Lithuanians
in the World

VilNews will from time to time present Lithuanians who have left the home country and made some kind of career abroad. We are this time not so much looking for celebrity articles, more for some unusual life stories describing Lithuanians who have settled somewhere in the world. Send us your story!

From Kaunas to
healing art in the U.S.

Irmina Duobaite Stiles, known as Irmina Santaika, is an Artist, Bio-Energy Practitioner, and Childhood Education instructor who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania.

From early childhood, Irmina understood that there is not only the world around us that we see based on our own personal perception, but another one space around us that we all perceive in a much deeper way in our true center. Everyone has their own conception of the world, as they see it. As a young child, Irmina sought knowledge about the conflicts that she felt between the world that she was taught existed, and what she herself felt to be true and real. She separated herself from mainstream life as she sought answers, reading all possible books that could provide answers to her questions. During this time, art became Irmina’s language of the soul to express her perception of existence.

Her first Soul Teacher was her grandmother, Liucija, whose feelings and experience were Irmina’s guide to more deeply understand God and eternal life. She exposed Irmina to the use of foods, plants, and all elements of nature achieve good health and spiritual balance. Liucija also integrated Irmina into her own diverse group of intellectuals that she socialized with, allowing Irmina to exchange views and ideas pertaining to creation, existence and the concepts of life. While learning much from this circle of her grandmother’s friends, Irmina still sought knowledge beyond which they could provide. She continued her search for knowledge, discovering others who could help her decipher the mysteries of life.

It was in 1982 that art once more became Irmina’s focus and special language to express her ideas and feelings. Attending Vilnius Justinas Vienozinskis Art School, she studied art and art history, desperately continuing her search for answers to life and existence. As she continued her education in art, she also realized psychology as an important field of study to pursue her answers. She left her studies at Art School in 1985 to concentrate her attention to earn a degree in Early Child Psychology-Pedagogy in Vilnius Pedagogical University that she had begun in 1984. She found the study of Human Anatomy and Physiology, Art Therapy, Music, Child and Family Psychology, to be invigorating and inspirational.

Upon her graduation in 1989, Irmina began working as an Early Childhood Education Instructor, but felt that the conventional training that she had received and was using, lacked the necessary answers. Irmina felt that her world had collapsed. The need to fill this void moved her to attend some classes at the Vilnius Academy of Parapsychology. Leaving the academy after a short time, she continued to study personally under some amazing teachers and healers that she met there.

Most notable of these teachers was a Siberian healer and shaman whom Irmina met in 1996, with whom she studied and practiced  Shamanic Energy Medicine for several years. Her teachings included Bio-Energy Healing, Pain, Deep Tissue, Color and Reflexive Massage, Chiropractic, Hypnosis and Visualization techniques. At this time she also began studying Agni Yoga in which she received her affirmation and personal mantra.

Irmina began using this knowledge and experience in her private practice of healing in Lithuania in 1998. Two years later, she moved to Switzerland and renewed her studies in art, pottery, and sculpture. At the same time she began concentrating her attention on the use and application of essential oils and the incorporation of Hatha Yoga in her healing practice, particularly Tibetan Rituals.

Irmina moved to the United States in 2008. Continuing her search for healing methods, she became certified in Yoga for the Special Child in 2011, through the Sonia Sumar Method, studying under Sivakami. This new knowledge has provided additional means for her to help children with special needs.

Irmina Santaika has today a private Bio-Energy Healing practice in Williamsburg, Virginia. There she happily resides with her husband, Ronald, a novelist, technical proposal writer who practices yoga and martial arts, daughter Gerda, and their Giant Schnauzer, Baldur.