Michelle is the Owner and Director of 5 Elements Yoga & Pilates. Michelle was raised with an awareness of natural health and awakened her curiousity of yoga concepts at the age of 12, and then took her first yoga classes in 1985 while attending the University of Waterloo. She has the designation of Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher at the highest level (E-RYT500, Yoga Alliance) and has trained extensively (hundreds of hours) with Prana Flow Yoga teacher Shiva Rea and has several Yoga Certifications, including East to West Yoga and the Seattle Holistic Center, and is Certified in TheMethod Pilates (Physical Mind Institute, New York, NY) and is Stott Pilates trained in Mat, Reformer and Injuries & Special Populations. She has studied with many of the world's best teachers and is grateful to her teachers over the years, especially Shiva Rea, Hart Lazer, Mark Whitwell, Kam Thye Chow, Colette Crawford, Ganga White and Tracey Rich, and continues her studies of yoga, tantra and ayurveda with Shiva Rea and with Yogiraj Rod Stryker (www.parayoga.com), as well as Iyengar-inspired yoga with Ramanand Patel and Hart Lazer. Michelle is a guest teacher for Shiva Rea's Pre & Post Natal Yoga Teacher Training at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement in Venice, California, an assistant for Shiva and mentor for her Samudra Global School of Living Yoga (www.shivarea.com). She's been travelling to California to study for several years, as well as India.

Michelle's initiation into teaching was in 1984 when she began teaching fitness classes and received several fitness Certifications including: YMCA, Can-Fit-Pro (FIS, PTS, PFS, NWS & MBS), BodyFlow, BodyPump, Group Cycling & CALA (Canadian Aquafitness Leaders' Alliance).

She has provided assistance and education to childbearing women & their families since 1992, receiving certifications as a Childbirth Educator (CCE, ALACE- Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators), Doula (CD, DONA - Doulas of North America) and Labour Assistant (CLA, ALACE).

Michelle is a Certified Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner (Lotus Palm method), having additionally studied Ayurveda & Thai Yoga Therapy with Kam Thye Chow (Lotus Palm) and Advanced Thai Massage with teachers from Asokonanda's school. She is a Lotus Palm Teacher, co-teaching & co-authored (with Kam Thye Chow) the Prenatal Thai Yoga Massage course and manual. She is also a Certified Reflexologist (RAC - Reflexology Association of Canada) and a Reiki Master.

Michelle was one of the original PRO Trainers for the Can-Fit-Pro Pre & Post Natal Fitness Specialist Certification Course (PFS) for many years and was a trainer for all of the East to West Yoga & Pilates Teacher Training programs. She has written/developed her own Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training course and the 5 Elements 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training course, focusing on Vinyasa Flow Yoga, including the accompanying Manuals. She is also a sought after Conference Presenter, presenting on Prenatal Yoga & Pilates and evolved Vinyasa Flow Yoga (i.e. Can-Fit-Pro, Yoga in Toronto, The Yoga Conference www.theyogaconference.com) and has taught at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts.

Michelle's passion is to share her love of Yoga & Pilates with her students and the Teacher Trainees at 5 Elements, and her greatest joy is being is the mother of 5 amazing daughters. She is deeply grateful for the support of her family in fulfilling this calling to teach!!

Sandra Armata

Sandra is certified with Stott Pilates Intensive Mat, essential, intermediate and advanced mat as well as Reformer. She is also certified with East to West Yoga and Pilates for Pilates mat and yoga exercise specialist. She has been teaching Pilates for 4+ years in various settings including group Pilates, semi private and private sessions in both mat and reformer.

Her passion for Pilates is shared through her teachings everyday with precision and grace. She has always had a passion for fitness and health since childhood. Her journey of well being began through the sport of gymnastics and continued for many years. This interest led her to become a gymnastics instructor during her adolescent years. Throughout those years of teaching gymnastics, aerobic exercise also played a big role in her life. Sandra also teaches yogafusion, teen yoga/Pilates, senior’s yoga and chair yoga. She believes that movement and physical fitness is the key to one’s happiness and continues to expand her knowledge through every opportunity and will further that knowledge with future certifications. Sandra’s passion for Pilates is shared through her daily teachings as well as with her two children. It is the support of her husband and her girls that her passion in life has been fulfilled through Pilates.

