Sarah was born and raised in the UK where she lived until 2003, and now lives on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded Indigenous territories of the Lekwungen-speaking Coast Salish People. Embodiment has always been her jam, from early days in grad school exploring feminist collaborative art-making and the body, through til now. Her work formerly as the Director of Programs at Yoga Outreach, as a trauma-informed yoga therapist at Fine Balance Yoga, and as a facilitator and trainer in TCTSY (Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga) with the Center for Trauma & Embodiment is all about creating opportunities for people to discover and cultivate embodied resilience in a way that works for them. She’s a firm believer that any conversations about ‘self-care’ need to take place within a context of community care and with a focus on equity.

Sadie Bartram is a dedicated, longtime student of yoga and has been teaching for over 21 years in a variety of different settings to people of all ages. Yoga is a very important part of her life and has supported her through the ups and downs of many transitions. Sadie gratefully welcomes the opportunity to teach and share with others the many benefits of this ancient practice.  She endevours to honour the authentic roots of yoga in her classes and all areas of her life. Currently, Sadie is deepening her practice through enrollment in the 500 Hour Arkaya Awareness Teacher Training. She has completed teaching certifications in Chakra Yoga, Children’s Yoga, Pre/Postnatal Yoga and Trauma-Informed Yoga.

Sadie respectfully acknowledges that she lives on the unceded traditional territory of the Quw’utsun people with her husband and two teenage sons. She is very grateful for this beautiful place that she calls home. Sadie works at the Cowichan Community Centre in Programs and Events and loves being part of creating events and programs for community members to connect to themselves and others in fun, healthy, meaningful ways.

Yogacharini Maitreyi is an international master teacher, practical mystic and founder of Arkaya Awareness Centre and Arkaya Foundation. For the last 23 years she has been dedicated to living an evolutionary life and sharing holistic life principles. You will experience lightness, restfulness and a deeper connection to self through her guidance.

Since 1997, she has been given titles : Yoga chemmal (expert), Yoga shiromani (gem), and Yoga acharini (guide), in India. She was one of the youngest to be invited on the Advisory Board of the World Yoga Council, in Europe, in 2007. She has shared the deeper dimensions of yoga, self management and sattvic tantra worldwide.

Maitreyi has trained over 60 corporations, spoken at many conferences and has over 100 published articles in India, Hong Kong, Sweden, Dubai , Srilanka. U.S and Canada. She was invited to share her wisdom at many international yoga, ayurveda and leadership summits. A compassionate holistic coach, her sessions include online energy assessments to guide one into one’s own innate balance.

Laurel MacKay is a proud mother of two amazing young womxn and spends much of her free time watching rugby or hanging out in the woods with her dog Apollo. Her ancestors are from Scotland, Ireland and Finland and her family has lived in Canada for three generations. Laurel currently works at a residential addictions treatment program and in private practice as a counsellor. She has had the privilege of living and working on the unceded traditional and ancestral territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking people of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, for the past 25 years. She is a fierce advocate for the people she works with and continues to find ways to make her offerings as accessible as possible. Laurel has worked in the private and public sectors within mental health, addictions, schools, and corrections in various roles and offers trauma informed yoga classes to anyone who is interested. Laurel believes connection is the most important gift we can offer one another and yoga can assist us in connecting with ourselves, each other and the world around us. When not working she can be found hiking, reading, attending or teaching yoga classes, cuddling with her dogs or creating sound healing vibrations.

Katie is an Expert Registered Yoga Teacher, Children’s Yoga Teacher, and Craniosacral + Somatoemotional Release Healer. Her mission is to empower others (mom’s in particular) with tools to nourish their nervous systems, so they can live their life to the fullest, be present, and lead by example. As moms, we greatly influence our little one’s nervous system baseline, and how they perceive and interact with the world around them. Katie learned meditation and breathwork as a child from her mom, to help ease her anxiety. This gift has greatly influenced her life-mission to empower others with tools to understand and process their emotions, and strengthen their body-autonomy.

