Meet the Trainers at Young Yoga Masters
Meet the trainers who are so very excited to mentor and guide you through your Kids Yoga Teacher Training:
Lead Trainer: Aruna Kathy Humphrys
Aruna (she/her) is the proud Founder, Director, and Lead Trainer of Young Yoga Masters. Furthermore, she has developed a program to help experienced Yoga Teachers offer a 200 Hour Teacher Training because she dreams of a day when kids yoga will lead to teens getting their first yoga teacher training! This program is called Ambassador Yoga.
After a first career in social work, Aruna took her first yoga teacher training in 1998 and has been teaching full-time yoga teacher since 2000. She has taught thousands of classes including kids yoga, family yoga, yoga camps, mom’s and tots yoga, and even taught yoga at one Montessori School for 18 years!
Aruna is the author of The Frog Yoga Alphabet Kids Yoga Teacher Training Double Pack and Yoga Man vs. The Stressor: Yoga for Boys Teacher Training Manual, and the award-winning Young Yoga Masters blog (the world’s first blog covering kids yoga exclusively). Aruna has over 200 testimonials from happy adult clients for her Kids Yoga Teacher Training, a Registered Children’s Yoga School.
Once upon a time Aruna lived in an Ashram for six years. She is an experienced 500 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher. Now she lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and outside of yoga she enjoys singing, ukulele playing, nature, and technology.
Read more about Aruna’s Personal Story here.
Here’s Aruna using the Frog Yoga Colouring Pages for Halloween:
Trainer: Marcia LeBlanc
Marcia (she/her) is the Founder and Director of Yogi Frogz Kids, Let It Shine Yoga where she hosts family yoga retreats, and co-founder of Super Hero Kids Yoga.
She teaches kids yoga throughout Toronto and Oakville. Most noteworthy are her kids yoga, family yoga, yoga camps. Marcia is developing an international family yoga retreat too!
Marcia brings warmth and compassion to her classes. She leads by example with a smile and mindful listening.
Marcia has graduated from:
- 220 Hour IKYTA Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training (2018)
- Week long Youth Mindfulness Kids Program Training in England (2017)
- 95 Hour Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training (2015)
- 500 Hour Moksha Yoga (Modo Yoga) Teacher Training (2011)
Marcia is an Associate Trainer in the Young Yoga Masters Training in Toronto.
Trainer: Yasuko Tanaka
Yasuko (she/her) is the Executive Director and lead therapist at Zanshin Kids Inc.
Zanshin Kids programs are designed to help children with autism or other developmental disabilities to reach their full potential. Various therapies and programs are delivered by qualified therapists with each program customized based on the child’s needs. Our therapists work one-on-one with the child or in a small groups, with the goal of increasing the child’s development trajectory or rate of learning.
Yasuko is a Social Play Specialist. She helps children and adults develop social skills incorporating play, yoga, and meditation. She completed Children’s Yoga Teacher Training (95 hours) with Young Yoga Masters, Yoga Teacher Training (200 hours) with Ambassador Yoga, and Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training (85 hours) with Yoga Truly.
Yasuko will be a special guest speaker in the Inclusive Yoga Module and will share her favorite yoga activities and strategies. Yasuko is on a mission to make sure that every teacher remembers that all children want to be part of the fun, and there is always a way to include everyone!
Trainer: Raven McRorie
Raven (she/her) graduated from the University of Toronto with an undergraduate honour’s degree majoring in Equity Studies and Caribbean Studies, with a minor in African Studies. She received her B.Ed. at York University and her M. Ed at Oise in Curriculum Teaching and Learning. Raven has held an Early Childhood Education diploma for over 25 years and is a certified yoga teacher who has been practicing yoga for over ten years.
When she is not teaching in the school system she supports students after school, tutoring mindful educational programs. Raven’s passion for yoga, is seen in her classes for beginners, men, women restorative, and seniors chair yoga sessions.
In 2019 Raven received her certification at Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga and is eager to bring her craft to little ones and youths everywhere. She believes in the power of collaboration and works with individuals and groups that are like-minded in their vision of Health, Wellness, and Education. As a lifelong learner Raven has plans of getting her Ph.D. and becoming a Yoga Therapist. Raven is also very passionate about the issues about Social Justice and is very interested in bringing yoga into the prison system where Mental Health, PTSD, and Childhood Trauma are issues not being addressed.