Sue grew up in a very spiritual environment with regular exposure to great sages and spiritual teachers. These teachers piqued her interest in Bhakti and Jnana yoga and a desire to help others. However it wasn’t until much later that Sue was finally able to pursue her passion for yoga. She teaches a meditative practice, incorporating pranayama and meditation into the asana sessions. Her passion for helping others and a thirst for knowledge has led her to many teachers both in Canada and abroad. She loves to share her knowledge with her students and clients.

Sue’s first serious yoga training started with Art of Living Founder, Shri Shri Ravi Shanker. Her teachers include Swami Premananda, Yogi Akal, Angad Kaur, Michelle Cormack, Susie Dias, Swami Paripurnananda, Sara Varona, Marja Pirie, Swami Ram Dev, Swami Chitananda, Ma Gyan Sewara, her students, clients and many others.

Sue’s passion for learning has taken her to Costa Rica and India on a number of occasions. Sue has formal yoga certifications in Kundalini, 10 Body, Hatha, Pre and Post natal yoga, Ambika Yoga, Restorative Yoga Specialist, Yoga for Back Care and Scoliosis, Restoraflow, Yoga for Older Adults, Yoga for Children and Laughter Yoga. Sue is certified in Reiki level 1 and 2. She continues to expand her knowledge of this amazing life science through reading and attending workshops.

Sue has appeared in the media on a number of occasions including CBC’s ‘Living in Toronto’, Rogers Cable, and Slice ‘Newlywed Nearly Dead’. Through her yoga, Sue supports the community yoga by volunteering yoga classes and raising funds for worthwhile causes. She has organized numerous events for charitable organizations such as the Heart and Stroke, Cancer, Arthritis and the local food bank raising thousands of dollars.

Alice Brierley, RYT200

bio coming soon...

Cameron Buy, RYT200

Cameron’s interest in yoga began in his early teens with the spontaneous acquisition of an instructional book on yoga igniting a journey into the heart of yoga which would lead him to 5 Elements. In 2010 Cameron completed Michelle Cormack’s 200hr Yoga Teacher Training. He has since complemented this learning with various workshops and intensives in North America with Shiva Rea and Bryan Kest. In 2007 he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design with a degree in Fine Art. Cameron has been practicing Reiki since he was first attuned and instructed in the healing art at the age of 16. A true free-spirit Cameron is most at home in the forest where his wanderings act as a means of contemplation\meditation providing insight and inspiration for his spirited classes.

Teaching from the heart, my classes follow an intuitive and empowering flow, creating space both internally and externally. Fusing form, movement, breath, sound and visualization my hope is to create an open environment that fosters exploration and self- discovery. Drawing upon a lifetime passion directed towards the achievement of true self- awareness, I aim to make accessible the powerfully transformative aspects of the yogic sciences.

OM NAMAH SHIVIA                                             
~Cameron Buy

Laurie DiGiulio, RMT, RYT200

Laurie Di Giulio is a Registered Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor with additional training in reflexology, reiki, and ear candling. She has been teaching anatomy, physiology and pathology at Massage Colleges throughout the GTA since 2002. She has developed curriculum for an American College to be used as the standardized curriculum in Colleges across Ontario, and has developed and delivered several workshops linking science to yoga practice. Laurie completed her yoga teacher training with Michelle Cormack at 5 Elements Yoga & Pilates, and continued to deepen her study through a variety of workshops held by teachers including Bryan Kest, Rodney Yee, Sri Dharma Mittra, Ann Greene & Todd Norian, Swami Ramdev Baba, Kailash, Bhagavan Das, Sundeep Tyagi, B.K.S Iyengar, Dr. Ray Long, Jim Pope, Hart Lazer and many more gifted instructors. She co-wrote a yoga manual for competitive swimmers, and co-created a visualization audio for competitive swimmers. She has been working with swim clubs in Ontario, most notably the Etobicoke Swim Club, helping to deliver yoga programs for athlete’s dry-land training, and workshops for athletes and coaches. She currently owns a multidisciplinary clinic in Brampton where she practices as an RMT, and teaches science and yoga in the Greater Toronto Area. She also teaches the anatomy component of the 5 Elements Yoga Teacher Training..

