I’d like to share with you some excerpts from a recent interview in the on-line newsletter for the American Viniyoga Institute where I did my training.  It may give you a better idea of what inspired me to take my yoga teaching in a more therapeutic direction.  Enjoy!

Jill’s first brief experience with yoga was a bright light in a dark period of early adulthood that planted a seed she never forgot.It gave her a sense of grounding, love, and compassion.

Ten years later, in her mid-thirties, she found herself travelling alone to India to explore the idea of making a deeper commitment to yoga. While there her spiritual experiences were transformational despite bouts of severe illness and solitude. She trekked alone to the source of the Ganges. “I touched the icy cold water emerging from Gomukh, the glacier at the source of the Ganges. It felt as if I was returning to the very source of who I was. It was here that I made a commitment to myself to become a full time yoga instructor.” It was after this that she travelled to Dharamsala and was fortunate enough to meet the Dalai Lama and explore more deeply the philosophy of Buddhism. From there she travelled to the remote northwest mountains of India on the Tibetan Plateau.  She became very ill here and convalesced in the home of a generous and kind Buddhist Ladakhi family. The deep spiritual connection these people had to the land affirmed to Jill the importance of a simple and sustainable lifestyle.

Once home she followed through with her commitment and she began her yoga training with Esther Myers in Canada and followed this by traveling to England to study with Paul Harvey, at that time head of Viniyoga Britain. And then, onto the American Viniyoga Institute Viniyoga Teacher Training and Viniyoga Therapist Training with Gary Kraftsow.

Of her AVI training, Jill says: “When you watch Gary Kraftsow working with a client, you see the many levels of his powers of observation.I feel grateful for the teachings I have received through Gary”.  Clare CollinsRN, CS, PhD and AVI senior faculty, has been “a wonderful and supportive mentor. What we are doing with yoga therapy in Canada hasn’t been done before in this health care context and I appreciate Clare’s ability to understand a situation and suggest ways to deal with it effectively. All told, it’s an amazing journey”.

Jill and her husband have settled here in rural Eastern Ontario.Jill helped found the Yoga Connection with Joy Demsey where over 25 classes are offered weekly. Jill has developed two different yoga series for SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and persistent health concerns which she teaches at a rural community health centre.  At this same centre she teaches smoking cessation, and diabetes workshops. She also offers private sessions.

Every spring and fall Jill brings her love of nature and skills as a yoga therapist to her work as a leader of wilderness rites of passage with her husband, psychotherapist and author, Andy Fisher, PhD.

If Jill’s experience inspires you to explore the more therapeutic aspects of yoga on the level of body, mind and spirit you may want to explore some of the therapeutic classes on offer at the Yoga Connection 613-267-7148 and the North Lanark Community Health Centre 613-259-2182.

Yoga for Better Backs with Jill Dunkley  – begins Tuesday April 5 11:00 am 32 North St., Perth

Yoga for Women in Mid-Life with Jill Dunkley  - begins Thursday April 7 2:00 pm 32 North St., Perth

Yoga for Persistent Health Concerns with Jill Dunkley  - begins October 2011 9:00 am (chair yoga) and 10:30 am (mat yoga) at The North Lanark community Health Centre, 207 Robertson St., Lanark