OUR MANIFESTATION

We are committed to empowering you to stand in your light & embody the fullest expression of yourself.

The Team Behind The Dream

Meet the collective that holds space for our community to take action towards living their most inspired life!

Susie Newson

Founder Of Mocean Yoga, 500hr E-RYT, Mocean YTT Lead Facilitator

Ally Mary Epp

500hr RYT, Ceremonialist, Kundalini Goddess, Hypnotherapist, Ritualist, Mocean YTT Facilitator

Shealeen Marie

200hr Mocean YTT, 50hr Trauma Informed YTT, Studio Manager

Diana Newson

Moceans Red Seal Culinary Creative, 500hr RYT

Toni Dunne

500hr RYT, Somatic Therapist

WEB PHOTOS PORTRAIT — Davina Kraubner

MD, BSc Kin, RYT-200, Somatic Therapist, Yoga Therapy & Pranayama Training

Chantal Russel

500hr E-RYT, Trauma Informed Holistic Coach, Equine Guided Wellness Practitioner

Courtney Ketchum

Integrated Energy Therapist, Sound Healer, Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Cosmetologist

Natalie Bishop

500hr E-RYT, Occupational Therapist, Medical Yoga Therapist, Mocean YTT Lead Facilitator

Our team

Susie newson

Founder Of Mocean Yoga, 500hr E-RYT, Mocean YTT Lead Facilitator

Susie was called to yoga in 2002. The injurious life of a professional ballet dancer led her to yoga as a way to heal her body while continuing to express herself through movement. Yoga became more than a healing system and form of expression. For Susie, yoga was a life support system that offered the tools to cultivate a more intimate relationship with herself. Yoga continues to support her in navigating this wild journey we call life with more peace, grace and ease.

Susie began her yoga studies with Nicki Doane and Eddie Modestini (Maya Yoga) in 2008. She studied extensively with Nicki and Eddie and completed four Maya Yoga Teacher Training courses, including Maya Yoga’s 500hr YTT. In 2010 Susie organized and coordinated Maya Yoga’s first Canadian Yoga Teacher Training in Kelowna, BC. In 2011/2012 Susie accepted the invitation to live on Maui with Nicki and Eddie. There, she devoted herself to her yoga studies while managing Maya Yoga.

Her passion led her to coordinate and sell out Maya Yoga’s first 500hr Yoga Teacher Training course. In 2013 Susie completed her 500hr Moksha Yoga teacher training and was an integral part of the Moksha Yoga Kelowna sangha for over four years. Most recently, Susie completed 100hrs of Advanced Vinyasa Krama teacher training with Srivatsa Ramaswami. These various yoga studies have credited her over 2000hrs of teacher training, which have, in turn, inspired a devotion to sharing her studies for the past decade.

In 2012 Susie founded Mocean Yoga. Her intention and passion behind the vision of Mocean Yoga were to leverage her own light to help you stand in your light and embody your fullest expression. Susie has a profound love for creating yoga retreats and teacher training experiences in Canada, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and around the world that offer the tools to put your Manifestations in Mocean and live out your most magnificent existence. In 2016 Susie was drawn back to her roots on Vancouver Island. Here she answered the call to build and open the doors to Mocean Yoga Studio; a space in which others are encouraged to explore, experience and live their fullest expression through yoga.

Our team

Shealeen Marie

200hr Mocean YTT, 50hr Trauma Informed YTT, Studio Manager

Shealeen began her yoga journey long before she realized it was yoga ~ through the practice of conscious breath. With a desire to deepen her understanding, she sought out a studio and teacher that felt authentic to both the practice and its teachings. At the end of 2017, she was called to Mocean Yoga. After becoming an avid practitioner, she immersed herself in the Mocean Yoga 200hr Intensive Teacher Training and Yoga Outreach Core Training.

In 2022, she started studies with Keli Carpenter becoming certified in Level One TOSA Breathwork: an integrative and expansive approach to personal awakening and conscious breathwork facilitation.