Helen has been teaching yoga since 2014 and has trained in Hatha, Flow, Prenatal and Kundalini yoga. In the last few years she has turned her attention to teaching a series of classes dedicated to students working in bigger bodies called Full Bodied Yoga. These classes invite people to a comfortable space where they explore joy in movement while learning adjustments specific to their own unique bodies.

Candice Baldwin’s natural curiosity about her own healing from injuries and trauma lead her to 20+ year yoga practice. This enthusiasm to learn and serve others on their healing journey lead her to pursue her life as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, while her African ancestry and autism has made her passionate about calling in BIPOC and neurodivergent communities. Candice is a 500 RYT, 200hr Himalayan Kriya Yoga teacher, Swing Yoga teacher, and Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT). Her approach in Yoga Therapy focusses on building a practice around the needs of the people she serves, working with visually impaired peoples, 50+ population and people living with injuries, trauma, neurodivergence and chronic illness. You can find her at vidyatherapeuticyoga.com

Brittney is a certified meditation teacher and registered yoga teacher currently pursuing her masters in counselling psychology. She first joined the Yoga Outreach team in 2020 as a Social Justice Intern and is excited to be joining now as a Training Facilitator for the Core Training Level I. She is a human, and like most humans has experienced suffering. Experiencing and studying the impact of suffering on everyday lives and relationships has emphasized the importance of understanding trauma and how it effects individuals and society. This is why she is so passionate about trauma-informed practice and Yoga Outreach’s approach. Originally from the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, she currently resides on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied, traditional lands of the Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Watuth), Kwikwetlem, hən̓̓qəmin̓əm̓, and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) peoples

Desi is a Therapeutic Yoga Teacher and Mental Health Worker, born and raised in London,
UK. She relocated to British Columbia in the summer of 2016 and now resides on the
unceded, ancestral land of the Kwikwetlem First Nation people.

In 2015, shortly after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Medical Science, Desi was first
introduced to yoga. Since then, she has pursued it with great passion, integrating the
ancient teachings into her daily life both personally and professionally; by maintaining a
regular personal practice in addition to completing her 240Hr YTT (VSOHA), 300Hr Yoga
Therapy Training (VSOHA) and Yoga Outreach Core Training™.

Desi is fascinated by the way in which yoga and yoga therapy inherently incorporates the
blending of Eastern philosophical principles and our understanding of the human mind and
body and it’s response to stress and trauma. She is motivated by empathy and connection
and teaches with the intention to empower individuals and support them in realising their
highest potential. To do so, Desi combines her yoga training with her educational
background, her professional experience as a mental healthcare worker – currently working
for PHSA with individuals with eating disorders and finally; her experience as a volunteer
SMART Facilitator for Vancouver Coastal Health, supporting individuals recovering from
addiction.

Since 2004, Nicole has taught therapeutic yoga classes and offered individual sessions to trauma survivors, teaching them healthy self-regulation strategies to empower them to live connected and embodied lives. Nicole also trains yoga and healthcare professionals in the trauma-informed yoga theory and techniques. For 9 years, she served as the Director of Therapeutic Yoga Programming for the Provincial Health Services Authority at their Burnaby Centre for Mental Health & Addictions and Riverview Psychiatric Hospital. From 2007-2018, she worked as a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) at Onsite, the treatment arm of North America’s first safe injection site in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. In 2016 she became certified by the Trauma Centre at the Justice Resource Institute in Brookline Massachusetts as a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga facilitator (TCTSY-F). She served as the Director of Teacher Training and Mentorship with Yoga Outreach from 2007 - 2023.

She provides trauma informed yoga programming to the residents at Deborah’s Gate, a program serving women who have been trafficked into situations of sexual and/or labor exploitation and Tupper Nova, a day treatment program for youth who have serious mental health concerns. She is a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) and a member of Bridge for Health and the Breathe Network which connects survivors of sexual violence with healing arts practitioners.