Brad Waites
Brad Waites is one of less than 40 teachers worldwide to be certified at the 2000-hour level by the College of Purna Yoga, and is currently a member of the college faculty. After a career as a partner in a civil litigation firm and a published author of legal articles, he began pursuing yoga as a means of self-empowerment and self-fulfillment. Years of study led him to Purna Yoga, which seeks, through individual and group practice, to evolve the consciousness of all humanity. He also holds a professional level teacher’s certificate from Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, where he lived and taught for several years. Brad leads workshops and classes throughout North America and internationally, including appearances at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference, the Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong, the Toronto Yoga Conference and the Vancouver Yoga Conference. He has a special interest in introducing students to the beauty of yoga philosophy.
Robbi-Layne Robertson
I found yoga while on a trip to India, for a friends wedding. I really enjoyed the “doing/activity” of yoga and felt great after, both in my body and mind. The inner peace that comes from practicing is what keeps me coming back to the mat. The physical benefits of yoga; strength, balance, flexibility & focus support all my other sports and outdoor activities.
Yoga has become a means for me to share through and apply my years of academics, teaching skills, love of activity, propensity for play, counselling and communication training to create opportunities for fun non-competitive, social, emotional, physical learning and exploration.
Franklin Schryver
It was 1982 when I first discovered Iyengar yoga. My knees were shot from jogging, my back ached constantly. I knew I needed a dramatic change. Somewhat skeptically, I enrolled in an Iyengar class. Soon, my once a week practice become three, then four, and finally a daily part of my life. What had begun as simply a desire to feel healthier and more flexible became a lifelong commitment. Teaching was my next, natural step.
After a two-year apprenticeship under Wende Davis in Vancouver, I travelled to India to study directly under Gita Iyengar. It was the most intensive, challenging month of my life and reaffirmed my desire to teach others. In 1993, I opened the North Shore’s first yoga studio while continuing my own personal studies both throughout North America and on a return visit to India.
More than any other form of yoga, Iyengar yoga incorporates a diverse range of props — including belts, blocks, even chairs — allowing students at all levels to more easily perform the yogic postures correctly. As their strength and flexibility increase, this use of props is constantly modified to respect individual limits while encouraging each student to continually push beyond personal limits.
When I began Iynegar yoga, learning opportunities were limited. Today I am delighted to be teaching here at Om Prem, helping students of all ages and abilities to experience the joy and freedom this ancient art brings.
Kim Boyd
After many years of athletics and various ongoing injuries, yoga found me one day when I witnessed a woman practicing poolside. Her strong, agile body and flowing movement set my eventual union with yoga in motion. I love that yoga helps bring me into balance. It’s the food that fuels my soul and gives my mind and body a connection to something more than my physical form. It is my breath. I’ve explored many forms since I began to practice, and I primarily teach Vinyasa Flow, Power Yoga, and Hot Yoga, allowing, not forcing, with mindful movement and breath, I seek to provide an environment for students to explore their inner source of power, goodness and strength, unleashing the unlimited potential within. I like to encourage an attitude of relaxed resilience. And I love seeing my students transform as they blossom in their self-discovery.
Cielo English
What can students expect from your class? Expect to be guided with encouragement to move and be in the most authentic place in yourself. What I wish to give is a supportive environment for you to unfold safely, patiently, brilliantly, beautifully. I love creative flows, therapeutic alignment, skillful action, and the simplicity of movement and breath. Expect to dig deep, be challenged, & expect the unexpected.
Why Yoga? I love that I will always be at the beginning of something new. Yoga consistently reveals to me layers of being that inspire many facets of my life and settles me into a balanced place that feels like home. I love opening to possibility, & the creativity and freedom of spirit that we reveal through our practice.
Inspirations: Knowing the truth of my own transformations, and witnessing the unfolding of teachers and students around me. Mostly, I’m inspired by sharing an amazing life with my family and being in awe of all my many blessings.
Randi Bradshaw
I am a Registered Therapeutic Yoga Teacher (RYT) and Holistic Nutritionist (RHN). I also hold a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Biology and Psychology from McMaster University. After years of working as a research chemist in the Pharmaceutical Industry, I grew tired of the reactionary approach of the allopathic health field. It was then that I decided to switch my focus to health promotion and disease prevention to help people live a healthy and active life, free from a dependency on medication where possible. This holistic way of living is intended to empower people with the knowledge of how whole foods and mindful movement can sustain a healthy and whole body.
Jayne Lloyd-Jones
Having studied yoga since her teens with teachers all over the world, Jayne discovered Iyengar yoga in 1996. Encouraged by the vitality and balance she gained from the practice, she embarked on the Iyengar yoga teacher-training program and four years later was certified as an Iyengar yoga teacher. She continues to upgrade her qualifications, to attend classes and workshops with inspiring teachers, and to join an Iyengar class wherever she travels. Her one-month intensive in Pune, India studying with the Iyengar family, is a career highlight.Jayne communicates her enthusiasm for yoga to her students, and demonstrates the vitality and poise that come with a regular yoga practice. She considers that yoga is to be lived ‐ not just in the studio – and believes that the energy and calmness that come from yoga can help create stability in your life. Jayne has a full-time career in Public Relations and finds that yoga keeps her balanced in a hectic world.Renee Cyr
Renee began her fitness career 15 years ago and has been teaching Pilates for the past 8 years. She has taught over 3000 Pilates classes, all with the same passion and commitment that she dedicates to perfecting her art every single day. It is not only Renee’s intuitive and healing teaching abilities that make her unique, but her hands on approach and precise explanations enable her students to walk away feeling confident about what they have learned.
“I strive to create a positive experience for each and every student regardless of fitness level or ability. In my class you can expect a fusion of meditative movement, muscle isolation and integration.”
