The Golden Hour · In-home yoga therapy for seniors
They told you this is just what getting older feels like.
Stiff isn’t old. Stiff is a body nobody has been listening to.
Private yoga therapy, in your living room. For you, or for the parent you’ve been worrying about.
Request a free 10-minute callVancouver · Burnaby · the North Shore · Port Moody · Salt Spring Island
Your body right now
You are still sharp.
Still the one who holds things together. Still the one they call.
And somewhere along the way you started planning your day around your body instead of living in it.
The knee you negotiate with on the stairs. The top shelf you’ve quietly given up. The way you’ve started watching yourself get up from a chair.
None of that happened overnight. For decades your body did exactly what you asked of it. It braced, it compensated, it got on with it. Every “be careful” got filed away in the tissue as this is how we stay safe now.
Then the world got smaller. One careful inch at a time.
You don’t want to be managed gently toward less.
You want the stairs back. You want to get down on the floor with your grandchildren, and back up again without a plan. You want to reach, turn and walk without your body sending a memo about it first.
And if you’re the daughter or son reading this, you want your mother’s spark back. Not a caretaker who confirms the decline. Someone who believes there’s more in there.
The thing nobody tells you
Balance is a skill. So is getting up off the floor.
So is a long, easy stride.
Skills are perishable, like lettuce in your fridge. Stop drilling them and they fade, at any age.
But the reverse is also true: drill them, gently and often, and they come back. The body keeps learning for as long as you’re in it.
The connective tissue that wraps every muscle, your fascia, behaves the same way. Unmoved, it dries and binds; that’s a real part of why you feel stiff. Moved well, it gets its glide back. Mechanics, not magic.
So “slow down and be careful” is half the advice. The other half is: train it.
The Golden Hour
Private yoga therapy in your own home.
For thirty years I’ve read bodies under pressure, on the mat with an opponent and on the table with a client. On the mat you learn to see a tell before it becomes a fall. On the table you learn that no two bodies brace the same way, and none stays the same for long.
I bring both rooms to your living room.
No gym. No class of twenty-somethings. No floor you can’t get up from. And plainly: this is not home care. Home care makes a decline comfortable. The Golden Hour goes to work on the stiffness, the bracing and the story underneath them.
Your first Golden Hour
CA$350
- A full health history
- A movement assessment: how you rise, reach, walk and breathe
- Adapted yoga therapy, seated or standing, never forced
- Your first PEMS hygiene practices, taught so your body knows them
Best for: every new client
The Golden Hour
CA$250
- Yoga therapy built on what we found last time
- Your practices updated as your body changes
Best for: weekly, every other week, or whenever you need it
Travel included in Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Port Moody.
Salt Spring Island visits are booked in a block each month. Travel and prep time are added and arranged on our call.
Add-ons: a take-home plan of your movements, on paper or as voice notes to follow along with, and the PEMS Hygiene Workbook for the days between visits.
Request a call.
Fill in the short form and I’ll phone you, your parent, or both of you. Ten minutes, free, to talk about what’s going on and whether this is a fit.
I come to you.
There’s nothing you need to buy. A sturdy chair and a little floor space is plenty.
Your first Golden Hour.
Ninety minutes with the body you have today. You finish knowing your first practices, and with something different in your body than when we started.
In their words
“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. My flexibility, my strength, even my stamina have improved enormously. Most of the time I experience a body with no pain. To me this is miraculous.
Diane sees what isn’t working and what needs to happen to correct it, and she shares it all with an enormous amount of love, compassion and humour.
“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.
The Golden Hour
Your first Golden Hour90 minutes
CA$350
The Golden Hour60 minutes
CA$250
In your home · health history and movement assessment · adapted yoga therapy · your PEMS hygiene practices · travel included on the mainland
No subscription. No package you’re locked into. Some clients keep a standing weekly hour; some have what they need and call again in a few months. Both are right. You are the sovereign carrier of your own health, and my job is to hand it back to you.
Request a free 10-minute callI take on two new Golden Hour clients a month, so each one gets my full attention and nobody gets rushed out the door.
The call is free and there’s no pressure on it. If what you describe needs a doctor first, I’ll tell you so. If it’s not a fit, I’ll point you somewhere good. You pay at the start of the session, and only once we’ve both said yes.
