250 Hour Nature-Based Yoga Teacher Training

Ellen Reesor
Lead Trainer

Ellen’s first yoga class was at age 14, and though it was tough, she quickly fell in love with the way yoga made her feel. Though memberships were out of her price range at the time, she was determined to grow her yoga practice, so she volunteered through energy exchange programs, practicing in the evenings and cleaning the studio after classes.

As she broadened her practice, she completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in Hatha yoga, and later went on to complete a 500-hour Modo YTT as well as a 100-hour Modo Yoga Vinyasa Flow training. In 2018, Ellen completed a 10 month Teacher Training/Mentorship Program through Spirit Loft Movement Centre, which focused on an interdisciplinary approach to movement & mindfulness education. Ellen completed a 10 Day silent Vipassana Meditation Course and is currently enrolled in a 9 month meditation course studying under Poep Sa Frank Jude focusing on the five precepts. Ellen spends her winters rock climbing, mountaineering, and studying - working towards her bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She considers herself an eternal student and is constantly attending workshops and trainings to learn and grow.

Over the years, yoga has deeply enriched her life mentally, physically and spiritually, and she continues to find fulfillment in helping others to tap into the same joy that yoga has brought her.

Frank Jude Boccio
Mindfulness & Meditation

From the age of 4 or 5 years old, I’d been having experiences that only buddhism seemed to make any sense of (once I discovered buddhist books when I was around 10 or 11). These experiences were intimations of what the buddhist tradition refers to as "not-self" and "emptiness." I read some books about buddhism throughout high school, but more from curiosity than from any sense of necessity or desire to take up the practice. My sister's death from cancer when I was 16 shook me to my core and I began a deep search for meaning in the face of mortality. At 18, I began practicing at the NY Dharmadhatu where I practiced for several years before making my way to the NY Zendo Shobo-ji. After a year or so there, I turned away from any formal relationship with teachers or community, but I practiced informally at Zen Mountain Monastery with no inclination to become a formal student. In 1989, I began practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, my dharma teachers being Lyn Fine and Patricia Hunt-Perry. By 1997, I ordained into the Tiep Hien Order. However, already by 2000, no longer thrilled by what I saw happening in the community, I began study with Samu Sunim who ordained me as a dharma teacher (poep sa) in Toronto on July 4th, 2007. I’ve earned a Graduate Level Diploma in Buddhist Studies under Peter Harvey through the University of Sunderland. Realizing I did not want an academic career, I chose not to write a thesis, hence no letters after my name.

While I have studied with many yoga teachers in a variety of styles and approaches, including Iyengar, Anusara, Astanga, Integral and Kundalini, I received formal certification as a Preventive and Rehabilitative Yoga Teacher/Therapist through The Bateman Institute in New York City. I was also certified through the 750-hour program of the Yoga Research and Education Center, under the direction of Georg Feuerstein.

I have two daughters, separated by 36 years and live in Tucson, Arizona where I enjoy co-parenting my younger daughter. I founded and served as guiding teacher of the Empty Mountain Sangha and the Tucson Mindfulness Practice Community which has evolved into a peer-led group. I have the great joy and privilege to teach classes, lecture and lead retreats and workshops throughout North and Central America, as well as in Asia. I was invited by Wisdom Publications to write a book integrating the four foundations of mindfulness with the movements and postures of hatha-yoga. That book, Mindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body and Mind offers a fully comprehensive and integrated practice of hatha-yoga-asana with buddhist mindfulness (vipassana) meditation based upon the instructions of the Buddha on the four Foundations of Mindfulness. I've had articles published in Tricycle, Yoga Journal, Spring Wind, Namaskar and Experience Life and am a contributor to several anthologies including Freeing the Body; Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga & Buddhism edited by Michael Stone; Commit To Sit: Tools For Cultivating a Meditation Practice from the Pages of Tricycle edited by Joan Duncan Oliver; and 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics & Practice one of the first books to provide a multi-faceted examination of yoga as it is practiced in North America today, edited by Carol Horton and Roseanne Harvey.

Hali Shwartz
Yogic Philosophy & History

Hali has been immersed in the world of yoga since she was a young girl - her first yoga teacher was her mother. She has a clear and distinct memory of being 8 years old and asking her mother: “What is Yoga?” Her answer mystified Hali, being so young. She answered: “Yoga means ‘balance.’” In those days, Hali didn’t quite understand what that meant. At that time it had already been a few years that her mother had been studying and practicing yoga and meditation with great devotion. Hali went with her to all the classes and sessions she was taking with an Indian guru who was touring Canada and the US. It was the 1970’s and there was a growing group of people who were truly pioneers in exploring the world of yoga and finding out how its teachings can transform lives. Every day they would come to Hali's house for their yoga meetings and she would sit and listen and laugh and absorb the energy of it, even though she didn’t really know what they were talking about.

Years later, in 1988, Hali traveled to India for the first time to the ash ram where her mother had decided to devote her life. She has traveled there every year since, delving into all aspects of the yoga tradition at the International Meditation Institute (I.M.I. ) in Kullu, in the North Western Himalayas where her mother still lives nearly 40 years later! It was at the institute that she was introduced to yoga philosophy in all its glory. She studied the Sanskrit language, several yoga and vedantic scriptures such as the Upanishads, The Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (to name but a few) as well as chanting, meditation, hatha, kriya and restorative yoga.

