Yoga Classes
In-Studio & Online
Since 1999, Centerpoint Yoga Therapy Studio has helped to guide students and clients to “a place of wholeness.” People from various backgrounds, age groups and abilities feel welcomed to explore the process of self-healing, especially if regular yoga classes have proven unsuitable. Led by accomplished Registered Massage Therapist (retired), Yoga Therapist and author Leila Stuart and her talented associate, Janine Naman, Centerpoint classes, workshops and retreats allow students to experience the innate healing capacity of the body and to transform physically, emotionally, and spiritually through increased self-awareness, compassion and understanding.
Join Leila and Janine for a group yoga class, a private session, or a personal/professional development workshop. If you are at a point in your journey where you want to expand your understanding of yogic philosophy and develop a living process of transformation, consider Leila’s books and online courses. Whether you are new to yoga, a seasoned practitioner, or a teacher, you can discover and grow with us. The studio is wheelchair and scooter accessible and strives to be a scent free zone.
Centerpoint Yoga Therapy is located in the seaside community of White Rock, British Columbia, and is easily accessible from the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, and the United States. Our private studio is a sacred space built on positive energy and truth. We have created an environment of respect and compassion that fosters the learning, support and courage that leads to self transformation. Learn. Feel. Integrate.
Centerpoint Studio Schedule
Spring and Fall semester schedule: 11 week semester | Starting in September & April | $308.00 per semester
Winter semester schedule: 11 week semester | Starting in January | $308.00
Summer semester schedule: 4 week semester | Starting in July | $112 or $30 per drop-in
Where Yoga Meets Neuroscience
An 11-week series · September 8–November 19 ·
Centerpoint Yoga Therapy Studio
Most of us assume the brain we have at sixty is the one we were handed, minus some wear. That assumption is wrong. The brain remodels constantly according to what you pay attention to, how you breathe, how you load your body, how deeply you sleep, and how quickly you settle after something goes wrong. Every one of those is trainable through the practices of yoga.
Over eleven weeks we’ll work through the nervous system from the inside out, pairing the Panchakosha map (the five dimensions of being human) with current neuroscience, so you leave each class having practiced and understanding why each piece matters.
Nearly half of dementia risk is modifiable. The 2024 Lancet Commission identified fourteen risk factors accounting for an estimated 45% of cases worldwide. Most respond to how you move, sleep, breathe, and regulate.
Tuesdays, 10 AM–noon
In person with Leila
Wednesdays, 10 AM–noon
Online with Janine
(September 16–November 26)
Thursdays, 10 AM–noon
Online with Leila
Thursdays, 6:30–8:30 PM
Online with Leila
Class Fees: C$308 —
payable by e-transfer in Canada (to ls@leilastuart.com, password: brain)
or PayPal
Chronic stress elevates cortisol. That is toxic to the hippocampus, the structure most responsible for forming new memories and the first to show damage in Alzheimer’s. It also narrows attention, amplifies pain, and fragments the deep sleep during which the glymphatic system clears amyloid. The yoga tools for this are specific and well-studied: slow nasal breathing, extended exhale ratios, alternate-nostril breathing, restorative rest. They raise vagal tone and heart rate variability. What you’re training is not calm during class. It’s the speed of your return to baseline afterward.
The research: in adults with mild cognitive impairment, twelve weeks of Kundalini yoga improved memory and executive function comparably to standard memory training, with better gains in mood and resilience. Long-term practitioners show greater cortical thickness in the insula, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, and less of the gray matter decline typical with age. Kirtan Kriya, a twelve-minute mantra practice, improved memory, sleep, and cerebral blood flow in older adults with subjective cognitive decline. We’ll learn this practice and use it all semester.
Movement is brain work. Contracting muscle secretes myokines that cross the blood-brain barrier and drive BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), the molecule underlying learning and memory. Loaded bone releases osteocalcin, which influences mood and cognition. Balance and gaze training engage vestibular pathways wired directly into the hippocampus, and vestibular loss is an independent risk factor for cognitive decline. Novel, attentionally demanding movement recruits cerebellar and prefrontal circuits. And meditative attention reshapes the default mode network, the circuitry behind rumination and self-referential worry.
None of this works as just intellectual information. It works as embodied practice, repeated with awareness, over time. What we’re building over eleven weeks is a set of tools you can still use at eighty — a way to breathe, move, attend, and recover that keeps shaping the brain long after the semester ends.
Come curious.
Registration / Health Form / Studio Protocol
Please download our flyer to view the class schedule and complete the registration form.
Note: If PDF’s do not open in your browser, please see your downloads folder to open.
Class Descriptions
Centerpoint Yoga Therapy Studio offers 11 week semesters of classes 3 times a year, beginning in September, January and April. Due to the nature and progression of the material, classes are by registration only.
Each class is tailored to suit your needs and level of ability and may include:
- Experiential anatomy
- Alignment, movement, breath and mental re-patterning
- Mindfulness practices
- Gentle yoga postures
- Meditation and philosophy
- Deep relaxation
- Dru yoga
Instructors
Leila Stuart
Leila Stuart BA, LLB, C-IAYT, is a Registered Massage Therapist (retired) and has practiced and taught yoga for over 40 years. A warm and compassionate teacher, she offers accessible teachings on experiential anatomy, movement repatterning and embodiment of the deeper teachings of yoga as pathways to self-healing.
With a deep love and intuitive knowledge of experiential anatomy, Leila specializes in transforming academic information into somatic awareness and life changing experience. She is the author of Pathways to a Centered Body, co-authored with Donna Farhi, The Great Yoga Handbook, and Experiential Anatomy, Therapeutic Applications of Embodied Movement and Awareness. Leila teaches in Canada and internationally.
Janine Naman
Janine Naman C-IAYT, is an intuitive and compassionate yoga therapist who has studied and mentored with Leila Stuart since 2011. She applies years of expertise to the mind body connection, having studied yoga and various forms of bodywork since 2002.
In the thousands of classes she has taught, Janine brings yoga to life with her embodied knowledge of anatomy and movement. She brings joy, integrity and a positive attitude to all of her classes and private sessions.
Forms
Centerpoint Studio
Registration / Health Form / Studio Protocol
Please download our flyer to view the class schedule and complete the registration form.
Note: If PDF’s do not open in your browser, please see your downloads folder to open.
Please complete this form and return it with your registration.
Please also read our guide on how to keep our yoga studio clean and peaceful:
Location
Google Map
Parking
For the benefit of all visitors and neighbours, please use the Parking Map if you are bringing your vehicle to the studio.
