Yoga therapist · Vancouver, the Lower Mainland & online
Learn what your body is protecting, the way a black belt reads an opponent.
Private yoga therapy for bodies that have done the classes, the physio and the stretching, and are still bracing.
Diane Seamark · Certified Yoga Therapist, teaching since 1997 · Kaiden Shihan Kogyoku, KoKoDo JuJutsu, 5th Dan. One of two women in the world to hold Kogyoku.
Request the Body Brief Or take the two-minute safety quiz ↓You can’t stretch your way out of a pattern your body has been protecting for twenty years.
You’ve done the classes. The physio. The app, the breathwork, the cold plunge somebody swore by. You showed up, followed the cues, held the poses…
And your body still does the thing. The jaw that won’t unclench. The hip that grabs on the stairs. The same bad side, every single time.
Most of what you’ve been sold treats your body like something to calm down or push through. One cue, shouted at thirty different bodies.
Here’s what nobody says out loud: anything you protect long enough becomes automatic. On the mat, we call it your guard. On the table, it has a clinical name too: guarding, meaning muscles that tighten around an area to protect it, and forget to let go.
Your body isn’t broken. It’s been on guard so long it forgot it’s allowed to stand down.
On the mat, the guard you can’t drop is the one that gets you caught. Off the mat, it’s the jaw, the hip, the bad side. Either way, it can be retrained. Slowly. On purpose. With someone watching who knows what to look for.
Thirty years reading bodies under pressure. On the mat, and on the table.
On the mat
The pressure is live. An opponent, timing, distance, the split second where a body tells you what it’s about to do.
On the table
The pressure is stored. In the fascia, in the spine, in how your joints carry load, and in the places you quietly stopped moving years ago.
Same body. Read from both sides.
The mat taught me where a body braces, where it compensates, and what it’s protecting. The table is where I help you let go. Every session is built around how you actually move: on your feet, in a chair, on the floor. Small, held movements, woven into everyday ones, until your body finds a new way to carry the load.
Yoga therapy, in its essence, is a personal protection skill. And self-protection is the ultimate self-care.
Whatever brings you in, you leave able to
01
Read it.
Notice what your body is doing while it’s doing it: where it grips, where it holds its breath, where it’s carrying more than its share.
02
Shift it.
Change the pattern one degree at a time, with movement built for your body, not for the person on the next mat.
03
Keep it.
Go home with a practice that’s yours. PEMS hygiene, a daily check-in across the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, keeps the change going between sessions.
“As a medical professional, I can tell you: her knowledge base is incredible.”
I came to Diane years after a traumatic accident and many surgeries, stuck in my recovery. Her ability to understand my needs and build a plan integral to both the physical and psychological injuries helped immensely. I leave each session with a feeling of progress.
Kim C. · Medical professional
Change happens one degree at a time. Here’s the first one.
Step 1
Start with a call.
A free 10-minute video meet and greet. You tell me what’s going on, and we both find out if this is a fit. No pressure, no pitch.
Step 2
Book the Body Brief.
Two hours, one-on-one, at my dojo in Vancouver or online. I read how your body moves, where it braces and what it’s holding on to. You leave with a practice built for your body.
Step 3
Build the new baseline.
Skills are perishable, like lettuce in your fridge, and so are new patterns. That’s why most clients come back for Integration. A few months in, you catch the brace before it catches you. There’s no finish line, but there are plenty of arrival points.
“I feel better than I have felt in years.”
You need someone who can see the pattern, and won’t force it open.
Everywhere I looked, people were doing the wrong practice for their body. Poses taught the same way to every body in the room. Nobody looking at the fascia, the spine, or how a joint carries load. Nobody touching the other seven limbs of yoga.
So I don’t teach that way. I’m Diane Seamark, a Certified Yoga Therapist and Shiatsu Practitioner, teaching since 1997, and for eight years the in-house yoga therapist at the CBC. I hold Kaiden Shihan Kogyoku in KoKoDo JuJutsu, 5th Dan: one of two women in the world to hold Kogyoku, and the first outside Japan. I wrote Gut Punch: Is It Trauma or Intuition?
And I still get tapped. I’m a blue belt in Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu, a beginner again, which keeps me honest about what it feels like to be in a body that doesn’t know what to do yet.
I’d never teach you a headstand in your first class. We start slowly, gain momentum, back off and re-approach. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
Meet Diane →Here’s where to start.
For you
The Body Brief
Two hours, one-on-one, in Vancouver or online. The way into all my 1:1 work.
Request the Body Brief →For a parent, or for you
The Golden Hour
Private yoga therapy in your own living room, for seniors across Greater Vancouver and Salt Spring Island.
Explore the Golden Hour →For the reader
Gut Punch
Is It Trauma or Intuition? The book on telling an old alarm from live data.
Get the book →Also: the PEMS Hygiene Workbook · Speaking & podcasts · Writings
In their words
“Both intuitive and soul nourishing.”
After 20+ years as a film stunt performer, my body had endured a lot of injuries. Diane’s yoga therapy has been profoundly effective for my mobility issues, given me relief from chronic pain, and greatly improved my daily existence.
Ashlea EarlStunt performer
“I have never known anybody with x-ray vision like that.”
I started therapeutic yoga at 79. I was skeptical that anyone could do anything with this old body. Boy, was I wrong. I’m 86 now and this old body doesn’t feel old anymore.
Susie L.86
“The ability to take some control of your body and mind cannot be underestimated.”
A former nurse who made my journey through heart-bypass surgery an easier experience, able to address both the physical and mental aspects of a medical condition.
Doug RobinsonSurgery preparation
Start here · Free · Two minutes
What does your body do when it doesn’t feel safe?
Eight questions from the mat and from life. Find out which defence style your body runs first, what it costs you, and one strategy to start building a safety state of mind.
- The Striker
- The Runner
- The Statue
- The Peacekeeper
Self-defence is healing. Educational, not a diagnosis.