Limb to Life
Yoga Collective
Yoga is for everybody.
Limb to Life Yoga is a non-profit initiative dedicated to making yoga accessible for amputees and others with mobility challenges.
Our mission is to recognize individual strengths, support the many dimensions of well-being, and to cultivate supportive community alongside people with limb loss and mobility challenges.
Accessibility is at the heart of the Limb to Life Yoga Collective.
We recognize that conventional yoga settings often present physical and other access challenges for many who can benefit. We offer free and low-cost yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions, both in-person and online, specifically designed to address the unique physical and emotional needs of amputees. Programming includes weekly group classes, specialized workshops at hospitals and community settings, and regular virtual sessions to reach those in remote or underserved areas. Each class is trauma-informed and tailored to support participants in managing phantom pain, improving mobility, building strength, and processing grief or trauma associated with limb loss.
Beyond movement, our sessions foster emotional resilience and community connection, offering a supportive space for amputees to share experiences and build relationships. By centring equity, community, and accessibility, Limb to Life Yoga Collective strives to transform the landscape of wellness and rehabilitation for amputees, making yoga a resource for all bodies and all journeys.
Offerings
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Accessible Community Yoga Classes
Join our community yoga class, taking place at Hillcrest Recreation Centre in Vancouver! Every Tuesday evening from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, we'll come together to explore yoga in a way that's designed especially for amputees. Others with mobility challenges are warmly welcomed.
Classes are designed to help you build strength, flexibility, range of motion, and confidence, while nurturing your overall well-being through a blend of yoga postures, breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices. Join us in a supportive community environment to learn, thrive, and recognize your innate capacity for wholeness.
This is a diverse group of all ages that invites both beginners and those with experience in yoga to attend! Variations will be offered for all abilities.
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Yoga Therapy Workshops
We regularly provide educational yoga therapy workshops focused on topics relevant to amputees and those with mobility challenges. These workshops take place in community, hospital, and online settings.
Workshop topics include yoga-based strategies to address phantom pain, breathing practices for balancing energy levels, restorative yoga, yoga Nidra, partner yoga, and chair yoga practices.
Do you have an idea for a workshop topic that would be helpful to you as an individual with limb variance or mobility challenges?
Or are you interested in booking an online or in person workshop for your organization focused on your patients’ or clients’ needs?
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Free & Low-Cost Individual Yoga Therapy
We offer a limited number of free and low-cost individual yoga therapy sessions to those struggling with physical and mental health challenges related to limb loss.
Work with a yoga therapist to learn yoga, breathing, and mindfulness tools customized to your individual needs, to address concerns such as phantom pain, grief, and musculoskeletal imbalances. We also provide partner-integrated sessions, in which clients are invited to attend with a close friend, family member or significant other. These sessions focus primarily on emotional regulation and stress management strategies that can be practiced together in daily life.
Available to new clients, and subject to current availability. Send us an email to inquire.
About Limb to Life
Jaden Gornall, Founder & C-IAYT Yoga Therapist
A C-IAYT yoga therapist since 2020, and a yoga instructor since 2013, Jaden’s life was altered when an accident led to his left leg being amputated above the knee in 2023. His lived experiences, and knowledge of the immense benefits of yoga as a healing practice led to a growing recognition of the need to make yoga more inclusive and accessible for amputees, and those with other mobility challenges. This inspired him to found “Limb to Life Yoga Collective” in 2024. Jaden has undertaken specialized training with Y4A Yoga for Amputees to build his skills in working with this population.
A health promotion researcher with a background in health sciences and non-profit work focused on upstream solutions to systemic challenges, Jaden’s vision for Limb to Life Yoga Collective is rooted in his commitment to advancing equity and inclusivity. He is especially passionate about the intersection of the body and mind, as explored through movement, anatomical awareness, and breath. Having witnessed the tremendous capacity of human beings to heal when provided with the right conditions, Jaden feels privileged to guide and walk alongside others throughout their pathways in healing.
Having grown up at the cusp of the North Vancouver mountains and ocean, Jaden lives an active life. When not guiding yoga, he can often be found navigating the reefs as a scuba diver.
Are you a yoga therapist or yoga instructor interested in joining Limb to Life Yoga Collective?
Note: Members of Limb to Life Yoga Collective must be trained with Y4A Yoga for Amputees before becoming official members. This training counts as 15 CEUs with Yoga Alliance, and is offered as a hybrid training on a regular basis, as well as asynchronously online.
Y4A Trainers, Lucy Lomax (C-IAYT & E-RYT 500, YACEP) and Heather Thamer (M.ED, E-RYT 500)
About our training partner, Y4A Yoga for Amputees:
The mission of Y4A Yoga for Amputees is to provide health, wellness, freedom of movement, psychological healing, spiritual renewal and a deep sense of wholeness to people who have experienced limb loss. Y4A Yoga for Amputees is committed to being a leader in yoga for limb loss, positive life strategies for amputees, research on yoga as medicine for limb loss and pain management, and education in the fields of medicine, yoga, physical therapy, prosthetics and trauma recovery.
For over a decade our caring and professional global network of yoga educators has offered classes, workshops, trainings for yoga teachers and healthcare professionals, clinical professional development, and research support, both live and online. Through offering yoga education and training, and by creating a global network of yoga teachers, yoga therapists, yoga enthusiasts and professionals working with amputees, Y4A Yoga for Amputees helps those with limb loss, limb difference, or limb limitation thrive throughout all the stages of their healing journey. We believe in empowering amputees to celebrate their unique contributions to the world, and in actively demonstrating the possibility and human potential to thrive in life, no matter the challenges.
Make a donation.
Support our services in providing accessible yoga to people with limb loss by contributing.
