About

For 18 years I have been teaching yoga, studying, and travelling around the world. My practice began in Vancouver, Canada with Eoin Finn of Blissology in 2001, followed by training with Kathryn Beet of Yogaspace in Toronto. Under her excellent tutelage I completed my first comprehensive 1-year 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program focused on classical Hatha and contemporary Vinyasa.

Upon graduating I moved to Byron Bay, Australia where I based myself for a decade of international yoga teaching, study, and personal adventures. These experiences culminated with an internship at a yoga academy in Nepal, a Blissology Teacher Training in Bali, and the development of my training program and manual, now in its 4th edition.

In 2017 I completed a 300 Hour Advanced Yoga Training at an ashram in India which lead to earning an E-RYT 500. I have taught two Yoga Teacher Trainings in Canada and one in New Zealand, and most recently was the Resident Yoga Teacher for the charitable organization Whispering Seed in Kalaw, Burma (Myanmar) in early 2020. Currently I conduct one-on-one Yoga Teacher Trainings in Windsor, Canada with the aim to lead group trainings and workshops hosted at Balance Yoga by Katera Zappacosta later in the year.

Photo Credit: Tammy Blaze Photography

Asia

Amongst the mountains, rivers and cities of Asia is where I feel most at home, and they always charm me to return. With yoga as a passion and career, it's the perfect region to learn and stay ignited as a student, teacher and traveller. I've explored much of India including the remote states of the northeast, the foothills of the Himalaya in Nepal, and life along the Mekong River in most of the southeast Asian countries it passes through. Local boat rides on the Brahmaputra, Tonlé Sap, and Irrawaddy rivers allowed me to witness how millions of people make their living, move themselves and goods, and many live out their entire lives.

Nepal & Indonesia - 1st YTT in Canada

During a 3 month stay in Nepal, I settled in Kathmandu for a while to continue studies through an internship at the Himalayan International Yoga Academy. An equally rich experience I had in that country was spending many days at the pilgrimage site of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. A few years later I returned to southeast Asia for 6 months of travel, finally landing in Bali where I had enrolled in another 200-hour training, this time with Eoin Finn, my first teacher. These continued trainings prepared me to begin the 6 month process of writing my own teaching manual and developing a course that I taught first in 2015 in Canada.

India & Dharamsala

At the end of 2017 I returned to India to study at the AyurYoga Eco Ashram in Mysore district, earning my RYT500 qualification. All of my teachers at the ashram, including Krishna Chaitanya, Swami Prabodh Chaitanya, Vinod Kumar Rajan, and Ganga Sanjay, were extraordinary guides and educators who bestowed in me a deeper grasp of yoga and sanskrit. To complete the year with a Buddhist quality, I headed north to experience Tibetan life in Dharamsala and visit the temples of the Dalai Lama, a remarkably serene part of the country.

For more on these experiences, please see my Blog.

2018 & 2019 Yoga Trainings - Canada/New Zealand

In 2018 I lead a second Yoga Teacher program which I co-taught alongside my dear friend and extraordinary teacher, Tammy Blaze, in Windsor, Canada. This course included a Buddhist temple visit and dharma talk, as well as a nature retreat with yoga and meditation to prepare our students to experience shinrin yoku and ikigai, the Japanese ways of forest bathing and our reason for being. We were caringly assisted by my previous YTT graduate and beautiful friend, Katera Zappacosta. The following year, while living in New Zealand I taught my first one-on-one course to a meditation teacher, a rich experience of reciprocity that grew into a lifelong friendship.

Travel, Life & Yoga

Like many who traverse around the globe, photography and writing are my constant companions, though my main purpose for travel is the people I encounter along the way and the varying cultural and environmental landscapes that ceaselessly intrigue and inform me. Through these experiences, including volunteering, I have learned a great deal about life, nature, and humanity.

Yoga has refined my perception of both the virtues and discrepancies I've witnessed, provided a clear vision for my aspirations, and has been an outstanding practice and profession that I am able to share so that others may experience more joy, improved health, equality, compassion and peace.