Raven teaches children in classrooms as a school teacher in Toronto, Canada.
Raven is a single parent of two amazing, caring young men who continue to make her proud. Her children are her driving force.
Raven is dedicated to being in the service of compassion, love, and understanding with those who want to explore the world of mindfulness, movement, and meditation. By creating safe, supportive, spaces, individuals and communities can come together in a way that is positive, healthy, and beneficial to all. Raven believes that we all deserve to Love and Live Life to the Fullest, with no regrets.
Connect with Raven on Facebook at Raven Yoga.
Trainer: Maggie Lijun Duan
Maggie (she/her) runs Yogatime瑜伽时间 for all ages and all abilities.
Maggie has practiced yoga on and off through the years to deal with her struggle with her weight, depression and anxiety. Moreover, Yoga helped her feel both calm and focused, and she realized that was exactly what many of her young students needed.
Maggie has been teaching yoga for 4 years. She completed her 200 Hour Teacher Training with Yoga Renew, 95-hour Kids Yoga Teacher Training with Young Yoga Masters, and 50 Hour Pre & Post-natal Teacher Training with Toronto Yoga Mamas.
With over 6 years of experience with children in Toronto including as an Early Childhood Educator Assistant in daycare centers, tutoring children in Mandarin/English, and as the lead teacher delivering the yoga program at a Mandarin summer camp.
The Yoga Time Program (Bilingual) was born with passion and love from a mission to bring Yoga to all ages and all abilities. She offers her students the opportunity to move at their own pace, to modify when needed, and to honour how they feel at all times. Maggie finds peace, joy, satisfaction and inspiration in seeing students discover their own personal yoga journey and hopes to nurture and encourage them along their way.
Maggie also holds a Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, a postgraduate certificate in sports journalism, a spoken language interpreter certificate and had worked in the field for a few years before starting a new journey. Currently, she is pursuing an Early Childhood Education Diploma and Degree at George Brown College and Ryerson University.
Trainer: Oline Bridges
Oline (she/her) is a Yoga Alliance 500 Hour Trained Experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT), and has completed both the Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT) and Prenatal Yoga Teacher Specialties (RPYT).
Sharing her love of martial arts, music, and singing bowls, Oline teaches kids yoga classes in schools and studios in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
Aruna and Oline met in 2018 at the Nanaimo Yoga Literacy Training, then Oline traveled across country to Ontario to complete her 95 Hour Certification in Burlingotn, Ontario, taking the Yoga Literacy Training for a second time and deepening her connection with the Yoga Alphabet activities.
Oline will be leading Yoga Literacy Certificate in Dawson Creek to share the gifts for children at Yoga at Northern Lights College, Continuing Education.
Trainer: Claire Louise
Claire (she/her) and Aruna met in 2012, when Claire signed up for the very first 95 Hour Children’s Yoga Training offered by Young Yoga Masters. They began carpooling to Toronto and through this connection eventually brought the Ambassador Yoga 200 Hour Teacher Training Program to life in 2014.
Claire Louise is also co-owner of Yoga Truly Studio in Grimsby, Ontario. She has an extremely successful children’s, tween, and teen yoga program at her studio and delivers kids yoga classes throughout schools in her region.
Claire is an Experienced Yoga Teacher at the 500 level, Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher and Reiki Master and Lead Trainer in the Ambassador Yoga 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training at her studio.
She also teaches: Hatha / Vinyasa / Prenatal / Teen Yoga and Yoga Teacher Trainer
Trainer: Charlotte Connick Mabry (New Orleans, USA)
Charlotte (she/her) is a Young Yoga Masters trainer in New Orleans. Here’s her story:
My personal practice of yoga began at the age of 50 after retiring as a Professor from the LSU Dental School.
As I practiced yoga I realized I was on a committed journey of continual learning of my body, mind, and spirit. After completing Soul School, I received a specialty certification in children’s yoga from Aruna Humphrys, Young Yoga Masters.
Yoga provides tools to travel into the center of ourselves, discovering “the authentic self” / soul; Bhakti. If I could have only learned these lessons as a child!
I am impassioned to teach little yogis to learn how to use these tools. Yoga can heal and prevent those wounds found in childhood. My greatest gift as a teacher is helping children discover their “self-knowing within”, trusting and speaking it.
I teach “You are important”, “Let me see your eyes, I am listening to you”!
The miracle is watching them light up with delight when believing in who they are. Namaste!
