Team Symbio
Christian Zero
Christian is passionate about creating profound immersive experiences for people. With a reverence for design in the broadest sense, his particular area of work integrates music, storytelling, ‘synaesthetics’ and dance.
“The practice of ‘stepping back’ to feel out my own intentions has been a purifying gift, which keeps on giving. It connects me with this desire to nourish magnificent feelings!”
Versed with creativity in an array of technology, Christian began performing with some of the first real-time audio-video performance systems. He worked with a number of prominent brands at a young age, performing at the launch of HBO Canada, and the first Nuit Blanche to be held in Toronto. Other notable audiovisual performances were featured at the launch of the National Geographic channel; a ‘Yahoo!’ awards show; the Heineken fashion show in Montreal; and holding residencies at some of Toronto’s biggest Nightclubs (Lucid, Muzik). Christian then created an interactive ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ DVD in 2006, which earned him a scholarship to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). While centred in the department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (FVNMA), he utilized the multi-disciplinary freedom made available at SAIC to pursue courses in the Humanities; Animation; and Performance.
After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Christian worked on concert visuals for the Toronto summer series ‘Electric Island’. There, he was fortunate to support the performances of artists like Sven Väth, Maya Jane Coles, and Dixon, while experimenting with his own custom performance technology called ‘Gysr’ (geyser). This is a software interface which facilitates mapping aesthetic natural language to media and information, for flexible retrieval in a live setting. Continuing its development, Christian founded a creative collective called INNERST8, who put forth a number of productions prioritizing mixed media. This involved collaboration with artists of varied discipline, including Petar Dundov; Paul Kwitek; Stephanie Payne; and Natasha Kudashkina. Further inspired by holistic health modalities, and an ongoing environmentalist drive, the vision for Symbio was born.
Trish Carriera
Trish is a maternal soul doing the work to live her human experience to the fullest. She loves dancing, singing, food, and communing with nature. As a holistic health and wellness practitioner since 2015, most of her work has involved supporting women seeking mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being. She does this using an array of holistic lifestyle practices and modalities such as nutrition, intuitive dance, breathwork, meditation, nature immersion, and neurolinguistic studies. Trish creates safe and sacred spaces for clients who are ready to heal, grow, and evolve.
“The greatest love story we will ever be a part of is the one which leads us back to our own heart.” – Trish
Trish hosts transformational events, including retreats, intuitive (ecstatic) dances, women’s circles, and sacred healing ceremonies. Her experience includes one-on-one client coaching and a foundational 12-week online program to empower women. Her path was inspired by a desire to heal her body and mind after years of neglect and depletion. This all came to the surface after the birth of her youngest son. Once she began her healing journey she felt a deep calling to support others on their own journeys.
“When holding space, I intuitively provide what is needed for my clients to feel seen, heard, and supported on all levels. My purpose and passion in this life is to be of service through the supreme state of Love. All the years of work I’ve invested into creating a magnanimous life are culminating in the work I’m doing through Symbio.” -Trish
Doris Fin
Global Chef Doris’ fascination with food and cooking began at the curious age of seven. At the age of eighteen, she began travelling to explore various cultures and cuisines, including Israel, India, Thailand, Iceland, Italy, Bali, Hawaii, Laos, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica and many others. This allowed her to expand her palate and develop her craft. Doris’ passion is fuelled by gathering fresh ingredients to create delicious and nutritious meals, then feasting with others, family style.
While cooking and foraging with various chefs and seasoned foodies and foragers, Doris has garnered a joy for cooking with quality, local, and seasonal ingredients. Through her interactive cooking classes, creative dinner events, and wholesome catered wellness retreats, she makes things fun while educating palates to appreciate natural flavours.
Doris encourages people to connect with themselves, to really understand and explore what they individually require for their body and mind to thrive, rather than follow trends and dogmas. She speaks about the importance of supporting and building relationships with local food producers, and really getting to know your food, from farm to fork. Doris believes unity and connection is better cultivated when we know how, and by whom our food is grown.
After more than two decades of cooking; traveling; teaching hundreds of people; and feeding thousands, Doris has made it her mission to help people rediscover their love for real cooking.
