ABOUT SONIA
Sonia Sivakami Sumar
Mother, educator, spiritual seeker, and yoga teacher whose life story gave rise to a global body of work.
This page is about Sonia herself: the child she was, the woman she became, the losses she carried, and the devotion that shaped her path for more than 50 years.
EARLY LIFE
A determined girl with a quiet inner fire.
Sonia Sumar was born in Brazil into a humble family. From an early age, she carried big dreams and understood that education would be one of the few real bridges toward them. She began working as a babysitter when she was only nine years old and learned very young how to persevere without much parental support.
Even as a child, her longing was not only for security or success. She was drawn to books, to reflection, and to spiritual questions that helped her make sense of life. While living with the pain of her father's alcoholism, Sonia developed one of the traits that would define her later life: the ability to respond with compassion rather than bitterness.
Although life shifted her path away from her dream of becoming a surgeon, she became a primary school teacher and continued following the spiritual current she felt inside herself. That inner search eventually led her to yoga, not as a trend or profession, but as a way of living.
That same spirit still defines her presence today: disciplined, devotional, observant, and deeply human.
A MOTHER'S JOURNEY
Motherhood changed the course of her life.
When her first daughter, Renata, was born in 1970, Sonia was overjoyed. She wanted to create for her child a life that held more love, opportunity, and support than she herself had known. Two years later, in 1972, she welcomed her second daughter, Roberta, who was born with Down syndrome.
At a time when families were often told simply to wait, Sonia felt an urgent need to respond immediately, with love, intuition, and action.
When Roberta was born in Brazil in 1972, there was no established early-intervention system in the country for children with disabilities. Guided by love, deep observation, and daily practice, Sonia began supporting her daughter’s development from the very beginning, long before this kind of work was formally recognized in Brazil. In that sense, she was an early pioneer of early intervention in Brazil. Her work also became pioneering worldwide in showing how Yoga could be used as a form of early intervention for children with disabilities.
Through gentle postures, breathing practices, and deep connection, Roberta began to thrive. Sonia knew she could not change her daughter’s genetic condition, but the changes in Roberta’s quality of life were real and profound.
Inspired by her daughter’s growth, Sonia became a Certified Yoga Teacher in 1975. Her home became a place of observation, adaptation, and discovery. What she was really doing was listening carefully to her child and allowing that relationship to teach her.
Later, those discoveries would become a method. But first, they were the expressions of a mother’s devotion.
ROBERTA'S LEGACY
The daughter who remained at the center of her heart.
Roberta's journey transformed Sonia's life. Through her daughter, Sonia saw that children with additional needs deserved to be met with dignity, patience, intelligence, and possibility. Roberta became both daughter and teacher.
From lived daily practice, observation, and adaptation, Sonia discovered that yoga could support development, regulation, and relationship in ways few people were imagining at the time.
As other families began seeking Sonia’s guidance, the observations and breakthroughs that began at home eventually formed the basis of her book Yoga for the Special Child, now used around the world by parents, educators, and therapists.
Roberta’s legacy lives on not only through the children and families helped by Sonia’s work, but through the tenderness and courage that continued to shape Sonia long after Roberta’s passing.
A PATH OF DEVOTION
Her spiritual search carried her through grief and purpose.
During her years as a young mother, Sonia dreamed of traveling to India to deepen her sadhana and study with a living guru. That longing eventually led her to Swami Satchidananda, whom she met in New York in 1976. Their meeting marked the beginning of one of the deepest spiritual relationships of her life.
EXPANDING THE MISSION
Her life widened from one home to many countries.
Sonia’s dream has always been to help children with additional needs reach their fullest potential. As her work grew, that dream expanded beyond one family, beyond one city, and beyond one country. What began between mother and daughter gradually became an international method, carried by students, teachers, and families around the world.
Milestones
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1980: Founded the Sivananda Yoga Center in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
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1991: Opened the first Integral Yoga Center in Brazil, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.
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2001: Established the U.S. headquarters of Yoga for All Abilities® at the Satchidananda Yoga Center in Evanston, Illinois.
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Present day: Lives in Sarasota, Florida, and continues traveling and teaching specialized trainings worldwide.
Continuity of the work
Her daughter Renata Sumar Gaertner serves as co-owner of Yoga for All Abilities® in the United States and has helped carry the work forward since 2016, expanding it further from Seattle since 2024.
Yoga for the Special Child has been published in English, Portuguese, Chinese, and Spanish, and is also available as an English eBook.
PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION
A life of service, teaching, and recognition.
Sonia’s teaching is recognized through decades of lived experience as well as formal credentials in yoga teaching and yoga therapy. Yet her real authority has always come from the life she lived and the people she served.
Credentials
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Yoga Alliance (USA & UK): E-RYT 500, E-RCYT, YACEP
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International Association of Yoga Therapists: C-IAYT
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Yoga Alliance Professionals UK: Senior Yoga Teacher
What her work represents
For Sonia, professional recognition has never been the center of the story. The deeper measure has always been the lived changes in children, the relief felt by families, and the confidence passed to teachers who carry the work forward with integrity.