Yoga Teacher Training

I am a Certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher, completing a 200 hour in-residence course in August 1999 at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, the largest Yoga center in the United States, a non-profit organization, and a Yoga Alliance Registered School.

Yoga Teachers who are certified with a Yoga Alliance Registered School have graduated with Yoga Teaching Standards recognized by the International Yoga community, ensuring that participants practice safely and mindfully. 

In keeping with the tradition of Master Yoga Teacher, Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), I firmly believe in honouring each individual's ability.  Krishnamacharya spent his life in India, and was a very influential teacher of current, famous Yoga teachers. His teaching has influenced Yoga worldwide.

 

Yoga Teaching Experience

In September 1999, I began teaching Yoga in Kingston, Ontario, (where I lived at the time), at a local Municipal Community Centre as well as C.F.B. Kingston Family Resource Centre and the Kingston Family YMCA. With classes consistently well received, I offered more, began to instruct elite and professional athletes, conducted workshops, and offered introductory sessions for businesses and conferences.   

No matter what sector of the population I have taught, my classes have continued to be very successful with an informal, light-hearted, challenging and educational approach to Yoga. 

In 2005, I returned to my hometown, St. John's, NL, after living in Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario for 18 years.  I taught yoga at MUN's The Works, at Gower Street Church, at the School of Dance and Music on water Street, and also with private individuals and groups. Currently, I am teaching private groups of athletes in St. John's.

 

The Study of Yoga

Since finishing Yoga Teacher Training at Kripalu, I have taken courses with many other Yoga Teachers, including some who have studied and practiced with the following schools: Ashtanga (Pattabi Jois), Sivananada, Iyengar, Bikram and Hatha.  Yoga books, magazines, and other publications are an ongoing source of my education of Yoga as a mental, physical and spiritual practice.  My main interests in self education for my Yoga teaching: 

  • studying human anatomy and movement to develop my own program applying Yoga as an optimal Stretch and Strengthen Program for Athletes, and also to educate the general public in my Multi-level classes.  The following are detailed books on this subject that have helped me enormously:

Anatomy of Hatha Yoga   H. David Coulter

Anatomy and Human Movement   Palastanga, Field, and Soames

A Physiological Handbook of Yogasana    Mel Robin

Kripalu Yoga    Richard Faulds

Yoga Journal (magazine)  

  • studying the historical and spiritual sacred texts of Yoga and Hinduism (and related literature), for my personal growth and to have a greater understanding of the original and broader purpose of Yoga.  

Bhagavad Gita    Bhagavad Gita 

The Upanishads 

Ramayana

Yoga: Discipline of Freedom  by Barbara Stoller Miller  

Sadhana by Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize for Literature)  Tagore