Charlotte van Bassen

Charlotte van Bassen is a certified teacher of the Pilates Method, a certified teacher of the Yoga Synergy method, a certified Vijnana Yoga teacher and a certified Yoga Therapy practitioner. She is passionate in her view that movement education based on these and other movement disciplines are the yin and yang of whole body health.

Charlotte was first exposed to Pilates as a student in London, England in 1985. She began teaching there in 1991 and received her Pilates certification from The Pilates Centre London in 1993. Back in Canada, Charlotte opened the first Pilates studio in Greater Victoria in 1997. She was a founding member of the Canadian Pilates Association (now the Pilates Association of Canada) and has attended and given many related training classes and workshops in Canada, the United States, India and online.

Charlotte began studying yoga as an avocation in 2001. Finding it a great complement to both the efficient movement and the inner stillness upon which her movement practice is based, she has since achieved teaching certifications in two branches of yoga: Vijnana Yoga (2013) and Yoga Synergy (2015 and 2017).

Charlotte’s movement practice is also informed by Yoga Therapy, a form of movement therapy which seeks to identify sources of pain in the body and address them in a one-on-one setting using breath, stillness and movement.