In 1999, Hali started teaching yoga in Toronto, while continuing her studies in Ashtanga Yoga with the incomparable Ron Reid at the Downward Dog. In 2001, sge began teaching yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, chanting and meditation in various teacher training programs around the city, and has trained hundreds of teachers since then at Yoga Space, Octopus Garden, IAM Yoga and Sananda Yoga. She loves mentoring new teachers as well as introducing new students to the amazing benefits of this awesome tradition.

In 2002, Hali took her first group of yoga students with her to India, and has since lead several pilgrimage voyages to the Himalayas, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Varanasi, Rajasthan, New Delhi and Mumbai. She is so passionate about this subject. It is her life’s joy to share this knowledge and this practice with anyone and everyone who has the interest to dive into it!

Katie Shim
Breath Workshop

An avid explorer, Katie has travelled to 25 countries, has lived in Toronto, Canada; Singapore; Venice Beach, California; and now calls the North Shore of Oahu Hawai’i her home. Although she has journeyed around the world and explored a variety of cultures, nothing quite compares to the journey & inner exploration into the self that she is still on today.

Led to Hawai’i through a clear message she received during a breathwork experience, Katie knew how powerful this practice was and decided to make it a regular practice. By devoting herself to this fundamental medicine of life: the breath—she’s experienced radical shifts from the inside-out and is grateful to share this work with the islands of Hawai'i and the world. Her intention with every journey she leads is to create a powerful and safe space for you to experience more of yourself and cultivate a deeper relationship with the most important person in your life—you.

A previous yoga teacher, community architect, leadership facilitator, and happy traveller, Katie finds it soul-satisfying to live life guided by her curiosity. She attributes breathwork to being one of her greatest adventures.

Alex Charleton
Embodiment & Somatic Coaching, Clinical Psychologist

I have over 5 years of experience learning, growing, and developing a comprehensive framework for individuals to heal and improve their connections with self, other, and world. My intention is to assist each client to access their deeper truth and authentic self. Together, I will help you examine and dismantle mental and emotional blocks, develop tools to manage symptoms, cultivate self-awareness, heal from past trauma, and develop self-compassion. Though I have knowledge and training to support a healing process, I believe each person is the expert of their own experience and responsible for the change they wish to make.

Irene Lo
Decolonizing Yoga & Accessibility/Inclusion

Irene Lo (she/her) is a yoga asana teacher known for her trauma-informed and intersectional approach to teaching yoga. Her work is deeply spiritual, anchored to the journey inwards through intuitive modalities like yoga.

She first practiced hot yoga in high school and quickly became addicted to asana, but it wasn't until she returned to yoga as a burnt out office worker that she began to understand the teachings of yoga. On the encouragement of a studio owner, she did her 200 hour vinyasa training with Clara Roberts-Oss and found deep joy in sharing yoga. Feeling like something was missing, she began to find mentors who spoke about racism and social justice in the wellness world. She co-created the Womxn of Color Summit as a yoga and wellness space that centred Black, Indigenous, people of colour and non-binary people of colour. She became interested in yin yoga and trauma-informed yoga, both which have been instrumental for her in creating a calming and safe space. As a bookworm, her primary reading interests are on yoga history, philosophy, and trauma-informed theory and practice through a decolonized and feminist lens.

Irene has taught ethics and trauma-informed yoga modules in collaboration with studios and under her own brand, Irene Yoga Flow. Her work in yoga has been featured in CBC Gem: Identity of Wellness, Vancouver Is Awesome, Shut Up and Yoga, and more. She has spoken at Flow in Solidarity Summit. She co-hosts a yoga podcast called Memoirs of a Yoga Teacher with the accompanying TikTok account @bipocyogaclub.

She is also an intuitive tarot reader who reads online and at metaphysical shops such as Phoenix Rising Emporium. She recently presented a talk at Northwest Tarot Symposium. She is working on a tarot deck titled Soft Femme Tarot.

Follow her IG handles @ireneyogaflow and @softfemmetarot

Anderson Salas
Anatomy & Physiology

Anderson’s Yoga journey began at the end of high school. After his first Savasana (corpse pose), he experienced something unlike anything before; a feeling of deep peace, presence and well-being, “I felt like I had been massaged inside out”. He was instantly hooked to this ancient practice which became a medicine to begin healing anxieties and stresses. In 2011 he enrolled in a 350hr Hatha CYT from Synergy Movement Yoga.

His YTT teacher Ruth van der Voort (director of the Toronto Yoga conference) encouraged and supported him in the immersion of yearly workshops from renowned national and international Yogis to further his understanding of the art.

Bridging ancient Eastern Wisdom with modern Western Science is Anderson’s passion, and being able to share this with others brings him immense joy.

Anderson holds a B.A., Hons. in Athletic Therapy, and is a registered Massage Therapist, Manual Osteopath and ELDOA level 3 instructor. A practitioner of Vipassana Meditation, he’s been attending and volunteering yearly at silent retreat centers since 2014.