Vanya Dobreva-Manaweel

Resource Teacher, Speech Therapist and Biofeedback Expert

Imagine gold—raw, unrefined—sparkling in the silence and glow of humility. A cosmopolitan born at the crossroads of the Balkans, she did not follow the wave to the West, but turned toward the sunrise of the East. A woman who gathered all the resources within herself in order to unlock the full potential in others. This is her—Vanya, our speech therapist and resource teacher.

At the dawn of the 2000s, she embarked on her longest journey—to Dubai. There, she built and reinvented herself. For nearly 20 years in the UAE, she worked with children with special educational needs, including autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, and learning difficulties. Always by their side, she managed to see and believe in their potential before they themselves did.

She is a certified yoga instructor in multiple disciplines and has trained in some of the most sacred places in India and Taiwan. In Taipei, she studied Yoga for the Special Child directly with the creator of the method, Sonia Sumar. Today, Vanya herself is among the few qualified yoga therapists in Bulgaria working with children with disabilities.

She loves learning and personal growth, and age has never been a barrier for her. She has completed a doctoral program and an upcoming thesis defense on the topic of “Screen Exposure and Language Pragmatics in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.” She strives every day to discover new things—people, places, and methods.

She loves music and listens to Dire Straits, Chris Rea, and Benson Boone. Michael Jackson, however, remains her idol to this day—not only as an artist, but as a person with heart and a cause. Yoga is her greatest passion, as it brings her back to silence and balance.