Sandra Fonseca-Abbott, BA, RN, RYT500

Sandra has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 15 years, and specializes in Vinyasa Flow Yoga and Yoga for Golfers™. Sandra has a great passion for yoga and golf, and enjoys teaching Vinyasa Flow Yoga at 5 Elements, as well as specialty Yoga for Golfers™ programs at 5 Elements or through her company "Yoga Tent" in Acton (www.yogatent.com).

Sandra studied her yoga teacher training with Michelle Cormack at 5 Elements and received her 200 hour certification from East to West Yoga (EWYT350). Sandra also trained and certified in Yoga for Golfers™ with program creator, Katherine Roberts in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sandra is a member of the Brampton Golf Club and is affiliated with the Jim McClean Golf Schools of Canada at Legends on the Niagara as the exercise consultant and yoga for golf instructor. She enjoys participating in Golf Scene's KiwiTour competing at several golf courses throughout Ontario, and is dedicated to helping people achieve balanced performance both on and off the golf course, providing golfers with the tools to play better and longer.

She has offered teacher development programs and continues her studies in yoga, anatomy, physiology, thai yoga massage and other related courses. Her enjoyment of travel and Vinyasa Flow yoga has lead her to train extensively with Shiva Rea, Prana Flow Yoga creator in California, obtaining her RYT500 from Shiva Rea's Samudra Global School of Living Yoga.
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Nghi La, RYT200

Tere Lopez, RYT200

I enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training in 2007 with Michelle Cormack at 5 Elements Studio and began to teach right after certification and registration with Yoga Alliance. I have had the great opportunity to teach in different cities such as Brampton, Bolton, Mississauga, Oakville and Georgetown. My classes follow my training which specializes in Prana Flow, style cultivated by Shiva Rea. They have the intention to integrate fluidity with strength, power and relaxation. I am currently embarking in the journey of 500 hours with the training of Samudra Global School of Living Yoga.

Through workshops, courses and conferences I have received the wisdom from many yoga teachers renown worldwide: Shiva Rea, Maria Garre, Richard Freeman, Tias Little, Desiree Rumbaugh, Chuck Miller, Matzy Ezraty, Kathryn Budig and many others, and as I learn I reverberate these experiences with creativity to uplift the lives of many students and to pass on all the benefits yoga has to offer.

Holding a Bachelor in Psychology since 1990, I have worked in counseling in Havana and Toronto. Passionate about helping others, yoga and counseling have complemented each other as a valuable tool to make body-mind connection, bringing physical dimension and spiritual transformation to the evolutionary process.

Always very concerned about our environment, I bring into my personal life awareness of our natural resources. I try to spread the word about our ecological footprint, and join forces that are attempting to create a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

Sherry Michielin, RYT200

I discovered the practice of yoga over 20 years ago while studying Hinduism in one of my university courses.  The physical aspect was very easy to learn because I did gymnastics as a teenager; the challenge for me was to blend the physical with the spiritual. Over the years, I have taken what I have learned from the various styles and teachers in my journey and developed a teaching style that complements my personality. I am grateful to all of my students for the positive energy they bring to my life.

Miriana

Miriana had been curious about yoga from a young age, but did not act on her curiousity until four years ago. She quickly realized how passionate she was about yoga and it’s become an intrinsic part of her every day life.

