The Video Recordings
Each yoga video is an experience captured in time, recorded live with yoga practitioners.
I offer thematic classes—a patchwork reflective of nature’s seasons, corresponding mythologies explored as ritual, asana–pranayama–meditation and journaling, esoteric writings from both Eastern and Western traditions, poetry and more—all woven together within the field of my personal experience.
There is a raw honesty to these videos: no elaborate setup, expensive equipment, or stage. My classes have never been performance-based. Rather, they seem to be driven by something outside the conventional—by what arises in the immediacy of practice and oral storytelling. I endeavour to teach from openness, spirited by spontaneity—drawing upon a fluid body of practices, study, and lived experience gathered over a lifetime.
I have been teaching yoga for thirty years, largely to yoga teachers, though I began by teaching children and families. I taught full-time for many years in Vancouver, Canada, with trainings and retreats taking me to Europe and India. I have studied with teachers across a wide range of schools and traditions: Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, the Bauls of Bengal, Tantra, Sufism, Vajrayana and Dzogchen Buddhism. Interwoven with this has been an education that never really ends, beginning with formal studies in Social Work, Literature, Psychology, Women's Studies and continuing with an engagement in ancient philosophies, depth psychology, tarotology, cosmology, dream and ancestral work.
At the moment, I am writing, teaching online, and nestled in France.
Tending the garden of the soul, and tending our relationship with the sacred, is my overarching aim.
May these offerings cultivate the kind of attention through which what has been forgotten, silenced, or turned away might once again be heard.
Testimonials
Shelley is a skillful teacher who cultivates curiosity with each class, simultaneously tending to the mind through rich storytelling and the body with unique sequencing. Her teaching abilities are bolstered by her clear passion for the practice and for human enrichment in general.
Even through a screen, it is a great joy to receive Shelley's offerings, as they are each consciously curated and entirely their own. It is increasingly rare to find a teacher with the care and dedication for the practice that Shelley so gracefully embodies.
Jenn Williams, Kelowna BC
Shelley was one of my first yoga teachers when I began practicing at a studio in Vancouver, and over the years I have continued to study and practice with her both in person and online.
Her decades of experience, depth of knowledge, and intuitive understanding of the practice come through in every offering. What she teaches is not something you are likely to find in a typical studio class. Each practice feels unique and deeply attuned to the energy of the season, the body, and the moment.
Shelley brings a rare combination of grace, wisdom, balance, and depth to her teaching. I would highly recommend studying or practicing with her to anyone looking for something more profound than a physical yoga class — an experience that invites you into a deeper relationship with yourself and the practice.
Kristin Mcllhenney, Vancouver BC