Welcome to the Kula!
This page is dedicated to the 400+ graduates of my teacher trainings. I have been leading teacher trainings for over 10 years and have been fortunate to stay connected to so many graduates from all over the world including Canada, US, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Europe.
My teacher trainings have always been in a cohort style which we call "the kula, meaning family or close community". This cohort style creates a space for students to practice, learn and build friendships that continue to last years after the training. We may come to the practice of yoga for more flexibility, strength, or even a teacher but we stay in the practice because of the kula. Sign up for my newsletter to learn more about my next training.
*If you are a graduate of any of the trainings I've led, e-mail me to be featured on this page!
Dr. Dan Skinner - Victoria, British Columbia
Dr. Dan is a Chiropractor and strength and conditioning coach. He is the co-creator and owner of ThirdSpace mvmt.
In his practice, he uses a blend of hands-on work along with exercise and education to help his patients feel better and reach their full potential. Dan has received advanced training in Functional range conditioning (FRC, FRA, Kinstretch) as well as other functional movement assessment which give him a unique outlook on the human body. He is passionate about anatomy and loves to get into the weeds discussing the nuance of the human body. He is also an avid cold water swimmer and can often find him down at a local beach dipping with his corgi pup Gordie :)
thirdspacemvmt.com
Cecily Elmas - Vancouver, British Columbia
Cecily is an author, the COO of The Corker Co, has her ACC with the ICF. She is a bold facilitator and a heart-centered leader. For the past 18 years, Cecily has been facilitating impactful personal and leadership development work that scales for teams and organizations. She has over 400 hours of coaching experience, as a Certified Professional Coach, Certified StandOut Debrief Coach, and yoga & mindfulness instructor. Cecily is exceptional at hosting impactful and introspective experiences such as lululemon Immersions, One Yoga Teacher Trainings alongside Ryan Leier, and the Yes Assembly with The Corker Collective. Most recently, she has been appointed the VP of The International Coaching Federation, Vancouver Branch to support all Board Members with their future endeavors.
beguided.ca
Micole Noble - Carlsbad, California
Micole is passionate about guiding others to their best life. Her belief is in a consciousness-based approach to teaching and coaching and she is a Certified Chopra Master Educator, Chopra Faculty member, and Chopra Mentor Coach. Teaching the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga is a specialty of hers, and she is obsessed with Yoga philosophy and history. This along with her corporate experience makes sharing the sister sciences of Yoga and Meditation to reduce stress in the workplace a calling of hers as well.
Micole is a newly published Author who shares her personal journey to creating her own sacred space in Maui, HI and the tool(s) she used to get there in the book Sacred Spaces, Subtle Shifts for Mind, Body, and Home Transformation.
micolenoble.com
Ali Fillmore - Vancouver, British Columbia
Ali has spent nearly 25 years working within the realms of learning, leadership, and personal development.
She honours the privilege of being certified and practiced in facilitation, coaching, yoga teacher training, and contemplative end-of-life care.
Throughout the years, her work has revealed her gift of inspiring others to transition to the next phase of life with ease.
Ali has recently chosen to focus her energy on serving the living and the dying with her fledgling service, Avery – your partner to fearless and meaningful living, and ultimately, dying. Whether you’re alive and well or have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, contemplating death, and exploring your fears is a powerful way to bring more meaning to your life…NOW!
Jeanne Hansen - Seattle, Washington
Jeanne is a mindful and creative coach combining her background in art, psychology, yoga and wellness for individuals, teams and organizations. Through her work, she discovered that creativity + mindfulness are key ingredients to living an authentic, present, and fulfilled life. Jeanne is a Certified yoga and meditation teacher and a Certified Coach through Co Active Training Institute, the world’s most rigorous professional coach training in the industry. She leverages her background to bring a creative, grounded approach to all her endeavors through her business Red Circle Shadow.
redcircleshadow.com
Nishga Hotz-Felder - Vancouver, British Columbia
Nishga is the owner of The Full Minded Athlete - a consulting business that provides yoga, meditation and mindfulness training to youth and varsity athletes. As a teen, she had decade long Rhythmic Gymnastics career which earned her a spot on the Canadian Junior National Team in 2003. This experience showed her both the rewards and the difficulties that come with being in a high level, competitive sport - stress, competition nerves and the emotional impact of handling physical injuries. After pursuing a successful professional dance career in her late teens and early twenties, she completed her 200 hr yoga teacher training and is committed to providing the tools of yoga and mindfulness to the next generation of youth and varsity level athletes.
thefullmindedathlete.com
Char Hubbard - Beaverton, Oregon
Char spent several years in the military and racing abusing her body. Her journey started as a student only using the poses. Yoga helped ease the the muscles from all the training. She has been a group fitness, yoga instructor and personal trainer for over 25 years. A long journey of books, instructors and finally Mindfulon helped her find her way into the full path of yoga. Yoga will forever be a life long journey of learning.
Char has had a lived with family addiction first as a daughter of an alcoholic and as a mother of an addict and would love to someday work with those in recovery doing yoga and meditation. Currently working at Lululemon Washington square in Oregon.
Cara Petrofes – New Braunfels, Texas
Living her purpose as a stand for possibility and guiding others, Cara brings yoga and breath work to children in the special education and residential treatment population. She creates a safe space for children to explore their emotions, express their emotions and regulate their emotions. Cara has learned from the Prison Yoga Project and embodies a trauma informed approach in her interactions and classes with her students. By creating this safe space for children, Cara has learned from her students the value of vulnerability, connection and the true meaning of kula. She aims to continue her direct care as well as her research on how yoga influences children’s emotion regulation to further learn and share the benefits of pouring into our children who need us most.