Why I do this
I was raised by my grandma and grandpa.
Tradition, whimsy, unconditional love, and a deep respect for a life lived on an ever-changing timeline: that’s where my love for the silver-haired started.
Years later, as a nursing assistant, my favourite part of every shift was the stories. The woman who told me about wearing red lipstick to a dance, back when that was a courageous, bold thing to do.
Everybody I walk into a living room to meet has a story like that in it. I’m there to help it keep moving.
Silver hairs deserve a golden hour.
I teach what I’ve done.
I rehabilitated four herniated discs after a head-on collision, and I live with autoimmune illness, so I know what it is to negotiate with your own body every morning.
I’m a Certified Yoga Therapist (Yoga Therapy International, 2011), teaching since 1997 with more than 8,500 teaching hours, and I started as a nursing assistant at Foothills Hospital. I hold Kaiden Shihan Kogyoku, KoKoDo JuJutsu, 5th Dan: thirty years of reading what a body does under pressure before it falls. And I wrote Gut Punch: Is It Trauma or Intuition?
Who this is for
This is for you if
You’re still sharp and you’re not done
You’ve been handed the decline story and something stubborn in you doesn’t buy it.
You’ve quietly given things up
The stairs, the floor, the long walk. You aren’t at peace with it.
Classes don’t fit anymore
Too fast, too far, too many people, too much getting down and up.
You’re the son or daughter
Reading this with a knot in your chest. The smaller world, the “I’m fine” that isn’t. You want someone who believes there’s more in there.
This isn’t for you if
You want to be managed gently toward less
I’ll point you somewhere kind, and mean it.
You need medical or personal care
This is yoga therapy, not nursing or home care.
You want a one-and-done
Bodies change with repetition, not miracles.
If some part of you, or them, still suspects there’s more in there, that part is right.
Questions
Isn’t this just home care?
No, closer to the opposite. Home care helps you manage a decline comfortably. The Golden Hour works on the stiffness and the bracing underneath it.
Is this yoga?
Yes, and probably not the yoga you’re picturing. Most of us in the West know yoga as a set of poses. Yoga therapy is the fuller practice. I read the stress patterns in your body and where it’s carrying load, then give you modified isometric movements (holding, not straining) woven into everyday motions, so the strength shows up when you rise, reach and turn. Every session works your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual habits together, and my work draws on somatic experiencing. Nothing is “Simon says”, nothing is forced, and no mat is needed. If you’ve been looking for chair yoga at home, this is that and much more.
Is it safe with my health conditions?
Your first Golden Hour starts with a full health history. I’ve worked with real bodies for thirty years, starting in hospital. If anything needs your doctor’s input first, I’ll say so.
Can I claim this on extended health?
Most extended health plans don’t list yoga therapy, and MSP doesn’t cover it, so plan on paying for it yourself. One exception worth checking: if you, or the family member paying, have a Wellness Spending Account through work, yoga is often an eligible expense. Plans vary, so ask your provider. I give a receipt for every session.
I’m not flexible. I haven’t really moved in years.
That’s the starting line, not a disqualification. Range is something we rebuild, not something you bring.
I’m looking into this for my parent. Can I be involved?
Yes. Many clients come to me through a son or daughter. Join the call, join the session, or leave it to us. Whatever your parent wants.
What do I need at home?
A sturdy chair and a little floor space. No mat, no equipment, no special clothes.
How many sessions will I need?
It depends on what your body is carrying, and I’ll tell you plainly what I see. Some people come weekly; some come back every few months. There is no one-and-done, and no package you’re locked into.
Where do you travel?
Vancouver, Burnaby, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Port Moody, with travel included. I also come to Salt Spring Island, where visits are booked in a block each month; travel and prep time are added and arranged on our call. Somewhere else nearby? Ask on the form.
They told you this is just what getting older feels like.
They were half right. It’s what not being listened to feels like.
The stairs, the floor, the reach, the walk: skills, not sentences. Skills come back when you drill them, gently and often, with someone who can read what your body is telling them.
Ninety minutes to start. Your living room. A free call first.
“I have no age on the mat.”Susie L., 86
Request a free 10-minute call
Tell me a little, and I’ll call you.
I’ll phone you within two business days. There’s nothing you need to prepare.