Kassandra Prus (E-CYT) is a Toronto-based queer and trans identifying yoga therapist-in-training, currently teaching body positive, trauma informed, and intersectionally informed therapeutic yoga and exercise classes, specializing in two streams:
1). developing functional mobility in those working with injuries, illness, chronic pain, or age, and
2). encouraging mental and emotional health with the subtler yogic practices of breathwork, meditation, yin, hatha, and restorative.
Kassandra hopes that the range of offerings presented make space for people to practice radical self-acceptance and to self-activate their own healing. Many classes are ended with Kassandra offering their singing voice, and sometimes magical musical accompaniment on shruti box or bells and chimes.
Kassandra is currently enrolled in a 1000+ hour training to become a Yoga Therapist at Yoga Therapy Toronto with Ante and Felicia Pavlovic, Dr. N Chandrasekaran of Yoga Vaidya Śālā and Dr Nitin Shah of Good Life Ayurveda. Yoga Therapy Toronto's school is modelled off the structure of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandirim (KYM) in Chennai, India. TKV Desikachar founded the school in 1976 to uphold and share the teaching of his father, Śri Thirumalai Krishnamacharya, and Ante and Felicia studied there directly with Desikachar as well as in his home for over 10 years, while Dr N. Chandrasekaran ran KYM for over 20 years. Prior to the Yoga Therapist training, Kassandra collected over 450 hours of Yoga Teacher Training in yoga therapy, yin, chair, and trauma-informed yoga, a well as additional exercise based modalities like BoneFit™, contemporary pilates, and restorative exercise (please see CV for details). Kassandra has been teaching full time since 2016 and will become a registered Yoga Therapist in 2021. Biomechanics, therapeutic and restorative movement, and healthy aging and rehabilitation are of particular interest. Mental health, trauma-informed practice, accessibility, and intersectional inclusivity are other passions Kassandra actively works to support. Kassandra has continued weekly practice with teacher Ante Pavlovic at Yoga Therapy Toronto since 2014, and has been practicing meditation in the lineage of Thich Naht Hahn, through the Toronto group True Peace, through facilitator David Tran since 2018.
Kassandra's public yoga classes (permanent and yoga series) include: Union Yoga+Wellness (Yin+Meditation, Yin/Yang, Hatha, LoveYourBrain), Yoga Village (All Bodies, Chair Yoga), at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre in their Seniors Stay Connected Program (drop in day program for anyone 55+), privately run chair yoga classes at St. Demetrius Church, and at Dixon Hall (Chair Yoga+Meditation). These classes vary in their content depending on student needs. Kassandra also works with many private clients doing therapeutic yoga and exercise, many of whom are 60+ and living with disability, chronic pain, injury, and/or trauma, and also teaches Chair Yoga at Ivan Franko Long Term Care Home (residents) and mindful movement (staff), as well as at Dom Lipa Slovenian Retirement and Nursing Home. Classes and private sessions for people with multiple conditions and/or injuries will focus more on developing healthier movement patterns, basic relaxation, stress reduction, and simple breath practices (prāṇāyāma). Classes filled with longer-practiced students dive deeper into the philosophical, mental, and ethical teachings of yoga amidst the posture (āsana) practice. Kassandra works to respect the authenticity of the lineage of Yoga Therapy, TKV Desikachar, and Krishnamacharya's therapeutic teachings, while supplementing medical and exercise learning from other Western sources that supports these deep and thousands of years old teachings.
Kassandra is also the owner of My Personal Yoga, the Greater Toronto Area's Agency for personalized, body positive, diversity celebrating yoga, meditation, and pilates teachers.
Kassandra comes from a past as a community facilitator, folk artist, and arts educator, founding bodymind ConfiDance in 2010 (bringing curriculum-based dance education to public schools); was on the artist rosters for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts (schools) and ARTS–REHAB (hospitals), TCDSB’s Artists in the Schools, tdsbCreates, and VIBE Arts for Children and Youth, and also ran workshops for Supporting Our Youth, the Toronto Alzheimer Society, Guelph Organic Conference, UofT Faculty of Social Work, and various arts camps.
When not teaching, you can find Kassandra thoroughly enjoying life walking in the forest, at folk dance and music jams, cooking, gardening, fermenting, or foraging. Nature is the greatest teacher!
1). developing functional mobility in those working with injuries, illness, chronic pain, or age, and
2). encouraging mental and emotional health with the subtler yogic practices of breathwork, meditation, yin, hatha, and restorative.
Kassandra hopes that the range of offerings presented make space for people to practice radical self-acceptance and to self-activate their own healing. Many classes are ended with Kassandra offering their singing voice, and sometimes magical musical accompaniment on shruti box or bells and chimes.