Darlene Santore "Coach Dar" - Phoenix, Arizona
As a Board Certified Occupational Therapist, business executive, author and speaker, she is passionate about helping people break through barriers to achieve their goals. Recently named Senior Fellow of PathNorth – an organization comprised of world leaders and CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, her powerful message continues to reach a global audience. As a mental skills and leadership coach, she blends a knowledge of science, psychology and achievement with her personal passion for life. Additionally, Coach Dar is a trailblazer for Phoenix women and was awarded the Most Inspiring Woman from WNBA. It is her unique style and approach during, transformational seminars, high impact speaking engagements, and exclusive one-on-one sessions that has helped people say no to the status quo, to raise the bar in their lives, to break free so they can breakthrough, and to reignite their hearts to live a purposeful life.
coachdar.com
Jeremy Walton - Chicago, Illinois
Jeremy is a mindful performance coach, creator and CEO of The Walton Method, an online mindful performance training system which provides a daily meditation practice combined with a Strength and Yoga hybrid workout to provide structure and direction towards personal athleticism. Jeremy’s love of fitness started at a young age and continued through high school and in college where he played football for the University of Arizona. Since then, Jeremy has influenced the health and fitness industry through teaching and training hundreds of professional fitness trainers and reaching thousands of clients through his work as a previous Fitbit ambassador, Director of Training for SHRED415, Equinox fitness manager, VHI Celebrity Fit Club trainer, and a Mirror Instructor. In 2011 he was named Gatorade’s Fitness Influencer of the Year, a lululemon ambassador since 2014, and featured on Yoga International Online. He has facilitated workouts and workshops with Conde' Nast, Asutra, Wave5, Equinox, The Chicago Blackhawks, The Chicago Bulls, and the Chicago Cubs.
waltonmethod.com
Heather Hall - Santa Cruz, California
Heather is a yoga teacher, personal trainer specializing in injury rehabilitation, and current store manager for lululemon. Through studying yoga philosophy and her own shadow work, Heather discovered her purpose: helping others honour their “human experience” so they may show up as their authentic selves. Her work throughout this pandemic has been to bring the balance of effort and ease off the mat and into the workplace. Her coaching themes for her team this holiday have been around finding the balance of peace and pride (aka resisting “hustle culture”) and empowering her team to redefine and commit to self care to avoid burnout while hitting their goals. Her happiest moments are when she’s on a hike with her son, at dinner with friends, and when her face is buried in her Saint Bernard’s fur.
Heather can be found on Instagram @hevrhall and at vegan restaurants in Northern California.
Sophie Abboud - Ottowa, Ontario
Sophie is CEO and founder of the “Sophie Abboud | Leadership Development” enterprise, a company with the mission to help people acquire the skills they need to become great teammates, managers and leaders. Sophie is a bilingual young entrepreneur and a yoga and meditation teacher. She worked as a leader for many years at the global retail brand lululemon. Her company’s unique approach at combining leadership and mindfulness, is what has attracted individuals and enterprises in various fields such as mental health, fitness, real estate, construction and hospitality. She practices yoga and meditation for her own well-being, spends her spare time with her loved ones specifically her dog Eska, her 7 months old Boe, serves her community whenever she can and offers free meditation classes. Sophie is dedicated in helping people eliminate un-happiness in the workplace because better people make better organisations, hoping to better the world we collectively live in.
Emilie Le Bras - Paris, France
Since graduating mindfulon in 2019, Emily has changed her perspective of life and what truly matters to her. Her motto is to be free and live in possibility - to wake up on the morning to do what makes her happy and do what she does with love.
What drives her in life is to learn, explore, share, be curious, experience, have fun and be surrounded by people she loves and who inspire her.
She creates a space where people can feel relaxed, learn and find their holistic approach of wellness, connect with people, train, explore different practice and their own potential - and of course have fun! But mostly, she wants them to feel included - yoga is for everyone.
@emilie.lebras
Prosper Matussiere - Paris, France
Prosper is a gymnast, gymnastic performance trainer, personal trainer and yoga teacher. Prosper is in love with movement, body mechanics and the way the body can move. He is passionate about giving people an opportunity to move better and smarter. A body can’t move without a clear mind. Prosper will offer you an opportunity to elevate yourself, move your body and mind with more efficiency.
"Come as you are and leave the way you never been before."
@lecoachprosper
Sara Demizio – Toronto, Ontario
Sara is a mindful leader whose career continues to reflect her core values of Connection, Presence, and Joy. For over a decade, she has led teams at lululemon across North America both in retail stores and community-centred projects. Currently, she is lululemon’s Team Canada community manager, and oversees strategic planning and programming with a mission to accelerate equitable access to well-being through the power of sport. Since graduating from MindFulOn YLTT in 2019, she continues her yoga and mindfulness practice in service of her purpose: to be the hug that reminds you to carry on in your power.
@sarademizio
Tina Hartwick - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Tina is a 200 hour mind.ful.on RYT, the Head Coach at Badger CrossFit in Wauwatosa, WI since 2016, a certified life coach since 2018, and Active Life Pain Specialist since 2019. She owns Resilient Coaching where she life coaches and runs retreats in the Milwaukee area. She is a lifelong athlete starting soccer at the age of 6 all the way to Division 1 Collegiate and Professional Volleyball. She has been training clients since 2011 and truly cares about each individual that walks through the door. Her style of training is fun, constantly varied, and effective. Nothing lights her up more than helping someone get out of pain, reach a fitness goal, or just help someone feel better.