Kathleen Ross
Kathleen began practicing yoga about 30 years ago while still a student. She’s studied many styles over the years with dozens of inspirational teachers and is delighted to find more people discovering how yoga rejuvenates mind, body and spirit. Her supportive teaching style leads students through a moving meditation using smooth transitions between postures with focus on the breath. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Kathleen enjoys hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing and skiing and relies on yoga to keep her body strong, flexible and injury free. Kathleen has taught first timers to well seasoned yogis in a variety of settings locally and internationally and looks forward to meeting new students and participating in their yoga journey. One of her favourite quotes is “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere”.
Stephanie Berto
I have been on and off the mat for the past 15 years. I love yoga and Pilates. I love to move and use these disciplines to connect with myself and keep centered, calm and empowered. Yoga keeps my life in balance and allows me to deal with stress, disappointment and whatever life throws at me. As a former Olympian I was used to pushing my body to it’s limitations and being competitive with others and myself. It was in a yoga class that I learnt to listen, to be truthful to my inner voice and move from the outward experience inwards. I am constantly amazed as we get real with our physical body how there is an organic shift in all aspects of our being, physical, mental and spiritual.
I am inspired by watching my students challenge themselves to reach their full potential , experiencing their unique wholeness and greatness. My desire is to cultivate a passion for health and wellness in each individual to help people feel great, be in control of their life and live their dreams.
Sandra Negrin
You will not be bored in Sandra’s hatha and flow classes. Her extreme passion for inspiring students will challenge you to explore your physical and inner boundaries in a safe, warm and friendly environment. Through clear instruction, Sandra focuses on a solid foundation for each posture, body alignment and core strength. Sandra believes that life is an exploration in balance – strength and ease, energy and relaxation and hard work and play. Sandra invites you to practice yoga and find pleasure in your pursuit of balance.
Laura Matheson
Laura teaches yin, restorative, and hatha yoga – encouraging students to find ease in all poses. Laura believes in cultivating stillness and has first-hand experience with the high-stress whirlwind that can happen when we forget how to just be. She feels as though yoga helps us tap into our best selves and embraces the idea of yoga as practice, which keeps her from pushing students or herself into the ideal of physical perfection. After being lucky enough to train with Paul & Suzee Grilley, who promote the idea that aesthetics are secondary to what a pose feels like, Laura works to help students focus on their own experiences and discover their ideal positioning in each pose.
Rochelle Quarry
In times of both ease and crisis yoga grounds me. In the past I sought to find completeness, purpose and affirmation in my life through external means. What I am discovering through my practice is that these qualities can only be fulfilled from within and each and every one of us is capable of exposing this contentment.
I believe that the practice of yoga is a cycle of evolution, refinement and transformation. Each day we bring a new perspective to our mats. I offer you a chance to be introspective and explore your inner world through movement and breath awareness. My classes provide a light-hearted, safe, supportive, inclusive space for practitioners of all levels. As a community we will accompany each other on our personal journeys, practice with the fearless vulnerability of a beginner’s mind, attempt new depths, and laugh at ourselves if we need to, and be present to connect to the bigger picture, seeing the world for all its abundance.
Tim Cyr
Healing begins with, and at, the heart and by connecting heart energy and the beautiful ancient art of yoga, Tim utilizes the connections of energy, restoration and meditation to bring balance to mind-body-spirit. Trained in Reiki, mediation, reflexology, Ho’omanaloa (Hawaiian energy healing), restorative / yin / classic hatha / laughter / kids / prenatal (and ever growing) styles of yoga… Tim’s connection to healing allows and invites a deeper relationship of one’s personal growth and wholeness in the practice of simply “living life”… simply.
Jackie Grad
I first fell in love with yoga while traveling in Thailand 20 years ago. The inner peace and congruency I felt after first practicing yoga changed the way I saw myself and this journey we call life . This inner shift led me to take my teacher training in 1999. I have taught yoga off and on since then
and now yoga has become a way of life for me. It permeates all that I am, all that I do, all that I think and feel. I bring this awareness to all of my classes no matter what intensity I may be teaching. I do not like to label my classes but if I were to describe them with one word, it would be “mindfulness”. Yoga is an adventure to me, every posture has the ability to transform our lives in a second. Through the tool of asanas, we can begin to live in our bodies and connect with it’s deep wisdom and therefor reconnect the dialogue between spirit and body
Atta
Atta’s journey in yoga started over 20 years ago as part of a preparation course for a meditation retreat and he’s been a student of yoga since. His passion for leadership development and better understanding the human potential led him on a self-developmental journey that resulted in studying coaching through the Integral Coaching Canada® where he received his professional coaching certificate. With a deep desire to serve the community he lives in, and with the support of yogis and yoginis within the community, he founded Om Prem Yoga Studio in the Spring of 2012.
Atta offers Restorative, Gentle Hatha, and classical Hatha (alignment base) classes in the studio. He also offers one-on-one coaching in the studio, clients’ offices (for executive coaching clients only) and via the Internet anywhere in the world in English or Persian. If you want help and support on an aspect of your self-development I’d love to join forces with you in expediting your development.
Sandi Spear
Throughout my life, I have found my true happiness while in the mountains. My whole life changed when I was in a serious accident. Due to injuries, I lost my strength, energy and spirit. In Vancouver someone suggested taking yoga to work on my recovery. Right away I knew I had found a way to move forward in a positive direction. The more I learned the more I wanted to share with others the importance of movement, balance, and the breath.
All my classes start with a connection of the body and mind. While teaching I work on establishing a solid foundation, correct alignment, and the exploration of movement while emphasizing the importance of breath and the calmness of the mind.