Our Team

Gary Bello

Gary has been a successful entrepreneur since 1971 and is an innovator in the holistic body-mind field. His work results from a four-decade career spanning from monk to psychotherapist. Based on his years of practising yoga, psychology, body-centred psychotherapy, holistic health, and meditation, he has created the Bello Method, a powerful yet simple body-mind process that helps individuals, couples, and groups to lead a healthier and more fulfilling life.

Gary began his full-time career in 1971 studying and practising yoga, psychology, and meditation in New York City. In 1972, he started a nonprofit service organization in Montreal, Quebec, that offered individual counselling, retreats, seminars, classes, and lectures at hospitals, drug-rehabilitation centres, YMCAs, colleges, universities, and local businesses.

In 1972 Gary was initiated into the Holy Order of Sanyas as a meditation monk. For the next five years, Swami Sudhananda (his monastic name) was the director of the Integral Yoga Institute in Montreal and a director and national board member for a worldwide service organization. It was during these years that he learned to integrate the ancient practices of Yoga into a holistic approach to body/mind health. He traveled extensively throughout India, Canada, and the United States as a public speaker, teacher, and yoga therapist.

Gary received his master’s degree in psychology in 1979, followed by postgraduate work in lifestyle counselling and body/mind therapy. He has founded and directed wellness centres in Montreal, Central Vermont, and South Florida. In the 1980s, with his wife, Radha, he founded the Essence Meditation Centre in Vermont, a residential teaching and training facility that provided ongoing stress reduction, breathing, relaxation, and meditation classes as well as yoga teachers’ training programs. During these years, Gary produced and hosted the weekly radio show Truth Is One—Paths Are Many, sharing his work and interviewing leaders in the field of psychology, religion, and philosophy.

In 1980, with Dr. Peter Albright, M.D., Gary cofounded New Directions in Health, a holistic medical centre in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, that offered individual optimum wellness programs.

Under the tutelage of Ron Kurtz (author of The Body Reveals and other books), Gary developed his own body-mind psychology, resulting in the creation of the Bello Method.
Today, Gary lives with his wife, Radha, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and co-authored their first book Enlightening Moments, Living Beyond the Frustration Cycle. He travels extensively in North America giving workshops, presentations, and book lectures and coaches clients from around the world.

Gary is on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Radha Bello

Radha received her undergraduate degree in early childhood development in 1970, and was certified by the Integral Yoga Institute in 1976, as a hatha yoga and meditation instructor. She continued her advanced training in stress management and holistic body/mind therapies and co-founded and directed the Essence Meditation Centre in Vermont, a residential facility providing holistic programs. Radha created and managed ongoing seminars and retreat programs in India, Bali, and Hawaii. She also designed and managed programs at New Directions In Health, a Holistic Medical Center in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. As the intake therapist, she designed the life style questionnaire and was in charge of the life-style interview with clients, and also counselled clients on diet and nutrition.

Radha organized and led ten group trips to India and today leads yoga and meditation retreats. She is also the co-creator of the Bello Method, and co-author of Enlightening Moments, Living Beyond the Frustration Cycle.

Stephen Placido

Stephen PlacidoAs a trainer of Enlightening Moments workshops, Stephen has studied and trained with Gary and Radha Bello since 1996. He is a student of Yoga and holistic psychology and leads weekly discussion groups. He is a certified Yoga and Meditation Instructor and has travelled extensively teaching as well as assisting Gary and Radha in their Enlightening Moments programs. In 1980 he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Florida and spent the next fifteen years professionally designing scenery and stage lighting. In 1992 he founded TSG Design Solutions, Inc., an acoustics and theatre design consulting firm that designs performing arts venues around the world and is a member of the American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC). He has a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Anastasia, who are both accomplished students of yoga and meditation.

Ashley Hamilton

AshleyAshley provides strategic advice, marketing and operational support to Gary and Radha. She currently works for a responsible investment consulting firm in London, England and regularly meets with directors, Chairman and CEOs of FTSE companies to seek improvements in ethics, governance and corporate responsibility. Her early education at the Calgary Waldof School ingrained in her a strong belief in ethical individualism an an understanding that finance and investing has a critical a role to play in co-creating a better, more ethical and just world. Since working with Gary and Radha, Ashley is learning to recognize her weaknesses and capitalise on her strengths – or as Gary calls it her “Genius”. She hopes to apply the Bello Method to help companies and boards of directors become more effective and responsive to the changing needs and attitudes of society.

Ashley has a Master of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, is a published author, and regularly speaks on corporate responsibility and responsible investment. Ashley is on Twitter and LinkedIn.