Ted Grand
Ted Grand created the Moksha Yoga sequence of postures. In creating the series he drew upon his twelve years of yoga experience and more than one thousand hours of training in yoga therapy, yoga teaching, and traditional yoga. Approaching this task with patience and tireless research, he modified and perfected the sequence based on the opinions of a wide range of experts and peers in the yoga community.

He has studied teacher training programs under Bikram Choudhury in Los Angeles, Acharya Yoganand Karandikar in Pune, India and with Georg Feuerstein at the Yoga Research and Education Centre in San Francisco. He has also been fortunate to study teacher training with Janice Clarfield (pre-natal yoga), yoga philosophy with Rod Stryker, Anusara Yoga with John Friend, Iyengar Yoga with Patricia Walden, and Restorative Yoga with Judith Hanson Lasater. Ted feels an immense amount of gratitude to his teachers with every class he teaches and participates in.

Ted is co-owner of Moksha Yoga Montreal, and Moksha Yoga Halifax and is co-founder of Yaletown Yoga in Vancouver, Moksha Yoga Uptown and Moksha Yoga Danforth in Toronto. He works to support beginners as well as more experienced students with finding a path to peace through their yoga. His love of yoga is infectious and can be felt in each and every class he teaches.

Ted is also a proud husband and father, an organic farmer, and an environmental/social activist.

Jessica Robertson
Jessica Robertson is a teacher at heart. She began at the age of 15 and has been teaching ever since. Before leading yoga classes she studied Social Studies of Medicine at McGill and worked in the not-for-profit sector with Amnesty International for 12 years. She led workshops on Human Rights for people with disabilities in Panama, taught English at Tokyo Seitoku University in Japan and in Salamanca, Spain and also spent many years teaching canoeing to youth in Algonquin Park.

Jessica's first yoga seed was planted by her incredible forward thinking parents. She went on to study annually for 7 years with Baba Hari Das and The Ashtanga Yoga Fellowship. After years of practicing mostly Pranayama (breathing exercises) Jessica completed the Bikram yoga teacher training. Since then hot yoga has been home.

She has furthered her studies by completing the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training, studies in Bhakti Yoga with Jai Uttal and Nubia Texeira, restorative yoga with Judith Hansen Lasater, Pranayama with the Desikachar family and a deep commitment to daily practice. She is the co-founder of Moksha Yoga Danforth and Moksha Yoga London. This year she will once again travel with Wade Imre Morrissette playing flute and singing in Kirtan concerts across North America.

To the Moksha community Jessica brings a love of living in the present and a deep desire to make yoga accessible to marginalized and under-privileged communities. Jessica's classes involve humour, focused strength through breath, and spontaneity.

Teacher Training Faculty

Frank Jude Boccio
Frank Jude Boccio is an interfaith minister and longtime student of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh. Frank integrates the practice and philosophies of yoga, Buddhism, and Ayurveda. His background includes a 700-hour training program under the guidance of the renowned teacher Georg Feuerstein, and Dharma teacher training under the guidance of Korean Zen master Samu Sunim. Frank is a certified yoga teacher/therapist and leads workshops and retreats on mindfulness yoga at the Omega Center, the Kripalu Center, Zen Mountain Monastery and other highly respected retreat centres. Aside from his book, mindfulness yoga, published by wisdom publications, Frank has written for Tricycle Magazine, Yoga Journal, Spring Wind, and Experience Life. Frank is a dynamic lecturer. He is funny - often hilarious -and brings an incredibly wide knowledge base to his classes. For more information on Frank visit www.mindfulnessyoga.net.

Pierre Desjardins
Laurier-Pierre Desjardins (just call him Pierre) is a yogi and renowned doctor of osteopathy. He has been practicing traditional yoga since 1975. His main influence in his practice is the tantric aspect to the yoga tradition, which constitutes a complete way of living based on recognizing the sacred in all. In the last 20 years, Pierre has specialized in teaching functional anatomy for bodywork students and osteopathy students in Canada, France and Germany. He teaches his unique anatomy concepts to the yoga world and is now involved in teacher trainings or advanced trainings all over United States and Canada. He is currently completing a PhD in health education at Université de Montréal.

Michael Stone, Toronto training
Michael Stone is a yoga teacher and psychotherapist. He leads the Centre of Gravity Sangha in Toronto, a diverse community of Yoga and Buddhist practitoners interested in the intersection of committed practice and daily urban life. Michael’s interests revolve around integrating traditional yoga practices in the context of community, where independent study and critical inquiry are encouraged. He teaches yoga, meditation, and psychology in academic and clinical settings internationally, and his yoga retreats integrate yoga-posture practice, meditation, and textual study. He is the author (from Shambhala Publications) of The Inner Tradition of Yoga, Yoga For a World Out of Balance, a forthcoming book of essays on Yoga and Intimacy, and the editor of a forthcoming anthology on Yoga and Buddhism. For more information, visit http://www.centreofgravity.org .

We have been very lucky to also have as visiting faculty members Susi Hately Aldous,  Dina Tsouluhas, Deena Robertson, Kristy Butler,  and we look forward to welcoming Alanna Kaivalya to the India training this coming March.  Faculty members can vary from training to training.