Doris Roll, MBA, is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT200) with Yoga Alliance. In June 2021 she completed an additional 10-month, 300-hour Certification as a Pain Care Mentee of Neil Pearson, physiotherapist, yoga therapist, clinical assistant professor at UBC and one of Canada's leaders in pain management.
A dedicated lifelong student and yoga practitioner for over two decades, Doris left the corporate world after 24 years in management and re-oriented her career towards health and wellness. Her personal lived experience has shown her how yoga practices can help individuals ground, re-embody and successfully counter the negative effects of stress and pain; in essence, how yoga promotes physical and mental health and well-being.
Doris has over 1,400 hours of instructing experience. She greatly enjoys teaching both individual and group, chair- and mat-based yoga, breath and meditation classes to various populations in various settings, including seniors living in retirement residences and persons living with chronic pain at a physiotherapy clinic.
"In my 10-month Pain Care Mentorship with Neil Pearson, one of Canada's leaders in pain management, I came to understand that while "pain changes everything", the good news is that "everything changes pain". This insight, along with those about polyvagal theory and its application in yoga, gained from Dr. Arielle Schwartz, trauma therapist, have opened a world of treatment options for myself and my students." - Doris
Doris' down-to-earth approach and ability to educate about the complexity of the body-minds’ stress and pain response while offering her students practices that allow them to directly experience the benefits outlined in the education sessions has made her a much-loved instructor and educator. Based on knowledge grounded in evidence-based science, she shares not only the physical yoga practice with her students, but also, most importantly, breathing techniques, meditation and the psychology and philosophy of yoga.
"I encourage students to first and foremost become aware, to breathe consciously and move mindfully. They are reminded to be self-compassionate and to seek balance. Ultimately, for me, health and well-being centres around re-embodiment into our physical selves. By re-establishing a kind-hearted rapport between body and mind, we can safely BE in an open, caring, accepting and connected relationship with ourselves and others." - Doris