Welcome… Unity Yoga Community is an East Vancouver based collective of yogis who practice together online and in pop-up and park locations around Vancouver. We once shared the community space of Unity Yoga Teahouse on Commercial Drive from 2006-2020, and enjoy retreating together to local and international destinations.
As a team of professional and experienced instructors, we offer you many years of wisdom, practice and training to support you along your yogic journey. We invite you to join us for our accessible yoga classes in traditional Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative yoga. Each class is a unique offering, and aimed to support you in establishing a deeper connection to your own inner guide.
We would love to get to know you!
Please feel free to get in touch by emailing [email protected], or join and register for one of our classes by visiting Unityyoga.ca/schedule. Our classes are by donation and welcome everyone to join.
Get to Know Unity Yoga Instructors
Susan Horning, BBA, CHT, ERYT
Founder of Unity Yoga (www.UnityYoga.ca) in Vancouver, BC, Susan is a devoted practitioner of yoga, teacher, herbalist, counsellor, and Thai masseuse. She has a passion for community building, and sees yoga as a foundation for healthy and holistic living. Her background includes certificate training in Ashtanga and Anusara traditions, as well as trainer level Acroyoga and Thai Massage. She teaches inspired partner classes and encourages people to look beyond their own mat toward one another, where the practice of yoga becomes a practice of cultivating healthy relationships.
Insight yoga and meditation inspire her personal practice, and sharing the gifts of silent reflection in her classes is always an integral part of her offerings. She believes in the natural wisdom that arrives in the mind when it is quiet, still, and open, and sees that this as the roots of a strong practice.
In addition to her public classes and private sessions, Susan offers retreats locally and around the world, offering her skills as a guide, teacher and mentor to her many friends and community members (Unityretreats.ca). She works privately as a Clinical Herbalist and runs a small herbal tea company (UnityHerbals.ca). Committed to teaching in a practical yet traditional format, she allows the wisdom of the practice to guide her and her students to deeper understanding of the true meaning of yoga.
Anita Callahan
When I was young, I loved dancing and making up my own stretches. At the time, I had no idea there was a name for what I was doing. One day I stumbled across a classic yoga book of my Uncles and flipped through the pages fascinated at postures like crow, cobra and down dog. I didn’t know these poses would keep reappearing in my life, and I didn’t ever really pursue yoga as I grew, it just kept finding me. I believe yoga is present naturally in all of us if we can quiet our minds to hear it. For me, the beauty of yoga is not just to move your physical body, but to encourage the moving and shifting on a mental and spiritual level too.
When you come to my class, you will experience a strong foundation of alignment, but I hope you sweat and laugh and enjoy some freedom too. I will remind you to breathe, and breathe deeply. I enjoy exploring poses and flowing movement. I am truly a guide to help move you through a sequence and I hope the end result will be that we all find a little more clarity for our everyday lives, because that is when you know yoga is at work. Anita is a certified RYT-500, having completed her 200hr training in 2013 with Y-Yoga, and her 300hr advanced training with Christine Price Clark at the Vancouver School of Yoga and Massage in 2014.
Dr. Nicola Bennett, N.D.
Nicola is a yoga teacher and Naturopathic Doctor living and thriving in East Vancouver’s artistically rich Commercial Drive neighbourhood. She was introduced to yoga by her gymnastics coach at age 16, where she instantly fell in love with the practice and knew that she would eventually become a teacher. Her interest in the human body and its movement brought her to UBC where she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Kinesiology and Health Science. Nicola went on to earn her 200h YTT in Hatha with Open Door Yoga in 2011. She began teaching shortly afterwards and has been at Unity Yoga ever since.
Although Nicola had always wanted to be a doctor, she realized along the way that the conventional medical system was not for her. Yoga was the key that unlocked the door to a whole new world of Eastern philosophy and healing traditions, and she soon realized there were more paths to good health than those offered by western medicine. She decided to pursue another four years of school at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine where she became a naturopathic doctor. Her studies have enriched her yoga teachings and her classes often focus heavily on anatomy and physiology. She is particularly interested in the nervous system and how one can use breath and mindfulness to balance the nervous system. It is in this state where the body’s innate ability to heal itself, or the Vis medicatrix naturae, is active.
With a gentle supportive voice, Dr. Bennett combines her knowledge as a naturopathic doctor with her experience as a yoga teacher and long-term practitioner to create a truly unique experience in her classes.