About us: Koldo and Lisa
We are two with the common goal of laying a joint path. We are simple, unpretentious people. We are citizens of the world; Koldo, from the Basque Country, and Lisa, from the USA. Our cultural differences enrich each other.
We know that we are very fortunate to have each other and to share this life project. We want to reach the end of our lives with a smile on our lips. For us, love for ourselves as individuals and as a couple and for our family comes first. There is also the love of friends and nature.
Among our values are non-violence, equality, solidarity, ethics, and self-awareness. Good communication among ourselves and with others is very important. We love hiking, yoga and body-mind-spirit care, observation of plants and animals, organic gardening, backpacking, music, literature, and film, among other things. We see ourselves as very good Life partners, with skills for mutual support and encouragement, which helps us to grow and move forward together.
We offer the activities at Perunea mainly in Spanish. Basque and English are also languages of our home, along with Galician, French and a smidgen of Slovak. We love what we do each day and what we’re able to offer by sharing our home with those who come to Perunea and providing our services in a friendly and hospitable way.
For each and every one of us:
- taking care of those who come to Perunea so that they feel “at home” is important.
- accompanying people in their personal growth is part of our priorities and profession
- empathic and respectful communication is a priority value
- not harming animals, growing organic vegetables, gathering wild edible plants, preparing healthy and tasty meals and taking care of the house and the earth in the most sustainable way possible is a daily act of love.
- meditation and yoga are a spiritual path that allow us to grow, maintain balance in our lives, be happy and healthy, expand our inner and outer worlds and age gracefully
- taking care of ourselves and continuing to educate and learn are part of our daily life.
- gratitude is an important pillar of our lives.
- with our projects we seek to contribute to a better world.
Our professional experience
Koldo Núñez Betelu: more than 15 years of experience as a psychotherapist practicing Family Constellations, Gestalt therapy, and Bioenergetics. Prior to my training as a psychotherapist, I completed my M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the University of Calgary, Canada. For a number of years afterward, I worked as a researcher and professor in the University of the Basque Country. When I was about 40 years old, I entered a deep personal crisis and decided to get professional help. As it turned out, my therapist was an expert in Gestalt and Family Constellations who had a profound impact on my career. I decided to leave the university and after 10 years of training in the areas mentioned above, I became a psychotherapist myself and since then I work accompanying people who want to grow in their self-awareness, including all that we carry from previous generations. Life has taught me the importance of working on the transgenerational history of each one of us to heal the wounds that every family brings hidden inside. I’m convinced, at the same time, that people have been conscious of this for many generations and have developed ways to work it out through rituals and other practices. I try to include all this in my professional practice, especially through Family Constellations.
Lisa Kuriscak: 15 years doing yoga and meditation (trained in USA and Spain; my teaching style is based on Hatha yoga but also influenced by Iyengar yoga), and for 29 years I was a university professor in the USA in the field of linguistics. For me, yoga is a spiritual path that helps me to grow, to connect better with myself and others, to maintain balance in my life, to be happy and healthy, and to age with grace. My approach to anything that I teach (yoga, Spanish, English, sewing, cooking or otherwise) is to meet people where they are that day and tailor what we do for what they bring to the table and what they need. I structure yoga classes to evoke the practice, not to impose it, and I enjoy adapting the postures so that each person can experience a healthy and comfortable balance of challenge/movement and support/rest. For me, asanas are not a brain-body battle. I believe in helping people to move in harmony with their body’s innate wisdom, in practicing with focus, attention, and curiosity to find that place of inner silence, and in living more fully in the present moment.