“Yonnie is the best teacher I’ve come across in my 25+ years of practice. Sensitive, rigorous, kind, honest, experienced and incredibly knowledgeable; as a counselor I particularly recommend her to my clients for trauma-sensitive movement and embodiment therapy.”
Everyone, regardless of their physical ability, colour, life stage, shape or history, can move and breathe. Yonnie actively welcomes those who do not fit typical yoga profiles to explore the endless variations and possibilities for human movement.
Yonnie’s movement classes are a rich blend of influences from Hatha yoga, yoga therapy, somatic movement, natural movement and functional movement. Yoga is not a practice frozen in time. In order for yoga to remain relevant, it needs to live, grow and evolve in harmony with today’s values, and to meet the needs of today’s practitioners.
Yonnie prefers fun, playful, exploratory and innovative approaches to teaching and learning over traditional authoritative approaches. Her classes support processes where each student finds their own answers based on their own sensory experiences rather than telling students how they should be.
Yoga Therapy
Yoga therapy is one of the many branches of yoga. It applies the principles, concepts and techniques of yoga towards specific therapeutic goals and aims to restore and maintain balance in the health of an individual.
“I came to Yonnie with severe sciatica pain, unable to find relief from physical therapy, acupuncture, TCM, or massage therapy. She was doing something I had never heard of: yoga therapy.
The slower pace and longer time spent in each asana was and continues to be of much greater benefit to not only my body, but also my psyche. Stress levels have dropped noticeably!
It’s been such a joy to follow along with Yonnie for nearly seven years. I have learned how to listen to the needs of my physical and mental health, especially living in one of the world’s largest cities.
Yonnie has also been a major influence in how I teach music, and how I interact with the world in general. She is knowledgeable, kind, and aware of her own humanness, and I strive to live up to that standard with my own students. ”
Trauma Sensitive Yoga
““If you have a comfortable connection with your inner sensations - if you can trust them to give you accurate information, you will feel in charge of your body, your feelings, your self” ”
Yonnie’s trauma sensitive yoga class creates a safe, predictable and non-judgmental space in which women who have experienced trauma may connect, befriend and reclaim their bodies.
“Perhaps the best thing I’ve ever lucked into as a person with a body that I like to use, but is often broken in some way, is Yoga with Yonnie. She brings knowledge, integrity, humor, and balance to her practice in a way that empowers her students to find the same things for themselves. When I started with Yonnie eight years ago, she was my teacher, now, she is my friend.”
