Delighted that you are visiting my website. It's quite basic at the moment, but hopefully over the next little while I'll enter further information that you may find helpful and interesting.

I'm a bit of a veteran in the Yoga world. I used to boast about how long I had been practising, studying and teaching Yoga - now I think I'll just say it has been a very long time! For all of my adult life Yoga has been an unfailing source of stability and sustenance - Yoga has been very good to me as indeed have my teachers. I am greatly indebted to my first teachers Swami Satyamurti and Swami Atmananda Saraswati Satyananda - sadly they are both deceased. I willl be forever grateful to Paul Harvey at the Centre for Yoga Studies in Bristol where I studied from 2001 to 2006; also Hanne Gillespie for a decade of support through one-to-one lessons and continuing friendship. In recent years I have been studying with Peter Hersnack a Danish teacher who works in the South of France.

These days Yoga comes in many shapes (no pun intended). The traditions in which I have trained - Satyananda and Krishnamacharya both emphasise the potential of Yoga as an inner journey of self discovery, a support for energy and an effective therapy to help maintain and when necessary restore health of body and mind.

My current teacher, Peter Hersnack has a very unique approach. While working mainly with postures (yoga asanas), Peter encourages his students to really explore the feeling and experience of life living and energy moving within: working with the body in this way becomes a very engaging inner journey which can lead to a sense of really connecting with what lies deep within - underneath age, job, physical appearance and all of the concerns that occupy us so much of the time.

It is difficult to describe this way of working in words - really you need to come to class to experience it for yourself. One thing I will say though -perhaps by way of warning -  if stretching your hamstrings, toning abs or crossing your feet behind your head are high on your list of priorities - perhaps this is not the class for you! 

 If however, you are interested in supporting your health, energy and immune system, this might be just what you need. If you are interested in calming the busy mind and learning how to really engage with the present moment; if you would like discover deep inner resources for health, healing and happiness - this might be just what you are looking for!

Even though this way of working is relatively gentle - it's therapeutic power never ceases to amaze me. Just last term I was delighted to hear from from two students - one coming to a group class and the other taking one-to-one lessons - just how much they had benefited....

The woman coming to a group class had suffered for headaches - every single morning for as long as she could remember she had a pounding head. As you can imagine was delighted to tell me that her headaches had simply gone away - from Day 1! And this was a beginners group class which was not even focusing on headaches!
My other student had suffered backache all her adult life. Naturally she was very dissatisfied with having to take large doses of heavy duty painkillers and having to get up to walk around several times during the night. Having tried everything and recently moved on to having pain killing injections, she came for a few one-to-one lessons. She very quickly noticed an improvement and encouraged by this she practiced religiously every evening. I met her over the Christmas holidays and  she was very happy to report that she now sleeps throughout the night and, with the guidance of her doctor has significantly cut back on painkillers - her aim is to eventually take none at all!

As you can imagine, I find it hugely rewarding to hear stories such as these. But even without this kind of feedback, one of the things I really appreciate is just seeing the change in people as we start the class. Even within a few seconds of stillness at the beginning (whether lying down or standing) I see a transformation. When people become still, attend to body and breath, they very quickly move from the Sympathetic Nervous System (a kind of passing gear which speeds us up when we have to meet a lot of demands - it is responsible for the ‘fight or flight’, or stress response) to the Parasympathetic (cruising gear, responsible for the relaxation response - I have recently seen it very aptly described as ‘rest and digest’). This is lovely to behold; and that’s before we even get started!

But more about all of this later - do please visit again. I will be adding more about this approach to Yoga and also pages about other therapies I'm involved in - Mindfulness Meditation, Stress Management, Reflexology - watch this space!

Meanwhile, you will find information of current classes by checking out Programme Spring 2012