Facilitator Bios

Elisa Lee

 

With over a decade of experience as a teacher and youth wilderness guide, Elisa focuses on personally relevant, self-reflective, and choice-based experiences for youth. She thrives on meaningful conversations and practices compassionate Nonviolent Communication (NVC) with young people to cultivate empathetic relationships. Elisa shared her childhood with the mighty salmon of northwestern British Columbia and, like them, she migrated far from home. After completing degrees in Education, Biology, and English Literature in Ontario, she had many adventures teaching and traveling abroad before feeling the instinctual pull to journey home. In 2012, Elisa completed a nature-based rite of passage and was formally initiated as a woman at the age of 31. This life-changing experience inspired her to do a Master’s degree in Environmental Education and Communication exploring women’s coming-of-age rites of passage. She has also done vision quest guide training with The School of Lost Borders, and helped lead youth rites of passage with Rites of Passage Journeys in Washington State. Elisa is now excited to bring this work into her community in Vancouver. Elisa is a lifelong student of conscious communication and personal development, and loves time alone in our magical rainforests. She teaches at Fresh Air Learning nature school and The Self-Care Project.

 

Hayley Newell

Hayley is a 300 Certified Yoga Instructor trained in Kripalu Yoga, and a student of Somatic Therapy. She brings a playful approach to her classes, while guiding students in a process of understanding, accepting and loving who you are and always have been. Working from the perspective of, ‘If we change our body we change our minds,’ Hayley enjoys exploring how Yoga can help with understanding and working with one’s emotional body. A life-long lover of nature, Hayley has a degree in Environmental Studies and a strong desire to reconnect young people to the natural world. The outdoors has always been a place of healing for her, and she is passionate about sharing the gifts of nature with those around her.