Our Team
Andrea Dorosh
My yoga journey began in 2007. I had a yoga dvd that became a nightly ritual in my routine for physical and mental health. After I took my first class in a yoga studio, I was hooked. Within a few years of committed practice and realizing the impact and value of yoga in my life, I felt compelled to go deeper and share yoga with others. In 2011 I completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training with Rameen Peyrow and the Sattva School of Yoga. This experience was life-changing and has since oriented me on a path of continuous learning and self-discovery.
Yoga has led me to discover meaning and purpose in life. Yoga is about so much more then what happens on the mat. For me, the practice of yoga is about moving through my life with intention and integrity. It is about being authentic and exploring my relationship to myself, to others and to the world around me. Yoga is a way of being, living and experiencing life. Everything that happens, the joys and the hardships, become part of the journey, part of the growing and learning. We are cultivating awareness and curiosity towards our ever-changing experience in life. This practice aligns us with our higher values and motivations, and ultimately challenges us to grow and transcend the physical, psychological, and societal patterns and beliefs that keep us stuck in dissatisfaction and discontent. Yoga is a path to inner freedom, peace and happiness. I find inspiration in being able to share that with others.
In the last few years, my practice has shifted from movement to stillness. After struggling many years with chronic back pain, in 2021 I had back surgery to correct a herniated disc in my lumbar spine. This experience changed me on a very personal level, it has changed how I work as a therapist, and forced me to look at my yoga practice in a very different way. Movement will always be a big part of my life. I still love the feeling of flow and elation, concentration, challenge and strength that I experience when I practice vinyasa or hatha yoga. However, I have a growing curiosity and passion for meditation and yoga philosophy. I am interested in the intersection between Buddhism, Yoga and Psychology. It is here that I see and experience a real potential for personal and societal transformation.
I am always in pursuit of learning new things and discovering new joys. I value my family and friends and am grateful to have a sense of community here in Regina. Some of my happiest moments are spent in the garden, on my bicycle, hiking, reading, writing, listening to podcasts, or snuggling with my cat!
I’m incredibly grateful to all the teachers who I have had the privilege to learn from over the years. I am especially grateful to the members of our community at Niche who inspire me daily and create an environment that feels welcoming and supportive.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
Kate Rivard
Allured initially by the graceful essence of using the body in all ways, refining its movements and exploring its edges , I developed a connection to the practice of yoga. My more recent years in life have brought me to certify as a 500 hour registered yoga teacher (RYT 500), registered thai therapist (RTT) and to partner in opening Niche.
Teaching yoga and practicing massage has allowed me to fulfill a very natural passion - using my hands, my body and my care to help others feel grounded, while also challenging limitations and nurturing growth. I recognize that using the body as a guide is a pathway of understanding some of the real challenges of life and particularly the transitions and the resistance to changing patterns.
I first fell in love with ashtanga yoga and continue to seek to understand the patterns of it. I have found great benefit in exploring other vinyasa and yin style practices to balance out some of the more demanding and difficult parts of the practice. At this point in my learning, I appreciate the important dance of strength and flexibility and combining these disciplines has proven itself in my own body.
In my earlier life, my deepest and most rooted connection lays in the discipline of training horses, where you must practice feeling. There is never a time where losing your patience in practice will benefit you while training a horse. I spent most of my life working with this majestic, strong and graceful animal. As a result this became a prominent and ingrained value for me in learning and teaching,
When training a horse balance in transition, you must teach them to wait.
You must be able to feel their rigid areas and help them cultivate softness.
You must be able to feel their weakness and help them to build strength in those areas.
You must develop a love for practice within them.
Ultimately I believe they become your best teacher as do the students I am lucky enough to teach. I find understanding in teaching yoga through this cultivated understanding of training a horse.
I think transitions are hard in yoga as they are in life. Through practice I feel you see that they are where you are most alive, where you can build and cultivate smoothness and focus. Where you find out what you resist, where you don't want to go, what you rush through and avoid. With patience and continuous practise you can bust through the discomfort of change to find out who you can be.
I have two beautiful children who mean the world to me and can only hope that through my actions and passions I can share my desire to learn smoothness through transitions and help them find comfort in their discomfort. I love them heavily by physical touch and closeness and hope it cultivates an inner strength and security as they move through life.
I feel like a life long humble learner and believe that through our unique experiences we all develop skills, gifts and something important to share. When I'm in role of teacher, my student role is right their beside me learning still.
Melissa Lichtenwald
I started practicing yoga in my mid-twenties. I practiced for about 2 years with DVD’s at home, sort of “fumbling around” and not having much benefit. When I finally went to an in-person class, I thought “Oh yeah, this is what I needed!”. The energy of the teacher and connection and vibe in the room transformed my experience.
I started practicing yoga because I was having chronic pain in my right hip. I thought I needed a good stretch. I quickly started to feel better and stuck with it. Then, about a year after practicing at the studio, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. This was a hard time for my family and I. About a month after we found out, I went to a class that Andrea happened to be teaching. Within minutes into class, tears began streaming down my cheeks, but I continued to practice. Yoga felt like it was exactly what I needed in that moment. After, I realized that I wasn’t just exercising, yoga had become therapy in a way, a safe space, my place where I could feel and be, without expectation.
