Although we specialize in different areas, each Om West instructor is experienced and certified. We will listen to your needs and offer you the best quality instruction we can. Please tell us about anything that may limit your involvement in our classes. Whether it’s an injury, fear, or expectation, the more we know, the more we can assist you or refer you to a different class or service. We also like to know how we’re doing as instructors, so please feel at ease to give us feedback directly or email it to info@westislandyoga.com. Thank you and enjoy your practice!
Debra
Debra Leibovitch
Debra’s passion for yoga began in 1982 when she met her first teacher Mollie Lawson in Montreal. The styles of yoga that she first learned were Iyengar and Kripalu. Since then she has continued to explore different styles of yoga by doing teacher trainings and workshops with various well known yoga instructors. She has been teaching for 8 years and is Yoga Alliance certified.
Debra also teaches at the YMCA, GoodLife Fitness, and offers her services in the corporate world. Her goal of inspiring and helping people to improve their quality of life through yoga has been a very rewarding and enriching journey. A journey that she hopes to continue for a long time to come.
The word yoga means to unite or bring together. When we practice yoga we unite our mind and our body with our breath to create a state of mental and physical well being. The dynamic energy of the poses is balanced with the soft, gentle flow of the breath. This practice will help alleviate stress and quiet the mind so we can actually see, feel and think more clearly. By doing yoga on a regular basis you’ll tone your muscles, increase your flexibility and improve your posture. By doing yoga we work on ourselves from the inside out.
*PLEASE NOTE: Debra is in India for the month of November (2009). While she is away, Sue Anne Hickey will be replacing her.
Contact:
T: 514.626.7362
E: debra.leibovitch@3web.net
Diana
Diana Perez has been practicing yoga over 15 years and has been teaching yoga since 2004. Her yoga influences have been mainly from the schools of Hatha, Anusara and Ashtanga. She has done 2 teacher training certifications and is currently working towards a certification in Anusara.
Diana is a sports and rehabilitation physiotherapist who has worked in the medical field and fitness industry for over 25 years. One of her areas of expertise is exercise prescription for special conditions (e.g. injuries, medical illnesses and chronic orthopaedic problems, etc). She has provided medical services to athletes of all calibers and has worked for the Canadian Medical Team at various Olympic, Pan American and Commonwealth Games. She brings this experience into her yoga classes with humour and sensitivity, modifying the practice to fit each individual’s needs.
Diane
Diane Roseman
Diane is delighted to be joining the team at Om West, and to bring Pilates into the mix with their other wonderful classes.
As a graduate of McGill with a B.Ed. in Physical Education, Diane has been teaching various types of fitness classes since 1983. For 6 years, she was a Fitness Coordinator at the YMCA Westmount and the Snowdon Y, where she continued to teach as well as train and supervise other instructors. After suffering from a knee injury, Diane became passionate about Pilates, and became a certified instructor in 2001. She is still very passionate about passing on her knowledge to her students, and continues to evolve her classes as she evolves in her own ongoing studies. She is now a new Yoga junkie, and is delighted to be involved with the Yoga community. Namaste!
Contact:
T: 514.830.2264
Frances
Frances Vicente
Frances is a dancer who discovered yoga when she joined the Fairview Lululemon Staff. She currently teaches dance, kids yoga & Mom & Baby yoga. She brings creativity, compassion and laughter to her classes and students and seeks to enhance the relationships between parent and child.
James
James Olmstead
James is a creative and dynamic drumming instructor who believes that learning should always be fun and inspiring. His fantastic Tam Tam drumming workshops appeal to adults and kids alike. A drummer with a lifetime of experience, James enjoys sharing his musical passion and jamming with his students.
He began playing percussion at the age of five upon the discovery of an old snare drum in the basement of his parents home. Improvising extended solos on this drum would become his favorite after-school activity for the next several years. He has a wealth of formal training in music and percussion. However, his academic music studies were balanced by James participation in his own rock band. James also earned an aircraft maintenance diploma and subsequently an A.M.E. license as well as an instructors post at the Chu Fen Do martial arts studio where he taught group and private classes for children and adults. He presently works as an aircraft engineer at Bombardier Aerospace at Dorval Airport.
