About

Guylaine’s interest in yoga began in high school at the age of 16. Among her first teachers in meditation and yoga were Shirley MacLaine and Erich Schiffmann A fundamental part of all traditional schools of yoga is their lineage, or a tracing of their roots from teacher to teacher to teacher. 

Guylaine has been influenced by the lineage of Patanjali- Ashtanga Yoga (the 8 limbs of Yoga) and has studied in depth under the guidance of Donna Farhi, Jonathan Austman, Michael Stone, Hart Lazer, Tim Miller, David Swenson, Erich Shiffmann, Krishna Das, and Ram Dass. She has also taken many courses/workshops with Richard Freeman, Sharon Salzberg, Matthew Sweeney, Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Diane Bruni, Ron Reid, Kathryn Bruni-Young. 

Supplementarily, she has studied extensively the work of Gabor Maté, Peter Levine, Bessel Van Der Kolk and Molly Boeder Harris around the focus of developing a Trauma-Informed approach to teaching and practice.

 In 1998, she began studying at The Yoga Sanctuary downtown Toronto, Ontario. It was there that she fell in love with Ashtanga yoga under the guidance of her teachers Jonathan Austman and Michael Stone. In 2000, she completed her first (of dozens) Yoga Teacher Training that delved deep into the eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga. 

In 2002, she returned to Halifax Nova Scotia and immediately began teaching Yoga Asana. Instantly she became one of the most sought-after yoga instructors with a dedicated student body that has continued to follow her for the last 20+ years-mainly due to her obvious love and dedication to the practice and the lineage from which it comes. As well as this, she’s known for her intuitive assists, her open heart and off-beat sense of humour. She’s now considered a master teacher in The Maritimes, Canada and was the first to introduce post natal, kids and hot yoga to Halifax. 

She has been consistently studying with some of the greatest senior yoga teachers and has been fortunate to be a host many of them in Halifax, NS. She was the first to welcome Tim Miller, Kathryn Bruno-Young, David Swenson and Krishna Das to Halifax. Others include Darby, Hart Lazer, Jonathan Austman and her mentor and friend of 20 years, Michael Stone. She has studied intensively for months in California with Tim Miller and Rich McGowan as well as in Mysore, India with Sharath Jois. She is certified in the 1st and 2nd series of Ashtanga, Pre and Post Natal, Yin, Kids and Trauma-informed Yoga. 

Finally, Guylaine has been mostly guided by the work of her late mentor Michael Stone, Ram Dass and Tara Brach. Her teaching and practice are mostly a continuation of that knowledge. She has extensively studied the psychology of yoga, Mindfulness meditation, ethical precepts, vipassana, pranayama, trauma-informed yoga, and yoga philosophy.

Guylaine believes passionately in community. And that it is possible, with the help of community and tools like meditation and/or  a yoga practice, much healing can occur.