After I finally came to that realization, I knew I was “in it for life”. I love yoga for so many reasons. It is like a walk in the forest… You can just meander through and feel good after, not even knowing why, and that’s quite nice. Or, you can really open up the senses, let every sound in, look at all the shades of green, look deeply into the undergrowth, open your mind up to the depth of what’s there. Yoga is a journey into yourself, but also into the true layers and beauty of the world.
I started teaching because I want to help others experience the benefits in health, mind, and spirit, that I have experienced through yoga.
One of the things I feel passionate about, in addition to yoga, is the health of the planet. I try to make small changes in my lifestyle to help the other living things that we are sharing this planet with. When I’m not on my mat, I work as a Registered Nurse, hang out with my partner and my cat, and enjoy going out to see live music and spending time in my garden.
Jennifer Wlodarczyk
My journey into yoga began in 2013, during a challenging transition period in my life. A friend suggested I try yoga as a way to support my mental health. I was introduced to the Ashtanga yoga practice and fell in love with the fixed series of postures that allowed me to notice the subtle changes in my own body and mind from one practice to another. As someone with a tendency to overthink, I also found the Ashtanga yoga practice helped me find a way out of the thinking and into my own body – being present with the sensations and experiences of the postures, the flow, the softening and letting go that I learned to allow in my body in order to be in the postures with ease. The Ashtanga yoga practice was a foundational part of my yoga journey, and I am forever grateful to the teachers who shared this practice with me. Over time, I was introduced to other styles of yoga and have had the privilege of studying with several other teachers who have influenced my practice and teaching.
As my yoga practice has evolved, I continue to experience the transformative benefits of consistent practice, including increased resiliency when life presents challenges. I find it remarkable how the lessons on the yoga mat translate into life lessons.
One of the things I enjoy most in life is being a student – I love the process of learning. It was this desire to be a student of yoga that led me to take my first yoga teacher training course in 2018. I entered into the course primarily to expand my own knowledge about and practice of yoga. However, the more I learned, the more my desire grew to share this practice with others, so they too might experience the benefits of yoga.
Today, I have the privilege of teaching students in whom I can see the same desire I have to learn and grow. I am inspired by the community and their commitment to practice, and I find it immensely rewarding to witness students’ journeys. Teaching yoga has also become a part of my own learning journey. I continue to expand my knowledge through various teacher trainings, workshops, online courses, podcasts, and reading.
When not practicing or teaching yoga, I am a Division/Project Administrator at Trace Associates Inc. and, in my spare moments, I enjoy spending time in the kitchen and traveling when the opportunities arise.
Linh La
When I attended my first vinyasa class as a high school student in 2008, I was immediately enthralled. As a gymnast forced to leave the sport prematurely due to injury, the strong, dynamic nature of the flow felt familiar, nostalgic and healing. Like so many students, I was initially drawn to asana, but soon discovered that it was only a small aspect of yoga. As I delved deeper into the other limbs of the practice, I realized that I could trace the roots of yoga back to the same philosophical origins as Buddhist teachings I had been studying and practicing since childhood. Shifting the emphasis from the achievement of a specific posture or shape to mindfulness, awareness and presence in the body allowed yoga asana to become a moving meditation that grounded, comforted and nurtured.
Consistent yoga practice helped me to maintain my sanity and balance as I made my way through a busy undergraduate degree. Surrounded by highly motivated yet highly stressed classmates, I felt compelled to share the therapeutic benefits of yoga. This led me to enroll in my first training and embark on teaching through the University of Waterloo’s campus recreation program in 2011. When I graduated in 2016, I attended a month-long intensive immersion in alignment-based yoga before returning to Regina, where I would go on to complete my 500-hour training. I have everlasting gratitude to all the teachers who have provided direction and tutelage in my journey.
Creative, challenging, movement-centred flow will always be my first love, but the beauty of yoga is that it shifts and evolves along with the practitioner. As I have moved through different seasons and challenges, yoga has always had something to offer – from slower, exploratory physical practice to introspective, restorative meditation to ethical guidance for daily decision making. It is truly a holistic approach that has taught me lessons in persistence, acceptance, resilience, surrender, discipline, and contentment that serve me well beyond the mat. Yoga has been my refuge and a steady constant I can turn to when my world otherwise feels off-axis. It plays a critical role in the maintenance of my mental and physical health. It is an honor and a privilege to share as a teacher and to witness each student’s unique trajectory and growth. I continue to discover the richness of the practice through formal and self-led trainings, where I am currently exploring the related teachings of traditional Chinese medicine and ayurveda.
When I am not in the studio, you can most often find me playing ultimate frisbee, hanging out with fur babies (two spoiled black lab mixes, Sonic and Sirius) or taking advantage of any excuse to cook, bake and feed people. I am also a practicing optometrist who dedicates my working hours to passionately educating and treating patients and managing a busy seven doctor practice.