Elementary School homework and Preschooler tantrums. She is an expert in breastfeeding issues, the importance of moms mental health and very effective self-care methods that make a difference. She holds a self-proclaimed Masters Degree in all things Mama, while staying open to learning new tricks of the trade daily. She holds a certification in Emotional Release work and Raindrop Technique with aromatherapy. She is a wellness educator with Young Living Essential Oils and has an oily hack for almost every ailment that her family encounters. Ana lives with her husband Jacob and her 4 beautiful children in Aliso Viejo, CA. Her personal hobbies are baking, drinking good coffee, home design, world travel and enjoying golden sunsets at local Southern California beaches.
Leora Robles, IBCLC Lactation Consultant
Leora’s work with families began about 15 years ago when she graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a Bachelors degree in Child and Adolescent Development.
She first received her first lactation certification as a Certified Lactation Educator Counselor and subsequently earned her IBCLC, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, certification through the University of California, San Diego. Her skills were expanded through an internship at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, CA. There she was able to hone her skills through hands-on experience, working with moms and babies immediately after delivery and in those early weeks postpartum through their breastfeeding support programs.
She has had the honor of working with many moms and babies in their homes through private consultations and continued providing support as they needed during those crucial first few months, more appropriately called “the fourth trimester”.
Elizabeth Olsheim - Lactation Educator
Elizabeth received a Masters in Education from Pepperdine University and has over 10 years of experience as a public school educator. After having her first two children, Elizabeth combined her passion for education with her desire to help fellow mothers and completed her Lactation Educator Certification from UCLA. She joined the lactation team at The Pump Station in Los Angeles, and later, The Berlin Wellness Group in Orange County, where she taught prenatal breastfeeding classes, baby care classes, and led breastfeeding support groups. She has guided hundreds of mothers–and fathers–through the breastfeeding journey to success. The proud mother of three young boys–ages 10, 8 and 3– Elizabeth understands that breastfeeding is an individual and unique experience for every mother, and every baby. Having experienced all the joy, and some of the trials of breastfeeding with each of her own boys, Elizabeth is dedicated to helping mothers successfully breastfeed while meeting their families’ ever-changing needs.
Dianne Daucher, Prenatal and MOhM Yoga Instructor
Dianne was first introduced to yoga when she was 5 years old. The forward folds and inversions were playful cross training for her favorite sport, synchronized swimming. She was a nationally ranked competitor, international performer and a local coach in artistic swimming. After having her son and daughter, she reinitiated her yoga practice and inevitably became an instructor. She holds a 200 hour yoga certification from YogaFit and is registered with Yoga Alliance. Her favorite dynamic pose is Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana dwi) because of the bravery and strength it generates. After all, mothers need to be both loving and strong.
Carmela Rossi Lane - Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga Instructor
Carmela began practicing yoga in 1995 while employed as an Aerospace Engineer. She found that yoga relieved tension from the stressful work environment and was a natural extension of her training as a ballet dancer at the San Francisco Ballet. She became a certified yoga instructor in 1999 under Dianne Harman and has been teaching yoga ever since. Carmela enjoys working with students new to the practice of yoga, as well as with senior citizens, pregnant women, infants, and children. She offers her students a well-rounded practice that focuses on the breath to anchor each asana and a guided meditation to achieve deep relaxation.
Ksusha Barber, Prenatal Kundalini Yoga Instructor
Ksusha Barber is a certified prenatal and kundalini yoga instructor.
She is a mother of 3 boys. Her insatiable curiosity about natural pregnancy and birth led her to discover different tools and techniques to breakthrough on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels to achieve the births that she desired.
Following her guidance and intuition, she has had 3 different experiences: journeying through a hospital birth with her 1st, a home-hypno-water birth with her 2nd, and even swimming-with-wild-dolphins-Hawaii birth with her 3rd baby! She holds a positive vibration of these experiences and it is her true passion and purpose to educate and support women throughout this very important time.
Combining the wisdom of her work as a doula, HypnoBirthing childbirth educator, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner, Reiki Energy Healer, Khalsa Way prenatal yoga instructor - Ksusha’s classes are a true gem-filled experience that prepares you for birth on all levels.
In her daily life she successfully runs a real estate brokerage firm, guiding families to the gift of homeownership.
Nicolle Kasch, HypnoBirthing Instructor & Owner of Mind Body Baby
Nicolle is a certified HypnoBirthing instructor, birth doula, Fertility Support Specialist, and all around impassioned nerd surrounding topics such as fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, and human rights. Since 2014 she has been helping families feel more informed, confident and empowered to achieve their goals as they welcome a new little soul into their lives. Nicolle is also a mother to two sweet and energetic boys, whose births opened the gateway to her passion for the perinatal period and find new ways to delight and challenge her daily!
Nicolle offers classes and workshops at MOhM including:
HypnoBirthing 5 week series
“How to Have an Amazing Birth” free workshop
Mindful Motherhood Prenatal Circle
Comfort & Connection labor prep workshop
Fourth Trimester workshop
You can learn more about her offerings at www.MindBodyBabyOC.com
Dani Calahan, DC - Family Chiropractor
Dr. Calahan was born and raised in Long Beach, Ca. She is a part of the third generation of her family to graduate from Wilson. While at Wilson, she led her soccer team to a CIF, State, and National Championship her senior year. she went on to play division one collegiate soccer for the University of San Diego, where she obtained her BA in Sociology.
Dr. Calahan received her Doctorate of Chiropractic from Southern California University of Health Sciences in April of 2016. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and she received the Dr. Lester McCoy Clinical Excellence Award.
Dr. Calahan has come to appreciate over the years the importance of spinal health and its link to the prevention of injury. She has been trained to provide service to all individuals just born to the elderly.
In her free time, Dr. Calahan loves spending time with her husband, Mike, and son, Jack. They spend a lot of time going for walks in our neighborhood and hanging out at coffee shops. They love coffee and cooking meals together. She is also an avid reader and loves going to bookstores to pick out new books for herself and for Jack.
You can learn more about her services at www.CalahanChiropractic.com