An integrative approach for the whole person

Mondays at 10:00 am - Move Better: Yoga and Mindful Movement with Simone Nitzan

Wednesdays at 12:30 pm - Fascia Flow with Simone Nitzan

Wednesdays at 5:30 pm - Move Better: Yoga and Mindful Movement with Simone Nitzan

Fridays at 10:00 am - Perpetually Postpartum with Julia Ayearst

Saturdays at 9:30 am - Prana Flow with Julia Ayearst

To register in advance for the class, please feel free to email us at info@renni.ca or by clicking the "View Schedule" button below. Drop-ins without registration are welcome and you will be registered upon arrival. The first introductory yoga class at RENNI is free.

Massage Therapy can teach you to feel safe in your body and help you find a way back into an embodied self. An effective form of stress management, massage therapy can teach self-soothing, relieve pain that is stored in the body, and release trauma.

Trauma-Informed Bodywork will help you learn the language of your nervous system to release tension and pain from your body. The practitioner will guide you to notice sensations in your body and teach you ways to track them to come to a place of rebalance. Therapeutic massage techniques and gentle, supportive touch are used in support of nervous system regulation. Acupuncture may also be used in these sessions. *You do not have to have a diagnosis or even identify with the word trauma to benefit from this treatment.

A form of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture stimulates the central nervous system and promotes the body’s natural self-healing process. Through acupoint (the insertion of fine, sterile needles) pressure, heat, cupping, and/or electrical stimulation, acupuncture unblocks pain that is trapped in the body and allows for flow to be re-established.

Experience the benefits of acupuncture and feel an overall physical and emotional shift toward health and well-being.

*The RENNI clinic offers individual and community acupuncture, making this form of therapy accessible to more people in need.

The body is a gateway through which we can access our greatest states of well-being. When the body moves well and feels strong, we can experience a greater depth of groundedness and ease. This class series will take you through mindful movement and mobility practices culminating in a combination of yoga asanas and vinyasas. Your joints will be prepared and strengthened for various yoga postures, and each class will focus on a slightly different area of practice, including the hips, shoulders, core, backbends and balance postures. Each class will include some yoga philosophy, breath awareness, meditation, movement and savasana.

Restorative Yoga is like a hug you give yourself. Restorative Yoga is a meditative practice in which you produce and consume nothing. We give ourselves permission to truly relax, and our nervous system receives countless rewards. Many of us are managing chronic stress. Restorative Yoga is one of the best antidotes we have to chronic stress. It re-establishes homeostasis in the body, and aids digestion, sleep and immune function.

In a restorative yoga class, we set the body up to be completely comfortable and relaxed. We use props to support the body, so the body does no work to stay in a position, and we hold the postures for extended periods. Holding these postures for a longer time allows the nervous system to integrate the signal to relax, allowing you to access deeper states of restoration.

Fascia is a fascinating body tissue. Our muscles, organs, blood vessels and nerves are encased and connected through our fascia. Fascia creates a web of connections throughout the body and is the glue that holds the body together. It is what gives the body shape and stores tension pulling the body into different postural patterns.

This class will take you through a series of movements to get the fascia moving. Through these movements, your fascia will become more limber and be able to bounce, stretch and glide more easily and prepare the body for various yoga postures. When your fascia is healthy, everything in your body and mind can flow more easily, from your digestion and joint health to your mental state. Your downward dog may never feel the same again!

The class will finish with various longer-held yin postures that lengthen the body's fascial lines, leaving you feeling light and long, ready to take on the rest of the day.

We often hear different timelines for what constitutes the postpartum period: 6-weeks, 40 days, one year, but in actuality, postpartum is forever. Often months or even years go by in the blink of an eye and we’re still dealing with concerns that developed during pregnancy like incontinence, fatigue, and diastasis recti. Beyond aches and pains there are also lots of physiological and psychological challenges that we face in the first few years of parenthood such as chronic sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, adjusting to a new way of being in the world, and more. I am a yoga therapist and this class is inspired in part by the many postpartum students I’ve worked with. My sincere hope for this practice is that it helps you feel validated in your own personal experience of the transition to parenthood which is - beyond our ideas of good or hard - a deeply sacred time in your life and deserves to be acknowledged as such. These classes are designed to be safe and accessible while also challenging you. Through physical movement, breathwork, and guided visualization we will bring a renewed sense of vitality into your system. Whether you have a newborn or a preschooler or a teenager, if you still feel the effects of pregnancy and birth, this class is for you. (Please note that this class is for the grown ups only! There are lots of wonderful ‘baby + me’ yoga classes in the city where you can bring your child and involve them in the practice.)

An energizing morning practice, these Saturday sessions will help you to either establish a rhythm of regular practice or deepen your existing one. Each week we will move from gross to subtle: exploring a 60-minute yoga practice that will cover conscious movement, focused breath and pranayama, use of mantra, and meditation. These are group yoga classes taught through a therapeutic lens which means there will be lots of consideration for different abilities and modifications offered throughout.

A gentle and slow yoga class with a focus on regulating the nervous system and mindfully building awareness of the body's responses to movement and breath. This class infuses breathing techniques, guided visualizations, and simple yoga postures aimed towards 'toning' the Vagus Nerve (the main nerve running from the brain to the gut, that is largely responsible for our 'fight' 'flight' and 'freeze' stress responses) to encourage relaxation. Some classes will focus on delayed gratification, helping us to build resilience and the ability to self-soothe and manage our emotional responses to the more challenging poses or kriyas (movements). At times, we will use acupressure points, self-massage and EFT Tapping techniques to calm the body's energy lines and send students home with some tools for self-soothing. This is an adaptable practice that can be modified to suit bodies of all types, abilities, and backgrounds.