Locally grown and happily raised ingredients play a major role in her menu development, for which Doris continually searches out the freshest and best ingredients. If she’s not buying directly from the farm or picking from the forest and garden, you’ll find her hopping around farmers markets, joyously discovering new ingredients to experiment with.
Chef Doris also sells her organic frozen treats, including Fin cakes and Fincicles, the “ice cream bar” version of Fin cakes. They happen to be dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free, and come in many flavours! You’ll get to experience both treats at Next Chapter!
Teena Derderian
I have always intuitively held space for others and innately fostered inclusive environments everywhere I go. As I have moved through my own journey of awakening I have felt a calling to shift this offering with a greater intention of supporting others on their own journeys. I see you and am honoured to share space with you.
-Teena Derderian
Ariel Benavidez
Ariel creates a safe space and inspires you to dive into the subconscious and connect with your true essence. Through his breathwork facilitation and coaching, he creates experiential opportunities for people to explore their inner reality, and strengthen their intuition. His pallet of tools includes the use of the breath, music, instruments, meditation, and integration exercises. People have shared having had powerful releases of trapped emotional energy through Ariels work. It is common for people to experience such intense emotion that tears flow, yet even more common is a sense of fulfillment upon completion, lightness, and immense gratitude. Some have even expressed how breathwork provided more insight and clarity into their lives than plant medicine teachers like Psilocybin and Ayahuasca.
Dan Andronescu
As a breathwork facilitator, coach and Yoga aspirant Dan has been studying and working with the breath since 2012 through Hatha and Pranayama yoga, Wim Hof Breathing, Elemental Rhythm and BrethHOLD Meditation. As one of the first Elemental Rhythm facilitators and team member, Dan has led hundreds of classes and journeys, in group, 1-on-1, corporate, festival, and retreat settings. He has also trained 100+ breathwork facilitators.
As a personal development and self-empowerment coach Dan is the founder of Omni BEing Ascension. He guides growth & purpose-driven conscious leaders to overcome stress, overwhelm and burnout in order to live a life of vitality, presence, inner peace and freedom. He does this through discipline in expanding self-awareness through the 3 command centers: Body, Breath and Mind as captured in the Omni BEing Self-activation Process.
On a former path Dan used to work as a materials engineer, where he experienced a high stress environment that led him to endure anxiety, depression, and mental fatigue. During one of his first yoga classes in 2012, he experienced a non-ordinary state of consciousness while lengthening his exhale to a breath hold. This experience profoundly activated him on a path of deep self exploration that enabled him to find purpose, vitality and inner peace. He left the engineering field in 2017 to travel around the world in pursuit of Self study through Yoga, breathwork, primal movement and apprenticing with plant medicine.
Sebastian Veintimilla
Sebastian Veintimilla is a media production professional, deeply passionate about creating captivating content. With a Bachelor of Arts in Media Production and extensive studies in Contemporary Music, Music Production and Sound Engineering he is equipped with a diverse set of skills that mixed with a creative soul complement perfectly to create experiences that connect deeply with audiences.
Born in Ecuador but having lived in multiple countries such as Argentina, Cuba, and Mexico, he has well rooted the warmth of Latin America. Warmth that he has been able to express in previous works in music, theatre, and cinema with great exponents of Ecuador.
In 2022 he decided to start the NEXTchapter of his life and moved to the Netherlands, from where he shares his creative mind and soul with us to contribute to the growth of our community.
Liz Defreitas
Liz is deeply passionate about space holding especially within women’s circles. She invites a play of energy for self-love and creative exploration through different healing modalities. Liz has an art background having graduated from OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design University), she is also a yoga teacher, and a Reiki Master.
“Creativity is a magical way of being. It aligns us to the emotional intelligence and loving essence of the heart. By flowing and playing with this energy we open ourselves up to a greater awareness. It’s not just about creating something material but how we can be present in this energy and reconnect to our sense of receiving.
RADICAL RECEIVING, where we nourish all the love, beauty, sensuality, and pleasure that we are here to experience without fear, guilt, or feeling unworthy. The more we are able to receive and fill ourselves up the more we can give.” – Liz Defreitas