I’ve been passionately involved in the fitness industry since the late 80’s when I received a college diploma in Recreation Facilities Management specializing in fitness centre management. As a group fitness instructor & personal trainer I was able to assist chiropractors, physios and occupational therapists.
After receiving my 200 and 500 hours as a yoga teacher during the mid 90’s, I taught sports specific yoga to divers, swimmers, soccer and hockey players while raising my 3 children, who taught me the most. After relocating to the Central Okanagan I began running kids yoga camps and designing my own Ayurvedic product bodycare line and studied aromatherapy and apothecary. I was blessed having a talented husband who built 2 Yoga studios in our homes so that I could teach and be available to my children. This fostered a beautiful connection to my community and the teaching faculty of the school who I still have a lovely yoga relationship with.
When asked how I came to be a yoga teacher, I had some health scare “nudges”. I practiced Baptiste yoga on an old VHS while I studied the many yoga lineages while teaching small private groups but was still a dedicated aerobics teacher & personal trainer. I experienced a severe heart arrhythmia and these episodes involved a heart rate spike at 286 BPM. I was misdiagnosed with ARVD(C), a serious heart condition.I had an electrophysiology exam and then I had to stop doing any cardiovascular exercise. I remember walking into the fitness centres and gyms that I taught “fitness” and asking my students if they would humble me and allow me to share the yoga that I had been studying and teaching on the side. Divine intervention literally transformed my career for me. For this I am forever appreciative. Incidentally, as I learned more about Ayurveda and the “Pitta dosha” I realized that my adrenaline fix from teaching fitness classes was causing this condition. I know that Yoga truly saved me from myself and brought me back into my body. I just wasn’t listening. Thankfully, I’m back to trail running and snowshoe/trail racing with absolutely no heart issues. My mission as a teacher…to open a dialogue for my students to use inquiry and really befriend themselves by opening their eyes, ears, and all of the senses as well as opening their heart, intuition and breath. This is where the prana moves and we can sense the imbalances. “If you can’t breath, you likely shouldn’t be there”.
While studying yoga therapy in 2004 ( blessings to Leila Stuart at Centerpoint Yoga Therapy School), family tragedies shifted me abruptly. I was grateful to have a yoga toolbox to help me through. And in 2006 we moved to the Okanagan from Vancouver and I created an interval fitness and trail workout program called Enviro Fitness and an Aqua Therapy Program that is still taught at Johnson Bentley Pool. I continue to lead these practices in my residential pool during the Okanagan summer.
In 2010 I began studying Ayurveda and completed training as an Ayurveda Wellness councillor and a Yoga of Recovery teacher (blessings to Durga Leela) at the Sivanada Ashram on Paradise Island. Through the years of having young children I also studied with teachers like David Swenson and David Williams, Seane Corn, Dean Lerner, Amrit Desai and Pattabhi Jois. And then in 2019 went back to my love of studying Yoga Therapy at Ajna Yoga Therapy College in Victoria.
I completed my 800 hr and registered with the IAYT to launch a new business, REMEDY Yoga. This tapestry of Yoga therapy, nature based fitness training, herb foraging , Aromatherapy bodycare, diet, lifestyle, aqua therapy and ancestral wisdom is how I encourage my clients to explore and be curious as to what they are seeking. Some days it might be a foraging hike, others a creation of soup, or a group yoga practice…maybe a bath and meditation. We need to ask each day…”What is my remedy?”
I meet my clients where they’re at on a day to day, minute to minute basis. Forever humbled not only by the teachings of yoga and ayurveda but also the Indigenous peoples land that I am honoured to teach, live, grow, and forage on.
“As an uninvited guest on the unceded land & ancestral territories of the syilx okanagon people. I’m grateful for having these lands and waters to live and learn upon and will remain a steward honouring the history, language and culture.
“We were born with an innate wisdom, if we could just get out of our own way”.