A gentle yoga class focused on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms by regulating the nervous system and using self-esteem-boosting movements to stimulate endorphin (‘feel-good hormone’) production. The class incorporates breathing techniques, guided visualizations and yoga postures to ‘tone’ the Vagus Nerve and promote relaxation alongside mindfulness and delayed gratification practices to build awareness of mind-body responses. This adaptable practice is modified to suit all bodies, abilities and backgrounds.

Yoga Nidra means yoga sleep. In this guided meditation, you will be led into the most profound states of relaxation, where you are able to move beyond the limiting factors of the mind and set meaningful intentions. It is said that 1 hour of Yoga Nidra is comparable to 4 hours of sleep, and you will leave this session feeling alive and with a residing sense of calm and internal peace.

*6-week pre-registered course.

While all yoga has the potential to be therapeutic, individuals will receive the greatest benefit when their unique needs are addressed whether they be emotional, physical, or mental. Yoga Therapy is the artful and targeted application of the tools of yoga (movement, breathwork, meditation, etc.) to address those specific needs.

In Yoga Therapy we take a holistic approach to address symptoms that cause suffering and in doing so move the student toward improved health and wellbeing. Yoga Therapy is informed by its sister science, Ayurveda and as such, the Yoga Therapist is also able to offer diet and lifestyle modifications to help address the needs of the student. Unlike group yoga classes that tend to prioritize physical postures and require a certain level of physical fitness, Yoga Therapy meets the individual where they are. I am trained in the therapeutic lineage of Sri Krishnamacharya who said “If you can breathe, you can do yoga!” As such you never need to worry about being “well” enough to participate. The whole aim of Yoga Therapy is to support the specific needs of the individual and modify the appropriate tools accordingly.

What is TCTSY?

Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an evidence-based adjunctive clinical treatment for complex trauma or chronic treatment-resistant PTSD. This technique was developed by David Emerson at the Trauma Center. TCTSY has foundations in Trauma Theory, Attachment Theory and Neuroscience.

The TCTSY approach offers choice and body-centered self-awareness to support in recovery. Choices are communicated through language and every yoga form offered by the facilitator is presented as an invitation. Invitational language encourages curiosity and invites exploration of what one might feel in different parts of their body based on the form they are choosing to take. Participants may investigate what choice feels supportive for them, taking cues from their direct experience. During the session the facilitator participates in the yoga forms, offering a shared authentic experience. This human connection initiates healing through relationship with each other, the present moment and their body. TCTSY participants are invited to notice and feel sensations within their body throughout the practice. Participants are then encouraged to make choices about what they do and how they move with their body based on what they sense.

• TCTSY uses Hatha Yoga forms as a way to access the body and functions as bottom-up approach to treating trauma,
• There are no physical assists provided.
• There are no physical props required

The embodied Healing series invites participants to pre-register for 6 weeks of TCTSY practice. Each week participants are invited to join for 60 minutes of Hatha inspired yoga. We will start the sessions by inviting grounding, orienting, and noticing our felt sense. Awareness to breathe will be offered as an optional choice that can be incorporated into the sessions and developed over the 6 weeks. The format of the sessions will remain consistent throughout, with room to explore more or less of something based on what emerges from the group. Individual sessions are also available for booking.

*6-week pre-registered course. To register for a TCTSY course or individual session, please contact RENNI and we will assist you in registration.

During the session clients will be welcome to collaboratively choose some yoga forms to ground the practice. To create a shared authentic experience your practitioner will participate in the yoga forms and lead the session using invitational language with an emphasis on choice making.

Clients will be guided to access and build both internal and external sources of support. Participants will be invited to notice their experience and develop language to describe their experience using SIBAM (Sensations, Images, Behaviour, Affect, Meaning Making). Intentional hands-on assists, with ongoing negotiated consent, may be incorporated into the session. The goal of these sessions is to build capacity in the clients system to be with body sensations and emotions that can be uncomfortable. Importantly this increased awareness, capacity and flexibility within the clients system ultimately allows for more access to pleasure, joy and aliveness.

Sessions are 60 Minutes in length and will take place in the private yoga studio at RENNI.

Being a teen these days is fraught with challenges. You are not alone! A fun and interactive 6-week course for teens, aged 14-17, designed to stimulate physical, emotional and mental growth through mindful movement, reflective activities and group discussion. Students will improve their body awareness and self-confidence within an inclusive and supportive environment of like-minded peers. Each class incorporates yoga, mindfulness, creative expression and conversations around themes that youth are currently grappling with, including: stress, body image, self-esteem, mental-health, social media, peer relationships, and emotion regulation. Skills that will be developed include calming the nervous system, regulation of stress, self and body awareness, self-care, flexibility, balance and coordination, and communication.

Living with a chronic illness can take a negative toll on one’s life: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The Self-Care Circle for Chronic Illness provides a safe space to learn skills and provide you with resources to improve the quality of your life and sense of wellbeing all within a supportive community setting. Themes that will be discussed include: mental health, emotional regulation, stress management, stigma, self-esteem, identity, and relationships. Each session will include: mindfulness meditation, gentle yoga, breathwork, reflective creative exercises and group discussion. This group is for open-minded individuals struggling with chronic illness who are interested in learning and practicing integrative tools for self-care in a safe and welcoming community setting. The goal of this group is to support you in moving towards a healthier and happier life.