Our Teachers

Emmanuelle Rousseau

STRETCH co-founder, Emmanuelle came to yoga over twenty years ago on a hunch it might help her anxiety and improve her ability to focus and relax. She found amazing tools to improve her wellbeing along with a lifetime desire to push her edge as a way not only to get strong but to find balance. Emmanuelle has been sharing her passion for yoga and yoga research since opening STRETCH in 2014.

Emmanuelle loves to collaborate with local artists and musicians, bringing together some of the finest artists in Vancouver to STRETCH classes and events.

Emmanuelle is a fierce advocate and supporter of yoga research, yoga and mindfulness in schools, hospitals and prisons. Together with countless collaborators, Emmanuelle and co-founder Boyd, work at bringing modern and secular yoga to everyone.

Boyd Thomson

STRETCH co-founder, entrepreneur, engineer, yogi, nerd. Boyd came to yoga to improve his flexibility as an athlete and decades later, is constantly impressed with yoga’s ability to help him find inspiration and to manage every-day life stresses. He feels that yoga has made him a better cyclist, and a better person. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, skipping, the circus, and reading in a sunbeam with his family.

Samaneh Asgharzadeh

Samaneh started practicing Yoga over 15 years ago when her shoulder was seriously injured. Although the injury closed the door on her professional tennis career, it opened another window that she is grateful for every single day.

Samaneh’s journey began with Sivananda Yoga, and Yoga Nidra. She went on to solidify her commitment to daily practice through her first teacher training course in 2012. Then, in 2017 she tried Power Yoga for the first time and knew right away that it was her calling. Throughout her life Samaneh had been amazed by the inherent power of the body, but it was through Power Yoga that she was able to understand the connection between body and mind such that meditation became tangible.

In 2019 she completed her 200 hour teacher training through YYoga, and recently received her 300 hour training with Aligned Yoga. Samaneh appreciates every opportunity to be present with others, sharing her love of the practice and experiencing the wave of calm silence that comes over her the moment she starts teaching.

Vanessa Bourget

As far as she can remember, Vanessa has always loved to move, stretch, and explore. Whether rolling around on the floor intuitively or carefully moving on the mat in alignment with physical body and breath, allowing herself to just feel and be in the moment is what made Vanessa fall deeply into yoga; to keep both body and thoughts supple. Creating spacious body and spacious mind has taken her through studies in nutrition, herbal medicine, fitness and yoga.

Once she realized the potential to unlock with movement, lifestyle, and breathing patterns, and with the constant addition of new skills to keep the brain on its toes, as well as increased range of motion through active flexibility, she felt she had to share her favorite little nuggets of information with the world.

With consistent practice, patience, and by keeping the mind of a beginner, we adapt and grow, even surpass expectations. Vanessa’s classes invite you to move and become aware of the tiny grooves throughout your own body, and to make space, to hold space for whatever it is you are feeling right here, right now, in this very moment. Observe it. Breathe with it. Play with it. It begins now.

Carolyn Anne Budgell

Carolyn fell into yoga in 1999, while living the ski bum dream in Whistler. It initially provided agility for her snowboarding, skateboarding and trail running. Now, as a teacher in Vancouver, she continually learns how to connect with others and feel at home in one’s skin. The magic of yoga surprisingly grows quieter; towards a place where the physical, the internal, the spectacle and the witness are all one.

Carolyn’s past career was outdoors, in environmental restoration for Environment Canada and BC Wildlife Federation. Since completing her first 200 hour YTT in 2008, she has an extensive CV: as a contributing writer for My Yoga Online and Halfmoon Yoga, filming videos with lululemon and Mala Collective, a presenter at Wanderlust Whistler Festivals, as an educator for international Teacher Trainings with Lila Vinyasa School of Yoga, managing yoga studios and guiding students through the mind blowing practice of just being while in silent meditation intensives.

Carolyn’s hatha classes are chock-full of unique alignment cues, smart sequencing, helpful touch and lighthearted jokes to which she pays gratitude to Schuyler Grant, Ana Forrest and Clara Roberts-Oss. Her passion for silent meditation in forests is thanks to Adyashanti and Michelle St Pierre. The many years of ‘being on stage’ as a teacher, have shown her the importance of stepping back in order to let life happen… to do the work, connect to breath, change the perspective by going upside down, honour the emotions and then let life continue to happen… and to remember, it’s all okay, it’s all manageable.

