About Leila Stuart

Leila Stuart

With decades of experience as a clinical massage therapist (RMT), Yoga teacher and Therapist C-IAYT, and a lifelong passion for movement of all types, Leila is a pioneer in the field of movement education. She opened one of the first dedicated Yoga Therapy studios in Canada as well as developing The Anatomy of Yoga Therapy, an innovative 300 hour Yoga Therapy training program that she taught for 15 years.

Leila’s transformational system of therapeutic yoga evolved from her desire to empower patients and students on the path to self-healing. Whether challenged with physical, mental or spiritual issues, Leila skillfully guides students toward a felt sense of their wholeness by exploring experiential anatomy and the interplay between awareness, gentle movement, breath, and mental patterns. By cultivating an awareness of their living anatomy and inherent body wisdom, students can learn to apply this intelligence in a practical way to their own healing process. Leila invites students to make yoga a living, transformational process by encouraging them to practice off the mat.

IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist
Leila Stuart - IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist

“I had firsthand experience of the transformational potential of Yoga Therapy when I developed a debilitating fatigue condition in 2001 and crippling rheumatoid-type arthritis in 2005. For 10 years, I was unable to do anything but the simplest, minimal physical practice. I was so grateful for all of the Yoga Therapy tools that I knew. It was awareness, meditation and the practice of Witness Consciousness that kept me going and lifted me when I descended into hopelessness and despair. I realized that I was always able to do something that would bring about some change in what I was experiencing. During this time, yoga transformed from a theoretical practice into an absolutely practical, lived experience. I learned the importance of working with the whole person rather than the disability and of acknowledging and accessing all of the koshas, especially when the physical body is severely limited.”

Eduction

  • Bachelor of Arts (History), University of Alberta 1976

  • Bachelor of Law, University of Alberta 1979

  • Registered Massage Therapist 1989-2021
    2000 Hour Training

  • Postgraduate courses in craniosacral therapy, myofascial release, movement therapy, visceral manipulation, neuromuscular therapy, and yoga therapy.

Yoga Training

  • Practitioner since 1974

  • Teacher Training Certificates with Sandra Sammartino (1993) and Donna Farhi (1997)

  • Dru Yoga Teacher Training Certificate (2004)

  • Donna Farhi’s Canadian Coordinator 1999 to 2006
    International Adjunct Faculty

  • Continuing studies with Nischala Joy Devi, Gary Kraftsow, Angela Farmer and Richard Miller.

  • Influenced by the traditions of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (Body-Mind Centering), Charlotte Selver (Sensory Awareness), Mme. Meziere (Anti-Gymnastics), and Judith Koltai (Syntonics).

Internationally renowned teacher and author Donna Farhi on Leila’s teaching…

“Her teaching is clearly informed by a depth and breadth of knowledge about the human body, but more importantly she is able to convey the potentially “dry” information of anatomy in, as one participant put it, a “juicy” way. Her enthusiasm for her subject overflows and one is caught up in a kind of joyous reverie for and about the human body. In particular, she is able to help people access anatomy experientially and to use this information in yoga practice as well as therapeutically with others. She is extremely sensitive to the needs of her students and very conscious of making material safe while still being effective. It is rare for participants of my trainings to give more than a cursory comment to an adjunct faculty’s contribution but Leila consistently garnered profuse praise from the teacher trainees for the valuable contribution she made.”

Learn more about

classes and workshops

In classes and workshops, students mindfully explore the “laboratory” of their own body. They become curious about the vast world inside and how the physical body, breath, emotions, and personal and cultural conditioning influence each other. Yoga therapy practices include experiential anatomy, somatic explorations, breath, mindfulness, neural repatterning, and yoga tools. The deeper teachings of yoga underlie ALL practices. Students will increase interoceptive awareness, cultivate resilience, self-compassion and self-regulation, and become active participants in their own healing process. The result is transformation and a deeper sense of Wholeness.