Our Teachers
Teachers at The Yoga Room have a wealth of experience and diversity. We are all lovers, practitioners and certified teachers of yoga!
Elissa
Teaching has always been in Elissa’s heart. She was a school teacher by profession for nine years and completed her first yoga teacher training in 2006. With a sense of adventure, she seized the opportunity to connect her love of travel and culture and taught in schools in England, The Middle East, and most recently China. In addition to classroom teaching, she also brought yoga to her students and the communities in which she lived. Self practice and self study are an integral part of her life. Currently, Elissa is continuing her yogic studies with Sarah Powers at the Insight Yoga Institute in San Francisco. Insight Yoga weaves the ancient healing traditions of Yoga, Buddhism, and Spiritual Psychology. Elissa is an intuitive, challenging, and fun loving teacher who makes yogic practices relevant to her students. She aspires to teach her students to live a more meaningful and easeful life.
Darlene
Darlene has been practicing and studying yoga for over 11 years, and honours the practice as the passion of her life. Darlene is a truly gifted and compassionate teacher who aspires to help her students to find their own personal path through their yoga practice. She teaches acceptance of the present through a balance of understanding and humour, all the while facilitating and encourging her students to embrace the growth and change that come from steady practice.
Darlene has studied and practiced with Elissa Ballard, Michelle Sabo, J-P Tamblyn, and has studied and explored Ashtanga yoga with David Robson and David Swenson. She has pursued teacher training in children’s yoga with Shakta Kaur Khalsa, and received training in prenatal yoga with Janice Clarfield.
Marilyn
Marilyn took her first Hatha Yoga class 33 years ago after the birth of her son left her with lower back pain. Since then her yoga experience has included primarily Hatha and Kripalu yoga with forays into Iyengar, Flow, Kundalini and Ashtanga yoga. She has also taken some classes in Feldenkrais. Marilyn took her teacher training with Maureen Daigle through Innerquest Yoga and has been teaching now for twelve years. She has taught primarily Kripalu Yoga with a touch of other styles added in. She has also taught Prenatal Yoga, Meditation, Breathwork, Aromatherapy, Healing Touch and Reflexology.
After closing her own studio, Breath of Joy Yoga, five years ago, she picked up her teaching in Orono and then at The Yoga Room in Whitby. Marilyn has led twelve yoga retreats and always looks forward to creating her annual retreat in June at Harmony Dawn Retreat Centre. “Yoga is not something that we do, it is something that we live. I am grateful every day for what the practice of yoga has brought to my life and plan on teaching until I can move no more………perhaps at 103 years old.”
Kim
Kim has been interested in yoga and Eastern philosophies since her youth. She became interested in Kundalini yoga because of its positive effects on the subtle energy and anatomy of the body. She practices and teaches yoga because of her first-hand experience of its positive benefits and having seen the effects of those benefits on others. The Yoga Room provides a warm, intimate setting for practicing yoga. The class size provides more interaction between student and teacher. The students at the Yoga Room contribute to a welcoming community of others who share the interest in yoga.
Angela
Angela is a competitive cyclist and athlete. She has had the opportunity to study yoga with some of the world’s finest yoga teachers including Ron Reid, Diane Bruni, David Gellineau and Jeannine Woodall. Angela’s study of Buddhist practice and theory merged beautifully with the vinyasa style practice of ashtanga yoga in her life. She is humbled by the opportunity to teach: the opportunity to pass on the knowledge from her teachers, her students and community of The Yoga Room. Angela enjoys taking classes and teaching classes, and feels a profound sense of gratitude to be part of The Yoga Room community of joyful and dedicated students and teachers. The practice of yoga is often undertaken for its physical benefits but, over time the practice has a wonderful way of slipping into every day life, bringing the balance of effort and ease on the mat to mindfulness and kindness off the mat.
The joy of practicing, teaching and speaking about yoga with fellow practitioners is beautifully summed up by a quote by K. Patthabi Jois:
“Be happy you can practice, the practice will make you happy.” I look forward to meeting you on the mat. May you be well and happy.
Lorie
Lorie is an accomplished singer and high school music teacher who has dabbled in yoga and dance throughout her life. In 2006, she began practicing at the Yoga Room with Suzanne Steel. Suzanne’s expertise and compassionate teaching style inspired Lorie to pursue teacher training at Balanced Life Yoga in Uxbridge. Over the years, she has expanded her studies to pursue her interest in the effects of yoga on health and the nervous system. She has travelled to Kripalu in Massachusetts to study yoga and meditation with Sarah and Ty Powers, founders of the Insight Yoga Institute. This past summer Lorie spent a week in Montreal studying Iyengar and Ashtanga yoga with Hart Lazer and Ramanand Patel. Lorie has two daughters, Kathryn who teaches yoga in Kingston and Lindsay who practices Bikram yoga in Vancouver. Her husband, Brian, has studied meditation with Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg and Mark Coleman.
Andrea
Andrea became a Certified Yoga Teacher in 2006, and has been practicing yoga for over 10 years. Andrea’s teaching style reflects her belief that there is a yoga practice for every body, and that everyone can ‘do’ yoga. Andrea blends her 15+ years of experience working in corporate environments with her passion for practicing and teaching yoga to bring this ancient philosophy and its principles to modern-day students in a language that they can easily understand.
Andrea has continued to deepen her knowledge and understanding of yoga and its teachings by attending classes, workshops, and teacher trainings on a regular basis. Special emphasis has been given to studying and applying the teachings of functional anatomy and movement as developed by Susi Hately Aldous, Canada’s leading expert in yoga therapy.
Jody
Jody joins The Yoga Room community having been involved in competitive sport from a very early age. She has competed internationally for Canada in trampoline and has had the privilege of being 3 time national synchro trampoline champion. These intense athletic experiences taught Jody the importance of focus and visualization, but she recognized that she was looking for more. 8 years ago Jody attended her first yoga class at the local gym and was hooked. The transition to Yoga came naturally to Jody, building on the strength and flexibility already so inherent in her body. But it wasn’t until she found The Yoga Room that she really ‘got’ yoga. Through her classes and teacher Jody’s practice developed, deepened, and became regular. Wanting to pursue a deeper connection with the practice, Jody took the plunge in 2008 and began a 200-hour teacher training certification. Having completed her training, Jody is thrilled to have the opportunity to share her knowledge and her passion for yoga with the students of The Yoga Room.
“Through teaching I hope to give students a well rounded practice and a sense of peace and contentment when they leave.”
Marisa
Marisa is extremely passionate about helping others to attain a better quality of life. After many years of suffering with anxiety and a stiff and sore body, she attended a yoga class and knew instantly she had opened up a door to a powerful and effective world, where healing oneself naturally was possible. After completing her certification in the 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training at Balanced Life Yoga School Marisa felt there was still more to learn and has since acquired her Reiki Master certification and taken workshops in Yoga Therapy. Recently she completed a specific Yoga Therapy module on Spine injury, as well as using yoga to release mental and physical injury and suffering. Marisa believes wholeheartedly that her true dharma ( divine mission) in life is to “Spread the love” and help people realize their full potential.