She completed her YTT in 2008 at 5 Elements in hopes to deepen her own practice and help others in discovering their own yogic journey. Though her own journey has just begun, each day bringing a new lesson, she believes her learning's come as much from her teacher's as they do from the people she teaches.

Since the birth of her fourth child in 2008 she has become interested in teaching prenatal yoga. She believes one of the most yogic experiences a woman can have is through childbirth, helping inspire woman to realise, believe in and prepare their bodies for the best possible experience during pregnacy and childbirth. Miriana is currently working on her certification with DONA International.

She is very thankful to all she has learned from her teachers and the practice and for the ongoing support she receives from her lifemate and her four amazing children. Their belief in her is her foundation.

Michele Moleta, RN, RYT

Michele has been involved in the fitness industry for over 20 years teaching group fitness, spinning and pilates. As well, Michele is a Registered Nurse by profession for over 12 years specializing in psychiatry, multi-organ transplant, renal dialysis, Public Health and is presently an ER nurse. She has a BScN in Nursing from Lakehead University and is certified with several fitness affiliations such as: CanFit Pro, ACE, Stott Pilates and the Physical Mind Institute. After years of running and repeated injuries she turned to yoga to rehab her body and has been a practicing yogini for over 12 years.She received her East to West Yoga Certification from Michelle Cormack in 2006 and has a strong passion for teaching Vinyasa flow, Prenatal, Yin and Pilates. She thanks her many teachers who have guided her along her path of teaching; and is especially grateful for Michelle Cormack's inspirational guidance, doula-support and knowledge during the beautiful birth of her daughter Mackenzie and the powerful homebirth of her son Mark. 

Active living is the key to life for Michele and she takes pride in competing in outdoor events such as mountain biking, trail running and adventure racing. Although the busy lifestyle is what excites Michele, yoga has introduced a more balanced liberation from chaos. Michele's long-term goal is to inspire others through her expertise and knowledge, especially 'new moms' in specialty programs such as pre/postnatal yoga and fitness.

Mike Pereira, RYT200

With the hot summer sun shining through the studio windows Mike was enjoying yet another of Michelle Cormack’s famous Vinyasa Flow Classes. Working through countless Sun Salutations and feeling intense waves of calming energy, Mike looked down at his mat in Downward Facing Dog to see a puddle of sweat big enough to create a mirror like reflection! “I was smiling from ear to ear and didn’t realize it…” Mike said, “That’s when I decided, I need to teach others to achieve this feeling!”

Since that day Mike has trained diligently to earn his Yoga teacher training certification (RYT 200). Mike also holds a Black Belt in 5 Animals Kung Fu and is well trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Above all Mike’s true passion is his family. “With out my family my training is pointless; it teaches me to be a good example.”  

Carrie Sage, RYT200

I began my journey into the world of yoga years ago. Reading books about yoga and when I was able attending classes. I was working as a geriatric nurse and found it helped with the emotional and physical stress of my job. Five years ago a dear friend introduced me to Michelle and 5 Elements  and it was like my heart was struck with a bolt of lightning that becoming an instructor was the path for me. I took my 200 hour certification with Michelle at 5 Elements.
I love teaching at the studio, meeting new people every day and sharing  the knowledge that was passed on to me by Michelle. I also teach through the City of Brampton and try to bring a studio experience to the participants that come into the fitness centres.
I was born and raised in Peterborough and moved to Brampton 10 years ago to be with my husband Bill. Between us we have 5 great adult kids and a beautiful granddaughter 
We like to spend most of our weekends at the cottage. In summer enjoying the peace and calm of the lake, renovating, and enjoying golf when we can fit it in. In winter we are off on our snowmobiles finding adventures on the trails. We also have a small herd of deer that we help to feed each winter. We enjoy having family and friends with us to experience the unique beauty of Haliburton.