James newest project is the opening of the Jimijamba School Of Percussion (in September 2006) where he teaches Djembe drumming in group classes. In addition, James gives family oriented drum workshops.
Contact:
T: 514.826.1607
Jamie
Jamie Lee
Jamie is an artist and former triathlete from Branford, Ontario, has been working in the health industry for more than 15 years and currently teaches Ashtanga yoga in Montreal. He has lead retreats and training camps in various parts of the United States, Canada and in the Caribbean.
Jamie graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor in Kinesiology and went onto coach Olympic distance triathlon, duathlon and Ironman. Forever seeking to enhance his training programs, Jamie began exploring yoga.
Overtime, the holistic benefits of a regular yoga practice became more important than athletic competition and outward performance. Particularly, the path of Ashtanga yoga became his own personal practice as a yogi and a teacher.
Micheline
Micheline Ralet
Micheline fully dedicates her time to providing guidance in slowing the mind, relaxing the body and clearing emotional blockages. A certified Healing Energy Therapist in several modalities, she has much experience in observing the benefits in her clients when releasing blockages, whether they be physical, emotional or mental.
Micheline has offered a Meditation class since 2006 which provides exercises in visualization, breathing, chanting and meditation.
She is also offering Workshops, topics include Introduction to Awakening, “the Power of Now” and Visualization, to provide exercises as well as background information and understanding. Different types of exercises and techniques are offered to answer to people’s different ways of understanding and visualizing.
Having worked many years in stressful corporate management positions, Micheline is well acquainted with the demands of today’s lifestyle and provides a practical program where students are encouraged to learn to do the exercises not only in the class setting but also in their own environment whenever needed.
Contact:
T: 514.996.9099
E: micheline.montreal@hotmail.com
Penka
Penka Apostolov
Penka was born in Bulgaria where she developed an interest in chess and track and field during her formative years. Whilst at school studying to become an accountant, she competed in numerous chess tournaments. In Canada, she obtained a position on the Canadian Women's Olympic Chess Team. Penka was later certified as a Shiatsu Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor.
She is teaching yoga classes and programs for adults and kids. Her Yoga Meridian class is a unique combination of Meridian exercise, yoga and breathing techniques.
This approach integrates the psychological and the physical aspects of our being.
Relaxation and awareness is the key to these exercises which are done with a balanced physical effort.
Programs: “Yoga and chess for kids” “40 Fit and Fabulous”
T: 514.816.4713
E: info@penkaapostolov.com
W: www.penkaapostolov.com
Rhona
Rhona Greenberg
Rhona’s passion for yoga began in 1992. After years of practice, she became certified in Ashtanga and Divya yoga.
Over the years, she has continued to further her studies of yoga, though numerous workshops and teacher trainings. She feels truly grateful and very blessed to have studied with so many wonderful and inspiring teachers, who through their passion and wisdom, share so freely.
Rhona’s classes are a blend of postures that flow from one to another (Vinyasa) which are deeply connected to the breath. She offers a strong emphasis on body awareness and body alignment. The breath and the body move in harmony together. Rhona offers a level of compassion, knowledge, patience and understanding in her classes, as well as a sense of lightheartedness and joy. She feels deeply honoured and happy to share the wondrous practice of yoga with others.
Yoga can be a life changing experience and it only gets better with time and practice.
Be grateful for each day is new, and every yoga practice is a new beginning.
Being present in every moment. WHAT A GIFT IT IS!
Contact:
T: 514.683.8407
E: rhona.g@sympatico.ca
Sheila
Sheila Southon is a guidance counselor and meditation teacher, who is currently studying with Deepak Chopra.
