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| MARY ARMSTRONG |
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Mary
Armstrong’s career in teaching people
to listen to their bodies began almost
40 years ago. As a young yoga teacher,
trained by the legendary Swami Sivananda
Radha, Mary led hatha yoga classes and
gave |
workshops designed to bring quality of life and
self-awareness to her students.
In the 80’s, having graduated with a Masters
in Social Work, she founded and directed The
Centre For Focusing where she trained professionals
and lay people in Dr. Eugene Gendlin’s
Focusing. (Focusing is a sort of inner
yoga. It teaches us to “think” with
our bodies.) Mary led retreats lasting
from a weekend to four days, teaching people
to connect with their own wisdom.
Now, with the present day “boomer tsunami,” Mary
has turned her talents to learning and teaching how
we can all take the utmost advantage of this generation’s “unprecedented
gift of longevity.” Joining with Judy
Steed in presenting Soul Spa Retreats, Mary brings
to the workshops a wealth of experiential teaching
wisdom.
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| JUDY STEED |
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Judy Steed,
the co-creator of Soul Spa, is an award winning journalist
and author of four books; and a fitness/mindfulness
instructor at the YMCA.
Judy was a feature writer at the Globe and Mail from
1981-1989, and at the |
Toronto Star from 1989-2008.
She is the recipient of four National Newspaper Award citations
for feature writing.
She was awarded Canada’s most prestigious journalism
fellowship, the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, for Boomer
Tsunami, her study on the impact of aging on society and
on individuals. Her series of articles appeared in the Toronto
Star in Nov. 2008 and can be viewed at thestar.com/atkinson2008.
She asks the questions: Where are the best places in the
world to grow old, and why? How can we take advantage
of the unprecedented gift of longevity that belongs to our
generation? She spent a year doing research, and travelled
to Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm and London – and across
North America.
Judy has practiced yoga for 35 years; at the Metro Central
YMCA, she teaches yoga, Pilates, guided meditation and weights.
She is the founder of the Y’s Healthy Living club.
Judy is a trained mentor at the Gatehouse, an agency that
works with people who were sexually abused as children. Her
book, Our Little Secret: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse
in Canada (Random House, 1994), was made into an acclaimed
CBC-TV documentary.
Her border collie, Celeste, is a certified therapy dog and
was named Volunteer of the Year at the nursing home where Celeste
works. |
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