The Teachers
Swami Sivananda is considered one of the greatest Indian saints of modern times. The essence of his teaching, which fills over 300 books is: “Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize, Be Good, Do Good.”
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Swami Vishnu-devananda , world authority on Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, was the founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. In Montreal in 1957 he opened virtually the first drop-in yoga centre in Canada. Today this non-profit organization continues to teach people around the world how to benefit from the teachings of yoga in order to attain physical, mental and spiritual well-being and Self-realization. |
Arjuna J. Alfieri
Formal Yoga Training – Arjuna had the great privilege to study yoga under the direct tutelage of Swami Vishnu Devananda, founder of Sivananda Yoga Centre International. Arjuna graduated from the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’Training Course (TTC) in 1982 and from the Advanced TTC in 1984. More recently, he completed the Sadhana Intensive course at the Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec in 2006. This is a challenging advanced training of intensive practice.
Experience - From 1982 to 1986 Arjuna was the director of the Montreal Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Montreal, Quebec. In 1987 he moved to the Ottawa/Outaouais area where he has since maintained his teaching practice. As well as being a senior teacher at Yoga Sivananda, Arjuna teaches both corporate and private classes. A father of three active children, Arjuna has directed guest programmes during the annual Family Week at the Sivananda Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec for the past 13 years. He is also Guest Programme co-ordinator at the Sivananda Yoga Retreat in Nassau, Bahamas every February.
As a key teacher at the Yoga Sivananda de l’Outaouais centre in Aylmer, Quebec Arjuna brings the fruit of his 27 years yoga teaching experience to his classical Hatha Yoga classes and Raja yoga philosophy and meditation sessions. He is also an amazing vegetarian cook and specializes in ‘The Transitional Diet’ for people new to a vegetarian lifestyle. 
Catherine Gillies (Kumari) – founding director
Formal Yoga Training – A direct student Swami Vishnu Devananda (1927-1993), Kumari graduated from the Sivananda Yoga Teacher’s Training course (TTC) in 1984. She completed the Advanced TTC in 1986. More recently, she participated in the Sadhana Intensive course at the Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec in 2005, 2007,and 2008. This is a challenging advanced training of intensive Hatha Yoga practice.
Experience – Kumari lived and taught yoga full-time at the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Montreal for four years in the mid-1980’s. Mother of three active vegetarian children (currently aged 21, 19, & 14) she has taught yoga continuously for the past 25 years – 21 in the Ottawa/Outaouais region. Her experience ranges from children’s yoga, pre/post-natal yoga, yoga for back care, and therapeutic yoga for illness and illness recovery to seniors’ adapted yoga. Kumari was also recently a teacher in the Sivananda Teachers’ Training course in the Bahamas. In 2002 Kumari founded Yoga Sivananda in Aylmer, QC. This is now a family-run centre since her husband, Arjuna, joined the teaching staff. Kumari teaches both corporate and private classes.
Kumari is most interested in the creative practice of integrating the philosophy of yoga into daily life. In the summer of 2007 she lived an extended personal yoga retreat at the Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec immersed in nature, silence and seclusion. Her focus was on the more meditative and devotional aspects of yoga practice. She now offers classes and workshops in relaxation and healing.
Guest Teachers
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