Over a consistent span of 15 years, Shealeen has worked in the world of coffee and tea. It was at the intersection of these paths that she discovered her love for cacao. Today, she shares cacao in collaborative ceremonies as a grounding and heart opening modality to deepen experience and connection.

Shealeen is here to hold safe space for you through conscious breath, deep presence and compassion.

“Dear every single person, ever. I think I love you.”

Our team

alli mary

500hr RYT, Ceremonialist, Kundalini Goddess, Hypnotherapist, Ritualist, Mocean YTT Facilitator

Alli is thrilled to continue the Mocean legacy of gathering and uplifting community. She weaves together movement and ceremony to create spaces that are both deeply nourishing and awakening.

With over 20 years of yoga teaching experience rooted in kundalini, somatics and subconscious work, her teaching invites students into a more honest, embodied relationship with themselves while prioritizing playful expressions of sacred JOY.

The style of yoga that is perhaps most revered to Alli and holds a special place in her heart, is the path of Kundalini. She is constantly inspired by the power of breath, movement and chanting that this form offers.

You can find Alli weaving together many faucets of her magic in class and ceremony throughout the schedule to take you on a soul stirring journey!!

Our team

Diana Newson

Moceans Red Seal Culinary Creative, 500hr RYT

Diana is a dreamer, creator, lover, adventurer and most commonly known as the Culinary Goddess on the Mocean Yoga team. Her yogic journey began deep in the jungle of Maui with Nicki Doane And Eddie Modestini at Maya Yoga. Shortly after this time on Maui, she headed south to Nicaragua where she dropped deep into a 200 hour intensive teacher training with Julia McCabe.

Diana has been blessed to teach yoga to many over the years and feels deeply grateful for the tools and skills she’s learned through the practice. Growing up a fisherman’s daughter, Diana has always had a great respect for local sustainable ingredients and where they come from. She actively continues to participates in commercial fishing.

She loves to forage her own food and is passionate about supporting local farms and artisans. Her culinary career began with Mocean Yoga, catering the first retreats her and Susie ever created. To compliment her offerings, she took up studies with Meghan Telpner at the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. This course opened her eyes to the value of the work she was doing, nourishing and educating others about nutrition and the importance of good healthy vibrant foods. It became clear to Diana that she should follow the whispers of her heart in the Culinary Creative field. She went on to study at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver and acquired her her Red Seal & Diploma in both Culinary Arts and the Art of bread and pastries with NWCAV.

Diana believes that yoga and nutrition are a masterful dance that allow you to create a stronger connection to mind, body and breath. Moving through the ebbs and flows towards a greater state of consciousness. She aspires to create a supportive warm and welcoming experience for anyone who cares to roll out their mat or pull up a seat and join her.

Our team

toni dunne

500hr RYT, Somatic Therapist

Toni Dunne is a self-proclaimed somanaut, an explorer of inner space.
A practitioner of the art and science of yoga for over 25 years, she brings a gentle, integrated, curious and contemplative approach to her offerings. She is passionate about the human condition, nerdy about the nervous system, devoted to beauty, the seasons, relationship and community building. As a therapist, poet, mother and earthen creatrix, Toni brings a unique enthusiasm and care to her work.

She aspires to guide humans towards their own inherent sense of aliveness, and to be a light for others to remember themselves home.

Our team

Davina Kraubner

MD, BSc Kin, RYT-200, Somatic Therapist (IFS & Trauma-Informed), Yoga Therapy & Pranayama Training

Davina’s path with yoga began over two decades ago and has unfolded alongside an ongoing exploration of the body, movement, and the deeper intelligence within both.
Her teaching is shaped by practices including Ashtanga, Hatha, Jivamukti, Kundalini, and meditation, along with yoga therapy studies with Manju Jois, a dedicated pranayama training, and years of Vipassana and silent retreat practice. Alongside this, her work in somatic therapy, fascia, and nervous system regulation has led her to understand movement not as something to force or override, but as something revealed through deeper listening.