T: 514.885.5813
E: ssushamas@gmail.com
Stephen
Quiet Mind Seminars (since 2003) Founder and Director Stephen Schettini
Stephen was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1974 in the Tibetan tradition and lived for eight years with Tibetan teachers and others in North and South India, Nepal, Sri-Lanka and Switzerland, receiving instruction from masters of both the northern and the southern schools of Buddhism. His primary training was in the Tibetan method of tsen-nyi (dialectics) under the venerable Geshé Rabten, who was asked by the Dalai Lama to leave his mountain retreat and teach Westerners. He was a founding member of Geshé's Centre d’Hautes Études Tibetaines in Mont-Pélérin, Switzerland, now Rabten Choeling, where he was a translator and instructor.
Montreal writer, publisher and teacher of mindful reflection® with over 30 years experience Stephen brings an unusual set of skills to the challenge of managing stress and bringing out the best in people by bridging the gap between modern realities and millennia-old practices to enhance our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the world we live in and create.
Stephen lives in Hudson, Quebec with his wife and children. His guide to meditation, It Begins with Silence is available online, and his memoir of the Tibetan years, entitled The Novice: Why I came a Buddhist monk, Why I Quit and What I Learned (Greenleaf Book Group Press Sept 2009) is available everywhere.
Contact:
T: 450.853.0616
www.thequietmind.org
Steve
Steve Maier
Sue-Anne
Sue-Anne Hickey
Sue-Anne began practicing yoga in 1990. She loved it at once, which ultimately led her to a new life path of a healthy diet, meditation and spirituality. In 1993 Sue-Anne went to southern India for the teachers training course with the International Sivananda Yoga organization, followed by a spiritual journey that took her around the world for one and a half years. Wherever she stayed, at ashrams in India, meditation retreats in Thailand, or Buddhist monasteries in Nepal, she taught yoga to the many people who wished to learn.
Upon her return to Montreal she continued teaching on a volunteer basis until she made it a full-time career in 1998. Sue-Anne loves what she does, giving energy to her classes and also receiving it in return. She feels fortunate to be able to share her passion with her students. Her goal is to enable her students to discover the numerous benefits of yoga at all levels, making a difference in her students lives. In her classes she maintains a balance of fun and a quiet space for inward journey.
Her prenatal yoga classes are a wonderful way for moms-to-be to maintain their strength, flexibility and alleviate back ache and other challenges throughout their pregnancy. It allows them to take much needed special time for themselves, to prepare for the delivery both physically and mentally and to recuperate more quickly after the birth.
She continues to study and practice Buddhism, meditation and is setting up a practice as a naturopath.
Contact:
T: 514.577.1963
W: www.yogastretch.net
Tara
Tara Lutchman
Tara first discovered yoga in CEGEP and has been a dedicated ashtanga practitioner ever since. As her practice deepened, yoga became more than a series of postures but a lifestyle and a philosophy that began to pervade into all areas of her life- emotional, spiritual and physical. Tara’s love for the practice is reflected in her classes, leading, fun, informative, challenging classes within a non-competitive, warm environment, facilitating all to look inward.
Tara graduated from McGill University in Environment, and is the founder and owner of T-Tree Soaps where she produces environmentally friendly and vegan hygienic products. She is committed to living, as best as she can, within the respectful bounds of the environment, and sees that the path of yoga is inevitably and ultimately within nature.
[Tara is a certified yoga instructor and will shortly be registered under Yoga Alliance.]
Y,J,S,D
The instructors for the Friday night Ashtanga yoga class varies each week: Yasmin F. Gow, Jamie Lee, Steve Maier & Diana Perez
Yasmin
Yasmin F. Gow
Yasmin has taught yoga for nearly a decade. Her practice is based in Ashtanga yoga and inspired by dance, nature and the interconnectivity of life. Also a writer, speaker and environmentalist, Yasmin is the owner of Om West Holistic Centre in Montreal, has toured Canada with David Suzuki, instructed professional athletes, and released a DVD series.