Ben Brown

Ben Brown is a mover and shaker. He is the founder of Music And Movement Mondays (MAMM). As a drummer, has received a Juno Award with the group Pugs and Crows. As a yogi Ben has completed a 200 hour teacher training and recently returned from Berlin where he taught yoga at a local yoga studio.

Currently, Ben is exploring principles of sound felt in the body, as taught by his mentor, deaf/master percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, and researching a series of designed percussion instruments crafted by Roxanne Nesbitt. With these, Ben is hoping to push the boundaries of drumming by using movement to communicate the energy of sound—helping an audience hear differently by creating and breaking expectations for a sound through gesture. You can reach Ben at benbrown8@gmail.comand and sample his work at benbrownsounds.com

Bradley Cierpicki

Yoga has been part of Brad’s life since he was 15. Having a consistent practice for so many years has been crucial to balancing his love for music and boards of all kinds. Most importantly, yoga provides him with mental clarity to be present with his family and the energy to keep up!

Matt Corker

Matt is a vinyasa-based yoga teacher whose classes weave together creative postural sequencing, breath work, music, humour, and yogic themes relevant for the modern yogi. As a 200 E-RYT and previous workshop leader and faculty member on international trainings around the world – from Abu Dhabi to Copenhagen – he continues to study and practice many styles of yoga that build physical and mental fortitude.

His classes draw inspiration from his own personal practices based in Kundalini, Ashtanga, and Katonah Yoga as well as from his love for dance and mobility work.
In his classes, you’ll experience the power of your breath and what it feels like to laugh on a yoga mat.

Risto Duggan

Risto Duggan is a “physical” power yoga teacher with a positive vibe. His yoga practice has helped him recover from a lot of damage and broken bones. A former multi-sport athlete and Hip Hop teacher. Risto keeps it funky, flowing, and strong! He believes that adjustments done properly, will change your practice and is getting quite a reputation for his!

Risto teaches “The Rocket” ( An Ashtanga based power class with optional inversions and arm balances created by Larry Shultz ), Power, Flow, and Yin.

“Practice and Breathe with Balance and Grace…. Less struggle, more surrender… Less ego, more compassion”.

He credits his training to Eoin Finn, Dustin Fruson, Ryan Leier, Natalie Rousseau, Christine Price-Clarke, Jolene Bayda, and Danny Paradise.

www.chrisduggan.net

Kate Gillespie

Kate’s Yoga practice began about 20 years ago. Years of competitive sports had her wound so tightly that it took her nearly a year to touch her toes. As her hamstrings started to shift, everything else inside of her followed. Yoga is magic.

After nearly a decade of practice, she pursued her first Yoga Teacher Training in Costa Rica, with the intention of deepening her personal practice and having an extended vacation from her demanding finance career. The rest is history.

Kate has had the privilege of studying with many incredible teachers along the way. She’s currently most influenced by Kula Flow, studied with Schuyler Grant and Nikki Vilella. She’s also become even more curious about functional movement, and incorporating what she’s learned through Functional Range Systems, Rocky Heron and Matt Phippen into her teaching and practice.

She loves crafting sequences that balance creativity with thoughtfulness and anatomical knowledge of the body. Her goal is to take students on a Vinyasa journey while also teaching them how their body works, so that they leave feeling great AND knowing a little bit more about themselves.

Hadis Kiani

Hadis is a creative yoga teacher from Iran. She infuses modern flow with classic tantric yoga practices to help busy people reconnect to their heart and soul through the wisdom of the body.

She began her movement practice in 2008, but it wasn’t till she discovered vinyasa that she began to see yoga in a different light. The expression and creativity of Vinyasa grabbed her heart, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Her first 200hr training was with Christina Raskin in 2015 through soulthrive yoga. She continued her deep dive into philosophy with a traditional teacher from India to gain her 300 hr designation. She has since trained in Yin, Pilates and Breath Work, and continues to study different aspects and limbs of yoga. She is currently one of the teacher trainers of SOULTHRIVE yoga, the same training that she initially took.