Barb Smeltzer RYT-200, Reiki Practitioner

I have always had a great passion and love for the holistic healing arts since I was a teenager. Still to this day I consider myself to be a bit of a wellness 'junkie', exploring many different areas of healing and mind-body health. It is my firm belief, and I have had first hand experience, that we all have an innate healing wisdom allowing for optimum health in mind, body and soul if we just allow it to be accessed. Through healing arts such as yoga, meditation, and energy work we have the opportunity to kick that innate healing ability into high gear!

I remember doing yoga before I even knew what it was. At the age of ten I was doing somersaults in full lotus position and Halasana just for fun. However, my first real introduction to yoga was through the pages of Yoga Journal, picking up my first copy in the middle 90's when I was still in high school. I was amazed at how the practitioners featured could contort their bodies into these wild and wonderful poses. Up until that time I didn't explore much of a serious physical practice. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, I began my official yoga practice in 1999 with an introduction to Power Yoga through the city recreation and parks program. I was hooked! Since then I practised on and off with a variety of styles; Ashtanga, Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, and Restorative. My dream of becoming a certified yoga teacher manifested into reality when I moved to Brampton to study with Michelle at 5 Elements, graduating from her 200 hour teaching program in Vinyasa/Hatha Flow, Pre-natal and Post-natal training. My studies continue with attending workshops facilitated by well known teachers like Shiva Rea and Cyndi Lee.

In addition to my yoga training, I have completed Reiki Level II, Body Talk Level 1 & 2, and Lotus Palm Thai Yoga Massage Level 1 training as well as training in meditation. I am also a freelance writer specializing in environmentally conscious living and mind-body health topics. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology, Recreation Management Diploma, Volunteer Management and Public Relations Certificate. I am registered with Yoga Alliance and Canadian Yoga Alliance.

Visit my websites at www.kamalahealingarts.ca and www.freespiritfreelance.weebly.com for more information.

It is truly a blessing and a privilege to share my love of yoga and energy work with others!

Namaste

Suzan (Sue) Sitki, RYT

Sue first discovered yoga as a young child, while growing up in England. She was fascinated with the various postures and particularly delighted in demonstrating 'The Lion' to anyone who would watch! Following a dedicated path of health and fitness led Sue to explore many different avenues over the next 20+ years, including bodybuilding, aerobics, martial arts and eventually - more yoga. Experiencing yoga again, as a grown woman, was a profoundly moving experience that led to deep, spiritual healing and the development of an immovable inner peace and tranquility that she longed to share with others.

Sue is a Registered Yoga Teacher (Yoga Alliance) and has studied with various yoga teachers, including Shiva Rea, Susie Dias, and Maureen Rae, and is always a student, learning more so that she has more to share with others. Sue is certified with Can-Fit-Pro as a Personal Trainer, Fitness Instructor Specialist, Mind Body Fitness Specialist and Pre and Post-Natal Fitness Specialist. She additionally holds the following certifications through Body Training Systems: BodyPump, BodyFlow, BodyStep, as well as being a Keiser cycling instructor and CALA certified Aquafitness Leader.

Sue is also a talented decorative artist and you may view her beautiful art work at: www.chameleon-artistry.com

Louyse Vigneault, RYT

Louyse began her yoga journey in the 60's at the age of 15 and has since received many Yoga and fitness Certifications, including Can-Fit-Pro (FIS, PTS, NWS) and Yoga Exercise Specialist (East to West Yoga) and has attended many other yoga trainings. She is certified in TheMethod Pilates (Physical Mind Institute, New York, NY) and is a Certified Fitness Consultant (CSEP - Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology). She is a Can-Fit-Pro PRO Trainer for the Nutrition and Wellness Specialist (NWS) Certification course (www.canfitpro.com), which she teaches at Humber College, Ryerson and at 5 Elements. She is a Reiki Master, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, and has several other wellness certificates such as Therapeutic Touch and Touch for Health. She continues her studies on an ongoing basis. Louyse originally co-founded 5 Elements with Michelle Cormack in 2002, then moved on a year later yet still comes to 5 Elements to sub classes and to teach the Nutrition & Wellness course and Specialty Workshops.