Shehla Khan first came to yoga through her dada’s (grandfather's) Ayurveda courtyard. Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga.
Her grandfather blended oils and manipulated joints to facilitate healing for local community members. As a child, Shehla's left shoulder often dislocated. Her grandfather, along with his teacher/friend, healed her shoulder with oils, firm pressure and massage. What she remembered from this practice was the firmness and diligence that was required to bring us back to balance, and the trust between teacher and student.
From classical Hatha Sivananda yoga, to Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative, to being a certified IAYT yoga therapist in the great tradition of Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar from Yoga Therapy Toronto, Shehla has come to realize that yoga is a lifelong journey full of healing and love. Her most recent love affair with yoga asana is aerial yoga and deepening Raja yoga. She is well established in yoga philosophy and Mantra yoga, and continues to further her studies in Vedas and Kashmiri Shaivism. Her teachings are strongly influenced by all her teachers and honour the person in front of her and the surrounding environment. To the best of Shehla's abilities, she teaches according to seasons, weather changes, time of day and of course the people in front of her – a core Ayurvedic principle.
Shehla has been teaching for over 15 years. Along with public classes, workshops, retreats and outreach programs, she also teaches yoga philosophy and yoga therapy. Shehla is lead trainer for George Brown College's Classical Yoga Teacher Program and senior faculty for several yoga studios in downtown Toronto.
Shehla's current teachings are informed by field experience serving racialized women from African, Black, Caribbean, Latin American and South Asian communities, offering chair yoga classes and one-on-one yoga therapy at community health clinics, and working with automotive injury clients in conjunction with healthcare providers as their rehab support.
