@guylainewilliams Lnk.Bio

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 Fahri, Jonathan Austman, Michael Stone, Hart Lazer, Tim Miller, David Swenson, Erich Shiffmann, Krishna Das, 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. As well, has studied the work of Gabor Mate, 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 18 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. She 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 to 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’s Austman and her mentor and friend of 20 years Michael Stone. She’s studied intensively for months in California with Tim Miller and Rich McGowan as well as in Mysore, India with Sharath Jois. She’s 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 the late Michael Stone and her teaching and practice are mostly a continuation of that knowledge. She’s studied the psychology of yoga, mindfulness meditation, ethical precepts, vipassana, the essence of yoga, pranayama, trauma-informed yoga, the new-wave of yoga, yoga philosophy and Hatha-vinyasa all under the mentorship of Michael Stone. Unfortunately, Michael passed before she was able to complete his request for her to officially become one of his mentees. Guylaine believes passionately in community and through it and a meditation and yoga practice, believes much healing can occur. She is dedicated to helping her students learn the tools they need to become independent. For the last decade, she’s been offering yoga classes by donation as she has a strong belief that Yoga needs to be accessible. "Our practice, like our lives, does not arrive fully unfolded. Our work is to practice in such a way that makes sense for our particular life but also challenges the stories of ourselves that enclose our lives in cycles of habit. With clarity, flexibility, and steadiness, yoga teaches us how to move responsively through the details of life. This is possible in every unfolding of reality." ~Michael Stone

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