About Us
Trinity Yoga Centre: A tranquil, harmonious environment conducive to your health and sense of well being. We are an environmentally friendly studio using only natural yoga mat disinfectants and plant based and biodegradable cleaning products.
Trinity Yoga Centre's directors, Jeff and Sonya bring a wealth of experience to every session. Trinity Yoga Centre offers a wide selection of instructional series and drop-in yoga classes to fit your schedule. Choose from a variety of exceptional health services to meet your personal needs.
Sonya Thomlinson, E-RYT 500
As co-director of Trinity Yoga Centre in Kelowna, BC, Sonya has taken her passion for yoga and wellness to create classes and health programs which promote lasting change. Sonya is known for her compassionate, strong, yet graceful style of teaching which includes a deep appreciation for both the physical and spiritual aspects of yoga.
A former resident and director of program operations at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA, Sonya is a professional-level Kripalu Yoga Teacher and Kripalu DansKinetics® Teacher. She has studied with many of the master teachers within the field of yoga including; Erich Schiffman, Donna Farhi, Rodney Yee, Angela Farmer, also earning a Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training Certification with Shiva Rea. Sonya is currently studying with Richard Miller and is in the process of obtaining certification in Integrative Restoration (iRest), also known as the meditative practice of Yoga Nidra.
Sonya is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, certified as a Holistic Health Counselor. She is trained in Eastern and Western dietary theory. Sonya supports her clients in restoring their inner and outer balance, increasing energy levels and overall well-being.
Through Sonya’s completion of Landmark Education’s Curriculum for Living, she was inspired to create Berkshire County’s (Massachussetts) first ever ‘Compassion in Action’, a fundraising Yogathon to benefit the Berkshire Humane Society. Sonya brought ‘Compassion in Action‘ to Kelowna in 2006 with the Okanagan's first fundraising Yogathon to support the new Neonatal Unit at KGH. Visit www.kelownayogathon.com for 2007 event information.
Sonya lives in Kelowna, British Columbia with her husband Harshad Jeff Thomlinson, daughter Ananda Grace and her cat Ella.
Jeff Thomlinson, E-RYT 500
Jeff Thomlinson (Harshad) first explored yoga in 1980, and began teaching at the YMCA in Bellingham, WA, in 1991. During the early 90’s he studied with Yogi Amrit Desai at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachussetts, and later opened his own yoga studio in Aberdeen, Washington.
Jeff graduated from Alexandar School of Natural Therapeutics for massage, in 1996, and has been a Nationally Certified Massage Board member, and a senior staff member of the acclaimed Healing Arts Department of Kripalu Center. When Jeff returned to Kripalu Center in 1998 for a 1 year resident program he began focusing on advanced yoga practices and philosophy. Consequently, in 2001, he received his Kripalu Yoga Advanced Certification and went on to become a Kripalu Center staff guest yoga teacher, serving over 23,000 students annually.
In the spring of 2003, Jeff graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, a vanguard in the field of holistic nutrition and health. With the commitment to continue the study of yoga, in all its forms, Jeff assists and/or trains with many international yoga teachers and scholars, including; Erich Schiffman, Donna Farhi, Richard Miller, Richard Freeman, Stephen Cope, Angela Farmer, and many others. Jeff is currently studying with Richard Miller and is in the process of obtaining certification in Integrative Restoration (iRest), also known as the meditative practice of Yoga Nidra. Jeff, originally from Washington State, now resides in Kelowna, BC.
Bill Eager
Bill Eager is a Kelowna based entrepreneur visibly active on many levels in the community.
Bill has spent the past 2 years in focused yoga practice and obtained his Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher Training Certification in December 2005 at the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica with Directors Don and Amba Stapleton, who have a long and highly regarded history with the teacher training programs at Kripalu Center.
Bill is as much a dedicated student as he is a teacher and brings a dynamic blend of high energy, intention and lively spirit of inquiry to his class. Bill is wholly committed to the possibility of revealing our own true nature through yoga practice and invites everyone to attend his class and start the weekend off with refreshed and relaxed energy.
Lori Pinnell
My first introduction to yoga was at Radha House, a yoga ashram established by Swami Sivananda Radha in Burnaby, BC. A workshop at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga confirmed the joy and benefits received from practicing yoga and the seed was firmly planted that yoga would be part of my life. Moving to Kelowna provided the opportunity to deepen my practice through Trinity Yoga Centre's Integrative Yoga and Health Teacher Training which I completed in the spring of 2005. I now feel more firmly grounded in a lineage of yoga that resonates with my internal beliefs and I find I truly enjoy sharing this practice with others.
Tanya Lauenstein
My name is Tanya. Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario I grew up in the Okanagan. With the wonderful nature that surrounds us I grew up hiking and exploring. I enjoy rock climbing and train as a sho-dan in the Taneda Dojo on the Westside. Through my search for spirituality and strength I began yoga in my early twenties. I am very fortunate to have enrolled in the Trinity YTT program and have been teaching yoga at Trinity since August of 2007. I have found a greater sense of self and purpose through my teaching as well as my own practice. I enjoy being part of the community inspired by Trinity Yoga Center. I am standing in the doorway of a life with no regrets.
Namaste
Zenia Smith
Zenia was first introduced to yoga through her training in the Performing Arts and began to intergrate her practice on a deeper level in 2001. Upon moving to Kelowna in 2003, she found herself drawn to Trinity Yoga Centre and the Kripalu tradition. Zenia recently received her Integrative Yoga Teacher Training with Trinity Yoga Centre in November of 2006. Zenia brings a high energy and playful nature to her classes. She says that each time she steps on her mat, it is as if she is welcomed home. "Yoga has been the greatest gift. It is within my Sadhana time that I have found a sense of balance and truth." Zenia is currently completing her degree in Social Work at UBC Okanagan, where she is developing a variety of proposals to incorporate Yogic methodologies with current social work practice. Upon completion of her degree in Spring 2008, she plans to explore this unique integration further.
Elaine Stamcoff
After many years of practicing yoga to support my body, my muscles and joints, I found Trinity Yoga Centre and knew right from the first class I attended that I had found myself in a special place...a place where I have been able to discover ways to nourish and nurture my whole being...body, mind and spirit.
I enrolled in the yoga teacher training program for personal reasons --to deepen my yoga practice. I completed the 300 hour Integrative Yoga and Health Teacher Training Program in May of 2007 and was so inspired by this new journey of life, that I visited the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts that summer for a retreat program and further teacher training in Yoga Nidra with Richard Miller. I returned home with the desire to share my passion for yoga and began teaching at Trinity in January 2008. I am currently teaching prenatal yoga classes and I continue to deepen my personal yoga practice on the mat and also in advanced teacher training programs towards my 500 hour certification.
This has been a life changing experience for me……I am truly blessed with this practice of yoga and the friendship of many amazing yogis and yoginis.
Melody Zacharias
In 1999 Melody was a computer systems analyst and administrator of one of the largest database systems in British Columbia. When her first daughter was born, it was easy for her to walk away from a very promising career track to focus on family. It wasn't until 2001 when she was pregnant with her second daughter that she was formally introduced to Yoga.
Melody loved the way yoga fit within the family from pre-natal to a ripe old age. During the three years she lived in Costa Rica, her passion for yoga grew to the point where she knew that she would become a teacher. When the opportunity came up to do her yoga teacher training at Trinity Yoga Centre in Kelowna, she jumped at the chance to expand her yoga knowledge. Melody completed her yoga teacher training in the spring of 2007. Teaching Kids Yoga at Trinity Yoga Centre, is a perfect fit for Melody, bringing two passions together as one: kids and yoga.
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