Lisa Hebert is a Lead Teacher Trainer for Yoga Tune Up®, a former professional dancer and an ever-expanding movement exploration enthusiast. She is a Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher and co-founder and director of multiple 200-HR YA Yoga Teacher Trainings. Her Yoga teaching experience spans from Pre-natal to Acro, Hatha to Power and Yin Yoga.

As a dancer/ choreographer, Lisa has created and performed in works that took her to theatres and festivals across North America and is now revisiting the on-the-road lifestyle as she brings Tune Up Fitness® trainings across Canada.

Workshops – Anatomy 101 for Yoga Teaching, Principles of Human Movement, Anatomy Expanded, Breath Camp: Anatomy & Mechanics of Breath

These trainings focus on the anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics of human movement as it relates to various movement practices, learning to embody and understand our own human structures.

Shanèl (She/Her) is a 200 hour certified teacher with further trainings in accessibility, anti-oppression and the Detour Method. She currently teaches in the GTA and frequents Ottawa and Montreal. She is passionate about making wellness accessible to all communities. She teaches from a body positive, trauma informed and anti-colonial lens. Her favorite part about teaching is connecting through breath and sharing a laugh.

Workshop – Creating Brave Spaces in Yoga with Focus on Inclusion and Anti Oppression 

Explore how to create brave spaces for students to show up their most authentic selves and foster an environment of belonging.  Learn to recognize intersections of privilege and oppression within your yoga practice as well as the yoga industry and understand how you  can use your privilege(s) to create more space for inclusivity and accessibility. We will also talk about inclusive cueing and modifications for bigger bodies as well as disabled bodies.

Michael Dynie dedicated his life to teaching yoga on a full-time basis a decade ago and loves working with people from all walks of life. Deeply inspired by studies with Richard Freeman, he has developed a fascination with teaching healthy movement patterns, innovating classical yoga postures (Ashtanga Vinyasa and Iyengar) for more specific purposes. Michael uses breath awareness to draw students into the core of the body – the seat of meditative awareness and postural stability. He invites you to compassionately explore your boundaries in search of the middle-path.

Workshop – A Compassionate Touch – Hands-on Assisting through an Educated Lens 

Hands-on assists can have a transformative effect on students’ yoga practices, and simultaneously reshape a teachers perspective on how to best use language to guide students through safer and more inclusive experiences that honour the diversity of the human body.

This workshop on adjustment techniques is open to teachers of yoga (and teachers in training) who are passionate about helping their students develop greater mind-body awareness through a combination of words and touch, informed by anatomical reasoning and evolved alignment theory. Giving the right adjustment has everything to do with context: learning how to teach the student rather than idealizing the pose.

Kilee is currently a student of an international certified yoga therapy program right here in Ottawa. She came to yoga as a young and anxious university student looking for ways to cope with the big change of moving continents. At the time she thought it would not be a “big deal,” but it sure was and she felt like she was lost at sea. Each class was an opportunity for her to get closer to herself and acknowledge the grief, sadness and anxiety she was experiencing. Her curiosity strengthened and she felt deeply connected to what yoga was all about.

Yoga Therapy is now where she commits most of her energy these days. For the longest time she couldn’t grasp the difference between yoga and yoga therapy and stumbled many times into contemplating the “point” of its distinction. She is excited to share her learnings and what she’s considered gems along the way. 

As a student yoga therapist she is keen to work with clients who are at pivotal moments in their lives. She has trained to accompany people in their most vulnerable, potential life shattering experiences such as, loss injury, disease and diagnosis.

As a person who has experienced trauma both physically and mentally she used to feel ill equipped, unable to support others because she thought she needed to have it all figured out. Now she see it as her truest strength as kindness and compassion lives there too. 

Alongside her passion for yoga therapy she also tend to other callings. She is always being called to environmental causes, hoarding of house plants and supporting older women in navigating technology.

Workshop – Yoga Therapy: Where Art Meets Science

Kilee will give you a taste of the profession of Yoga Therapy. This immersive workshop will highlight the pieces that differentiate yoga classes from yoga therapy. By acknowledging her scope of practice she will allow each individual to explore for themselves how they might show up in the world as a fresh eyed yoga teacher, who might be interested down the road to specialize. Kilee will let everyone take a deep dive into the new exciting field of Polyvagal Theory and how it relates to working with trauma. She will also let us observe with generosity, a first-time in-take session utilizing the Pañca Maya Kośa assessment.

