This course was conceived by Denise Davis-Gains and written in collaboration with Rizwan Desai. Together we have merged the best of Denise's life of teaching yoga and Rizwan's enthusiastic perspective as a Masters' of Education student and experienced teacher. We hope that we engage you and encourage enthusiasm in the material as much as we were engaged and enthusiastic in creating the course.

This is truly a collaborative project. The voices that you will hear through out the course are reflective of multiple great minds in the fields of yoga, meditation, mindfulness, trauma, therapy, and education. We stand on the shoulders of our teachers as we share the best of what we have learned in our efforts to be a part of the evolution of trauma awareness and care.

Denise is an educator with more than 40 years in the field. A certified yoga therapist in practice in southern Ontario with undergraduate degrees with majors in philosophy, psychology, communications, religion and culture. Masters work in religion and culture, Sanskrit and a long-time practitioner of yoga, meditation and mindfulness. Denise has training extensively in the Kripalu Method of yoga and yoga therapy as well as done intensives with instructors from the Himalayan Institute, Sivananada, Ashtanga, Kundalini and other styles of yoga. Denise went wide in her yoga education for 8 years before she went deep in Ashtanaga and Kripalu yoga for 16 years and she continues to practice and study in multiple lineages.

Training yoga teachers since 1997, Denise continues to be concerned about the lens of trauma, inclusivity and accessibility and has been since she began teaching. An advocate and pioneer in her field. This course was created as a service to our industry. She feels blessed to have had teachers who were respectful, safe and encouraging, full of humility and a real ability to speak the truths of yoga and give her space to grow and learn.

Denise honours all teachings and origins of yoga to belonging to the cultural heritage of the Indus Valley, and we learn from these teachings with deepest respect to this heritage and the myrid of international influences that make yoga what it is today in the west.

Rizwan Desai is an educator with more than ten years of experience in the field. He received a Bachelor of Arts with honours in Politics and Governance from Ryerson University, a Bachelor of Education with a focus on Social Justice from York University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy with the University of Toronto. Rizwan is passionate about creating educational environments where students feel included in the space and learning. Rizwan learned about and has implemented the trauma informed perspective in his pedagogical practice for over five years. Rizwan has shared his understanding of this perspective through professional development programs and team meetings over the years, and has now worked with Atlas Studio to integrate the trauma-informed perspective with yoga.

Guest Instructors

Jason Wendroff-Rawnicki

Ida Fae Cullen

Stephanie Hahn

Skylar Larkyn

Toni Bergins

(more details to follow)