A long time Sooke resident is finally able to give back to her community in gratitude for all the blessings that she has received. Alanda Carver, is creating the Ahimsa Sooke Yoga and Wellness Centre in the new Hope Centre building located at 6750 West Coast Rd. Ahimsa Sooke opens September 2nd. It is a learning centre that will combine therapeutic yoga, and regular yoga classes, with practitioners of wellness such as nutritionists, acupuncturists, and counsellors.
Alanda is a certified yoga teacher and long time resident of Muir Creek who was partially paralyzed in a car accident on West Coast Road in December of 1990. She was a passenger of a vehicle that was struck on the side and due to the spinal damage she sustained in the accident, she lost the functional use of her arms and legs. She was unable to wash her own hair for seven years. It was a long and slow recovery but along the way Alanda was helped back to health by great Sooke health care providers. Eight years into recovery she became mobile enough to try a yoga class. The goal taking that first class was to not leave in an ambulance. When the class finished she was in tears - that yoga class changed her life. It meant that maybe she could have a life.
Now, 24 years since the accident, Alanda Carver is finally in a position to give back to the community that has given her so much. She is opening a yoga studio at the Hope Centre. The studio will combine Ahimsa Yoga Studio with a not for profit Sooke Therapeutic Yoga Society. The goal is make yoga accessible to everyone in our community.
The Sooke Therapeutic Yoga Society will focus on supporting yoga for kids and teens and offer yoga for people with special challenges. It will be operated by local Yoga Therapists who have been specially trained to assist people with physical, mental or emotional challenges using yoga. Alanda has special training in using yoga for cancer patients, yoga to support women’s breast health, yoga for healing addictions and yoga for optimal brain health. Other therapists at the centre will specialize in working with people with physical challenges and some will specialize in helping people with emotional traumas.
For those who are financially challenged the Sooke Therapuetic Yoga Society will also offer a daily class by donation so that everyone can afford to attend. The society will host events and rent space to Ahimsa Yoga to support the funding of therapeutic classes. The new studio will be located upstairs on the second floor. at the Hope Centre 6750 West Coast Rd. There is an elevator for those with mobility challenges! And great regular yoga classes for the more able bodied!