Dr. Mark Wilkinson has led a joyful professional life unhindered by boundaries, combining the best of movement, science, the arts, and leadership into a career as a yoga teacher, actor/opera singer, fervent volunteer, and voice specialist. He has been seen and heard on stages and soundwaves throughout Canada as a baritone soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, voice-over artist, and national anthem singer. He has enjoyed contributing to the Ottawa-Gatineau community with all of the major artistic organizations and professional sports teams. Additionally, he was a busy yoga teacher at Elevate, Rama Lotus, and Upward Dog for many years. He owes a debt of gratitude to Mike Dynie and Mark Laham, his primary yoga mentors, for all of their generosity in their teachings. Dr. Mark received his doctoral degree in vocal health from The Ohio State University.

Workshop – A Primal Sound and the First Human Instrument

A public yoga class is a moving meditation carried on the breath of the students and the voice of the teacher. The gentle guidance of a teacher inspires every inhale, every exhale, and every powerfully soft movement of every individual in the space. Yoga is a humbling,
universal practice and yet even the most experience yogis finds themselves drawn to particular teachers. This connection/resonance is unavoidable.

In this rare workshop, Mark Wilkinson (known to most as “Dr. Mark”) shares his voice with hopeful yoga teachers who are looking to find theirs. Bringing together all the parts that make up the human voice – anatomy, physiology, psychology, emotion, speech, singing, acoustics, physics, communication, and others – Dr. Mark opens yogis’ hearts and minds to a topic too often forgotten in most yoga teacher trainings: the care and maintenance of a yoga teacher’s voice to ensure a long life of happy, healthy yoga-teaching.

This is a workshop not to be missed, given by a yoga teacher who happens to be a professional opera singer with a doctorate in vocal health. Yogis will leave feelings the vibrations of their voices and the deep resonance of their intentions as they share them effortlessly into the space on a free, ringing, articulate sound.

Crystale is a certified yoga teacher and mindfulness facilitator with over 10 years of teaching experience. She has always loved movement as dance and martial arts were some of her first pillars to movement.

She is a 7th degree Reiki Master, with additional training in Tibetan energy medicine and massage. She has studied different lineages and teachings of Tantra and has infused this wisdom in all that she offers.

Crystale guides her classes through intuitively feeling into what her clients need, making her classes always a brand new experience. She offers a variety of breath practices and emotional intelligence tools in her classes to deepen the experience of mindful movement.

Workshop – Intuitive Teaching

Together we will explore the art of trust, this is the key in teaching a yoga practice that is organically created as you move and flow with each new class.

Mastering trust is a process that invites you to embody the formless in form; Presence.

We will explore how humility and trust leads the way in allowing the flow of the Universe to guide your words and yoga practice. As how could you possibly know what each new client needs as they arrive to your class? The Universe knows and I am here to tell you that It has your back!

Your ability to embody presence, trust and humility opens you up to deep receptivity and curiosity. Just like an adventurer, you may move into your flow with ease and innocence, which allows you to feel your way forward. Your primary 7 senses are your doorway into listening and acting on the nudges of your intuition. We will deepen our connection and awareness of the senses which naturally relaxes the body and mind, to free yourself from over thinking about your next pose in class.

Empathy is both a gift and life skill, one of which is constantly changing and growing with you. The more you live in the moment, rather than mind, the more you feel your environment and relationships. Being empathic is essential for guiding your classes however emotional intelligence will balance, ground and stabilize you into your own core self so you don’t get lost in other people’s inner world experiences. We will utilize practical tools and exercises to emphasize the value and importance of emotional intelligence.

Finally, Einstein said everything is energy, simply vibrating at different frequencies. As you strengthen your relationship with your senses, empathy and emotional intelligence you will become more aware of the subtle flows of energies and the power of the words you express to your audience. Your breath can guide your mind back into the body so you may radiate the frequency of Love and peace that can change and alter the very room you are in. You are more powerful than your mind has let you Think and we will journey together into the heart of the moment so you may have a visceral experience of how deep and expansive you really are.