Over time, the practice has shifted from form and effort toward attunement — an embodied listening that asks for presence, and a willingness to meet what is there.

Her connection to music and dance, along with a deep respect for natural rhythms and earth-based ways of being, continues to shape how she holds space.

She remains, always, a student.

Our team

Andrew Clements

500hr E-RYT

Andrew is a former professional athlete, musician and creative healer. He obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Kinesiology and Coaching Science from the University of British Columbia in 2004. Over the past 20 years he has studied, practiced and taught yoga, having obtained over 1000hrs of accredited teacher trainings and has worked with numerous athletes, teams and individuals in an effort to continually produce peak experiences.

Andrew is thrilled to be a part of the Mocean community. He looks forward to holding space for students to explore both strength and softness, and to contribute to a collective environment rooted in deep connection.

Our team

Chantal Russel

500hr E-RYT, Trauma Informed Holistic Coach, Equine Guided Wellness Practitioner

With over a decade of experience training teachers and guiding students, Chantal’s work weaves together somatics, nervous system awareness and nature-based wisdom.

Chantal is the founder of Heartwell, where she supports others in reconnecting to their bodies, their truth, and the rhythms of life through yoga, coaching, and work with horses. Her teaching invites a return to what matters most ~ cultivating presence, inner awareness, and a sense of grounded aliveness.

Chantal holds a deep reverence for the body’s innate intelligence. She trusts that there is profound medicine woven through the subtle layers of practice, and invites students to listen closely and reconnect with the rhythms that restore a sense of wholeness.

Our team

courtney ketchum

Integrated Energy Therapist, Sound Healer, Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Cosmetologist

Courtney grew up in the Alberni Valley and has spent the past 6 years supporting people through their spiritual healing journeys. She began her business, Glow Holistics, in 2019, with her studies at The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and after experiencing her own unexpected awakening, her path quickly expanded into energy medicine, metaphysics, and all things esoteric. The years between 2019–2021 were wildly introspective and transformative, and like many, served as preparation to be of deeper service in a world awakening.

In 2022, Courtney was called to a six-month spiritual sabbatical in Maui and upon returning home, the invitation to integrate in the Comox Valley where she now lives and works from her Union Bay studio. She holds certifications in Integrated Energy Therapy, Reiki, Holistic Nutrition, BioGeometry, Somatic Embodiment and Craniosacral Therapy, but considers the most influential aspects of her work to be the wisdom gained through deep listening, faith and an unrelenting curiosity.

Most recently, she’s been enjoying a reconnection with her roots as a hairstylist, recognizing a need for more intention and reverence in the salon experience.

As Mocean’s resident Sound Healer, she will be with us bi-weekly offering restorative sound bath experiences, creating space for deep rest, insight and energetic recalibration. She is honoured and elated to join the Mocean Yoga community and create alchemical magic with you!

Our team

Natalie Bishop

500hr E-RYT, Occupational Therapist, Medical Yoga Therapist, Mocean YTT Lead Facilitator

Natalie was first introduced to yoga during her training as a dancer. Several years later in 2004, after being diagnosed with a genetic heart condition she fell in love with it. She trusts in the healing potential of this practice as it has been vital in both re-creating her own health and her work as an occupational therapist.

Working and living at a Yoga Retreat Centre in Guatemala, Caela was exposed to bodywork and energy healing and the transformative impact it could have. In 2012, she decided to expand her offering by returning to BC and completing her training to become a Registered Massage Therapist. While in Massage Therapy school, Caela discovered Craniosacral Therapy.

Natalie feels passionately that we are here for each other and her reverence for human biology (and its magic!) guides her to work and practice with kindness in order to restore strength and integrity to the body, mind and spirit. She believes there are therapeutic secrets hidden in all aspects Yoga.