About
A family business built on the expertise of two generations.
Our story
Since 2011, Hélène Léger and Michel Stornello have owned the Centre de vie in Ripon, a place of renewal for health and well-being.
The Centre de vie is a family business that now relies on the expertise of two generations. Its growth and success continue thanks to the support of its loyal clientele and the dedication of a wonderful team.
Your hosts
Hélène and Michel, the friendly owners of the Centre de Vie, welcome you and accompany you throughout your stay.
Founder of Centre de vie de Ripon | Entrepreneur | Teacher | Passionate about human development
An entrepreneurial journey guided by passion and vision
An entrepreneur at heart from a very young age, Hélène Léger has always combined leadership, creativity and a passion for people.
At just 17, she founded her first business, an acrobatics school in the Laurentians, which she ran for 25 years. One of her students went on to join the prestigious Cirque du Soleil.
In 1988, she helped found the family business Léger Marketing in Montréal, alongside her father Marcel, her brother Jean-Marc and her sister Françoise. She served as Vice-President, Financial Management, for 30 years.
In 2011, driven by a desire to reconnect with her family roots and give her life a new direction, she set out to create the Centre de vie de Ripon, in the beautiful Outaouais region.
The project draws its inspiration in particular from her mother's legacy: she was one of the first women to teach yoga in Montréal, in 1959, at a time when the practice was still little known in Quebec.
The Centre de vie thus became the natural meeting point of her two worlds: entrepreneurship and the pursuit of well-being, brought together in a place devoted to renewal, learning, holistic health and personal transformation.
A personal journey devoted to self-knowledge
Over the decades, she has explored many approaches to self-knowledge, including therapeutic work on emotional structures, conditioning and the mechanisms that shape the way we live and grow.
For more than ten years, she took part in the teachings and intensive workshops of Drunvalo Melchizedek, mainly in Arizona, deepening her understanding of the subtle dimensions of being and consciousness.
She also became a certified teacher of Integral Learning Yoga (Yoga de l'Apprentissage Intégral), an approach to energy structures passed on by Master Shin Shiva, presented in this tradition as the supreme Shaiva Yogi of Kundalini. These teachings have taken her to India and Europe.
Since 2022, she has co-led the "Révéler l'invisible" (Revealing the Invisible) workshops with medium Mélanie Hotte, in Quebec and abroad. These gatherings invite participants to explore their inner world, deepen their self-knowledge and take a fresh look at the less visible dimensions of their lives.
She now offers energy balancing and soul reading consultations at the Centre de vie.
A woman committed to her community
Since 2019, she has sat on the board of directors of Tourisme Outaouais, where she currently serves as Vice-President.
She has also been President of the Chambre de commerce de la Vallée de la Petite-Nation since 2025.
Naturopath, iridologist, yoga teacher
A graduate of the EESNQ (École d’enseignement supérieur de naturopathie du Québec), Michel Stornello, N.D., offers private consultations in naturopathy and iridology, with a global and personalized approach to the body’s terrain.
His guidance focuses mainly on healthy lifestyle habits, such as a balanced diet, suitable physical activity, quality sleep, and good management of emotions and stress, with a view to prevention and supporting the body’s terrain.
Co-owner of the Centre de vie since 2011, Michel supervises the guided fasts and renewal cures as well as participant support, ensuring that stays run smoothly in a safe and educational setting that respects his scope of practice.
Also known as Swami Vijetananda, Michel is a yoga master (Acharya). At the Centre de vie he teaches Yoga Flow, Hatha Yoga and Meditative Yoga classes. He trained in the Saraswati (Sivananda) lineage, as well as with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, David Swenson, Richard Freeman and several other Ashtanga yoga masters.
With 45 years of yoga practice, Michel offers a unique, deep and committed teaching style, guiding each student toward a conscious union of body, breath and mind, with joy, presence and harmony of movement.
The services offered are part of a health education and well-being approach. They are not a medical act, do not make any diagnosis and do not replace medical or nutritional follow-up.
The team that welcomes you
Head chef and horticulturist
Director of operations and yoga teacher
Accounting technician
Media
Centre de vie
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