Andre Talbot
Director, Spirit Loft Movement Centre
Movement, Mindfulness & Athlete Care
Andre enjoyed-endured a 10-year career as a professional football player in the Canadian Football League achieving numerous accolades including Grey Cup Champion and Team Captain. He graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University after a 4-year career as a student-athlete where he garnered 2-time All-Canadian and team MVP honours.
Andre is currently immersed in graduate studies at WLU where he is completing a Master’s degree in Spiritual Care & Psychotherapy. Concurrent with this academic training, he is working within the interdisciplinary care team as a Psychotherapy Intern at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry & Vision Science as part of the counselling staff serving the brain injury and vision loss rehabilitation clinics.
He is the Co-Founder and Director of movement and mindfulness programming at the Spirit Loft Movement Centre, Toronto’s east-end movement and mindfulness studio and community. Established in 2011.
As a personal trainer and teacher in the field of movement and athletic development for over 25 years, Andre has studied with a diverse set of coaches and teachers. He uses his rich athletic experience and continuing education trainings through The Prague School of Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS), the Dr. Stuart McGill Method, Agatsu and Fighting Monkey as foundational tools to skillfully assess, train and help human beings in the fields of sport-specific performance, movement rehabilitation and optimization for life.
As an athlete care and peak performance coach, Andre has worked hand-in-hand with elite athletes and sports organizations to develop unique mind-body training programs to assist in the development and well-being of athletes in the high-stakes and high-pressure arenas of sports performance. His list of past clients includes CFL, NHL, AHL and Olympic athletes.
Andre is a mindfulness facilitator and dharma chingu (friend of the dharma), mentored through Zen training with the Empty Mountain Sangha and Dharma Teacher (Pobsa Sa) Frank Jude Boccio. He facilitates the teachings and practices of the mindfulness tradition from a naturalistic, scientific and empirical understanding. As a Master of Theology student Andre is engaged in cross-cultural and interfaith study to enrich his understanding of the world’s wisdom traditions and sacred texts.
Andre offers a creative, collaborative, and strength-based approach to client care that recognizes the potential for resilience building, neuroplastic change and positive transformation.
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Testimonial
“I have known Andre Talbot for more than a decade. We competed against each other on the grid-iron, he trained under me as a professional athlete and now I turn to him for coaching in traditional mindfulness and meditation work. As a former professional athlete himself and a former client, Andre has a keen understanding of my training methods and of the physical/mental/emotional demands upon an elite level athlete. With this knowledge he has been able to tailor very specific workouts to enhance the health and recovery of my athletes. Andre is truly passionate about his work. He lives his message and I recommend him highly to anyone who is serious about committing to working IN, not just working OUT”
~ Matt Nichol, founder of Matt Nichol Training Systems and Biosteel Sports Supplements