Leila Stuart

Leila Stuart, BA, LLB, RMT (Registered Massage Therapist - retired), has been a dedicated and ever-evolving student of yoga for over 40 years, and has been teaching yoga since 1993. Drawing on her passion for anatomy and her background as a massage therapist specializing in structural alignment and movement repatterning, she opened Centerpoint Yoga Therapy Studio near Vancouver, B.C. in 1999. 

Leila's extensive experience as a massage therapist and her skill in teaching mindfulness, experiential anatomy and embodiment of yogic principles coalesced in the creation of a 300-hour Yoga Therapy training that she taught for 15 years.  As a teacher, Leila creates the conditions for students to cultivate a somatic experience of parts and systems of the body, and developmental movement patterns. By developing a felt sense of living anatomy and inherent body wisdom, students can apply this intelligence to their own healing process. By practicing yoga in this transformational way, the physical body becomes the doorway to the deepest self and the philosophical teachings of yoga can become a daily lived, practical experience. 

Leila produced a 600-page manual for her yoga therapy training. Drawing from the manual material, she recently wrote “Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease" co-authored with Donna Farhi. Leila has been teaching internationally since 2014.