Kassandra is currently enrolled in a 1000+ hour training to become a Yoga Therapist at Yoga Therapy Toronto with Ante and Felicia Pavlovic, Dr. N Chandrasekaran of Yoga Vaidya Śālā and Dr Nitin Shah of Good Life Ayurveda. Yoga Therapy Toronto's school is modelled off the structure of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandirim (KYM) in Chennai, India. TKV Desikachar founded the school in 1976 to uphold and share the teaching of his father, Śri Thirumalai Krishnamacharya, and Ante and Felicia studied there directly with Desikachar as well as in his home for over 10 years, while Dr N. Chandrasekaran ran KYM for over 20 years. Prior to the Yoga Therapist training, Kassandra collected over 450 hours of Yoga Teacher Training in yoga therapy, yin, chair, and trauma-informed yoga, a well as additional exercise based modalities like BoneFit™, contemporary pilates, and restorative exercise (please see CV for details). Kassandra has been teaching full time since 2016 and will become a registered Yoga Therapist in 2021. Biomechanics, therapeutic and restorative movement, and healthy aging and rehabilitation are of particular interest. Mental health, trauma-informed practice, accessibility, and intersectional inclusivity are other passions Kassandra actively works to support. Kassandra has continued weekly practice with teacher Ante Pavlovic at Yoga Therapy Toronto since 2014, and has been practicing meditation in the lineage of Thich Naht Hahn, through the Toronto group True Peace, through facilitator David Tran since 2018.
Kassandra's public yoga classes (permanent and yoga series) include: Union Yoga+Wellness (Yin+Meditation, Yin/Yang, Hatha, LoveYourBrain), Yoga Village (All Bodies, Chair Yoga), at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre in their Seniors Stay Connected Program (drop in day program for anyone 55+), privately run chair yoga classes at St. Demetrius Church, and at Dixon Hall (Chair Yoga+Meditation). These classes vary in their content depending on student needs. Kassandra also works with many private clients doing therapeutic yoga and exercise, many of whom are 60+ and living with disability, chronic pain, injury, and/or trauma, and also teaches Chair Yoga at Ivan Franko Long Term Care Home (residents) and mindful movement (staff), as well as at Dom Lipa Slovenian Retirement and Nursing Home. Classes and private sessions for people with multiple conditions and/or injuries will focus more on developing healthier movement patterns, basic relaxation, stress reduction, and simple breath practices (prāṇāyāma). Classes filled with longer-practiced students dive deeper into the philosophical, mental, and ethical teachings of yoga amidst the posture (āsana) practice. Kassandra works to respect the authenticity of the lineage of Yoga Therapy, TKV Desikachar, and Krishnamacharya's therapeutic teachings, while supplementing medical and exercise learning from other Western sources that supports these deep and thousands of years old teachings.
Kassandra is also the owner of My Personal Yoga, the Greater Toronto Area's Agency for personalized, body positive, diversity celebrating yoga, meditation, and pilates teachers.
Kassandra comes from a past as a community facilitator, folk artist, and arts educator, founding bodymind ConfiDance in 2010 (bringing curriculum-based dance education to public schools); was on the artist rosters for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning Through the Arts (schools) and ARTS–REHAB (hospitals), TCDSB’s Artists in the Schools, tdsbCreates, and VIBE Arts for Children and Youth, and also ran workshops for Supporting Our Youth, the Toronto Alzheimer Society, Guelph Organic Conference, UofT Faculty of Social Work, and various arts camps.
When not teaching, you can find Kassandra thoroughly enjoying life walking in the forest, at folk dance and music jams, cooking, gardening, fermenting, or foraging. Nature is the greatest teacher!
|
I learn a new variation or something completely new every class. You always create a safe and encouraging space for me to try new things and challenge myself. The amazing part is that it never really seems hard! |
|
**Information about my Yoga lineage**
Yoga Therapy Toronto // Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandirim (KYM) // Yoga Vaidya Śālā // What is Yoga Therapy
**Information about my Buddhist meditation and mindfulness background**
Thich Naht Hahn and Plum Village
Yoga Therapy Toronto // Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandirim (KYM) // Yoga Vaidya Śālā // What is Yoga Therapy
**Information about my Buddhist meditation and mindfulness background**
Thich Naht Hahn and Plum Village
I recognize that the sacred land on which I work has been a site of human activity for upwards of 15,000 years. This land has been tended and cared for over time by the Anishinaabe First Nations, the Huron-Wendat, the Petun, the Seneca, the Mississaugas of the Credit River, as well as many others unrecognized and unrecorded. This territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. This covenant to care for the land and treat it as an equal partner in all decisions, was extended to settlers when these allied nations opened their arms to us all landing in Tkaronto (Toronto) and broader area. How can each of us continue to uphold this covenant on the land we walk on daily, so that our generation and future ones can continue to gather and practice together here for the next 15,000 years. Yoga's philosophical "yama-s", or self-regulating behaviours involving our interactions with other people and the world at large as a great guide to help us do this, and what I look to in my life as support on my journey.