Her classes are a playful mixture of creative flowing and soul-seeking, often incorporating yummy hip openers or fun variations along the way. She offers a light-hearted invitation to practice what we preach to the world on the mat by stabilizing and harmonizing our inner and outer experiences.

Masha Merchant

Masha is a yoga adventurer with thousands of hours of experience teaching in different corners of the world.

Her passion transcends geographic boundaries through her aerial yoga offerings, and in Canada Masha has become well-known as a founder and a leader of Aerial yoga teacher trainings.

In addition to Aerial, Masha incorporates wisdom of Yin yoga, Daoist Alchemy, Anusara yoga and Tantric philosophy into her teachings to create a powerful and vibrant experience for her students. Her vinyasa classes are playful, expressive and unpredictable with emphasis on the experience of breath power, energy and sensation within.

Masha’s mission continues to be to empower students by incorporating self-love, light-heartedness, openness, playfulness, and joyful creativity into each practice.

Mariah Mennie

A sound sculptress in a coat of many colours, Vancouver based artist Mariah Mennie is a composer, pianist, vocalist, percussionist, fire dancer and music educator. Originally a classically trained pianist, her colourful musical background now extends into music composition, singing, percussion and rhythm, improvisation, ethnomusicology and more recently, into sound healing music.

Mariah believes the gift of music is meant to be shared, and is in one of its purest forms when used as a healing, rejuvenating art. Her eclectic sound world is effervescent, inspired by wild natural places, fantastical words, dreams, psychological intricacies of mind and a very creative imagination. Her primary intention is to create music that lifts the heart and inspires the soul.

Connor Roff

Connor began his yoga journey while attending his Mum’s classes in his late teens. Discovering yoga as the ultimate tool to connect mind, body, and spirit, he later went on to complete his Ashtanga and Vinyasa 200 hour training in South Goa, India. Connor brings a strong, sweaty, and grounded style to the mat while intertwining philosophical and creative elements into his practice.

His approach is to empower people by helping them drop down into their bodies and find their inner strength and joy. As a musician, he always tries his best to keep classes fun and varied, combining all kinds of musical genres. Connor strives to bring yoga directly into the heart of the LGBT+ and male communities, sharing his passion and serving others on a daily basis.

Katie Schram

Katie is a yoga practitioner, actor, and dancer born on Vancouver Island. She discovered yoga 12 years ago while managing chronic pain, and it was love at first pose.

Katie has practised yoga with hundreds of young people across the lower mainland, introducing balancing, strengthening, and restorative practises to busy young minds.

She hopes that this vital practise will continue to have a positive impact on each individual she has the pleasure of working with.

While not in the studio, you can find Katie making friends with the cats and dogs in her neighbourhood, listening to jazz, and eating lots of cookies.

Navin Sahjpaul

Navin Sahjpaul (Music Therapist, BMT, Certified Yoga Teacher, Musician, Mental Health Advocate) is a South Asian man of colour who identifies as an Indo-Canadian (he/him). Both of his parents were born in India and immigrated to Canada at a young age with their families. He resides and works in Vancouver, BC and his life journey thus far has led him to pursuing a career path in being of service in this world. Navin is deeply passionate about well-being, mental health, community building, and healing, a believer in the idea that one can overcome life adversity and does not have to live an existence that consists mostly of pain and suffering.

Robert Wilson-Smith

Robert’s yoga journey began with brief dalliances in the 1980s and 1990s, but he became committed to a regular practice in 2003 when he began studying the Ashtanga Vinyasa method. Everything changed: his career, his body, his diet… in the last dozen years he completed numerous workshops and retreats in various countries with teachers from the Sivananda, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, Vijnana and Yin lineages. He fasted, sat in silence and danced to the full moon.

Nowadays, being a father, a partner, a runner (and even fooling around on the monkey bars in the park) has led Robert to move away from the strictness of certain approaches. He has realized that yoga doesn’t have to have a label, but if it allows us to focus on our breath, move our body and still our mind, then it’s something worth pursuing.

Most recently Robert completed a 240-hour enriched teacher training at the Vancouver School of Yoga, a 50-hour yin teacher training at Semperviva, a mentorship at YYOGA and a mentorship with Yoga4StiffGuys. He looks forward to seeing you on the mat!