Heartwood Yoga Institute Teacher Training Staff
Meet Our Staff
Our mission is to provide a welcoming space where people can come to cultivate a deeper connection with themselves while studying yoga as a career path or a way to contribute something special to the world, whether that involves in-person sessions at our beautiful retreat facility or online meetings in small cohorts where we hold space for sharing and interaction & connection. Our experienced YTT instructors not only specialize in the highest level of yoga education but understand how to break down comprehensive subject matter and make it understandable and applicable to contemporary yoga programs and practices. We are available to counsel, support, and encourage our students beyond the formal classroom time. We honor our roles as mentors with an understanding that personal interaction and accessibility are necessary to support you in your educational journey.
YTT staff
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
Ginny East Shaddock is the Program Director and lead teacher. She founded Heartwood Yoga Institute in 2010 and has taught thousands of teachers in her 11 years of YTT directorship and has been a teacher of yoga, dance, and healing arts for over 40 years.
She is an ERYT-500 yoga teacher, a CIAYT certified yoga therapist with IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists), RCYT (Registered Children's Yoga Teacher), a Reiki Master, and a trained Ayurveda Counselor from the Kerala Institute, India. She has a BA in Business Management from Eckerd College and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Lesley University.
Her extensive background in dance, yoga, and the healing arts has helped her create a multi-faceted school with an educational program that combines arts awareness, physical training, and mind-body awareness for ever-broadening learning experiences.
She is the director of Heartwood Yoga Institute, and the founder of the Florida Reiki Association, as well as Yoga for the Balanced Child, a YA certification program designed to qualify teachers to share yoga with children ages 3-teen. She is the author of the book Yoga on the Page, which provides instruction and exercises that combine writing and yoga for self-discovery and healing.
David Shaddock Lead Teacher
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
#MA95440
David Shaddock is an ERYT-500 yoga teacher, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, Licensed LMT and Cranio Sacral therapist, and Reiki Master, as well as Thai Chi and shamanism enthusiast. He is our "science guy" teaching anatomy, physiology, and the science of crystals, energy, and more.
David is a licensed Professional Engineer in both mechanical and electrical fields, as well as having a bachelor's degree in Information Technology. He is also an airplane, seaplane, and hot air balloon pilot, a master gardener, a former paramedic, a musician (guitar sitar, piano), wood crafter, champion canoe racer, writer, gourmet chef, and more - which defines his love of learning and passion for exploring life in all its diversity.
His medical background (he was one of the first five Certified Emergency Cardiac Technicians in Illinois, and one of the first privately registered paramedics there as well) allows him to lecture on anatomy and physiology, with special attention to inversions and prānāyāma. He has a particular affinity for Aerial Yoga and his anatomy of inversion course is insightful thanks to his experience in medicine, flying, and yoga.
Chantal Dupuis Lead Teacher
Ginny East Shaddock Program Director
Bonnie Francis
Chantal Dupuis is an E-RYT200, RYT500, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, and Reiki Master. She has taken her 200, 300 & 800-hour certifications at Heartwood. She is currently studying with Vedanta USA, attending weekly sessions on the Vedanta Treatise and Bhagavad Gita.
Chantal is our Lead Trainer, Office Manager, Student Liaison for YTT programs, and our Retreat Liaison.
She is poised to revolutionize the integration of yoga therapy into holistic health practices. With a forward-looking approach, this professional is dedicated to pioneering innovative techniques that enhance well-being and resilience among diverse populations. Committed to lifelong learning and professional development in the field of yoga therapy she hopes to lead and inspire transformative health journeys.
She also has a CMT (100-hour certification in Meditation) and a Trauma-Informed Certification for Coaches from the Centre for Healing.
She is working towards a Trauma Sensitive Yoga Skills Certification, a 500-hour Kundalini teacher certification and working on a 1000-hour Ayurveda Practitioner certification.
A lifelong learner, she recently attended the Neuroscience & Yoga educational conference, IAYT Global Yoga Therapy Day, and Chicago Holistic Health and Wellness
Forum for MS.
Bonnie Francis
Bonnie Francis
Bonnie Francis
Bonnie Francis is an ERYT-500 who is currently in the last phases of her IAYT Yoga Therapy training. She is a highly valued member of our team as an adjunct teacher.
Adjunct teachers
Bonnie Francis
Adjunct teachers
Having trained thousands of quality yoga advanced teachers and certified yoga therapists, Heartwood has an expansive list of contributors and adjunct teachers who join us to share their expertise and wisdom where needed and appropriate. We believe it takes a village to provide a powerful yoga education, and we extend great respect and gratitude to those who begin as our students and become our most valued teachers.